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Soilwork + Axegressor - 9/9/2011 - Nosturi - Helsinki

So autumn falls, the sounds of summer festivals fading and it’s time to see some club gigs again. This time I’ve actually already written a report on both of these bands earlier, so we can do some comparing. Spoiler alert, both of the gigs were a LOT better than last time I saw them. Also, this time there were only two bands, so no marathon evening for me. No neverheards, just pure substance.

First up was Axegressor, a bit surprising choice for a warm-up act. I’m sure there’s a lot of young and hungry melo-death bands in Finland who’d give their left testicle to open for a big and successful band as Soilwork. The genre difference was clear as there was hardly anyone present when they started their set, which was a shame. Johnny Nuclear Winter (you just gotta love his stage name) entered the stage wearing shades and said unapologetically “there’s not going to be any melodic choruses, let’s try and manage” as they launched into the first furious song.
As the set progressed the crowd grew and at least some people looked like they were enjoying themselves. The band played a lot of songs from their new record, “Next”, which was definitely a good thing, since it is a lot more in the style of their first EP “Axecution”. They didn’t play anything from that EP, however, not even if they implied they’d play the hit song “Luoti päähän”. Obviously they’ve decided not to play it for some reason. Johnny again spoke out against circle pits, “this isn’t a P.E. Class, so give me PROPER mosh pit!” The crowd complied and raised some hell. All in all a good gig, but maybe the crowd wasn’t quite optimal for some straight-forward thrash.

I had some doubts whether I could be arsed to see Soilwork again, since I saw them last in December and that gig wasn’t really all that special. Luckily, I decided to come since this gig was like from another planet. Let’s talk about the setlist first. The setlist was just incredible. Just fantastic! They played songs from all of their albums except the seminal “Sworn to a Great Divide” which was a bit odd, since it is the second newest record. Maybe they’ve just gotten bored of playing those songs. Anyways, at least I almost creamed my pants when I got songs from both the two first albums which are a lot more brutal than the newer ones, and also a whole two songs from their best record, “Natural Born Chaos”. A bit surprisingly they played six of the ten songs from their newest album, “The Panic Broadcast”, so I got to hear a lot of songs live for the first time.
Although it was their third time in Finland in as many months, the band gave it their all. The sounds were a bit muddled like always in Nosturi but the sheer intensity of the songs made up for it. Peter Wichers was sadly absent because of his back injury, Christofer Malmström from Darkane standing in for him. To summarize, they played a fantastic show, a truly great start for a fall of hopefully great gigs to come!


01) Follow the Hollow
02) The Crestfallen
03) Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter
04) Night Comes Clean
05) Like the Average Stalker
06) Sadistic Lullabye
07) Epitome
08) Rejection Role
09) The Chainheart Machine
10) Let This River Flow
11) Two Lives Worth of Reckoning
12) As We Speak
13) Bastard Chain
14) Nerve
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15) Enter Dog of Pavlov
16) Stabbing the Drama

Report a cura di Markus Karppinen