Opening the show for Obituary was Andorra’s Persefone. When I checked them out at home I was already surprised they were on tour with a band like Obituary, because their styles are like day and night. Persefone is a sort of prog/death metal band that has a lot of similarities to bands like Dream Theater and Children Of Bodom, you guessed it, tons of fast guitar and keyboard fiddling. They have some brutal breakdown parts to relieve the tension every now and then, but the emphasis is towards the hyperactive guitar-neck stroking. Unfortunately the balance of the sound was not good at all, so it didn’t sound like a whole at all. Next to that the vocal capabilities of both the main singer and the keyboard player are quite poor, so I was not exactly enjoying this opening band. The same could be said for a large portion of the crowd, for the response they got was very low. And when they decided to cover the Star Wars soundtrack in a metal jacket the disaster was complete for me. Definitely not something I will check ever again.

 

Obituary made a restart in 2004 and I have got the idea they haven’t played a bad show since. Either you love or hate the slow, dragging, groovy death metal riffs topped with the signature voice of John Tardy, to them it doesn’t matter. As usual, the five piece came, saw and conquered the hearts of their fans once more. The packed venue responded enthusiastically to every track from their setlist, which consisted of songs from all their albums. The sound was heavy as thunder like usual, especially the bass drum felt like a thunderstruck to the chest. Unfortunately Jesus Cröst was on during their show, so I missed a portion in the middle, only to return to Obituary’s drum and guitar solos and some finishing tracks. These guys proved again that their ancient death metal style is still far from redundant, let’s keep it up for another decade or two! I’m game!