The neckbreakers ball started amidst confusion – not everyone was aware the venue had changed from the forum in Kentish Town to the Relentless Garage so some fans (and press) went to the wrong place and were late arriving as a result.\u00a0
\nThe band I was looking forwards to most, Death Angel had unfortunately dropped out and the replacement wasn’t announced till the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The night kicked off with Omnium Gatherum. Being on very early they played to a small crowd of maybe 70 people. \u00a0Poor lighting meant they played in near darkness.\u00a0
\nThey put in a good energetic performance and their heavy music and growling\/screaming vocals went down well with the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gurd came on stage in front of a slightly larger crowd – maybe 150 people, but as with Omnium Gatherum the lighting engineer appeared to be asleep judging by the total lack of any decent lighting in a venue well equipped with lights. Gurd put in a good performance but to me failed to stand out from the crown on this packed bill.<\/p>\n
As soon as Varg came on stage they gave the impression of being Turisas clones – the outfits and red face paint just screamed ”Turisas wannabe”. In practice they are quite different to Turisas – they were heavier – more thrash than folk metal. They got a good reception from the good sized crowd – by this time the venue was fairly full.
\nvenue fairly busy<\/p>\n
Mercenary\u00a0put in a fairly good performance, but like Gurd were fairly forgettable really. They may have suffered from the packed lineup – with this many bands on the bill then the sets are short and don’t give a band much chance to really stand out.<\/p>\n
My highlight of the night was Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie. \u00a0With more members than many bands they struggled to fit on the stage.\u00a0Using instruments like violins is getting more common in folk metal, but a Hurdygurdy? That’s probably unique in metal, and these days that’s saying something. With great songs and a great performance from the bands this was a fantastic set and the highlight of the evening for me.<\/p>\n
Dark tranquility were the headliners and had projectors beaming images onto the screen behind the band which made a nice change from the usual band logo banners.\u00a0The singer was particularly animate, charging around and generally putting on a great show. The band definitely impressed – if Eluveitie hadnt played these would have been my top band of the night, but in the end they came a very close second.<\/p>\n
The neckbreakers ball was a great night – lets hope it returns next year, but with Death Angel on the bill.<\/p>\n
Varg setlist:<\/p>\n
Viel Feind Viel Ehr
\nBlutaar
\nWir sind die W\u00f6lfe
\nSchwertzeit
\nNagelfar
\nSehnsucht
\nLinks 2 3 4 (Rammstein Cover)
\nWolfskult <\/p>\n
Mercenary setlist:<\/p>\n
Bloodred shades
\nIn a river of madness
\nThrough the eyesof the devil
\nThe black brigade
\nOn the edge of sanity
\nThe Follower
\nFiresoul\/The endless fall<\/p>\n
Eluveitie setlist:<\/p>\n
Everything remains as it never was
\nNil
\nInis mona
\nSlanias song
\nQuoth the raven
\nThe song of life
\nYour Gaulish war
\nKingdom come undone
\nThe sombre lay
\nTarvos
\nTegernako<\/p>\n
Dark Tranquility setlist:<\/p>\n
Terminus
\nIn my absence
\nTreason wall
\nLost to apathy
\nWonders at your feet
\nMundane and magic
\nBlind at heart
\nSun fired blanks
\nParticle storm
\nZero distance
\nDream oblivion
\nFinal resistance
\nMiserys crown
\nThe fatalist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The neckbreakers ball started amidst confusion – not everyone was aware the venue had changed from the forum in Kentish Town to the Relentless Garage so some fans (and press) went to the wrong place and were late arriving as a result.\u00a0 The band I was looking forwards to most, Death Angel had unfortunately dropped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert_reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}