Icy Metal Inferno: AMORPHIS and ELUVEITIE in Leipzig

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Friends, how did the time go by that fast? This year went by so insanely fast! Last Saturday, however, AMORPHIS, ELUVEITIE, DARK TRANQUILLITY and NAILED TO OBSCURITY gave us a fitting farewell during their stop at Felsenkeller Leipzig. Naturally, we couldn’t let that opportunity slide given the bombastic line-up.

At this point, I want to thank the team from Atomic Fire Records for making that possible for us! You made us insanely happy!!

As always, huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for providing the pictures! Make sure to give her all the likes and follows on social media!

NAILED TO OBSCURITY

The evening in the Felsenkeller was opened by the East Friesian band NAILED TO OBSCURITY. It was almost poetic to see the streets outside being covered in a sheen of snow while their 30min set was opened by the song Black Frost.

NAILED TO OBSCURITY play an interesting mix of Doom and Melodic Death Metal, that makes your blood run cold. They remind me of mid-era OPETH at times. I’m mostly sold on their music because I love both the slower, gloomy parts and the somewhat faster parts and I cherish this kind of diversity in my music. In context of the line-up however, it was hard for the five guys to keep up.The audience was also kind of reluctant to let lose, which was, in parts, due to many people still being in line for the coat check. The time between admission and start of their set was also too short for my liking

Apart from that, I was pretty exciting to see them again and I’m curios to see what they will release next, since they also teasered some new material.

DARK TRANQUILLITY

From the cold coast of East Frisia, we were then taken to Goteborg. DARK TRANQUILLITY have their own cult status in the Metal community, which is why it wasn’t surprising to see how excited the audience was when their set finally began. After Rockharz, it was our second chance of seeing this amazing band live and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Their set was filled with fan favorites like Misery’s Crown, forward Momentum and Phantom Days. In short: If you love Goteborg Metal, then this was your moment.

If I compare it to their performance during the festival, then I would say that I liked this gig way better. It just felt more intimate and due to the duration of the tour, the band was very well-rehearsed by the point they came to Leipzig. 

DARK TRANQUILLITY’s music is always emotionally charged, at least for me, and I had literal goosebumps. This was mainly due to singer Mikael Stanne, who occasionally, during the set, just paused and delighted in the moment. If you then get to hear songs like The Dark Unbroken, it’s just simply very emotional for me!

ELUVEITIE

Words won’t really describe the excitement I felt about getting so see ELUVEITIE again. Their gig during Rockharz was so wonderful even though they went dead last (seriously, who booked that???)

Thanks to their position as a co-headliner, the audience got to witness a longer set. Worth mentioning is also their new hurdy-gurdy-player Annie, who did an amazing job!

In the context of the whole line-up, ELUVEITIE’s Pagan and Folk sounds were a bit unconventional, but that didn’t take away anything from the overall experience since we were witness to an amazing Metal party.

The set itself was very diverse and contained a good mix of older and new songs, like Call of the Mountains or Aidus. A special treat was also the drum solo by drummer Alain that really emphasized once again what an incredibly versatile instrument the drums are!

Special shoutout to singer Fabienne as well, who continuously hyped up the audience while delivering a captivating performance. I really love her voice and I’m always impressed how talented she is!

Towards the end of the set, I had to fear that they wouldn’t play my favorite song. Finally though, my prayers were heard: Inis Mona closed out a set that really shook the Felsenkeller to its core!

AMORPHIS

Not any less powerful, but all the more different was the set AMORPHIS presented. They focussed mainly on songs made after Toni Joutsen joined the band. The audience got gifted songs like  Silver Bride or Death of a King. It was truly a full-circle moment for me to be there this evening since one of my first articles this year was the review of their latest album Halo. With that album being one of my favorites this year, I was elated to hear material taken from it, like Northwards or The Moon. 

Nevertheless, I’m also very much into their early work, namely Tales from the Thousand Lakes. It really had my AMORPHIS-fan-heart beat faster to hear the first chords of Black Winter Day. Those are the moments in which I cherish their music even more. They just know what I want!

To close out the evening, they played House of Sleep, a song that always manages to make me especially emotional!

Overall, it was an absolutely amazing evening that we thoroughly enjoyed. Such a line-up is very rare and it was the best (early) Christmas present we could have wished for!