|
The whole Tattoo The Planet event was at stake because of insane
inhuman terrorism strikes to the WTC and in general against the whole of
mankind. Due to those tragic events the tour was delayed as every
airport and the whole air traffic system was closed in The States, which
naturally caused massive logistic and schedule problems resulting in
dates in The UK, Benelux countries and Italy were postponed to the last
moment. If that wasn't already enough, Pantera announced about pulling
out of the tour and so did Static-X. All the rumors floating around kept
feeding the flame about the entire cancellation of the tour…what a
mess indeed! But despite how "God Hates Us All," Slayer didn't
let the European fans down and announced they would carry out the tour
along with Cradle Of Filth and various support acts across Europe. The
Central European bill featured entirely different names compared to the
Scandinavian one having In Flames and Amorphis opening for Slayer and
CoF. Pantera's cancellation resulted in app. 1000 tickets returned here
in Finland. But those losers didn't know what they lost!!!
The Swedish band In Flames hit the stage first, playing a 30 minute
set to only a small audience in the ice hall, which definitely must have
bugged the Swedes more or less as most of the people were still outside
the hall enjoying more of these liquid stimulants. Nevertheless, the In
Flames guys were received well. They once again had an amazing energetic
drive throughout the whole short set, jumping and showing no evidence of
slowing down!!! Tracks from CLAYMAN
and COLONY
got the main handling - which isn't that big surprise after all… Last
summer's two gigs at festivals in Finland have definitely increased the
success of In Flames here in Finland judging by the amount of fans in
the front of the stage singing the tracks by heart. But unfortunately,
In Flames suffered from lousy light capacity and of course unpolished
sound qualities. But it was great to see them once again. Come back soon…
The domestic Amorphis hit the stage next also doing app 30 minute set
with a great range of their well-known classic tunes from their career.
Even though their performance has always been criticized kind of lame in
several reviews, but let the music domain, rule and speak now. Obviously
being an opening act for Slayer forced the Amorphis guys to play the set
with a more tighter grip as sounding surprising heavy and more
aggressive than on a normal traditional Amorphis gig. The set list
consisted of "Alone," "Cast Away" and concluded by
the Finnish national metal battle hymn "Black Winter Day."
Before the British gothic - well whatever romantic horror vampire
occultism black metal combo - got onstage, several under aged little
chicks dressed up to all kinds of black stuff and of course had the
mandatory tight grim masks had packed to the front of the stage and
screamed their lungs out like on some Backstreet Boys gig "Daaaaniiiii…iirgghh…Daaaniiii"…
And when Dani appeared and the same kids kept the same insane screaming.
Unfortunately but CoF wasn't in the finest strike at all as the whole
band appeared to be quite tired and looked quite absent. Well at least
the keyboard player, the former Anathema dude by the way, looked he
would rather have liked to be elsewhere than standing behind the
keyboard. The band's mastermind Dani was in a relatively okay condition,
screaming, whining and growling as usual. During a 45 minute set the
band went through the most known tunes, especially FROM
THE CRADLE TO ENSLAVE got the best respond from the audience, being
one of the greatest COF tunes as well as well known due to the video.
COF is known as a band for having always put a lot of effort to the
visual side onstage, but when being an opening act for a bigger one
there ain't that big possibilities to set up any magnificent huge show
things. COF's show had been shrunk to one female performance doing all
the needed performances. COF should be an opening act and above all be
on their own tour in order to carry out all these visual things and have
the needed space on the stage and above all the better sound quality.
But it was obvious Cof divided the audience to the two different camps,
hating or liking the British gothic dark blackish masters.
Well after a couple of suitable opening or should it be said warm up
bands and another amusing and hopeless one. It was about time to get
into the main issue in question SLAYER.. Despite technical problems in
the beginning of the set apparently caused by wireless transmitters the
thrash metal kings unleashed one hell of a metal inferno by kicking the
whole gig off with the "Darkness Of Christ" intro followed by
"Discipline". Tom Aray's hysterical god-hates-us-all screams
definitely ripped ears, making them bleed and sent shivers down
everyone's spine… The Slayer set was, as usual, a nihilistic
outrageous mayhem consisting of several old classic tunes, obviously for
a lack of rehearsal times of the new material because of all in all only
three tracks were played from the newest GOD
HATES US ALL album: "Discipline," "God Send
Death" and "Bloodline." But several old Slayer fans got
instead a damn good reason to have a large smile on their faces for
getting "South Of Heaven," "Mandatory Suicide,"
"Captor Of Sin," "Hell Awaits" and "Die By The
Sword." Those are all great songs but from a fan perspective it
would be time for Slayer to start considering changing the set list a
little bit. It would be great to hear some lately less played Slayer
classics like "Ghosts Of War" or "Necrophiliac" at
least once !
Araya's warm approach toward the audience like communicating more
than usually on gigs surprised several people because he has mainly said
a few words when introducing a track or two, but now he thanked the
audience for coming to the show and he said to be a happy man to do this…ergh..
Kind of humble person indeed. Of course tragic events reflected in the
set when Araya introduced the legendary "War Ensemble" by
saying "This one is dedicated to America…WWWAAAAARRR EEENNSEMBLE"
or then when introducing "Mandatory Suicide" he stated
"Take care of others that this won't happen to you"…
The show only proved Slayer is the well oiled war machine having and
showing no mercy at all. Slayer's set was an excellent lesson of real
aggressive thrash metal for all of us without depending on the age. But
they were the masters of that night !!!
|
