REVIEWS
AMORPHIS / ELUVEITIE
Folk-tinged melodeath co-headliners weather mixed fortunes
DARK TRANQUILLITY / NAILED TO OBSCURITY
O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON, LONDON
NAILED TO OBSCURITY is an ironic name for a band so signposted for stardom. By cramming the miserable melodies of later Katatonia in between the death-doom grandeur of… early Katatonia, the German quintet easily woo a rapidly filling Brixton Academy. Factor in a shimmering mix, a frontman who sings as mightily as he growls and the fact that the newest songs are their tightest to date, and London has future headliners on its hands. Conversely, DARK TRANQUILLITY use their 45 minutes to honour a pioneering past. Atoma and Misery’s Crown affirm that not only are the six-piece masters of melodeath, but that imbuing the genre with goth rock is a recipe for bangers. The pit responds with circling and singalongs. Even when deep cuts such as Cathode Ray Sunshine and Hours Passed In Exile show up, they garner a reaction. Given these Swedes’ significance and the euphoria that meets them, playing second of four is an insult.