Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity, Caliban, Sonic Syndicate - Eastpak Antidote Tour in Den Bosch

At first, Chimaira was the headliner of this tour sponsored by Eastpak and Vans. They later on withdrew because they'd rather spend some time working on new material. After that Dark Tranquillity was announced as substitution, while Soilwork promoted to the new headliner. Here's our review of the first date of the Eastpak Antidote Tour in the Netherlands.

What an honour, being present at Sonic Syndicate's first-ever show in Holland. The Swedens, who delivered a really good record two years ago (Eden Fire) and now returned with a more commercial one (Only Inhuman), were definitely not unknown anymore since a lot of especially younger folks gathered in front of the stage. I found a nice spot on a distance and noticed that Sonic Syndicate isn't the band that I used to like in the past anymore. The show was too forced with before stipulated moments of headbanging and jumping. Something that is cool for kids, but I'm done with those actions. The sound in the W2 was in contrary to the performance quite okay. The keys came from tape but were really well audible. Only the vocals from Sonic Syndicate's two singers were sometimes a bit too loud when they sang together. (Mindsaver)

Again, Caliban proves how bad some of the clean vocals come out live. As soon as they kick in, the band drops into a sing-along mode while I just roll my eyes and get another beer. Which is a shame, because these guys do play some pretty decent songs; even if they are filled with every breakdown-clich� you can find. I guess there are worse opening acts, but I think I'll spend my time at the bar. (Carn)

The first time I saw Dark Tranquillity live, they were on tour with Chimaira and Hatesphere. Two completely different bands with different fanbases and so there were a lot of negative comments afterwards, but I thought it was just a good band on the wrong place. Today the package was more like it, but still not very similar since Dark Tranquillity's music is a lot heavier while the other bands sound more modern. The show of tonight was really good; better than my first experience with them. The sound was tight and so was Mikael Stanne's voice. His behaviour is always very gay, but I think he's sympathetic and most of all very sincere to the audience. He is next to bassist Michael Nicklasson the only one who actually moves on stage while I didn't see Martin (keys) at all. Guess he had his table in the dark corner of the stage. My conclusion is that Dark Tranquillity should tour with bands that are more comparable with themselves, for example Hypocrisy or Arch Enemy, with who they toured already in the past. (Mindsaver)

Soilwork started this show with a relatively old song, "Bastard Chain" from their third album, A Predators Portrait. I can recall that they also did that on a previous tour and I don't find it the best opening because the song opens all of a sudden in a rather fast tempo; the audience didn't really seem to get it. Throughout the years Soilwork gained a lot more fans, especially with the way overproduced and artificial sounding record Stabbing the Drama, and I believe that those fans aren't really familiar with their older material. So, as I already had feared this tour Soilwork played just one song of their second album, which was "The Chainheart Machine" and was the most death metal Soilwork would be tonight. One guy kept screaming for "Demon in Veins", but that was in vain, they didn't even play one song from their first album. Well, that's enough blabbering about their old shit, gosh I'm beginning to sound old! Of course they got enough other great songs like "Follow the Hollow", "As We Speak" and "Rejection Role". The Stabbing the Drama record was best represented in their show with at least four songs played from it. Daniel Antonsson, who recently replaced Peter Wichers on guitar, did a great job, but I'm not too sure how Soilwork will do without their main song writer. They played one song of their just released album Sworn to a Great Divide, namely "Exile" and I found that one pretty dull. Although my preference is obviously for their older material, I still really enjoyed this show because I think the new songs kick ass too; the older songs just kick a little bit more ass. Soilwork is a band which knows how to put up a great show and so they did that once again. (Sledgehammer Messiah)

Details Written on Sunday Oct 21st, 2007
Writer @Mindsaver

Tags: #Soilwork #Dark Tranquillity #Caliban #Sonic Syndicate

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