Report: Dark Tranquillity + Equilibrium + Miracle Flair @ Hellraiser, Leipzig

The show started with a previously announced half an hour delay. Miracle Flair, a Swiss melodic metal band, was the first to rise onstage. The 7 song set that they played was focused on their second album “Angels Cast Shadows” released back in 2016. With the venue half full, they tried their best, but maybe the songs sounded a little too “poppy” and didn’t really thrilled the audience. “Still Remaining Part”, “The Whole” and “Challenge My Faith” had a mild reaction from the audience as well. Exceptions were the fourth and fifth songs, “Embracing the End” (the official video music), and the title track “Angels Cast Shadows”. Some movement within the crowd was seen next to the bars during these couple of minutes. Two more songs were played towards the end, “Worth the Fight” and “The Unfulfilled” but it was clear that, unfortunately, this was not their target audience. Despite this, the band had a very friendly attitude, was communicative and at the end of their show attended the merchandising stand and stayed there until the end of the last concert in order to meet and greet the fans.

After the Swiss, it was the turn of the German Equilibrium. Despite being from Bavaria, this epic folk metal band has a legion of fans in Leipzig and this could be verified by the affluence of people entering the venue when Equilibrium began to play. The band began their set by playing “Prey” and “Heimat”, taken from their latest album “Armaggedon”. After that, they began to revisit old classics from all of their discography. “Verbrannte Erde”, “Blut im Auge”, “Die Weide und der Fluß”, “Unbesiegt”, “Dämmerung”, worked as a general overview of Equilibrium’s music. That resulted in great excitement within the public due to the folk and danceable tendencies of their music. One of the highlights of the concert was the song with which they returned to the latest album: “Born to Be Epic”. The audience was really thrilled. Ending the show, two more songs from older records, “Die Prophezeiung” and closing the concert “Apokalypse”. In general, for the people of Leipzig it was a great aperitif before the main course.

Dark Tranquillity were promoting their latest album “Atoma”, and their set-list was, basically, a blend of new and old songs from the “Damage Done”, “Construct” and “Fiction” albums. With a full venue, the hostilities began with “Encircled”. After this, the band went back on their discography by playing the great “Monochromatic Stains”, “Clearing Skies”, “The Treason Wall”, “The Science of Noise”, “Forward Momentum” and “Final Resistance”. “Atoma” and “Force of Hand” marked the return to the most recent record. “The Lesser Faith”, “Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)”, “Inside the Particle Storm”, “The Wonders at Your Feet” made the audience completely surrender to a band that has nothing to prove and to its vocalist, Mikael Stanne, who with great charisma never stopped on the stage for a second. Closing the concert came the oldest song we for the evening: “ThereIn” from the “Projector” album, a must-play in every show. Following the traditional stage departure, the band quickly returned for two more encore songs from the “Fiction” album, “Icipher” and the classic “Misery’s Crown”, ending the show with brilliance.

Judging by the reaction of the people at the end, as well as their faces of joy and excited behavior it was a great concert, even though Dark Tranquillity didn’t play anything from their first three albums.

Text and photos by: João Osório

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