This was Swiss metal band Chaoseum’s first trip to the United States and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know anything about them or who they were. I was told by one fan that they are very similar to Korn and Jonathan Davis. Overall though, they were pretty good. Not extremely heavy, but definitely a good band if you like Korn or similar bands.
TarjaMarko Hietala, I was really hoping to see a cameo, but I guess we can’t win them all. Overall a great show, hopefully she starts visiting the states a little more often as she is one musician that I’d love to see more of.
SET LIST
Eye of the Storm
Demons in You
Falling Awake
Diva
Naiad
Oasis / You And I (Acoustic Only Tarja)
Shadow Play (with Band Solo)
Enough
I Feel Immortal
Nemo
I Walk Alone
Victim of Ritual
Innocence
Die Alive
Dead Promises
Until My Last Breath
So I personally had never witnessed Insomnium live until this show, however, I was quite impressed with what I saw. the set was great and the crowd loved it. One particularly energetic guy probably crowd surfed to the front at least a dozen times throughout their set. All in all a great show.
Set List
1696
White Christ
While We Sleep
Godforsaken
Lilian
And Bells They Toll
Witch Hunter
Valediction
Gale
Mortal Share
Heart Like a Grave
Enslaved returned to Chicago and rocked out the House of Blues on Tuesday, April 11th. They put on a phenomenal show even with the absence of one of the only two remaining founding members, Ivar Bjornson. Enslaved’s setlist contained everything from new to old closing out the night with my personal favorite song “Allfadr Odinn”.
Set List
Jettegryta
Homebound
Return to Yggdrasil
Kingdom
Forest Dweller
The Dead Stare
ISA
Havenless
Heimdal
Allfadr Odinn
Eluveitie returned to the greater Chicagoland area playing The Forge in Joliet, IL. Although I consider myself a big fan of Eluveitie I missed their last few visits to Chicagoland due to prior engagements. Because of this, this was my first time seeing the band with their new lineup. I didn’t know what to expect, but I very much enjoyed their performance. Although Lead Vocalist Chriegel Glanzmann’s was absent due to a family emergency the band opted to perform, and perform they did. Fabienne Erni lead the band with powerful vocals that stole the show and delivered one hell of a performance for her own birthday show. She was assisted on vocals by the very talented Adrienne Cowan from Seven Spires and Jukka Pelkonen from Omnium Gatherum who equally split up the parts by taking turns on stage from song to song and then coming together and both singing on the band’s final song of the evening, “Inis Mona” Not to focus only the vocals though as the whole band performed amazingly and gave the packed venue a phenomenal experience that many will not forget anytime soon.
I admit that I wasn’t too familiar with Black Anvil before this show. However, I was quite impressed by their performance. If you are a fan of Black Metal then they are definitely worth checking out.
Immolation has come a long way since the days of Rigor Mortis and have set themselves in stone as a phenomenal American death metal band. The band put on a killer show (as always) and had the fans roaring along. Looking forward to many more Immolation shows in the future.
Cannibal Corpse has become what one could call a staple in Death Metal. They put on a great show in Milwaukee with their shredding guitars, pounding drums and the steady wind storm that comes from Corpsegrinder’s windmills. The only downside with this show is that during both Cannibal Corpse and Dark Funeral’s sets, either it was planned, or the venue forgot to turn on the stage lights. This occurred during all of Dark Funeral with basically a slight red glow throughout their set and didn’t seem to get corrected until the third song of Cannibal Corpse. Either way though, another killer performance by Cannibal Corpse.
The Kreator has returned to Gary, IN and put on another great show. Songs included a selection from their newest album Hate Über Alles all the way through 1986’s Pleasure to Kill.
Maybe it was Kreator or maybe it was because it was in Gary, IN, but as a regular in Chicago’s metal scene, I have never seen such a crazy crowd. All in all, there was one fist fight, one guy dragged out in hand cuffs by Gary Police and a third that was tazed by Gary Police just during Kreator’s set.
Set List
The Patriarch
Violent Revolution
Hate Über Alles
Satan Is Real
Awakening of the Gods
Enemy of God
Mars Mantra
Phantom Antichrist
Strongest of the Strong
Flag of Hate
Pleasure to Kill
Apocalypticon
Mercyful Fate returned for their first tour since 1999 and put on a full theatrical performance at the Hard Rock Live (Hard Rock Casino) in Gary, Indiana. The band delivered a killer set list with original vocalist King Diamond and guitarist Hank Shermann, as well as ’90s members drummer Bjarne T. Holm, guitarist Mike Wead and also recruited bassist Joey Vera from Armored Saint and Fates Warning.
Set List
01: The Oath
02: A Corpse Without Soul
03: The Jackal of Salzburg
04: Curse of the Pharoahs
05: Dangerous Meeting
06: Doomed by the Living
07: Melissa
08: Black Funeral
09: Evil
10: Come to the Sabbath
11: ENCORE: Satan’s Fall
12: To One Far Away (outro)
