Swedish Masters Take On The YouTube Theater On October 30th

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All Photos By Thomas Delgado/@forthehordeprod/@batforcetom

So it's Devil's Night, the eve of Halloween and what better way to close out an amazing October that was filled with some of the best Rock and Metal concerts of the year to come through Los Angeles, than with Sweden's OPETH.

Tasked with warming up the night, the only opener and also from Sweden was TRIBULATION who will have just released their 6th album, Sub Rosa In Æternum (Century Media Records) of which they performed 3 songs from. Described as Goth Metal, led by Orgamsmatron-Lemmy looking Vocalist Johannes Andersson rocking out with the always pretty Rickenbacker bass, the 4-piece donning white make-up played a chill and mellow set of 7 songs. Good casual Rock with a bit of a Metal edge to it and a hint of that Goth touch that wasn't too obvious aside from some sort of cohesive "dark" outfit look the band had. The 3 new songs they performed were "Tainted Skies", "Hungry Waters" and "Saturn Coming Down". They would go on to play cuts from The Children of The Night, Down Below and The Formulas of Death. A good performance by the Swedish group though there was nothing too memorable that stood out to me. I definitely would give their new album a listen and recommend you do too.

We're fortunate to have a modern day KING CRIMSON/RUSH/YES/PINK FLOYD/LED ZEPPELIN in the form of OPETH. They've broken the mold of simply being a "Death Metal" band. Their "experimentation" that can often spell doom for some, garnered them success. They're music is thought-provoking and you don't have to be a snobby musician to appreciate it. To be quite honest, I was not that much of a big OPETH fan going in. I've always highly appreciated they're music and liked everything that I heard. It had actually been a whole decade (December of 2014) that I saw them last. But this Hollow's Eve, I fell in love with their sound all over again. Romantically dark for the (very few) goths in the building, heavy enough for the (Death) Metalheads, and more than proggy enough for the Musicians in attendance as well.

The dry-humor of Guitarist/Vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt helped make the night feel more intimate. I can certainly understand how some find it almost necessary to have over-exuberant stage presence, especially if you're not THAT into the band, but OPETH is one of those that simply don't need it. Even with the large screen behind them glaring blinding effects that failed to distract us from the amazing show OPETH was putting on. It's literal musical chemistry that comes together live, creating elements that intoxicate the mind and heart. Void of any backing tracks, here you had actual musicians play each part with perfection. The eloquent sound coming from the keyboardist Joakim Svalberg, the organ, stringed-instrument and bongo percussion was one of my favorite aspects of their show, a refreshing and live organic sound that filled the room with warmth.

Opening their set with a song simply titled "§1", (using the Pilcrow symbol to indicate "paragraph"), 1 of 2 new songs from their soon to be released album The Last Will And Testament (Reigning Phoenix Music), the other would be "§3", these gifts are enough to add to the anticipation of their new album. A few songs in and Mikael would goad the crowd to be more present in the moment, leading me to believe that the crowd from the last L.A. appearance was sub-par. In the middle of the set, Mikeal would again bait the crowd, this time encouraged to sing along to the real panty-dropper of a song, "In My Time Of Need". And the crowd did not disappoint as they sang along the lyrics "Summer is miles and miles away... And I should contemplate this change to ease the pain... should step out of the rain". OPETH on this night, this one moment of time was an experience of a lifetime, an excellent way to bring ROCktober to a close.

Check out some more photos from the show!
All Photos By Thomas Delgado/@forthehordeprod/@batforcetom