In Flames / Pain / Soilwork
November 4th, 2002
Helsinki, Finland
Review and pictures by Arto Lehtinen and Luxi Lahtinen
The Swedish metallic invasion to Finland was completely sold out sooner than anyone
expected that one extra night had to be added in another town to please the more Swedish
metal adorers. As a matter of fact, it wasn't an unexpected surprise to see both the shows
sold out because of three hot names being on the same bill.
The Swedish metal triumphal night was kicked off by Soilwork with a hammering set
consisting of nine track in thirty minutes. The start of the Soilwork gig suffered a
little bit from the unpolished sound quality, but it didn't bother the audience or the
band. Although the sounds weren’t at the finest level, the band appeared to be
thrilled about having an opportunity of being an opening act of the night. At least the
bassist was like having escaped from the local asylum because of his act on stage was
quite energetic. The vocalist’s clean parts didn’t work in the best way, whereas
the rawer parts sounded more suitable to the tight played and above all aggressive 30 min
stint.
Soilwork’s Setlist
Follow The Hollow
Needlefeast
As We Speak
Million Flame
Natural Born Killer
Structure Divine
Flame Out
The Bringer
Stalker
After the break, Peter Tagtren’s Pain hit next by giving a lesson of the Swedish
dance top ten chart to the Finnish metal crowd. The band’s stress free clothing and
the insane looking headbanging gave a little bit eccentric and discordant impression of
the top ten chart dance band. Complete with the tight and extremely heavy guitar riffs and
their obvious industrial elements. Even though the band mainly operates in the field of
the mainstream dance, however Pain definitely delivered a real painful deal of heavy
and even heavier tracks mainly from the last two albums having climbed up the charts. As a
matter of fact, Pain sounded much tighter and more brutal in the live situation with the
not-so-polished and cleaned sound policy like on their albums. Tagtren must have suffered
from the infernal pains in his neck after swinging his head with the huge passion whereas
the rest of the stuff remained a little bit in the background.
Pain’s Setlist
It's Only Them
On and On
Injected Paradise
Suicide Machine
Dark Fields of Pain
Eleanor Rigby
Hate Me
End of The Line
Shut Your Mouth
The headliner of the night, In Flames entered the stage by kicking off with System.
Their latest album has got a wide range of all kinds of criticisms for and against.
However, the release jumped directly into the top ten chart in both Sweden and Finland.
In Flames mostly focused the first section of the set on doing the well-known tunes,
such as Pinball Map, Episode 666, from the older albums whereas the newer material
had been shifted to the middle of the setlist. The whole band had as usually dressed to
one color clothes to give an impression of their unit and common spirit in the band. But
especially the vocalist Friden’s new dreadlock hair style looked quite amusing in
some points, bringing some obvious mallcore associations to the mind. The band didn’t
appear to be on fire like they have been on their previous gigs here in Finland, however
the audience was definitely into their stuff. It is quite obvious the long tour, and above
all consuming boat trip from Sweden must have taken the sharpest blade from their
performance. However the set, which had a wide range of material from various albums,
including the first one, was definitely brilliant. But the newer tracks still sound quite
strange compared to the older ones, but in the long run they will definitely their own.
In Flames’ Setlist
System
Pinball Map
Episode 666
Bullet Ride
Embody
Cloud Connected
Clayman
Clad In Shadows
R2R
Trigger
Drifter
Square Nothing
Gyroscope
Only For The Weak
Behind Space
Ordinary Story
Black And White
Colony