When I first heard about Opeth playing in my hometown I was very happy to say the least. They have been one of my favorite bands for some time now but this was the first chance I have had to see them live. They have of course played live before but this was the band's first ever Scandinavian tour.

Playing in Linköping, Sweden, on a Thursday the day before Halloween doesn't exactly give you the best of conditions for a large audience but the bands still managed to draw a solid and loyal crowd. The venue, Skylten (means "The Sign" in English), is located in one of several red brick houses next to the railway station and is a small venue which is run by our municipality. That means no alcohol but very cheap ticket prices, coffee, soft drinks etc. After having spent some time waiting the first of the two bands were ready to enter the stage, pretty much on time for once. Extol is a band that you perhaps have not heard of before. Actually I have to admit that I had not heard one single song from them before I downloaded some of their music prior to the show to hear what they were like.

Extol is a ten year old Christian metal band that hails from Norway. After one full-length album and two mini albums on the Christian label Endtime Productions they signed a deal with the secular label Century Media and have since then released two more albums ("Undeceived" in 2002 and "Synergy" earlier this year).

I have nothing at all against Christian metal bands as long as they do not start preaching and this was luckily not the case with Extol. Instead they let their music speak for itself. When I listened to some of their songs at home I was not that impressed. It was pretty standard thrash metal with some progressive influences.

However, now that I had the band a couple of meters (yes, the metric system is the only reasonable one, learn it or stay ignorant...) in front of me it was a whole different thing. Their music now came to life and they had a very energetic stage presence. It was a tight and powerful appearance which got to the audience. Some people had the opinion that Extol should make up their mind on whether they wanted to be straight-forward thrashers or do the progressive thing but most of the audience were probably Opeth fans and we tend to be pretty open-minded towards music. We have to, otherwise we would not attend an Opeth show in the first place.

Extol played for about 45 minutes I think before calling it a day. It was a very good show but it still felt like everyone was waiting for the main band to enter the stage. I must admit that Extol were impressive enough to make me buy their latest album, mostly because of my girlfriend but still :-) For some reason Opeth only had t-shirts with them but that didn't bother me that much personally since I already have all their albums from "Orchid" to "Damnation".

Some more waiting and then it was time for... You could expect that Opeth, being veterans on the Swedish death metal scene since 1990, is an experienced live band but that is far from the truth. In fact they have only started playing live for real in the new millenium after the highly successful duo of "Deliverance" and "Damnation". They hit the stage and everyone was highly anticipating a great show. Mikael Åkerfeldt made it clear right away that they would be playing a rather long set this evening, words that the crowd seemed to appreciate. In fact, the band doesn't really have much of a choice since they are not very good at writing short songs. That is what Opeth is all about. There is so much going on in every song that they can not get boring.

They could not have started out better in my opinion. The very first song was "The Moor", opening track on the "Still Life" album from 1999, the only release under contract with Peaceville Records but definitely the best Opeth release ever in my opinion. "The Moor" is also a very good introduction to the musical diversity that is Opeth, consisting of both fast, aggressive death metal, jazzy tunes and calm, clean vocal passages.

It soon became pretty clear that Opeth is very different from Extol when it comes to the stage presence. While the Extol guys were moving back and forth and making the audience see that they were really there, the Opeth guys were a lot more laid back, not moving many unnecessary centimeters during the entire set. It was still a wonderful experience hearing Mikael performing both the most solid of death growls and beautiful clean vocals with the same perfection. Perhaps it was Opeth themselves, the music, the anticipation or the lack of alcohol that made the crowd go mute during their set. In the breaks between every two songs it was quiet like the graveyard at night and you could actually hear people whispering next to you. That is not something I have experienced at a show ever before. At least Mikael had no problems making himself heard.

In general I was very happy with the Opeth stage set. They did some of their best songs ever like "Bleak" from the Blackwater Park album and the previously mentioned "The Moor" from Still Life. They also threw in a couple of surprises. The first one being "April Ethereal" which they have only played live two times before back in 1997.

The second surprises was some time into their set. Mikael then changed his electric guitar for an acoustic one. The band started playing the opening of "18 And Life" by Skid Row and the crowd was very happy about that. I was also since I have loved that song since my youth when you could see their video on MTV. However, they disappointed the audience with not doing the whole song but only a couple of seconds.

The real surprise was that they were to play "Face Of Melinda", also from the Still Life album, a beautiful song where Mikael's clean vocals are put to the test. This was the first time they had performed this song live in Sweden. Moving closer towards the end of the band's set, Mikael's wife Anna also showed up in the audience. I must admit that Opeth is not the most exciting band to watch on stage but their set was performed with perfection and the atmosphere of an Opeth show is one of the most intense experiences you can have when it comes to music. The only mistake they did was not to play "18 And Life". That would have been a nice bonus to an otherwise very nice evening. Even if they are a well established band with seven albums behind them it's not forbidden to do a cover song as well.

It is extremely hard to rate live shows, especially if you have not seen the bands before so that you have something to compare with but if you really need a rating I would probably give Extol something like 7.5 out of 10 and Opeth 9.5 out of 10. The Opeth set is the second best show I've ever experienced after King Diamond. Then you have to know that I have seen bands like Slayer, Cradle Of Filth, In Flames and Twisted Sister just to mention a few during the last couple of years.

If you are going to one single show in your life I would definitely recommend Opeth because they are something out of the ordinary. Opeth is for music fans, not metal fans.

Many thanks to Jenny Lund at BMG Sweden and of course also Opeth and Extol for a great show!

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