The Haunted

support God Dethroned + God Forbid
author MS date 15/12/05 venue Stengade 30, Copenhagen, DEN

The Haunted played in Denmark for the third time this year on thursday the 15th of december. Last time they played over here was during last summer at the Roskilde Festival. That show was limited in many ways, since it started at 13:30 in the morning, an everyone was hung over and not really up to thrash metal to make the headache worse. On top of that, their bassist was ill, so they chose to play without him. So no bass, and not much crowd activity. This would prove not to be a standard for swedish The Haunted. The show started late at Stengade 30 in Copenhagen, which is small club venue. The support bands were God Dethroned and God Forbid, funny enough, since Manntis who originally was to support was cancelled. The whole show was delayed a bit, since there was some trouble with the venue crew. The wardrobe attendant was supposedly not to be found anywhere, so everyone was queuing for the wardrobe for over half an hour.

God Dethroned

God Dethroned entered the stage at about 21:45, and played a very solid heavy metal show. Their two guitarists were very talented, and both pulled off some great solos. The crowd was totally into it, and the pit got started almost immediately. I myself and my party decided to watch the support from the back, since we were still a bit beat from yesterday’s escapades in Vega in the company of welsh Bullet For My Valentine. All in all they pulled off a good support gig, and I was pleased with their performance.

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God Forbid

Next up were American God Forbid. This show was very much characterized by the bands very heavy rhytmic guitar riffs. Almost all of their songs contained these one-chord powerchord riffs containing loads of breaks, and sometimes following the drums. I personally love such riffs, but it seemed a bit much in the end. Their lead vocalist was a great big african american with dreadlocks, who in every sense screamed his fucking lungs out. And he did an awesome job I must say, I was really stunned by some of the screams he delivered. Other than that, the band seemed extremely excited about the crowd, who, like before, gave it all they had in the front rows. I must say, this was some of the best support gigs I have seen in a while.

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The Haunted

The Haunted has apparently been on tour for way over a year, and this was the third last show on the tour. Only two shows in Sweden were left before the band's well deserved Christmas holiday, but this was not evident in the performance, even though Peter Dolving's vocals did not seem as strong and penetrating as I remembered them to be at Roskilde, which of course is understandible, and it didn't really matter much to me. They opened with "No Compromise", which is also the opener on their latest album "rEVOLVEr". From first guitar stroke, the crowd exploded into a pit, and by the time they got to "99", all hell broke lose. Lemme tell ya, that song is one of the best songs I have ever heard live by any band. The album version is not my favourite by them, but hell, when those riffs pound out through the amps when the band is standing 2 meters from you, you can't not love it. It's perfect. My personal favourite by them is "All Against All" from "rEVOLVEr", and this song is also one of my favourite songs by any band. They do it very well live, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who hurt myself screaming along with Dolving when they played it. Simply put amazing. Peter Dolving's communication with the crowd was great. At one point he went something like: "All of you out there who bought our album, thank you. And all of you who downloaded it off the Internet... well hell, thank you too". Dolving was totally in contact with the crowd. He was constantly reaching out to them, embracing the eager fans. To top it all off, they did a little cover medley, tributing Mastodon amongst others, with playing the first part of "Blood And Thunder" from their latest album "Leviathan", which was also played over the speakers before the band went on. Dolving announced that they had a lot of respect for Mastodon, who also played at Roskilde Festival this year. To finish off the show, they played "My Shadow", which is also the last track on the album. It's a slow paced song with very intense screaming and a long repetitive outro. Unfortunately, as before mentioned, Dolving's screams did not seem as penetrating and, well, loud for that matter, as I remembered them in the album version, which is a shame, since that was the most memorable thing from Roskilde. This however, was a minor detail, and the show was beyong amazing from beginning to end. You can sure as hell count on me being the first one to buy a ticket next time The Haunted is in town.

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