It is a mild Tuesday night in early April, as we head to London’s Heaven – a venue primarily known for LGBT+ club nights, but no stranger to the occasional extreme metal gig – which pays host to the first UK stop of Dark Tranquillity and Ensiferum’s co-headline European tour.
German band Brunhilde open proceedings, playing their brand of punk-infused heavy metal to a gradually filling-up crowd. Singer Caro Loy’s raspy vocals lend a ton of attitude to the music, and the head cannot help but bop along to the razorsharp riffs and groove of the rhythm section. With cuts like ‘Hell or High Water’ and ‘Come Out Come Out’, Brunhilde warm up the crowd well with a great rock’n’roll start to the night.
Next up are fellow German outfit Nailed to Obscurity, whose blend of doom and death metal ramps things up in terms of heaviness. Richly arranged and with an emphasis on soaring guitar melodies, their music is dramatic and ethereal in the best traditions of early Katatonia. Vocalist Raimund Ennenga is a towering presence on the stage and capably trades off death shrieks with clean singing, his gestures alive to the music as it unfolds. Set closer ‘Desolate Ruin’ is a particular highlight, with its extended outro of two wailing guitars worthy of raising the hairs at the back of your neck. The crowd receives them well, and they certainly won’t be nailed to obscurity in my music library.
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The first of the evening’s co-headliners takes the stage next. Finland’s Ensiferum can create a party atmosphere in seconds, and they do exactly that with opener ‘Rum, Women, Victory’. Their signature sound is well-established, relying on epicness and fun in equal measure over energetic folk-tinged power metal. The lightning-fast riffs (drummer Janne Parviainen could take a side-gig providing machine gun sound effects for films) of songs like ‘Into Battle’ and ‘Run from the Crushing Tide’ contribute to the biggest circle pits of the night. It’s obvious that fans have anticipated them highly, with many wielding band t-shirts and chanting along to the lyrics of seafaring and glorious battles. The band members play with big smiles on their faces, visibly enjoying their time on stage and passing on the energy to the crowd. A steady rotation of singing duties – no fewer than four of the five members chip in with lead or backing vocals – keeps things varied and
Fan-favourites ‘Lai Lai Hei’ (sung in Finnish) and ‘From Afar’ close off this powerhouse of a set, with fans needing to catch their breaths and tend to battle scars suffered in the moshpit – fortunately the bars serve reinvigorating ale.
The final band of the night is Dark Tranquillity – true legends of the Swedish melodic death metal scene, and an example of a band that maintains high quality through almost three decades of releasing music. Opening up with ‘Phantom Days’ off their excellent 2020 release Moment, the crowd is instantly committed. The staging is impressive, with a huge screen displaying visuals and the band’s music videos behind them. Although lighter by one guitarist (Christopher Amott is with his wife who is due to give birth, and a tour replacement is joining soon), their sound is no less powerful – a combination of samples and masterful interplay between guitarist Johan Reinholdz and keyboardist Martin Brändström reproduce the luscious instrumentation of the studio recordings without missing a beat.
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Alongside his deep raspy death growl, singer Mikael Stanne possesses a beautiful baritone clean voice – sparingly used, and all the more effective for it. Its prominence in songs like ‘ThereIn’ and new cut ‘The Dark Unbroken’ creates perfect opportunities for the emotional crowd to join in for the chorus.
It has been a long wait for the band to return, and they often stop between songs to drink in the crowd’s adoration as it bursts out in prolonged applause. Fans also take this opportunity to shout a wide range of song requests, most of which are doomed to be overlooked – we would have to be in the venue until 3am to hear them all. After a veritable walk through all periods of their discography, Dark Tranquillity close their three-song encore with fan favourite ‘Misery’s Crown’. A long goodbye follows, with Stanne promising for the wait until the next meeting to be much shorter than this one was.
With a fantastic bill of bands delivering stellar performances, and a dedicated crowd in a great venue (a word of kudos to the sound engineers – the sound was fantastic all night), the Dark Tranquillity and Ensiferum co-headline tour is a real highlight of the year’s metal calendar so far.
Photos by Pavel Kondov
