Il portale della musica Heavy Metal

Swallow The Sun + The Man-Eating Tree - 3/9/2012 - Nosturi - Helsinki

It’s been while since I last was at Nosturi, but some things never change. I managed to miss the first act of the night, but I heard from a reliable source that they had played a radio hit, so they were most likely shit.

Man-eating Tree, to me, is a band, which can be summed up in a single word: disappointment. The fact that they have the drummer from Sentenced of course proves nothing, I never expected them to be the next Northernmost Killers. They, however, have Tuomas Tuominen from the seminal Fall of the Leafe on vocals. The man I have many times said is the greatest singer in Finland. But somehow he never seems to manage to send a single chill down my spine when he fronts Man-eating Tree. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it just feels like isn’t giving it his all..
That being said, I still do like the band and they have become a better live act during these few years. Tuomas has new self-confidence in his singing, he no more seems to be apologizing for his existence like in the early days. Still, the evenings show was bland. The synth was inaudible most of the time, the guitars sounded like they were out of tune and at times I could’ve sworn that there were problems with keeping the tempo. There was a pretty good crowd, but they all seemed to be asleep, standing around with blank faces. During the slower, moodier parts one could clearly hear the chatter from the bar louder than the band almost, which broke the mood. They luckily managed to shift a gear with the final song, but still it was too little, too late.

Swallow the Sun began their set like they had all the time in the world: first a Finnish children’s song (which served as inspiration for “Emerald Forest and the Blackbird”) as an intro before they launched into the intro from the newest album. Aleksi Munter has really changed his style since I last saw him, I almost thought they had gotten a new synth player. I have to say the post-rock look has nothing on the classic heavy look.
The new material worked well live, and Nosturi was probably pretty close to being sold out. People were slow-motion moshing and droning, what else is there to do on a doom gig? Still, I would’ve liked to have SOMETHING to see on stage. The definite highlight of the gig was “Through her Silvery Body”, the best song they’ve made. All in all, it was a typical Swallow gig; I almost fell asleep but enjoyed myself.

Report a cura di Markus Karppinen