By Jase Walker
Hot off the back of an extensive run supporting Imminence and absolutely smashing it in their Amsterdam show, ALLT are striking out on their own for a bunch of dates across Europe. There’s absolutely no chance that I’d skip out on seeing them smash a headline set out after a taster like that for any reason, so let’s get stuck in! For this tour as well they’ve brought along ATLAS from neighbouring Finland for the ride so looking forward to the finest metal of the Nordics tonight.
ALLT to me embodies this new wave of incredible metal from Sweden that builds on the extensive legacy of metal from there throughout the 90s and early 2000s. ALLT along with the likes of Imminence, Aviana, Vildhjarta, Humanity’s Last Breath, and countless more have re-energised the Swedish metal scene in a massive way and continue to show that Sweden and Scandinavia are a hotbed of exceptional and forward thinking bands that continues to and will keep being a powerful influence on the metal world.
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that Atlas are using HIM’s ‘Wings Of A Butterfly’ as their pre-show music, because y’know, Finland. Opting for a sort of acapella type intro that seems reminiscent of something that Heilung would do, building tension that is no doubt soon to break. Massive sounding drums and discordant guitar work lays the groundwork for the start of their set in earnest as the singer takes the stage and I can feel the hairs on my neck steadily begin to stand on edge. What happens next is going fully into crushing down tuned baritone and extended range guitar fuckery, I love it already. There’s influences of black metal in here, bits of symphonic, but all wrapped up in this near-deathcore style, soft and sweet moments with fantastic atmosphere and then absolutely crushing the next.
I think what is standing out to me most is that with this sort of style then you can often find the guitars aren’t always as strong as they should be at a live show but this is absolutely not the case here. Atlas have an absolutely gigantic sound that reminds me a lot of The Ocean or Tesseract with how they build an airy and atmospheric overall sound that’s punctuated by raw, grinding grooves. Holy shit though their guitarist with the seven-string has got some unreal high range on his vocals though, he just kept going and going up in pitch, incredible stuff.
The band demands a circle pit, but “the smallest circle pit ever!” evidently, this particular stage isn’t the biggest at 150 people. After one song someone in the crowd loudly shouts “HOLY SHIT!” and I really couldn’t agree more here, Atlas have completely blindsided me with how fantastic their set has been and I’m going to absolutely batter their music catalogue when I get home.
And this is a resoundingly earlier start than I thought it’d be but it’s time to witness ALLT at a headline show in all of its glory. Opening with ‘Remnant’ kicks this show off in the right way and the room is absolutely heaving front to back. The sound guy is keeping the streak going with making ALLT sound ridiculously good, fat low end and grinding super low guitars. 150 people in this room, full capacity, and every single one of them wants a piece of ALLT. This is the sort of experience that people talk about with misty eyes when they say they got to see a band before they went onto shows of thousands of people. Marching further into the start of their debut album, ‘Aquila’ goes down a storm and the crowd screams it’s chorus, ALLT have clearly hit the right feel with this album!
ALLT even manages to get a room split for a wall of death here too, and let me tell you this is definitely a more awkward room for it but people here want this and aren’t wasting time! I’ve spotted the poor sod that’s having to fight through this rabble to get the photography for the band done and she’s definitely got her work cut out for her to avoid getting that DSLR smacked out of her hands!
To say that ALLT have got an insane crowd tonight, even that seems to be a complete understatement, they barely even have to provoke people and have essentially just said “you know what to do” and everyone fully understands the assignment. I’m having to keep my wits about me here because there’s no dip in energy here, ALLT have crafted a set that is constantly ramping things up and everyone here is feeling that vibe and going that bit more mental along with it.
Admittedly I think the set was probably a little bit shorter than what I normally expect but this is their first proper headline run around Europe and the quality of the performance was unreal so I can probably forgive that really. ALLTs first heading of the bill has turned up to Haarlem and truly left their impression on it. I don’t feel like there’ll be much of a chance to see ALLT do this size venue again any time soon. With their trajectory already seeing them clinch critical acclaim for their live performances and outstanding musical releases, they’ll be beyond this on their next headline run I can guarantee it. The performance they’ve put on tonight is truly fitting of a band with enough grit to truly strike out on their own and forge their own path and following far beyond the reaches of their home country.
Big things are coming for ALLT, and every single one of them is truly deserved.
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