At the Gates, Nifelheim and Vampire at KB in Malmö
Vampire 8/10, Nifelheim 9/10, At the Gates 9/10
Finally the eve was upon us and it was time for this amazing tour package to strike Malmö with a merciless blow of extreme metal excellence. First out was Vampire from Göteborg. Since their first demo got released back in 2012 they’ve been a band I’ve followed closely. Their thrashy death metal is packed with great riffs and have both cool hooks and a perfect drive to it. Live the music fits like a glove and Vampire presents it without gimmicks, just a band playing their songs in a very good way. It’s tight and extremely well played, especially the guitar work is impressive. Between some of the songs they have backing tracks with interludes that tie the show together. One of the greatest death metal songs written in the last 10 years or so is Vampire’s “At Midnight I’ll Possess Your Corpse” and when they play it it’s the klimax of the gig. Only thing that brings down the rating is that the gig is too short and that they were even better last time I saw them.
Second up was the mighty Nifelheim. I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen them by now, but they are always at the top of their game. I sincerely love this band, without even thinking your hands get raised in the air to pick invisible apples and sing along to the satanic poetry of hits like “Evil Blasphemies”, “Sodomizer” and “Storm of the Reaper”. Nifelheim has carved themselves a unique take on black metal with large chunks of East European extreme metal and classic heavy metal put into the mix. The whole band sounds great and the Gustavsson brothers steers the ship with some excellent audience contact and more spikes and studs than you could probably count. When they end the set with “Possessed by Evil” KB has gotten what it’s all about and the audience is going wild. Truly a great show!
Headliner of the evening is a true classic within the Swedish melodic death metal genre. The great divider between greatness and the horrible American crap that came after, trying to mimic what At the Gates did on the album “Slaughter of the Soul” in 1995. They have since split up and then reformed twice and also released two new albums on this side of 2010. The routine of the band is extremely evident during the whole show, these guys have been on stage before. A lot. It’s almost overwhelmingly tight and well played with a Tompa that has truly brought his A game to the show. World class vocals throughout! We get presented with both newer material and old classics and you clearly notice that the majority of the visitors are here for At the Gates, the room is boiling with energy. From the opening title track of their latest album to the closing “Blinded by Fear”, and the golden death metal oldie “Kingdom Gone” from their debut album, the band nails their performance and makes the audience crave for more.
Who: At the Gates, Nifelheim and Vampire
Where: Kulturbolaget, Malmö
When: 2018-10-05
Stand out tracks: Vampire – At Midnight I’ll Possess Your Corpse, Nifelheim – Evil Blasphemies, At the Gates – Kingdom Gone
Rate: Vampire 8/10, Nifelheim 9/10, At the Gates 9/10
