Almost everyone who listens to melodic death metal should know about the original three that created the Gothenburg style: In Flames, At The Gates, and Dark Tranquillity. While In Flames went off to become sort of alternative, sort of metalcore, sort of progressive (in one or two songs), but super popular, At The Gates died and Dark Tranquillity kept on going at it in the background. Dark Tranquillity started off as the best band out of three and is still the best band out of the three, so I’m glad that they came through on a headlining tour and not sandwiched between two crappy bands. (That was a reference to the tour with Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada, I’ll have you know…)

Needless to say, I was going to go to this show.

I got there fairly early with my friend, so we walked around, met Mutiny Within, and then met Mikael Stanne! That was awesome.

On to the actual show…

Hallows Die opened this night of melodic death metal with an awesome performance. I had seen them the week prior to this, so I knew what to expect, but they turned it up a notch and did even better. They certainly tried their best to get the lifeless crowd going, and it worked towards the end of their set. At one point, one of the guitarists played a pretty sweet solo with the guitar behind his back! I was impressed.

Mutiny Within were next to hit the stage, and they’ve been a personal favourite of mine for a couple of months now, so I was pretty excited. They had an electrifying stage presence and really put on a show! Chris Clancy kept on trying to do Dani Filth’s – from Cradle of Filth – trademark, high-pitch scream during songs, and it was pretty awesome. The solos were done to precision, and they have an outstanding keyboardist that really makes all the difference to their songs live. These kids seem destined to get a lot bigger, and I really hope they can do it. Their set was as follows:
- Images
- Oblivion
- Suffocate
- Forsaken
- Year Of Affliction
- Awake
- Lethean

Threat Signal came on next, and the crowd burst to life. There was a lot of love for the returning hometown boys. Well, Hamilton is good enough for hometown in this case. Jon Howard is one of metal’s top screaming frontmen, and he proved it to me on that night with his powerful vocal performance. The guitarists were all great, not just for playing some awesome songs, but also for windmilling almost the entire set. It really made for great stage presence. Great screaming, nonstop windmilling, and the crowd moshing to kill. Threat Signal put on a great show. They played the following:
- One Last Breath
- Through My Eyes
- Haunting
- Revision
- Afterlife
- A New Beginning
- The Beginning Of The End
- Counterbalance
- Rational Eyes

Now, it was Dark Tranquillity’s turn, and they did something I didn’t expect at all. They had a giant projector screen behind them that played cool clips of random awesome things! You don’t really know what was being shown, but you just accept that the objects and scenery being shown have some deep connection to the music. Anyways, on to their performance! Mikael Stanne is a great singer and a great screamer, so he put on an awesome show. He really shone through on the song ThereIn, which features a lot of clean vocals. A lot of songs were played off of We Are The Void and Fiction, but what came as really unexpected were the two songs off of The Gallery: Punish My Heaven and Lethe! That was a really pleasant surprise. The crowd came close together for the entire set, and everyone sang along to the choruses with smiles on their faces. It’s Dark Tranquillity after all, so why not? We, as a crowd, proceeded to wish Mikael happy birthday wishes, and it made for a very touching moment. The show dragged on until midnight, but everyone was still going just as nuts as they were at the start of the set. After Dark Tranquillity left the stage, Mikael stayed out to pay his respects to the crowd and thanked us for making his birthday a night to remember. It really was a night to remember.