On Thursday the 9th of October Swedish melodic death metal pioneers In Flames were once again playing in Holland. The last time they toured through our country, they brought the legendary thrashers of Sepultura and Dagoba, a talented modern band from France, with them. This time the direct support came from maybe the flag carriers of the French metal scene, Gojira. The warming up came from Sonic Syndicate, but because all our present reporters arrived too late, we couldn’t review them.

After some extensive touring through the States and recording a new record, Gojira was finally back in the Netherlands. Two years ago I saw them in de 013 venue as well, but back then they were playing in the café for approximately 100 people. This time they had to play in front of more than 2000 people, for the biggest part young metalheads who wanted to see In Flames and Sonic Syndicate. A tough audience, but not something Gojira is keeping out of. They started their set with the atmospheric outro of their new record The Way Of All Flesh, which brought me right in exaltation. 'Orobobus' was the track that took me out of my trance and before I knew, Gojira already begun with their series of most brutal songs. Successively “Clone” from their debut Terra Incognita, “Backbone” from From Mars To Sirius and ”Remembrance” from The Link were all thrown upon us, which led to a rough pit. After this great start, the band continued the second part of their set with a couple of tracks from their big breakthrough record From Mars To Sirius, “Flying Whales” and “The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe”. Also two new tracks, “Toxic Garbage Island” and “Vacuity” were presented. The band played a convincing gig and I’m pretty sure that they made some new fans here today. Yet the thing they didn’t reach tonight was their common sound. Gojira is used to play live in studio quality, but that was something they could not (or may not?) adjust tonight. Especially during the second song we heard some squeaking guitars that didn’t have to be there. Also drummer Mario seemed not to be in top form, his double bass didn’t always sound correct and his more than two-year old drum solo didn’t bring the feeling it did previous times. I’m really curious in which shape Gojira will return for their upcoming headline tour. (Mindsaver)

After 18 years thing are still getting better for Swedish melodic metallers In Flames. During these years the band has included new trends in their style which resulted in a diverse discography. And this diversity also shows when you take a look at the crowd present at the show. Where the younger people in the crowd are excited when the band plays songs coming from their last two albums Come Clarity and their latest effort A Sense Of Purpose, the older generation is excited when the band announces they are going to play material coming of their 1996 album The Jester Race. The last time around the band included fireworks in their music, this time the band included a small version of the Metallica stage with a big bridge behind the drummer. On this bridge and above a lot of led panels were used to display graphics and lyrics. This resulted in a lot of silhouettes in stead of people on stage and a crappy intro where the band was standing behind a white curtain with lights so their shadows were presented to the crowd. To be honest the band was completely blown away by support act Gojira and this almost looked like a déjà vu with their previous European tour where they were supported by Sepultura. But still the band has got a lot of catchy melodies and attractive songs with which they manage to get the crowd moving. Their setlist included ”The Hive”, ”Colony”, ”Come Clarity”, ”I'm The Highway”, ”Cloud Connected”, ”Quiet Place” and the encore was ”Trigger” and ”Take This Life”. All in all a good set but the band just didn't play as good as their support act Gojira, which kinda brings down their entire performance. (Buzzin Hornet)



Pictures by www.metalshots.com