Rock at the Troc blocked by cops’ clock

By Greg Manning
Collegian Staff
March 28, 2007

I’d been waiting for an opportunity to see Dark Tranquility headline their own tour ever since I saw them play for 20 minutes back in 2002 as an opener for fellow Swedes, In Flames. When I heard that the band was embarking on the so-called “Metal for the Masses Tour” this year and would be playing at the Trocadero Saturday, March 24, I purchased my ticket ASAP.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: I normally like going to the Trocadero. Now that I’ve said that, I’m going to explain how one of my favorite venues managed to make what should have been a concert of legendary proportions into a simply above-average show.

It all begins with three words: Circle of Fear. Added as a last minute addition to the show, all I can tell you is that supposedly they are the heroes of the local death metal scene, and that they are also heroically bad. They were given way too much stage time, their guitar tone was barely listenable and the most memorable song they played was a predictable, half-competently rendered cover of Slayer’s “Raining Blood.”

Truth is, I might not have minded Circle of Fear’s all around mediocre, hackneyed, yet sincerely performed set had their presence not drastically cut into the stage time of the other bands. The first band to suffer was Sweden’s Scar Symmetry, whose sophomore release, Pitch Black Progress, is a flawlessly performed and produced slab of catchy melodic death metal that has seen regular rotation on my playlist since it was released last summer.

After D.T., Scar Symmetry was the band I was most looking forward to seeing. They only played four songs, including two cuts from the aforementioned album: “Mind Machine” and “The Illusionist.” Vocalist Christian Alvestam was in top form, alternating between growling and clean singing with ease, while guitarists Per Nilsson and Jonas Kjellgren performed their at times mind boggling guitar solos flawlessly. Unfortunately, to the disappointment of many in the audience, just as the band and the crowd started to click, it was time for the group to leave the stage.

Next up was Canada’s Into Eternity, arguably one of the hardest working bands on the live metal circuit today. It’s a shame their set was cut painfully short as well, as the five-piece gave one of their best live performances ever. Guitarist/vocalist Tim Roth’s playing was tight as ever, while frontman Stu Block had the audience at his mercy as soon as he strutted onto the stage. The band played their unique mix of death, power and progressive metal, complete with scathing growls and sugary vocal harmonies, with an undeniably attractive sort of energy and enthusiasm that had the audience moshing, fist pumping and chanting along for the entire duration of their barely 30-minute set. Highlights included “Severe Emotional Distress” and “Timeless Winter” from their most current album, The Scattering of Ashes, as well as “Splintered Visions” from their 2004 effort, Buried in Oblivion.

And so it was, after Into Eternity left the stage to an entire concert hall of fans chanting, “one more song,” that co-headliners The Haunted soon made their appearance. Personally, I’m not a big fan of The Haunted’s most recent albums, as the band has started to tone down their thrash with uninspired, more atmospheric passages.

Furthermore, though vocalist Peter Dolving has a lot of energy on stage, his barking shouts and moaning clean vocals seem like they would fit better in a hardcore or nu metal band rather than in a legit metal band. Because of this, the only song that I was excited to hear from them was “Bury Your Dead” from 2001’s The Haunted Made Me Do It.

Finally, after a surprisingly brief change over period after The Haunted’s set, the lights dimmed and some anticipation-bating intro music began to play over the PA system. One by one, legendary Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquility took the stage. Launching into a track from their forthcoming album, Fiction (to be released April 24), the band made that sort of immediate connection with the audience that only veteran bands seem to know how to make.

After the first song, the band immediately followed with a set list that included their entire discography. Most of the songs, however, came from their most current album, 2005’s Character: “Lost to Apathy,” “The Endless Feed,” “My Negation” and “The New Build.” Other songs included “Punish My Heaven” from the classic 1995 album The Gallery, “The Sun Fired Blanks” from 1999’s Projector and “The Wonders at Your Feet,” a personal favorite of mine from 2000’s Haven. The band also played “Final Resistance,” “The Treason Wall” and the title track from 2000’s Damage Done.

Dark Tranquility’s performance of all the aforementioned songs was, as was to be expected from the longest surviving band of the early Gothenburg scene, flawless. The trouble was that they only played for about an hour, which was far too little time for a headlining act. Regardless, the band’s charisma, especially that of frontman Mikael Stanne, prevented me from being too disappointed.

Stanne, who emerged from the backstage area at the start of the show with a cocky grin, looking like a modern, more metal equivalent of Robert Plant, immediately established himself as the resident rock star in the building that night. After apologizing for cutting their set short due to time restrictions, he descended from the stage during the last song of the night (“The New Build”), climbed the dividers separating the crowd from the stage, and proceded to dish out high fives like they were going out of style. He even passed the microphone around and let the fans growl along with him. It was the high point of the entire evening.

All of the bands, especially Into Eternity and Dark Tranquility, had seemingly godly charisma. However, all of them had to abbreviate their sets because of the addition of a crappy local band. I’m painfully aware that, as good as the show was, it could have been better. Damn you, Philadelphia noise ordinances! Damn you, Circle of Fear! Damn you, Trocadero!

manningg1@lasalle.edu