In Flames - Academy - Sunday 28th September 2008

Landmark gig this one, Chop's fiftieth of the calendar year. Yeah I know, what a lightweight...

The evening didn't get off to a flying start. A mix-up at the ticket office meant we missed the vast majority of Sonic Syndicate's set. Unfair to judge them on the two or three songs viewed and considering the sound they got was so bad. Two vocalists traded lead duties and the band seemed tight enough, definitely a case of needing to see a full set to form a considered opinion.

Gojira however got a far better sound and used it well playing an uncompromisingly punishing set. There were striking similarities between this performance and Meshuggah's annihilation at the Academy 2 recently, brutal modern metal played with enormous finesse. Unusual time signatures combined with jaw-dropping musicianship made this one of the sets of the year for me. Guitarists shredded relentlessly and favour pinch harmonics, this was underpinned by a ruthlessly solid rhythm section. The drum solo, however well played, seemed a bit superfluous, and there was a distinct lack of movement on stage; apart from that I really couldn't fault them. There's a new album coming out soon and I sincerely hope they undertake a headlining tour to promote it, should be one of the hottest tickets in town.

In Flames played a surprisingly subdued song to start their stint and did so in silhouette behind a translucent curtain. Strange and pretentious opening, they never really got going once the curtain fell and hostilities commenced. Undoubtedly they can play, again they weren't helped by a curiously muffled sound. The lighting and general staging was superb and hats off to the crew for that. Just found the music a little bland after Gojira's complexity. The set drew on most eras of their back catalogue, although there were several frustrated screams of "play something old" throughout the early onslaught. They played several songs that hadn't been aired for some years, and in the case of the tracks from The Jester Race never played live before this tour. It all seemed formulaic though until the truly stunning "Cloud Connected" upped the ante. "Trigger" and "Take This Life" were worthy encores and closed the evening off strongly, overall I have to say I was distinctly disappointed. Maybe this was an off night for them, but they just seemed listless and as if they were going through the motions. I hope they display more conviction when I next see them.

The poor sound didn't help throughout the evening, however the only band who overcame this, in my opinion, was Gojira. Head and shoulders band of the night, a must see when they next bring their intricate take on extreme metal back to these shores.