I only caught the second half of the first support Hatesphere‘s set. And they were pretty damned good, too. Good old-school thrash, really – from a band that clearly loved what they were doing, and that enthusiasm rubbed off on the crowd. The lead singer provided the quotes of the night, too: “Here’s a song about fisting“…”Here’s another song about fisting“…”Here’s a song about killing“…Class.

Incredibly, this tour is one of the first (perhaps the first) visit of Dark Tranquility to the UK – the band have only been going for 16 years! Bit of a muted reception to start with, but once they got going they were pretty good. They are lumped in with the Swedish melodic death metal scene, but in reality owe a little to the gothic metal side of things, too (especially in image and lyrics). Got a bit samey towards the end of the set, though – or maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention…

And onto Chimaira – opener was a pulverising Nothing Remains, with early throwaways of Severed and Power Trip, and by this point the crowd were already going mental. Things continued in this vein for about two-thirds of the set, until the highlight of the entire night – an emotional mention of Dimebag Darrell, a huge chant for Walk, then a tearing up of setlist and incredibly an impromptu run through said Walk! (sung pretty much by the crowd) Then followed a set of audience requests – including a big suprise in the now rarely played Sp Lit. Pure Hatred‘s ‘wall of death’ moshpit looked pretty nasty, although after that the set seemed to peter out a little, as the management were as usual, more bothered about the club after than the gig itself. Ho hum.