Lamb of God totally killed it @ Brixton Academy

Ok, This time I was about to miss this gig thinking that I have seen LOG twice already and I know the drill so very well that it won't hurt. I will be fine without seeing them and boy, I was so wrong when I thought I have seen the best of LOG. When I arrived at the venue the line was really really long, probably the longest I have seen for any gig. I have changed my telecom service provider from O2, so I cannot use special jump the queue and join the priority queue either. Anyway after seeing a lot of people passing by us, when I finally arrived at the venue this band called as Huntress was performing.  I saw it from a distance before moving into the zone, I was not impressed at all. Though I have heard good things about the band, so we moved closer to the stage, but I was still not all that impressed. When you are in the crowd the vibe catches on and you start enjoying a bit more, it is all contagious. Well to be fair the singer of huntress is pretty damn good, she can pull very high notes. Most metal lead ladies have impressive vocal ranges, but it is easy for ladies to pull soprano ranges and this one in particular did that shrilling sound with a lot of vibrato when she screamed about witches!!! She carried on singing in very high pitch for a long duration, it was damn cool. Technicalities asides, I still cannot get myself to like it; I mean I do not like big players like Angela Gassow or Cristina Scabia and I absolutely hate bands like Nightwish and Delain. I donno why I cannot find female vocalist as kick as Janis Joplin, Debby harry or Joan Baez in Metal scene. They just don't stand out any more. 

Anyway huntress were alright for their kind of gig, they did couple of songs before they did a song called as ¨I want to fuck to.... death" which is written by Lemmy himself and the singer described it as "how fucking romantic!" With loud screams and a lot of thanks you and flying kisses the huntresses finished off. The next on stage were Polish death metallers Decapitated. For voice check the vocalist shouted ¨123Slayerrrr" and I was like did he just..... And then for sound check they played Pantera's walk. Entire auditorium was singing ¨Can you see I am easily bothered by persistence." My god! I knew this is going to get fucking brutal. Ok now a note on nuisances caused by scene teenagers. While I am up for some quality moshing, I am also a believer of  moshing with proper moshing etiquettes like mosh with people who are moshing and don't shove and push everyone around who is just enjoying the show. But this show as full of teenagers whose primary goal in life is moshing after getting hammered, I believe some of them have not even tasted alcohol before in their lives, but hey this is the time to just annoy everyone and act like a dumbfuck. Decapitated performed an electrifying show, they are very technical in nature and absolute tight. I can tell by the music that this band is some very serious shit, the double bass and bass lines were fucking brilliant. One thing which was uncommon was a lot of pre recorded musical interludes, where they disappear from stage and appear with a lead and drum solo few times during the while performance. The lead singer has really really long braids, such that they were hanging lower than his knees. With consistent headbanging you know they are a useful weapon in death metal gig.

Anyway, at this point I was standing in the second row and in the middle of the stage. I knew it was a bad idea in general but I thought I would be fine with some pressure and crushing but second time in a row, I couldn't have been more wrong.

After a lot of chanting "Lamb of God!!! Lamb of God!!! Lamb of God!!!" the stage was darkened and Chris Adler was first to arrive and followed by guitarists and then Randy, who happened to have a beard for some reason. Never seen Randy with a beard. Anyway they kicked off with Desolation and the crowd went absolute mental. I was kicked, shoved, pushed, trampled all at the same time. I somehow thought God, I am going to faint with this much pressure. I had no chance to headbang or do anything I was just being thrown from one spot to another. With next song Ghost walking the crowd became a bit better but as soon as that double bass, leads and scream kicked in, the same thing happened again. I decided to go with the crowd and move away from the centre, but there was no fucking escape. I had no control whatsoever over my movements or my position, everything was on mercy of the crowd. This is first time I have seen how brutal the LOG gig can get, I mean I escaped this pressure in Download and bloodstock, which have much more crowd. But here I was surrounded by half naked teenagers everywhere, whose primary business today was to cause turmoil in the gig. I was running out of breathe and sweating like a dog. Anyway after the song finished Randy introduced the guitarist Paul waggnor from ¨Between the buried and me¨. He said Morton couldn't be here because of a family emergency and for Lamb of God we always maintain Family first and band later. People cheered as it always works in this part of the world. He asked, So how many of you have to work tomorrow? some people raised their hands and some shouted. Well, you know how does it feel to go to work everyday, it is like "taking a walk in hell". So the next song they performed was Walk with me in hell. For me it was quite close to being in hell, since I was still in midst of moshing insanity, which was not stopping even after two songs. Next song was hourglass, which started as soon this one finished without much delay. This time I was a bit outside the pit, I was close to the stage but still in first three rows. Randy started talking about how much he loves England and talks about how England is first country which recognized Lamb of God outside America and everyone of you is fucking Mental. The next song started with those damn Drums, which were shooting blast beats and double bass like an Apache helicopter gunning down with bullets and missiles. This song is called Set to fail, it is set for constant non stop headbanging with insane speed. This was first time in my life when someone's hair were hitting me when the dude was doing the windmill and now I knew how does it feels to be on receiving end. I was still nowhere in position to headbang properly, but I have let myself let freely float in the crowd and move my head and body in rhythm of crowd, it was like I was part of this gigantic cruel wave assimilating metalheads like pacman eating dots, it was majestic. I don't have to balance myself, I don't have to position myself, I don't have to worry about getting hit or fallen, it was all automatic. It was so wonderful that I felt I can live in this euphoria for a long time.
For some reason the whole band went inside and there was no light and it felt that this was bit too early for an encore, but everyone starts shouting Lamb of God!!! Lamb of God!!!. Randy comes back with "Now you have got something to die for". The crowd was a bit less violent now, I can headbang with the right rhythm and pace. The moshpit was still very active but a bit smaller. This time crowd was creating a wall, close to me, I wanted to be a bit away from it. As soon as the drums go wild, people starts running towards each other, just hitting and pushing and all kinds of adrenaline driven craziness. Randy asked the crowd again, how is everyone doing? and crowd howled. Randy was like you guys are so fucking awesome, we love you, this next one is called "undertow". I was utterly tired at this point, I enjoyed the great riffs and screams and insane drumming heavily. It was all a great treat to enjoy in this overcharged sweaty environment.
Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of themselves without that law is both. For a wounded man shall say to his assailant, 'If I live, I will kill you. If I die, You are forgiven.' Such is the rule of honour. With almost everyone repeating the word, the song kicked off. It was thrilling to hear this brilliant song live again. The song progresses slowly and goes into state of consistent frenzy and then drops down and continue its pace to dive again into bursts of euphoric drumming and singing which can only be justified with headache causing fast headbanging. To make matter more sinister, the next song they performed was called "Ruin". Motherfucking roller coaster of a poem written with drumming so genius that  it will make the Devil himself ask the question, "who the fuck is this Drumming Devil?" Ladies and gentlemen that is Chris Adler for you. Despite him being so scrawny looking, the power packed by this piece will blow you like a grenade thrown right onto your face. I was perspiring like a marathon runner after completing the entire race, with my heavy jacket and this kind of entropy it was hot as hell inside the hall. They performed another song called as In your words following the Ruin without any break. I rested for the most part of this song, it is your usual LOG song, nothing special about it but nevertheless a good song. They all gathered around and start throwing sticks and plectrums and starting thanking and shit. I was like woah, they have not performed a hell lot of signature songs, what the fuck is happening?
Lights went out and some kids were starting to slip away, one of the biggest problems with extreme metal moshpit crowd is that they exhaust all their energy and enthusiasm by the time best of the lot is still not not over. I was waiting here and even the chants were not as energetic as you would expect for encore. Anyway they returned back after a bit of time. Randy started talking again about how awesome the England is and then he talked about the band huntress, which is from LA and touring with them and said they have the only good looking member in the whole group. Then he talked about Decapitated, who are from poland and one of the best and most respected act in the whole death metal Genre. After a bit of talking Randy asked how many people want him to shut the fuck up, LOL! The next song they performed was "Vigil", one of my favourite songs, after seeing them three times before, this is first time I have seen them perform Vigil. Oh the starting line of "Our Father thy will be done" and then the second line "We have denied this life its worth" and the drum and guitar that follows with every chorus. This was sex served on a toasted crumpet. Totally Loved that song, every second of it. Randy's intense singing and simple riffs and complex leads makes it my absolute favourite. The song followed another classic "Laid to rest". All songs were performed with absolute brilliance. Randy now stops and starts talking to the crowd. First he asks how many of you are from London? and how many of you are outside the London? How many of you are England? Then he points at John Campbell and asks him if he is from England. John was like NOO!!! Then he says it doesn't matter where you guys are from, but you guys are bunch of Rednecks!!! This when all the hell break loose. Entire crowd goes into the berserker frenzy, with first drum beats the heads starts rolling like a propeller the push the shove and the trampling is all back. HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A MOTHERFUCKING INVITATION!!!!! THE ONLY ONE YOU WILL EVER GET!!!!!!!! HOOOOO!!!!!!!. With each beat blasts the moshpit gets crazier and crazier. One of the best experiences I ever had in a rock concert. Inspite of this feeling of getting exhausted and passing out, I was still performing with all my reserve energy. This songs makes you believe in the devil and how has he blessed Chris Adler with skills that makes most drummers fade in comparison. The wall of death was closing in as the song ended and I was somewhere at the periphery of this unstoppable brutality. At the end of the song, someone dressed as panda was crowd surfing. The bassist was pointing Randy towards Panda, who kept missing the panda, but they were laughing like crazy about the whole panda thing. I thought that must be it, but the next song was Black label. This was getting totally unholy. The brutality was not not stopping, it was just getting stronger and stronger. It was just ridiculous how good this gig was getting by every fucking song. But I knew this would be last. The headbanging continued inspite of the fact that I couldn't feel my neck and my throat was hoarse, I didn't had any fluid in last few hours and I was drenched in sweat. I stood there in order to get either a plectrum or something when they finished. It was like a breather after the dust has settle after a monstrous battle. As I was leaving the place, I was thanking the devil as he has shown me the right path to actually come for this concert inspite of the fact that it seemed a bit too much to watch LOG for the third time, but it was best 19.50 £ ever spent.

Mammaries of Heavy Metal: Steel Panther at download festival

Day 2
Band 2
Warning: Very very Not suitable for Work

Well, Liny was telling me that this band is pretty good and she saw them some times back and they do put on an amazing show. I was under the impression they are one of those 70s glam rock/hair metal band,s which do make up and sing in high pitch voice. I was not sure what I was up for since the band's poster looked like this.

 So these guys started with a short intro piece called as "In the future" followed immediately by their first song "Supersonix sex machine" and they start rocking like real good. I was looking at their attire with my disapproval: shredded shirts, pink/red glasses, arms full of tattoo, leather pants, multi coloured hair and lot of blingy accessories, they looked pretty camp. But it was about the time when my scepticism changed into giant smile when someone flashed the first pair of breast for this performance. The lead singer immediately pointed towards the woman who was gracious enough to entertain the entire crowd with such candid display of those gorgeous mammaries. I was starting to like the sound of the band as both the lead vocalist and lead guitarist were singing.
As soon as the song finished lead guitarist took the mic, for a minute I thought he was the lead vocal. But it so happens that his supporting vocals are bit more prominent compared to others.
So, he started  :"What's up donington, how many people have seen us live before?"
Crowd roared a bit.
"there is an airplane right there"
"say fuck you to airplane"
Crowd: "fuck you airplane"
Lead guitarist: "they can't hear you but who fucking cares!"
"let me  introduce the lead fucking vocalist Micheal Starr , he is like David lee Roth because David lee Roth has pretty small penis"
Micheal: (*whatttt*)
Guitarist: the dude rocks 24*7 and he fucks girls motherfucking half his age, and last week he was fucking a 30 year old girl.
Micheal: "fuck you!!!"
Guitarist: Make some noise for Micheal Starr(*drum rolls*)
Micheal: It feels as good to play here as fucking a girl after doing cocaine from her pussy. This is great day because it is a grand opening of this girl's pussy.
Guitarist: Dude, I saw Metallica going there there before, so wear a condom.
Micheal: Why wear condom you cannot get herpes twice?
Micheal: ladies and gentleman on lead guitars Stachel, who is faster than Edward Van Halen.
Satchel: (*Nods with a NO*)
Micheal: better looking than Ben stiller.
Satchel: THAT IS TRUE(with drum rolls)
Micheal: Skinnier than Yngwie Malmsteen!
Satchel: Everyone is skinnier than Malmsteen.
Micheal: Retarded than  Tom Cruise!
Satchel: REALLY?(disapproving pout)
Micheal: Put your hand up for Satchel.
Satchel: This is fucking awesome, biggest fucking crowd we have ever played for. Make some noise for that chick over there who is about to show here boobies, you dirty whore, later I am going to put my penis in your vagina. I am not going to wear condoms because I cannot get anyone pregnant since I went through menopause. 
Micheal: and on bass guitar this gay looking dude, ladies and gentleman the foxiest bass player in the world Lexxi Foxxx.
Lexxi: (*waving to crowd*) THANK YOU!!!
Lexxi: I want to thank the guy who invented razor so that ladies can shave their Vagina.
Satchel: if your hands are not up for shaved vaginas we cannot help you.
Lexxi: yeah, when we go down there we don't want to wrestle with ZZ top there. And how many people like to go to the Zoo
Micheal: dude, you have one track mind!!!
Lexxi: and the best drummer in our band Mr STIXXXX!!!
Stix plays a little drum solo, which was not bad I would say.
Next, they played one of the non popular song called as "Tomorrow night". The song was not too bad, it was only interspersed with liberal display of mammaries. As soon as the song finished they started talking about hookers and which are the best hookers in the world. As I noticed there were few people who were wearing Japanese straw hats in the crowd, which was theme for the next song, which goes like this:

Asian hooker Hot little motherfucker Asian hooker You're a dirty little cocksucker..............
Micheal(*in the middle of the song*): Make some noise for Satchel on the leads.
which was followed by a really good solo performed by Satchel, who was also licking the guitar in between!!!
Micheal: Make some noise donnington.
Song finished with quick riffs by Satchel. Out of all weird things I have seen at download festival there were teletubbies in the fucking crowd!!! Micheal: Ladies please up on the shoulders, please show some fucking boobies.
And bam there were two girls making out on top of two dude's shoulders.
Micheal: We have seen a lot of boobies,how many of you want to see some more? Cameraman please capture the boobness as it unfolded.
Satchel: Guys if you want to have sex, be safe! 'cause in England the minimum age is 13 years old, no younger than that.
Satchel: Show you tits you whore! (*surprised* ) Woah, that worked! I never thought that would work . Everyone loves Asian hooker, but nobody loves them more than a little guy called as Tiger woods.
With a particularly interesting guitar leads the song they performed was "Just like Tiger Woods".Boob flashing continued with some display of inflatable dolls and dildos. There was one particular lady who was bare chested throughout the whole damn performance and she had Scottish flag painted on her face. Kudos to Scotland for having such candid ladies. Song finished with a great double bass and lot of wah wah pedals.
Michael: Now we are going to do this next song about the relationship we had for two weeks. Satchel come over here. Satchel: dude, I just got my hip replaced this week, don't want to walk down all the way over there because it fucking hurts like hell
Michael: This song is called "Community property".
I would give you the stars in the sky But they're too far away If you were a hooker, you'd know I'd be happy to pay. If suddenly you were a guy I'd be suddenly gay 'Cause my heart belongs to you My love is pure and true My heart belongs to you

And the crowd sing:
But my cock is community property!!!

This was so Brilliantly done, that I almost clapped(no clapping at heavy metal concerts, only Devil horns!). And then there was a chick who has "community property" written over her titties, that was just icing on the cake. The song finished with atleast 10 pairs of male and female boobs being displayed on the Gaint screen.
The next song they performed was "Eyes of a Panther".
Satchel: Dude, who likes to party? Because I like party all day.
Michael: Dude, and I like to fuck all night.
Michael: Everybody fuck each other. And the next song begun this one was called "fuck all night and party all day" and in middle of song Michael shouted "boobies" and 5 more pairs were flashed. One particular chick was being reluctant and she got thumbs down from Michael. 
Michael: Everyone say fuck fuck fuck yeah!
The song finished with everyone shouting fuck fuck fuck, LOL.
Michael: Camerman take the camera right there to those great pair of boobies. Make some noise for those amazing pair of boobies.
Satchel: Everyone thank her dad for letting her sit on his shoulders. Thanks dad, Later I am going to fuck her face.
Michael: Everyone thank you for you coming to the show, we started here in 2009 and we wrote a song about a little back stage experience we had.
Satchel: We lined up 29 girls and fucked 16 of them in a row and took a nap between 17 and 18. We wrote a song about that. Check it out.
Satchel starts with a Great fucking riff.
Michael: Everybody fucking jump JUMP JUMP.
Well, I was ofcourse jumping, it was a great tune, how could you resist it?
The song they performed was "17 girls in a row" with great bass guitar by Lexxi. And in the middle of the song Michael made a shocker hand sign(two in the pink....).
As soon as the song finished Satchel started talking again.
Satchel: dude I have a great news I went to the doctor for aids test and he said everything looks positive, but that is not the great news. We have a special guest here tonight with us, Corey fucking Feldman from Slipknots.
Michea(*disapproving*): Not Corey Feldman , Corey Taylor you fucking asshole. how many people want Corey to beat shit out of Satchel.
Satchel: I didn't recognize him without his mask.
Corey comes out and joins them on stag. I was surprised to see a totally normal looking dude with Motley Crue T shirt and a regular cap. He started this new song called as "Death to all but metal",
......
 Fuck the Goo Goo Dolls, they can suck my balls 
Everybody shout, "Heavy metal's back!"
Fuck Mariah Carey, death to Sheryl Crowe  They can kiss each other on the camel toe
...........

Fucking brilliant song. That is all what heavy metal fans ever wanted to say. I have to admit as much as I dislike slipknots, Corey is an amazing vocalist. I was laughing my ass off during entire song marvelling at the lyrics Michael: Make some noise for Corey Taylor.
Did everyone had a good time with steel panther?. 
Thank you very much everybody.  He reintroduces all the band members, they get together and bow to the crowd. I was awestruck by this stellar performance, the band is definition of having a good time at rock n roll concert. Not to mention the amount of wonderful display of female bosoms all over the place. I did count upto first 30, then I gave after I realized that there were atleast 50 more pairs flashed later.

An Overwhelming night with Opeth

I have always obsessed with finer details when I have to go for the concert and made elaborate plans for entire thing. The idea of missing a concert due to any number of circumstances gives me a cold feet. While I came to know that Opeth are playing at O2 academy on this very Friday, It occurred to me that I may be able to attend this. On wandering a little online, it was clear that I would be able to get tickets on the gate or I can still book on-line. There is something about a rock concert which makes you plan it and there is some kind of preparation which gets you into the right mood for metal concert. I was little indecisive on this one since I have to return back to my city late at about Sunday midnight and as always there are safety concern regarding roaming at night in London. And to be frank I had zero preparation to attend a gig by The Opeth. Anyway, my confused mind decided "what the heck", lets do it.

So I quickly made it to the venue, which was not hard to spot and purchased a ticket quickly by cash. Reaching to O2 academy was not really much of an effort and nothing interesting happened until I purchased the ticket. There were few people queuing at the gate, others were just hanging around the venue casually. So, I thought lets go somewhere to eat or take a stroll. I was very happy until this moment, and that is when everything went wrong. I was thinking of keeping my ticket from back pocket of jeans to somewhere in front jacket, but I couldn't locate the ticket, my heart almost stopped beating at this point. I was going like "no way dude, you cannot loose it", its one of the times when you remember god, no matter how rational you are, times like these make you loose your shit. I was extremely angry on myself and then I started looking for ticket around. Couple of guys were selling tickets around those area, now I do not want to allege anyone of anything, but it seems to me that its possible that one of these guys nicked it from my back pocket, as it was quite easily visible. I tried searching and I talked to the people at ticket counter, but there was nothing which could be done at this moment. This is where my engineering senses started kicking in and telling me to get a good bargain and save the money, you have already paid 20£ why again? So while I stood up in the line, I was looking for those guys who sell ticket and luckily(don't want to use this word at this moment) I found a bargain for 15£, which is not bad, but I lost my tickets so I was still  a fucking loss.

Anyway, I decided to join the line, but bloody hell, line was so long, it was about a mile or so. Finally when I was standing in the line, the cops were frisking an african male for something and everyone was looking at it. Now line kept moving, until I reached about 100 meters from the venue, it started getting chilly and I put my hoodie on. For some reason, I was asked to stepped out of the line by the cops for frisking, which made me panicky all of sudden. Clearly, it was racial profiling and the cop said that they were looking for guy in grey jacket, which is funny since no one wears a grey jacket to a rock concert besides me, of course. And he tried to act funny and crap, but it was my fault to put on hoodie in London and wear a grey jacket. I tried explaining him that I am not from here and its hard for me to bear this kind of cold. This event almost ruined the night for me as it kept haunting me entire time. I was repeatedly replaying the entire event in my mind to figure out what all did I do wrong here? and it was hard for me to keep a cool head about it.
Anyway, I made inside the gig venue, there were two levels in O2 academy, I was in standing circle and there was some kind of seating arrangement at upper level. To be frank, who the fuck sits on a chair in a metal concert? I mean if people were buying tickets for such arrangement at metal gig, they should rather sit home and watch corrs or something. Anyway, venue was great, inspite of being enclosed, I didn't have any concerns for sound to be frank, I know they would have done their homework properly unlike India. The stage was well lit and there were these banners and drum kits, which were covered by some kind of cloth. I was not sure why the stage has such strange arrangement since it looked like some kind of obstacle course.
So by 8 pm, the stage went dark and this was the time when you know the band will appear on stage.  So I heard that familiar sound, ah the sounds from a live snare and distortion of metal guitar, great feeling of metal nostalgia. I have been hungry for live metal music for more than a year now. It punches a big hole through my heart that I have missed Cradle of filth, Lamb of God, BIG Four, motorhead and Gojira, all of them were at pretty much reachable, but life played a cruel trick with me. I wont say that this band( which appeared on stage next) was particularly a bad band, but it was not the kind of band, I would have spent my energy on, call me what you want, but I was here to see Opeth. I have enough gig experience to know when not to do rituals and save energy, but today this dry patch of metal in my life was taking its toll and my body was automatically responding to every beat and every riff. The band that performed next was called Pain of Salvation from Sweden.  Initially my mind wanted to believe that this be Opeth because I don't want to wait. But they played a pretty tight set of songs. The lead singer was also playing mix of lead and rhythm with some acoustic guitar thrown in. The drummer was pretty tight. Vocalist said couple of time "they did not fuck up on stage, so they wont do it this time as well". It was pretty interesting to watch them as I read about them, there are around for a long time now but they are not so popular.  However they put up some ass kicking guitar solos and then a good drumming solo for very small period of time. I guess this crowd was bit of a mixed crowd so they would have made few fans here.
After they leave, the sound engineers and other people started uncovering opeth posters and the wall now have a big art form their latest album heritage, you can read about the artwork and album here. And these guys were testing drum kits and putting in plectrums in mic stands and some guys were testing the guitar processing unit. It took them about 10-15 minutes to finish it off. And the stage went dark again, and I was having this chilly feeling which you get due to too much excitement.  This time the crowd seem to be getting a little denser, the italian chick standing ahead of me seemed to be little lost in all this. So Opeth made an entry in dark with their opening number form new album called as "The Ghost orchard" frankly speaking I didn't recognize that song since I have not heard their new album at all. But the sound of a progressive metal band is so distinct that you immediately attach yourself with it. And crowd was getting into the metal zone: headbanging, smell of weed, air guitar, devils horns, screaming and howling was complementing the great music which was playing. Mikael Akerfeldt, the lead vocalist was wearing a red Tshirt, after first song, he introduced the band and shared usual pleasantries with the crowd. Next song they played was "I feel the dark". This song is one of the most amazing song I have heard, Micheal Akerfelt's vocals are amazing on this song. The song is very typical example of varying time signatures used by opeth. The song ends with an amazing echoing voice.
So now Mikael starts talking about "how he want to see some singing with next song and want to see some breasts", lol. And then he says that can't help it he is a dirty old man and don't worry you all will get there, gosh I love this man's sense of humour.  He said next song is from album "still life", which made me little happy since I knew the next song will be "Face of Melinda" and I know this song a little better than previous ones. I must admit, they rendered live pretty tightly, given the nature of music achieving such level of accuracy is work of art. New guitarist Fredrik akerson is pretty amazing, his guitar solos on all three songs were spot on. My hands went up in air and showed my respect with devil horns and my head banged throughout entire song
The next song blew away my mind completely, this time they played "porcelain heart". The guitaring was fucking insane and then the song finished with a epic drum solo followed by another crazy face melting guitar and drum combinations with double bass and blast beats thrown on and off. The crowd was roaring and whistling and clapping simultaneously, it was a life time experience. Its not often the metal heads clap, but bloody hell this crowed rocked no matter what it did.
Then Mikeal talked about the whereabouts of each and every member of band, guess most of the band is from Stockholm, except for one guy who is from some village in Sweden.The next song they played was napthene from their new album Heritage, the song starts with very gentle riff and then drums starts progressing slowly and Mikeal started singing. And then there is complete transition with keyboards thrown in,and song picks up speed and then slows down again. The colours on stage started changing with the riffs and drums, its was site worth witnessing, beats and transition was hitting every cell in your brain, enhancing the senses.
As soon as the song finished, the set up of stage started changing and I knew that this is time for some acoustics mixed with metal sound. This is something which you will see rarely in metal concerts. Now Mikeal starts talking again, this time he says that this song has no standard structure and this may take may fuck it up a little and he then says "would you guys be okay if we fuck it up a little", crowd screamed in agreement. To which he responded "good, because we don't give a fuck anyway", and there was giggles and laughs all round. He said this song is part of sound track of God of war to which crowd responded with uproar. The song "throat of winter" was really a bit unusual but it was pretty good song and his guitaring skills are pretty amazing even on acoustic guitars. He then started strumming "faith by George micheal", and crowd responded to it by singing with it, that is when he literally did *FACEPALM* and says you guys suck, lol. He then started to introduce Akerson again by telling that his guitar has 12 motherfucking strings, I gasped in awe by the idea of 12 string on an acoustic guitar. I raised my hand to show my respect by showing devil horns. The next song they performed was  credence, oh the sweet familiar riffs and a great opening.  My entire body was enthralled by the great ambience that this song has created around me.
And then before you could recover from this song, the next song came flying right at you and hit you with such a force. Oh my god, this is probably the song I was waiting to hear live. Every fucking note resonates in my mind, the closure is probably one of the greatest song sung by opeth and its hard to describe the epicosity of this great song. My headbanged for entire song and the visceral vocals of Mikeal were intoxicating "In the rays of sun, I am longing for the darkness" leading to epic drum and guitar solo, man I felt totally out of this world, the moment was something which you can never forget.
As the song stopped Mikeal started talking about his friend from katakonia and stalker dude who took his picture and thought it was him. he says he wont mind lady stalker, but not dudes (ha ha). Next song they played was slither, which was good song, but I was still under the influence of previous song. This song was fast liked speed metal with some great riffs. Then he talked about the year he was born, it was the time when sabbath released their 5th album and asked the crowd if anyone born in that year, I guess only 2-3 people were of same age as him. He than talked about Ronnie James Dio(\m/ respect) and asked "how many people like him", and there was uproar in crowd devil horns in air. He then said that he is biggest fan since he as coffee with him, which he later said is not the reason to be his biggest fan, but he then dedicated this song to Dio which was A fair judgement. Indeed a great song for a great man, respect to Mikeal and Dio.
After finishing this song he started strumming again and this time he sang with it "shit cock anus", it was absolutely funny. And some bloke made some random comment on that to which Mikeal was like, "shut up man" and thus creating more laughs.  He then played some riffs from other band and talked about Whitesnake, the crowd responded to this song with more screaming. The song I think was "Slow and easy", they played some intro before they break into full blown metal mayhem that is called a Hex  Omega. The song has characteristic heavy drumming with a lot of metal guitaring, the lights on stage were again flipping with different colors. Mikeal Akerfelt has amazing voice and he does high pitch singing so well, its mesmerizing. But, he didn't do any songs with growls, which is my only complaint against this concert. The Guitar solo on this song were pretty sick, I was totally awe stuck .
Now they started thanking the crowd and bowed down and went back.
This is an epic crowd, so it did what it does best, started shouting and chanting opeth opeth opeth, the time for an encore. It was funny when crowd started shouting 10 more songs after encore and Micheal blew them apart by shouting back "10 more pounds", it was absolutely hilarious. He then started talking about this entire encore thing and "how its a little game we all play". Man, this dude is amazing on so many levels, I am in total awe of him. The next song they played was Folklore, the starting of this song is very much like a folk song, as told by Mikeal that its a swedish tune. With heavy heart I have to walk out of this song, I cannot believe that I was walking away from 7 more minutes of face melting music. Something I have never done before and I felt like a sinner to walk away in middle from the lords of progressive metal. With each heavy step, I walked towards the gate and then music completely disappeared. I pulled my self back to run towards the underground to catch the next train back to my accommodation. I felt so empty that entire time until I sleep, Every moment of concert was replaying in my head and I wanted it not to stop. This concert has triggered my hunger for more metal, but I have to wait until next year for some real music, until then the emptiness of live metal will be surround me.