Live report IN FLAMES, ARCH ENEMY & SOILWORK, Sporthalle Alsterdorf, Hamburg – October 11th, 2024

Today the foundation of the Sporthalle Hamburg will be challenged by three bands with mainly Swedish roots. The mighty In Flames are on a co-headlining tour with Arch Enemy, while Helsingborg’s Soilwork are the opening act.

Arriving at the venue shows how attractive this package is for metalheads. The doors open at 18:00 and the queue is already quite long. Nobody wants to miss Soilwork and as there is a ‘sold out’ sign at the entrance, it is a good idea to be there in time.

At 19:00 the lights go out and it’s Björn Strid and his bandmates who open this melodic death metal evening with “Stabbing the Drama”. The band mainly focuses on the second half of their career with songs like the smashing “Arrival” and the title track “Övergivenheten” from their latest longplayer, which is played in the middle of the set. The earlier times come to surface with ‘Distortion Sleep’, which takes everyone back to 2003. The first releases don’t play a role in tonight’s set, but it’s a new song that Soilwork present. “Spirit of No Return” was unveiled a few days ago. The song combines harshness with good riffs and a great sense of melody – showing a band that is still hungry. The latter also applies to the entire show tonight. After the passing of David Andersson, the band from the southwest of Sweden have regained a solid base and deliver a show that gets the crowd going. Welcome back Soilwork and thanks for the first highlight of the day.

Next on the agenda tonight are Arch Enemy. The band seems to be one of those bands that are almost always on the road, playing shows in all parts of the world, including countries like Thailand, Indonesia and China. Tonight, the band is getting a bit closer to their Scandinavian homebase with a show in Hamburg.

It was almost two years ago to date when I could see the band live when they played a show with Behemoth at the edel-optics Arena and a few things have changed since then. Joey Concepcion joined the band a year ago, replacing Jeff Loomis, and it’s safe to say that Concepcion can fill the gap. The twin guitar power is a solid base for Arch Enemy and tonight American guitar wizard and main man Michael Amott deliver thrilling guitar duels.

No doubt, the band has a lot of classics and songs like “My Apocalypse” and “Nemesis” must be part of an Arch Enemy show. At the same time people are looking forward to some new material, which is also a part of tonight’s set. The band recently announced their next studio album “Blood Dynasty”, which will be released in early 2025, and with “Dream Stealer” a furious new song was unveiled a few days ago. The song combines all the Arch Enemy trademarks as Alissa White-Gluz’s growls are as powerful as ever with some cleaner vocals in the catchy chorus. Her vocal range contributes to the success of the current Arch Enemy and she delivers again tonight.

With “Liars & Thieves” another new song is premiered on this tour. It’s a fast and aggressive metal track and the reaction of the fans shows that the new material is very much appreciated.

Arch Enemy stand for quality, dedication and professionalism and tonight was no different. But as the band plays a lot of shows it also feels like everybody follows a certain repetitive routine on stage. Still, it’s always a pleasure to see the band live on stage and after having seen and listened to two bands, everyone in the room is looking forward to In Flames and their set.

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In Flames start their show with one of the bigger anthems the guys have delivered. “Cloud Connected” is the starting point of a show that includes the newer material as well as the band taking the fans back to 1997. “Food For The Gods” is like a walk down memory lane and so are “Only for the Weak” and “Coerced Coexistence”. Yet it takes some motivating word from Andres Fridén to get the crowd going but after such a motivation speech people in the room go crazy rather quickly. And there is the little story Fridén tells. It is how he came to metal because Germany is the reason for him doing what he is doing. It has been the music of Scorpions that brought him to metal when he was 10 years old.

Security staff has quite a lot to do in the pit as crowdsurfers arrive there constantly. From the front to the back – everybody appreciates In Flames’ set and especially folks in the first half of the room go wild. Circle pits and a lot of jumping around is what happens while the guys on stage obviously enjoy the fun fans have in front of the stage. And Fridén also appreciating the hard work from the security who handles all crowdsurfing in a very professional and friendly way. In general one can say that there is a positive vibe in the hall which makes Alsterdorfer Sporthalle to an epicenter of metal.

With the exception of the first two albums, In Flames deliver a great overview of their back catalogue and it is amazing how many thrilling metal songs the band has delivered over the last almost three decades. Although In Flames has changed from a melodic death metal outfit to a more modern metal band with a lot of groove, the songs as a whole capture the typical trademarks of the band, which is without a doubt the presence and voice of frontman Anders Fridén and guitarist Björn Gelotte, the two remaining founding members.

Surprisingly, two songs from the latest album “Foregone” come relatively late in the set, which also shows that In Flames don’t follow the usual paths. While other bands put most of their classics at the end of a show, the Swedish/American powerhouse allows these new songs to shine while we’re on the way.

Another factor for today’s great show is that the band has found an excellent guitarist in Chris Broderick, who has taken over from Niklas Engelin. Broderick contributes with his excellent guitar playing as well as a lot of experience and routine needed to be part of a band like In Flames. The show tonight demonstrates that he is fully integrated into the band’s constellation and the same goes for Liam Wilson, who is the new kid on the block as he joined in 2023.

In Flames put on a great metal show and underlined tonight in an impressive fashion why they are one of the really influential metal forces. No matter at what stage in the band’s career fans started to get into the music of In Flames, everyone got what they were looking for. The band delivered a fine selection of their musical efforts and played a show that expressed the versatility of the five-piece when it comes to musical development. It was a metal blast everybody could experience tonight and to connect to the beginning of this report, the foundation of Alsterdorfer Sporthalle could handle a metal show that was bursting with energy.