All That Remains / Soilwork / Caliban / Bleed From Within / Neaera

30 November 2010

Electric Ballroom, London

 

Squeezing five bands into a regular length gig slot meant for shortened sets all round and none more so than Neaera.  With only 20 minutes, the Germans had little time to impress an audience that was still filing in.  This included ourselves, as we managed to miss the opening song Heaven’s Descent thanks to the press list queue.

 

Neaera’s brutality mixes the guitar work of early Amon Amarth with the more direct edge of Born From Pain.  They may be a new name to many here, but Eight Thousand Sorrows Deep had fists pumping the air.  The band remained fairly static, except for frontman Benjamin Hilleke, who prowled the stage barking and screaming.Walls Instead Of Bridges from the band’s 2005 debut album brought the short set to an impressive close.

 

Neaera setlist:

Heaven’s Descent / Let The Tempest Come / Armamentarium / Eight Thousand Sorrows Deep / Walls Instead Of Bridges

 

Neaera Neaera

 

Bleed From Within were afforded a mere 5 minutes more than Neaera, but used it well to prove that they are a match for the steady stream of US bands that pass through London.  Given this is only the early part of this tour, the bands stagecraft and playing was impressively tight, with synchronised headbanging during opener This Is Our Legacy.

 

Concentrating mainly on their latest album Empire, the Glaswegian’s inspired a good crowd response, with frontman Scott Kennedy clambering onto the barrier during The Healing to stoke things further.  That track is the band’s latest video and got the warmest response of the short set.

 

Bleed From Within setlist:

This Is Our Legacy / Last Of Our Kind / Servants Of Divinity / The Novelist / The Healing

 

Bleed From Within Bleed From Within

 

The final three bands are rotating headline status on this tour, depending on the territory.Caliban take that honour in Germany, but still have their side screens and a full run of the stage tonight.  Caliban have never clicked for me and despite giving their latest album a number of spins and finding it their best release to date, live they turn me as cold as it is outside.

 

There’s a spirited response from the crowd who are roused into a wall of death, aptly during No One Is Safe, but the bar beckoned.  A cover of Rammstein’s Sonne piqued my curiosity, though it was so faithfull it seemed a bit pointless and actually upstaged all Caliban’s own material.

 

Caliban setlist:

Intro: Her Darkest Dream / Love Song / It’s Our Burden To Bleed / No One Is Safe / I’ll Never Let You Down / Sonne / 24 Years

 

Caliban Caliban

 

Soilwork was our main draw this evening and with their latest album The Panic Broadcast sitting high in my album of the year chart the disappointment is that we only got 45 minutes.  It’s not the only disappointment however as opener Late For The Kill, Early For The Slaughter was muffled by the mix and things didn’t improve greatly.  That new album is incredibly well produced and as a result the sub-par live sound was frustrating.

 

As We Speak opened a huge pit in the crowd, which was matched in response when Nerve made an appearance.  Guitarists Peter Wichers and Sylvian Coudret must surely be one of the most skilled partnerships in this genre of metal and Two Lives Worth Of Reckoning was a showcase of that talent.  Let This River Flow provided a good change of pace, with Soilwork bathed in green lights as the crowd clapped along.  With Björn Strid announcing Stabbing The Drama as the last song, the crowd threw their bodies and voices into full effect.

 

This was an enjoyable taster of Soilwork and only served to make me hunger more for a full length headline show.

 

Soilwork setlist:

Late For The Kill, Early For The Slaughter / Night Comes Clean / As We Speak / The Crestfallen / Nerve / Two Lives Worth Of Reckoning / Let This River Flow / Stabbing The Drama

 

Soilwork Soilwork

 

I was originally surprised Soilwork weren’t closing the UK shows on this tour, however the number of t-shirts and size of crowd for All That Remains justified their position.  Just like their latest album, the Now Let Them Tremble intro made way for the album’s title track, with frontman Phil Labonte stalking the stage.At the songs conclusion, his hand held up with devil horns was mirrored by the crowd in front of him.

 

Six, from The Fall Of Ideals, followed before Labonte introduced Forever In Your Hands to a huge cheer.  It was at this point he realised he was working from memory from the setlist from the band’s last tour, with an amusing admission of “Shit we’re not doing that yet” and Hold On played instead next.

 

The most striking thing about the band on stage is guitarist Oli Herbert who towered over his band mates.His size did not affect his agility with plenty of movement around the stage.  His speed was only matched but my own during This Calling.  Annoyingly I received a call from home that the train services were shutting due to the heavy snowfall which caused much of the UK to ground to a halt over the proceeding days.  As a result I had to leg it and annoyingly missed the second half of the set.

 

All That Remains setlist (can only confirm up to This Calling):

Now Let The Tremble / For We Are Many / Six / Hold On / Aggressive Opposition / This Calling / The Air That I Breathe / Forever In Your Hands / Become The Catalyst / Some Of The People, All Of The Time / Two Weeks

 

All That Remains All That Remains 

 

LINKS:

www.allthatremainsonline.com

www.soilwork.org

www.calibanmetal.com

www.myspace.com/bleedfromwithin

www.neaera.com