06-11-2024 Dark Tranquillity / Moonspell

Hiraes

The evening starts with the German formation Hiraes. The band started in 2020 and had their second full length out in January this year. They start their set strongly with a lot of passion. Their enthusiasm is certainly bringing people to the right mood, but unfortunately some minor things to notice. Not the best sound, a rather blurry mix where nothing really comes out at its best and it appears that vocalist Britta had some issues with that as the parts where she puts in her clean vocals specifically, was quite off. It does not stop her from getting up close, as towards the end of her set she mingled with the audience to bring it from there. Sets at least some people in motion so overall they may have convinced some here tonight. We like to opt for another chance.

Wolfheart

The Finnish Wolfheart is no stranger to the Tempelores reader, the band has crossed our paths some times before. Sometimes in a package with front man Tuomas his other bands and sometimes just as a headliner. Always in for a treat, with many years on the counter you can be assured of a professional approach. About two months prior their album “Draconian Darkness” came out. While the band played some tracks from that the choice of set list also existed out of some songs of their first album “Winterborn” which got released a decade ago. These songs are the ones the audience was more familiar obviously but it was interesting to see how much these songs fit in one line. Wolfheart has a consistent sound and this resulted in a set that had a steady energy throughout. Towards the end we were getting a little mosh pit out and then it was over. A good set from Wolfheart, according expectations.

Moonspell

The Portuguese band Moonspell brought a lot of fans along today. A lot of Portuguese people made their way to the venue we noticed already before their set. The band has more about three decades on the counter and countless releases. Recently the band streamed a symphonic show together with the Lisbon Sinfoniettta Orchestra. The show of tonight was filled with Moonspell classics, starting with the track “Opium” and the audience was in for it right away. The bigger impact came when “Extinct” got played, where a lot of people were singing along to. The band is skillful in entertaining the audience. They have the tendency to make everyone in the audience personally addressed and it is good to see that they are a nice combination with Dark Tranquility in that. Other tracks that were crowdpleasers tonight were “Breathe (Until We Are No More)” and “Alma Mater” before the guys close it off with “Full Moon Madness”. This was an evening where the band brought the fans what they want to hear. With a large discography it could be that favorites sometimes need to move over so it was a pleasure to see the fans being so enthusiastic about it here tonight.

Dark Tranquillity

The final band tonight was Dark Tranquillity. Now these guys are almost equally as long around as Moonspell and have been making quite an impact through the years. In August the band released a new album called “Endtime Signals” and it has served us well the past months. An album that we saw the band taking a slight turn, but not straying too far. Just having fun without repeating themselves too much. Now looking forward to the tour we were wondering which tracks they would bring along with the new ones to create a vibrant set. “Wayward Eyes” and “Unforgivable” from their latest got followed up by “Hours Passed in Exile” from their 2020 release “Moment” which seems a good fit. The most recent albums got covered well but at the very end the band took out some long-time classics as well. During the set frontman Mikael often talked with the audience making a joke here and there and calling out someone for peaking at the setlist beforehand.

Altogether the band showed exactly why they have been around for long. The manage to keep people entertained through their full set and give all energy showing they are still kings in Melodic Death.