Opeth / Devildriver / Dark Tranquillity
By Taylor Green
Monday. Apr 17, 12:27 PM
live at WOW Hall (Eugene, OR) March 11th, 2006.

What on earth are Opeth doing in Eugene, OR? Honestly. We're talking about one of the most prolific bands in metal today… in Eugene? Whatever the reason, I hope they keep it up. With a line-up including melodic death metal masters Dark Tranquillity and Dez Fafara's death metal destruction crew Devildriver, what more could you ask for? It was a night of death metal in all its glory.

The show opened with a local band, Northwest Royale, and the band surprisingly held their own for the night. With a fifth member doing backup percussion, vocals, and keyboards, the diversity of the band's sound resonated with the theme of the night and got most of the unfamiliar audience talking positive after their set. But (no offense to Northwest Royale)… it was still a local metal band, and Dark Tranquillity were next.

And with Dark Tranquillity's emergence on the stage, the night truly began to take form. Rather than playing a set full of Character songs, the band familiarized the Eugene crowd with their entire catalogue. Playing tracks off Character, The Gallery, Skydancer and Damage Done, just to name the bulk, Dark Tranquillity owned the stage for their 45 minute time slot, a very generous offering for essentially an opening band (even though Dark Tranquillity are miles beyond opener status).

Devildriver were up next and got a massive reaction from the crowd. Dez was in typical form and owned the stage as the five-piece went through the majority of their hits, ranging from "I Could Care Less," "Nothing's Wrong," "Hold Back the Day," to "Sin and Sacrifice." The crowd was definitely into it, as the pit continually grew with intensity. Devildriver finished with their trademark wall-to-wall circle pit for "Meet the Wretched" from their first album. Amazingly, the set was over before anyone realized it had began.

But who cared? Again, no disrespect to any of the openers, as they are some of the greatest names in the scene today, but Opeth were Opeth. FREAKING OPETH!!!! Everyone knew it. There were "Opeth!" chants going as soon as Devildriver left the stage. And when the band finally appeared 30 minutes later, the place went absolutely ballistic. There was no introduction, no greeting, just an eruption of sound as the band began "Ghost of Perdition," the opener to Ghost Reveries. From there, bits and pieces of the entire discography fell into place. "White Cluster,” "Baying of the Hounds,” and the introduction of "The Drapery Falls" from the band's groundbreaking album Blackwater Park (which guitarist/vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt jokingly said made everyone in the band millionaires) all got massive ovations from the crowd. The song closed the band's hour and-a-half set, putting a melodic bookend to a night dominated by some of Opeth's heaviest material. But fear not, patron, for there is always the ever-epic encore. However, due to the architecture of the building, rather than actually leaving the stage, Opeth stayed on, egging the fans to chant for an encore to inflate their already obese egos. The crowd even stooped to chanting “Opeth!” in high pitched, feminine voices. But ask someone to sell a finger for an Opeth encore and I'm sure at least 70% of the crowd would oblige. The last track was "Deliverance" from the album of same name, and the crowd somehow went crazier than earlier, proof of Opeth's domination of the stage. If this comes within 500 miles of you, go... drive... be there! Opeth continually show they are as good as ever.
www.opeth.com
www.devildriver.com
www.darktranquillity.com

Taylor Green

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