”We set the pace for today!”

Thus shouted Johnny Hedlund, frontman for the Swedish death/Viking metal band Unleashed, as they played as second band of the day on the Black Stage, and first band for us. Sadly, the comment would prove to not only make a point about the speed of their music (as was Hedlund’s intention), but also a far less desirable point on the band starting their show much earlier than announced in the program.
If one had a sense for puns, one could say that they got unleashed a bit too soon. Luckily, we do not go for such cheap points here at Metalmoments; instead we would like to concentrate on the show…

The large video screens said, in bold letters; ”Fanfail!!!!” Now, the reason for this was unclear. I don’t believe it had something to do with the number of fans who had shown up for the concert, as they were numerous even in this early hour of the day. Maybe it had something to do with them only standing around, without letting much action accompany the hard music. Maybe there was a failure in the fans which were keeping the system cool. Who knows?
What I do know is that there really wasn’t much action going on in the audience, and to be perfectly honest, Unleashed didn’t provide much of a reason for this either…
Sure, the music was hard and fast, just as it should be, but apart from that there wasn’t a whole lot going on performance-ways…
Hedlund dedicated a couple of songs away, Into Glory Ride went out to the fallen heroes Peter Steele and Ronnie James Dio and Legal Rapes went out to Cannibal Corpse, and he had everyone singing along to the chorus of Wir Kapitulieren Niemals even if we didn’t understand German (we also got the back-story that this was played in celebration of Unleashed’s first concert on German soil (can this be true?)), but other than that the band didn’t make enough of an effort to be remembered.

Even with the lack of action, there was clearly still fans who were entertained enough to chant the band-name loud and proud, and at one time between songs, the chant clearly reached the attention of the band and Hedlund made a quick comment, stating; ”I fucking like that”.
Sadly, the interaction between band and fans didn’t really stretch beyond this.

The concert may have lived up to the band motto; ”Death metal, no compromise”, as this was full on death metal music from start to finish, without any other distractions along the way, but in my book that simply does not cut it on a live stage, and this run of the mill show will certainly not go down in any form of history book…

Setlist:

Winterland
World Of Lies
This Is Our World Now
Shadows In The Deep
Hammer Battalion
The Greatest Of All Lies
Your Children Will Burn
Wir Kapitulieren Niemals
Into Glory Ride
Legal Rapes
The Longships Are Coming
Death Metal Victory