Opeth, Katatonia @ The Palace Theatre, Melbourne (14/03/2013)
Ok, I'm just going to get this out of the way now; I have never listened to Katatonia or Opeth before. I'll say it again for those at the back: I have never listened to Katatonia or Opeth before so getting to Melbourne's Palace Theatre for their concert I was quite surprised by the length of the line. It twisted around all the back streets for some way, yet I still managed to somehow get in in time to catch Sweden's Katatonia hit the stage for their first track.
Trying to describe Katatonia's sound is a difficult task. On Wikipedia they are listed as death/doom and alternative metal, I'd say they are a very dark European metal but however you class them I was quite impressed by their first couple of tracks and all of the members are definitely brilliant musicians.
The crowd also seemed to be loving it too except for one person who came up to me and said “is it just me or are these guys just a shitter version of Opeth?”
An hour is a long time for a support band to play but their fans definitely loved that, the only problem I had was the songs started to become a little repetitive but maybe that was just because I didn't know them. They ended their set with many thank-you's from vocalist Jonas Renkse and departed the stage.
Half an hour later Opeth, also from Sweden, hit the stage to cheers and whistles loud enough to deafen those within a five kilometre radius. They kick things off with The Devil's Orchid from their latest album Heritage before vocalist/guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt greets the crowd with just a “Hi” and “I hope you like us better than Katatonia” to many more cheers.
This is where, for me, things take an unexpected turn, Mikael rips some incredible death growls out of, seemingly, nowhere! All of the members of Opeth, especially Mikael and guitarist Fredrik Akesson, are just brilliant musicians, unfortunately however, this style of music is just not my cup of tea. To me, it seems although the rest of the set list goes like this – instrumental, singing, instrumental, death growls, instrumental, repeat.
An acoustic song towards the end of their set is a welcome change, but again, just seems to go on far too long and even a heckler starts yelling out things like “this is shit” and “play 'x' song.” After an encore of Blackwater Park from 2001's album of the same name they bring their overdrawn set to a close. While majority of the crowd seemed to have absolutely loved it, I left disappointed. It's safe to say I didn't become an Opeth fan tonight, but I can see why people love their music, it just is not for me.
Matt Barton
Trying to describe Katatonia's sound is a difficult task. On Wikipedia they are listed as death/doom and alternative metal, I'd say they are a very dark European metal but however you class them I was quite impressed by their first couple of tracks and all of the members are definitely brilliant musicians.
The crowd also seemed to be loving it too except for one person who came up to me and said “is it just me or are these guys just a shitter version of Opeth?”
An hour is a long time for a support band to play but their fans definitely loved that, the only problem I had was the songs started to become a little repetitive but maybe that was just because I didn't know them. They ended their set with many thank-you's from vocalist Jonas Renkse and departed the stage.
Half an hour later Opeth, also from Sweden, hit the stage to cheers and whistles loud enough to deafen those within a five kilometre radius. They kick things off with The Devil's Orchid from their latest album Heritage before vocalist/guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt greets the crowd with just a “Hi” and “I hope you like us better than Katatonia” to many more cheers.
This is where, for me, things take an unexpected turn, Mikael rips some incredible death growls out of, seemingly, nowhere! All of the members of Opeth, especially Mikael and guitarist Fredrik Akesson, are just brilliant musicians, unfortunately however, this style of music is just not my cup of tea. To me, it seems although the rest of the set list goes like this – instrumental, singing, instrumental, death growls, instrumental, repeat.
An acoustic song towards the end of their set is a welcome change, but again, just seems to go on far too long and even a heckler starts yelling out things like “this is shit” and “play 'x' song.” After an encore of Blackwater Park from 2001's album of the same name they bring their overdrawn set to a close. While majority of the crowd seemed to have absolutely loved it, I left disappointed. It's safe to say I didn't become an Opeth fan tonight, but I can see why people love their music, it just is not for me.
Matt Barton