The decibels were through the roof at Olympia Theater for Inflames and Within Temptation on a snowy Tuesday night in Montreal.
Starting out in 1990, and currently on the road to support their 13th studio album ‘I, The Mask’ Sweden’s Inflames shows no signs of slowing down. As they hit the stage with the lead track Voices off their new release right into Everything’s Gone from their 2014 release Sirens Charm, the sound was sonic and the legends from Gothenburg were blazing a trail of heavy metal destruction.
The band’s lineup was noticeably different from its usual one on Tuesday night. Guitarist Niclas Engelin was missing, which was confirmed by lead singer Anders Fridén. Fridén explained to the audience that 48 hours before the band was to embark on this tour, Engelin called to let them know that he couldn’t make it. This was leaving them high and dry and as Fridén put it there’s no “1800-number for heavy metal guitar players”. After some quick thinking and a few phone calls they lucked out and got in touch with former Megadeth guitarist Chris Broderick. Broderick is built like a brick shit house, a shredder extraordinaire and fit the part perfectly.
After explaining the situation with Engelin, Fridèn introduced the rest of the band and broke into an old fan favorite Pinball Map from their 2000 release ‘Clayman’. This sent the crowd into a frenzy of heads banging, hair been whipped around and security guards working overtime with the constant stream of crowd surfers flying over the fence. Basically the chaos you would expect to witness in the heavy metal capital of Canada.
It was easy to tell the Montreal crowd approved of the newer singles I am Above and This is Our House. Having only been out for a short time they were sung along to just as loud as their predecessor’s. Finishing the set off with Cloud Connected from the band’s 2000 release ‘Reroute to Remains’ into a very fittingly The End off of the 2016 ‘Battles’ the crowd gave a thunderous roar of approval that put some very big smiles on the Swedish Metal Gods.
With a quick change, The Netherlands’ Symphonic Metal band Within Temptation took to the stage starting off with Raise your Banner from their record ‘Resist’. Lead singer Sharon den Ardel dawned in a white cloak stormed out from back stage with authority carrying a big flag swinging around proudly for all to see. One couldn’t help notice the band’s elaborate video screens for backdrops which looked like they were straight out of a Mad Max/Star Wars movie.
The screens weren’t there just for imagery either. The band cleverly synced their set with their actual music videos giving the audience a sensation of being in the actual video themselves. The band’s fans ranging in age from teenagers to old enough to be your grandparents, loved every minute of it as they hung off and pretty much sang along to every word Ardel belted out.
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- In Flames
