Hypocrisy’s End Of Disclosure tour was now underway and had reached Gothenburg for its second date.
As had been the case with the tour opening in Stockholm, a local act had been chosen as the opener, a band called Deals Death.

“Hey, we’re Deals Death, and we’re straight here from Gothenburg!”
- Sven Olof ‘Olle’ Ekman (vocals)

Similar to the bands in Stockholm, Deals Death was a new name to me, and as we had been presented with two different varieties of death metal the day before, I was curious as to what would be dished out tonight. That, and positive remarks from the people around me, made me think this probably wasn’t going to be a total waste of time. And that’s a good thing.
Anyway, a short introduction for those of you who, like me, are new to the name.
Deals Death is a five person outfit originating from Dalarna which later relocated to Gothenburg, and they consist of Sven Olof ‘Olle’ Ekman on vocals, Janne Jaloma on drums, Fredrik Ljung on bass and finally Erik Jacobson and Sebastian Myrén on guitars. They started out in 2008 and have released two full length albums since then. Apparently they picked up a lot of popularity when Ekman was featured doing vocal exercises in an episode of Equals Three, a series by YouTube comedian Ray William Johnson.
Deal Death is also a death metal band, but whereas we had been given a taste of the Stockholm and Florida sound the day before, Deals Death is closer to the less heavy, more fast and melodic line of their Finnish brethren, such as Children Of Bodom and the like.

Back at Brewhouse, it was good to see that the stage was a bit larger than the one in Fryshuset had been, which meant that there was more room for the support band even though Hypocrisy had all of their large gear on the stage as well. This meant that Deals Death both had room for a couple of stage-drops with their logo on them, and that Jaloma wasn’t pushed to the front of the stage, but could (just barely) fit his kit into a corner besides Horgh’s drums and podium.
So, after a copious amount of smoke had been flooded onto the stage it was finally time for the band to hit the stage as well, and they did so to a surprisingly cheerful audience – clearly Deals Death was a popular name in Gothenburg, and they had brought their friends along. Or the friends had shown up on their own account, what do I know?
I do know that this positive response also had a good influence on the overall atmosphere, and that the band also seemed to enjoy themselves quite a lot when they began playing. They were obviously big fans of posing when playing, and if you ever read anything from this site before, you should know that we are also fans of bands posing; it just is that much more fun to see a guitarist get down on his knees and do a power-slide than it is watching him stare at his toes for an entire concert! Neither of these things were done, but you get the general idea I hope.

“This guy both looks and sounds like Yngwie Malmsteen!”
- Ekman (vocals)

Quite surprisingly, to me at least considering how well the band members worked together, was that Ekman announced that one of the musicians tonight wasn’t actually a part of the band. It turned out that Jacobson wasn’t there to play with Deals Death this evening (reason unknown), and instead they had this other guy playing guitar with them. For fun, Ekman asked if there was anyone who knew his name, but the only response given was someone in the audience shouting Iron Maiden. Well, you can imagine this wasn’t the right answer, but instead his name was Andreas Lindgren, better known from his own band, Requiem, where he plays classical metal together with Deals Death drummer Jaloma.
Even though Lindgren was only a replacement for the night, his interactions with the rest of the band could have fooled me to believe he had been part of the outfit for years, and when he shredded those solo’s, every single one in fact, there was no telling that he hadn’t rehearsed them since the day they were written.
Heck, when someone in the audience began humming Judas Priest’s Breaking The Law in a short break, Jaloma and Lindgren were quick to pick up on it and played a few bars of said song.
Kudos for all that, I was very impressed!

I wasn’t the only one impressed either, the entire ensemble had the crowd going pretty wild on the floor – between songs there were loud cheers and even a Deals Death chant popping up from time to time (at one time when Ekman asked if we were looking forward to Hypocrisy actually, a response the band could only bow in gratefulness of), and during the songs there was a lively headbanging and devil horn waving going on. Especially after the sleepy crowd the day before, it was a relief and a pleasure to see an audience take such an active part in the merriment, once again proving that Gothenburg is my favourite Swedish city.
There was good reason for this good spirit as well – as I have already mentioned, Deals Death were good and active performers as well as musicians, and Ekman could be seen already in the first song of the evening leaning out over the edge of the stage to shake hands and hit knuckles with the frontline. I had actually been warned beforehand that he was a bit of a pretty boy though, and it was easy to see that he was no stranger to a gym, but when he removed his shirt in the fourth song and showed of that 8-10 pack washboard stomach of his, glistening with the worked up sweat, it got a bit too much for my taste. I guess some of the ladies liked it though...

Flat stomachs and lively posing wasn’t Deals Death’s problem though, no, here the sound presented a much larger impairment for them. To tell the truth, the music really wasn’t getting a loving treatment somewhere in the process, and that coupled with the fact that I didn’t really fall for any of their songs, equalled out in me not enjoying this quite as much as some of the fans of the band around did.
I still believe that if you are a fan of the Finnish melodeath style, Deals Death will most likely satisfy your every need, but me I won’t go chasing down any albums anytime near here.

Setlist:

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Eradicated
Truthful Profession
Conquer As One
Perfection
Elite
Fortified
Internal Demons