When I heard that Beseech was about to play a show in my neighbouring city Norrköping here in the Mecka of metal which is Sweden I was a bit surprised. First of all the venue where the show was to take place have been threatened to close down and second it has been a while since Bergsbron had some more well-known signed bands conquering their small stage.

Beseech was the band I had come to see but I was in for a nice positive surprise when the opening band started out. The Doomsday Cult is a local act from Norrköping who have only been around since 2002 but they have already received some label offers and will be playing at the Doom Shall Rise festival in Germany in April.

The people who make up The Doomsday Cult are Ola Blomqvist (co-owner of I Hate Records) on guitars, drummer Dennis Olsson, bassist / vocalist Jacob Nordangård (ex-Captor) and a very talented guitarist called Per Broddesseon who is also a member of Elitist recording artists Wolverine. In this band he doesn't really have the possibility to display any vast guitar skills though as this is all about doom.

Just before going to the show I was given the chance to listen to one of their songs and I was pretty impressed by what I heard, especially the strong semi-clean vocals were very good indeed. The vocals were also what first caught my ear when I heard the live version of the band. The Doomsday Cult have an interesting stage appearance as well with old historical clothing.

The music of this very young band is massive, very heavy, mid-paced doom metal with some rare stoner rock touches and they are perhaps the only doom metal band of the younger generation who have impressed me this much. They also put on a very good live show. Unfortunately this type of music isn't that much fun live in my opinion though if there is no stage show supporting it and it got a little bit tiresome towards the end.

Next up was the band I expected the most from before entering the venue namely the Swedish masters of gothic metal - Beseech - who are just about to release their fourth album "Drama" through Napalm Records. Being six musicians on such a small stage is not the easiest thing in the world but Beseech managed to pull it off without major problems.

Unfortunately for Beseech it would show that their music suffered somewhat from the sound system unlike The Doomsday Cult. Also the dark and very low-key vocals from Erik Molarin didn't really come through the way they do on cd which is a shame because they are very important for Beseech in order to make the most out of the band.

The setlist was well chosen in my opinion and they played several of my favorite songs from their previous album "Souls Highway" which I found to be the first truely impressive release from the band. Compared to that album the songs they played from their upcoming release "Drama" seemed to be a little heavier in general but the strong female / male dual vocal effect was still evident in them. Among them were the song "Bitch" which Erik explained was about an ex-girlfriend of his.

I couldn't really decided on what I thought about the new songs though. They were a little heavier and that I don't mind at all but they also seemed darker and less melodic to me which was harder to swallow. No matter what Beseech did a very nice show and it wasn't at all obvious that they hadn't played live for very long. This was more of a warm-up gig for the band leading to a release party in their hometown of Borås in February and then a small European tour in early March together with Lacrimas Profundere.

As the end of the set was drawing near I was getting a bit tired of the band as I usually do at live shows but I was also worried that they would not do their cover of Abba's classic "Gimme Gimme Gimme" which was a bonus track on "Souls Highway". Luckily they ended their set with the cover and I was not the only one in the audience who was very happy about that. This cover is actually better than the original in my opinion. It is of course a lot heavier but also slower, darker and sexier.

To sum things up this was a nice evening filled with good music from a surprisingly promising local act and a more established band who did not disappoint although a stronger stage presence would be a welcomed addition to their set.

Many thanks to Robert Spånglund of Beseech and of course also the rest of the bands for a good show!

All photos are taken by Caroline Christiansen. You are not allowed to use them yourself without permission.