By Jase Walker
I figured I was going to run into the infamous Dutch train crowds sooner or later and today was that day as I arrived in Amsterdam Centraal for my train to Utrecht to be greeted by an army of people on the platform. Nevertheless I’ve made it with ten minutes to spare before Lost Society kicks off tonight’s show with Amorphis at the headlining spot with special guests, Sólstafir.
Lost Society‘s intro track absolutely scared the living daylights out of me by suddenly blasting Prodigy’s Firestarter with zero warning, one way of shaking the cobwebs off I guess. Not only this but they also have an actual introduction and bizarre welcome track too. Right from the start I’m immediately getting Trivium vibes from Lost Society with their mix of strong cleans that shift back and forth into screams with blistering riffs, we’re off to a good start tonight!
Their singer’s vocals sometimes remind me a lot of M. shadows from Avenged Sevenfold as well, the guy plays some pretty tasty stuff as well. Their use of sound effects and harder sounding electronic melodies as well suggests this band grew up on a solid diet of nu-metal like Slipknot and Korn but cut their teeth by the time Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold started really getting into their stride.
The fact that these guys are Finnish doesn’t surprise me with some of their music sounding very distinctly Nordic, standing on the shoulders of the likes of In Flames, Children Of Bodom, to name but a couple, Lost Society have no doubt been surrounded by a wealth of relatively local behemoths of the metal scene and it really shines in their approach. Really clean and well written slice of good new fashioned riffy metal, great start for tonight.
Next tonight is a band I’ve been super excited to see again, Sólstafir. This Icelandic outfit has wowed me before and I’m fully ready to be wowed once again. Opening their set with what sounds like an Icelandic folk song prior to them appearing on stage, Solstafir are clearly extremely proud of their roots. They’re often described as post-metal which I feel somewhat misses the finer points if their music, mixed in with the atmospheric elements there’s this unusual raw punky style to their stuff, even going as far as to say this is probably what Joy Division would be like if they decided to throw a load of metal in.
Clearly there’s not much singing along either as I don’t think even the Dutch would profess to know much Icelandic. I do wish they’d turn up the bass guitar a bit as I can see he’s doing a lot but I can barely feel the low end barring the drums. I think it’s also a bit amusing watching the response of the audience, it’s not bad by any stretch but I get the impression a lot of them haven’t really listened to Sólstafir and given they’re sandwiched between Lost Society and Amorphis, it’s a pretty odd juxtaposition.
The strange breadth of Sólstafir’s sound even extends to throwing a 12-bar blues song into the mix as well and ripping out some slide guitar playing as well. These guys are a real bag of surprises that switches gears at the drop of a hat yet it never feels particularly jarring. There’s strong elements of drone style playing, long dissonant sustain used to build an atmosphere so thick you could chew it. A couple of songs bleed into folk music (albeit decidedly heavier), I adore Solstafir’s diverse and unusual fusion of styles into this overwhelming force, an incredibly unique band with so much to offer in their live shows. It’s a true privilege to be able to see this band again and hopefully I might see them pop up at Radar or ArcTanGent next year, fingers crossed.
Finally tonight, the headliners of the show, Amorphis. Another band where I’ve seen the name around a lot but never actually caught so tonight’s going to be a crash course in what these Finns have to offer. Several large screens behind the drums light up as the band slowly walks on stage and a) I wasn’t expecting that many and b) fuck me those vocals are some real deep gutturals, im basically sold right from the start, melodic death metal with some gutturals that sounds like a bathtub drain? Yeah this is my thing. There’s even keyboard solos as well as choir parts?
How, HOW have I not listened to these sooner, like if you were to write up a checklist of everything I love in a melodeath band this absolutely ticks every single box including ones I never knew I needed. I cannot overstate how unbelievably massive Amorphis sound is, it’s titanic, the balance they’ve got is spot on for the level of driving energy they have vs the clarity of the sound as well. Not only that but the almost relentless flashing lights makes this show a real assault on the senses, when a band gets the balance of being heavy and just the right amount of poppy ease, I can’t get over how much I love it and Amorphis are toeing that line like pros.
Seemingly each member gets the chance to style at some point as well, keys, guitar, bass, drums, everyone’s got a turn and it’s great to see what often seems to be a bit of a lost art of “fucking around” on stage still being present for these. It’s a bit hard to keep my eyes on the stage because the sheer amount of strobed lighting is pretty hard to look at which is a bit frustrating so I’m probably looking like a boring twat to everyone else by keeping my head down but it’s either that or a headache I guess.
The show’s been pretty great otherwise, every song has sounded fantastic and crushing so I’ve got zero complaints there, I keep marvelling at their singers uncleans as well, they’re terrifying! I adore Amorphis’s knack for jumping into beautiful uplifting segments with the keys doing some mad shit with tons of pitch bends and then dropping into riff city with the singer growling like a pissed off grizzly bear. It’s been a real ride watching these and I am genuinely ashamed I’d not listened to them before this but it’s left a hell of an impression on me.
I do solemnly swear that I will attend future shows and rinse their back catalogue.
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.