10/04/03
Opeth, Alchemist, Astriaal
The Arena, Brisbane (Australia)
Reviewed by Dan Franks

I’ve never seen Astriaal in a venue this big, and I was really interested to see how they were received by the more mainstream Opeth crowd. Well, for an underground band there is no doubting Astriaal’s professionalism – they looked just at home as they do at the ‘Gabba or Bonapartes. I’m simply running out of superlatives to describe them. They played a good mix of old tracks to keep their long time fans happy (including a re-arranged “Glories Of The Nightsky”), and new ones to prove to us all that where they are at as a band is simply an awesome place. Of the new tracks, it was “Ritual Hate Construct” that knocked me to the floor. It just seemed to overflow with urgency and malevolence. Then there is the already-classic “Arborescence” at the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, with its trudging, Burzum-esque opulence and fluid, spiralling lead guitar. If Astriaal aren’t the biggest metal band in the country in two years time, I’ll eat my crusty black boots. Its been a while since Alchemist last made their way up here, but the haven’t been idle, inking a deal with Relapse Records for the release of “Organasm” in the USA. And judging by their expressions, they looked to be happy to be back on the live circuit. After a rather sedate opening (“Surreality”) the moved quickly into the song that they can’t leave out of the set, “Chinese Whispers”. The eastern-style jam in the midsection could definitely have been trimmed a bit though – it cut hugely into the set time, so they didn’t seem to play for very long. I know they can’t leave that song out of the set, or people will be disappointed, but when they’re not headlining they would have a lot more impact if they trimmed it back to fit in another song. My own minor gripes aside, Alchemist are never disappointing, and were tight and professional as always. I eagerly await their next release.
Opeth seem to be one of the few metal bands almost everyone agrees on. A casual glance at the t-shirts about the venue saw just about every metal sub-genre represented – from old-school power metal to unholy black metal via the Slipknot kids. And I don’t think a single one of them was disappointed. Though they wisely left the new, all acoustic album out of the set, they drew material from every album over the course of the night. The most rapturous ovations were reserved for the material from “Orchid”, “Morningrise” and “My Arms, Your Hearse”, and Mikael’s reaction to this made it look like he wasn’t even expecting the audience to know those albums. He couldn’t stop telling everyone how much they all love Australia, and made the crowd promise to bring them back so they can play the new material. This being their first ever visit to these shores, the setlist was extended so as not to disappoint any fans, old and new. One thing that really stood out was Mikael’s voice. I’ve never heard a more perfect representation of a CD in the live arena. The musicianship was faultless. In their genre, Opeth have no peers.

Dan Franks