The Forsaken Concert Review
Malmö Sweden, February 15th, 2004
Review and Pictures By Anders Sandvall
My first live show in 2004 is The Forsaken. I’ve seen them before and my
expectations were high on what they should do now when they have proper sound and a real
stage compared to the first time I’ve saw them live last year.
The tour started out in Finland and it’s gone through Sweden, Norway, and now
Sweden once again. After the show in Malmö they had only one show left in Sweden before
they headed out in Europe, and that was in Soilworks hometown of Helsingborg. It's a
pretty long tour; it started 6/2 and is going to be finished on the 10th of March.
There weren't very many people in the audience this Sunday night - approximately
100-150 people (KB takes about 750 people when it’s sold out). That didn’t seem
to bother The Forsaken a bit. They went on stage pretty much as scheduled and totally ran
over the crowd from the beginning with their brutal death/thrash metal. Even though
most
of the audience seemed to suffer from hangovers this night, they did their best to tag
along. They played about 10 old and new songs during the 50 minutes they played. Of course
they played some new stuff from the album, but they didn’t forget to play some
material from their previous album as well. They hardly played anything from the debut.
From, Traces of the Past they did, “A Time to Die”, “One More
Kill” and the Metallica cover, “Blackened”, which sounded even better live
than on album. From their previous album they did, ”Second Manifest” “Human
Chapter X” and “Incubator.” From the debut they did, “Demon
Breed” and “Seers Hared.” The line up is not intact on this tour. The bass
player Stefan “Junior” Berg is not with them for some reason. Nor either the
singer Anders Sjöholm, but in Malmö and Helsingborg it was Anders who took care of the
lead vocals. On the rest of the tour they have both a session bass player and a session
singer. This evening the line up was:
Nicke Grabowski - drums
Stefan Holm - lead/rhythm guitar
Patrik Persson - lead/rhythm guitar
Anders Sjöholm - lead vocals
Marios Iliopoulos (Exhumantion, Nightrage) - session bass player
Anders with his Viking-like appearance looks very terrifying and angry out on stage. He
impressed this evening with his vocals. He sounded much better than the first time I saw
them on their release party. He talked a lot this evening and looks very angry when he
does.
Patrik and Stefan stood on each side of the stage and headbanged themselves throughout the
show, and I can’t understand how Nicke can play the drums with the speed he had
through the entire night - impressive. Marios seemed very happy to be out on the road. The only
two who moved across the stage were Anders and Marios. The sound was brilliant compared to
the last time I saw them at their release party at a local club - Fat Club - here in
Malmö.
Yesterday the young Swedish thrash/death metal band from southern parts of Sweden showed
us what pure hate was. There is only one thing to say about this show - brilliant!
Don't dare to miss them if they are coming to your town.
I spoke to Nicke earlier during the day and he said that the album will be released in
the U.S. and Japan later this year. They are going to tour in those countries as well.
After the European tour they are going to try to get some festival gigs during the summer.
The
Forsaken did a brilliant live show and they deserve all the success they can get.
Thanks to Cindy at Century Media Sweden for the help at the show.
No thanks to the tour manager for not allowing any flash photos at the show.
That’s why there are so few pictures from the show.
Setlist
A time to die
Seers hared
Cold flesh colony
Incubator
Second manifest
Human chapter X
One more kill
Demon Breed
Blackened
God of demise
Band Website: www.theforsaken.net
Label Website: www.centurymedia.de