“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”
Revelations 5:6

Apart from being Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem after his resurrection, Third Parade is also the name of the second band to hit the stage on the second day (of the second year) of the Dark Mental Festival.
Whether or not the bands’ name have any origins in the old biblical story I cannot say, and without delving deeper into their lyrical themes than what was possible at the festival, I don’t think they take much inspiration from the stories of Christ when making their music either.
So, what was the music? I think it can be most easily described as something in the general direction of hardcore/metalcore, and thus they were the first of this particular style to play the festival this year.
Diversity is certainly a good thing, but it didn’t seem to bite the crowd all that much to begin with…

And why not you ask? Well, musically Third Parade was delivering some text-book riffing for the style of music they had chosen; not bringing anything new to the table but doing what was expected of them, and doing that rather well I might add.
No, the music wasn’t necessarily the problem here, but sadly the performance was lagging far behind. Aside from some half-hearted headbanging from Björn Johannes Fhager (guitars) and a good deal of action from Mikkel Mons Andersen (drums), there really wasn’t much to get from the bands’ side.
This was of course reflected, as mentioned, in the audience, which was for the most part keeping its distance to the stage, and only offering up the occasional dampened shouts and applause between songs to show some support.
Vocalist Niks Frost tried to call out for people to get closer to the stage, but met only with limited response to this; and fair enough, of course you can ask the crowd to get in a better party-mood, but you also have to provide them with a reason for getting there, and in this where Third Parade fell through this day.

So, if you’re into the whole modern, screamy hardcore then by all means, give Third Parade a chance, but they need to up the ante in their performance if they want to excite a larger crowd with other interests.

Setlist:

The Horned King
Written In Blood
Circle Of Destruction
Sunshine Of Sickness
Bloodsoaked
Just Another Room
False Pro