Opeth/Enslaved - 9:30 Club - May 27 2009

Enslaved - Norwegian death metal sets the stage for Swedish death metal. Scary? No, actually a lot of fun with engaging, funny commentary from both bands. Enslaved performed fifty minutes of creative progressive metal that had all the usual sounds with keyboards (almost always needed to be called progressive metal I guess). Nice soundscapes, melodies, and a pretty good pulse throughout. It was the last show on tour and they survived the hijinx of Opeth taking a sampling machine and piping fart noises in their monitors which they had to explain as to why they were giggling. Satan rules? Good band.

Opeth - A near sell-out crowd was very pumped for Opeth who delivered a strong two hours of creative metal. Mikael Artedt did his usual gutteral-to-normal vocal switches and it reminded me of how good the sound was in that the vocals were not over the top of the mix (which I appreciate with the guttural vocals) but were very distinct and worked as an instrument. Great guitar interplay, keys and at least one song with some very inventive drumming. Another strong outing since the last time I saw them on a boat between Stockholm and Helsinki.

Quote of Night - Since it was the last show, both bands did a lot of "credits" of band members and crew. Three of the guys in Enslaved were taking their turns when they got near the end and the bassist/singer turned to the even more Viking-like guitarist and had him introduce their tour manager by saying "You can do your wife"... "I can do my wife?"