Artists: Evergrey, Klogr, Inner Vitriol
Venue: Sheffield, Network
Date: 17 December 2024
"This was Evergrey’s forty-second show of the tour, and the band were firing on all cylinders. If you’re a fan of any type of Metal, and you’ve never seen this band live, do yourself a favour and check them out the next time they play at a venue near you."
Inner Vitriol
It was advertised that the doors would open at 7 p.m., so I arrived early to find that the first band of the evening had already taken to the stage. At this time, there were only a handful of fans in attendance. It was a pleasant and welcome surprise to hear such a clean sound and one that wasn’t too loud, which helped convey the intricacies of the band’s self-professed Dark Progressive Metal.
The quartet from Bologna, Italy: Gabriele Gozzi (vocals), Michele Di Lauro (guitars), Francesco Lombardo (bass) and Michele Panepinto (drums) certainly captured the attention of the small crowd and those that wandered in during their set. The penultimate track was a cover of ‘Impressioni di Settembre’, originally released in 1971 by fellow Italian Progressive Rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM). As with the original, it was sung in Italian and further showcased the talent of the band.
The softly spoken Gozzi asked the crowd if they wanted another one, to which one of the punters shouted, “Three more!” The lead singer wittingly retorted, “Have you heard the length of our songs?” They concluded their short, but highly enjoyable set, with ‘Endless Spiral’.
Setlist (contains spoilers)
Klogr
From their Wikipedia page: Klogr (pronounced “Kay-Log-Are”) is an Italian-American Alternative Metal band with Progressive Metal influences. The band's name is a tribute to a psycho-physical law (S=KlogR) developed in the 19th century by experimental psychologist Ernst Heinrich Weber and German philosopher Gustav Fechner.
They played all but one song of their latest album ‘Fractured Realities’, which my fellow Fireworks writer Mike Newdeck described as sonically sharper and more melody-driven than its predecessor. I have to say that the melody was well hidden but not so the intensity that the four members Gabriele “Rusty” Rustichelli (vocals/guitar), Cri Alessandro “Crivez” Crivellari (guitar/backing vocals), Filippo “Fil” De Pietri (drums) and Roberto “Piv-o” Pivanti (bass) brought to their live show.
For a support band they had an impressive stage set, with two large TV screens on either side of the drum kit displaying artistic images, many with the model Lea, as the songs were played. The latter helped to hold my attention for a genre of music I rarely listen to. Despite their ferocity and Rusty looking like an extra from ‘The Matrix’, they fully engaged the South Yorkshire crowd. The frontman was very amiable and managed to convey the views of the band without ever preaching. The latter was most evident before the final track ‘Guinea Pigs’, taken from the band’s 2013 release ‘Till You Turn’ album. The powerful (and brutal) images of whales and sharks being slaughtered for no other reason than pure greed is a memory that will be sadly etched on the minds of all those in attendance.
Setlist (contains spoilers)
Evergrey
As AC/DC’s ‘For Those About To Rock’ finished the lights went down and the three video screens at the rear of the stage announced, “T minus three minutes”. As the countdown continued the atmosphere inside the Network began to intensify in readiness for the arrival on stage of the masters of Dark Progressive Melodic Metal. The band casually entered the stage and picked up their instruments, with drummer Simen Sandnes starting to beat his drum whilst standing up. His drums, along with Rikard Zander's keyboards, were positioned at right angles, side on to the audience, with the larger of the three video screens in between.
The band members encouraged the crowd to start headbanging as they launched into ‘Falling From The Sun’ from their latest opus ‘Theory Of Emptiness’. They continued with ‘Say’ from one of the albums of the year. Lead vocalist and guitarist Tom S. Englund was disappointed by the low turnout but promised that the band would deliver whether there was a crowd of eighty or eighty thousand. Sadly, it was a lot closer to the former, but true to their word, the band put on a breathtaking performance. With the cold, dark nights descending, ‘Midwinter Calls’ was an apt song choice, and there was a real sense of togetherness between the band and fans with the singing of “Home!”
A brief keyboard malfunction was soon remedied before the aural assault continued with ‘Distance’ and ‘Eternal Nocturnal’. Then the first of two songs from ‘The Atlantic’, my personal favourite Evergrey album (listening to this on headphones whilst walking around a cruise ship, especially if bad weather, is awesome). I noticed that the band were playing with their guitars plugged in as opposed to wireless, which created a bit of a challenge for Englund, Henrik Danhage (guitars & backing vocals) and Johan Niemann (bass & backing vocals), but they managed to avoid tripping one another up this evening. ‘Call Out The Dark’ was brutal in its delivery, but fortunately, the sound wasn’t quite as ear-splitting loud as their previous tour, where you could feel it resonate in your bones.
Englund thanked the crowd once again, before dedicating to the fans a surprising uplifting track for Evergrey, ‘One Heart’. The amiable frontman chatted to the audience about football and even got away with admitting to being a Manchester United fan. He did say that he got a muted response at yesterday’s show in Manchester; obviously, there are no United fans in Manchester (his words not mine). He even found time to take the piss out of newest member Sandnes for being the only non-Swede in the band; the drummer originates from Oslo, Norway. ‘Save Us’, from the previous opus ‘A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)’, featured an excellent keyboard outro as the main set was brought to a fitting conclusion.
The power to screens died as the band were about to start their encore. No panic as Englund said he was off to the bar for a double gin and tonic, whilst Danhage conversed with the crowd. When someone in the audience asked him to do a solo, he duly obliged, and within seconds the power returned. The screens portrayed the band throughout their history as they started the three-song encore with the classic ‘A Touch Of Blessing’. They continued with the equally timeless ‘King OF Errors’, and just to further illustrate the strength of the new material, Evergrey finished ‘Our Way Through Silence’.
This was Evergrey’s forty-second show of the tour, and the band were firing on all cylinders. If you’re a fan of any type of Metal, and you’ve never seen this band live, do yourself a favour and check them out the next time they play at a venue near you.
Setlist (contains spoilers)
Review: Mark Donnelly
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