23-05-2019 Katatonia

The evening started with the Finnish/English prog rock act, Wheel. The band released their latest album “Moving Backwards” a while ago so it was the perfect timing. Overall, the band’s style reminded us a bit of Tool with a more of a slower approach going on tending towards the stoner style. The stage presence combined with the vocals and the riffs were what captivated the audience and warmed up the crowd!

It was time to get a bit more melodic with Cellar Darling. Formed by some of the former Eluveitie band members, the band has already gained a strong fanbase ever since they were formed in 2016. Their latest release “The Spell” has been released on March 2019 and so the audience was in for a treat consisting of some new gems as well as their older songs.

With a variety of instruments ranging from the flute to the hurdy gurdy, the band delivered such a fantastic performance and showed us their interpretation of progressive folk rock. It was also obvious that they did not expect such a warm welcome and so the frontwoman Anna Murphy thanked the audience many times!

Katatonia‘s comeback for this special occasion after a long hiatus was surely long awaited. Some of the band’s shows in this tour were even sold out and so the anticipation could be felt in the air even before the band started.

The band entering the stage and starting the set with another legendary piece from their musical career was epic and euphoric! There was no atmosphere or no introduction but just 1 hour of non-stop ‘trip down the memory lane’ as the band played “Night Is The New Day” in its entirety. Now for a band that hasn’t been playing regularly for a while, they sounded just exactly how they did back when we saw them a few years ago despite the line-up changes in the last years.

As expected, the band did not say goodbye directly after playing the entire album but “Lethean”, “July” and “Old Heart Falls” were also played in the ‘second’ part of the set. One nice highlight was the last song, which was the Judas Priest cover “Night Comes Down”; it was especially a different feeling hearing this song from a different perspective live.