Arch Enemy

w/ Suffocation and Winds of Plague

The Forum, Melbourne – 5th November 2009

While I certainly didn’t have high expectations for openers Winds of Plague, I’m actually quite glad they were even worse than anticipated. After two songs from one of the most generic and just plain boring bands I’ve ever witnessed, my attention wandered, and having never been to The Forum before I spent the rest of their set admiring the spectacular venue. The intricate statues above the bars were far more interesting than the mosh-based riffs and even plainer vocals coming from the stage. Even the impressively monstrous toilets, and their accompanying foyers, had me more amused than the band. And to think, this uninspiring deathcore/whatever band took the place of what could have otherwise been a talented local act. From the looks of those around me, I wasn’t the only one praying the set would end.

Suffocation on the other hand, did not disappoint. I’ll admit I don’t know them very well at all; I have a bad habit of not checking out the more classic metal bands around. I had a copy of their latest album ‘Blood Oath’ which I never managed to finish because it was just so fucking boring. But after seeing them live, I’ll be grabbing some of their older material to give them another shot. The whole band, particularly the drummer, could not have been any tighter. The powerful mix certainly helped too. The mosh-pit throughout most of the set and the general reaction to Suffocation’s set couldn’t have been better, and several days later I still haven’t heard a negative comment, other than complaints about the short set. Impressive, to say the least.

Continuing that trend of kicking total arse, headliners Arch Enemy blasted onto stage with a nice mixture of material. While I much prefer their Angela-era tracks, it’s interesting to hear the older material with her vocals. The recent ‘Root of All Evil’ album, a set of older material partly re-recorded with Angela on vocals was absolutely horrible in every possible way. Live however, it’s completely different. She fits into those songs as well as anybody else, giving them much more energy than the (even more) one-dimensional Johan Liiva did back in his day. An absolutely superb mix boosted their overall presence even more, making sure that not a single note was lost in the mix. It was a performance that was impossible to fault. The band were on fire with every track coming across with so much more energy than on their recorded versions. A drum solo and guitar solos from both Michael and Chris, while not overly interesting, broke the set up nicely. While bands like Testament have a habit of playing songs in groups based around album they appeared on, Arch Enemy take a completely different approach and really mix the songs around. But, despite jumping between so many years worth of material, it all sounds just as fresh, heavy, and memorable as ever. If you’re a fan and missed this gig, you poor bastard. Oh, and cheers to the lovely fellow behind the lighting desk for giving us his copy of the set list!

More photos from the show are available here.

Arch Enemy setlist
Blood On Your Hands
Ravenous
Taking Back My Soul
The Immortal
Dead Eyes See No Future
My Apocalypse
Diva Satanica
Revolution Begins
Drum solo
I Will Live Again
Bury Me An Angel
Pilgrim
Guitar solos (Michael/Chris)
Dead Bury Their Dead
We Will Rise

Snowbound
Nemesis
Fields of Desolation outro

Photos by Jess Day