Artillery, Manticora, Demolizer, Exelerate, 9th February 2024, Studenterhuset, Metalized Tour 2024, Aalborg, Denmark

Photo: Simona

It has become a tradition, annual Metalized Tour around the country and its biggest cities. Metalized magazine (the oldest metal magazine in Scandinavia) has once again designed a delicious tour which this year includes following acts; Exelerate, Demolizer, Manticora and Artillery. Together with my daughter and my wife, I was past their second stop on the tour, where they visited ‘Studenterhuset’ in Aalborg (Northern Denmark) on 9th February 2024.

Exelerate is the newest addition to Danish thrash metal scene. Young guns from Exelerate have just released their self-titled nine-tracker debut album, under the Danish label From The Vaults. Exelerate is being praised to the skies in the international press, and after seeing their live performance in Aalborg this evening, I understand why all the hype around the quartet.

Unlike many of their modern day thrash metal collegues, they have a progressive and more melodic approach to the thrash metal. To times it almost sounds like a decent piece of power metal where they succesfully deliver some ambitious compositions created by incorporating some aggressive riffs, with combined virtuose guitar solos and high-pitched vocals of their lead singer Stefan Jensen, numerous breakdowns, catchy melodies and varied drumming, to create this varied, listenable and approachable sound that will please all fans of thrash, power and prog metal. They are inspired by bands like Megadeth, Anthrax, Dio and Dream Theater, and it was easy to hear this evening, but without being a rip-off copy band of the aforementioned giants.

Being the opening act, they’ve played only six songs, but even that was enough to grab my attention. I was quite surprised to see how they managed to inspire and capture the audience’s attention and keeping it through the set. Despite of the fact that both their debut is fantastic, I would still claim that Exelerate are designed to play live, and it is what they’re doing best. Exelerate showcase just how metal anno 2024 should sound.

Exelerate Setlist:

1. Arrival
2. Headfirst Into The Void
3. Spawn Of Satan
4. Release
5. Children of the Sun
6. Epilogue

Next band to hit the stage was Demolizer, hailing from the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, the band was founded in 2018. Since the formation of the band, Demolizer has burst onto the Danish thrash scene with their debut album from 2020 entitled Thrashmageddon. They are now ready with the sophomore follow-up – Post Necrotic Human, which was released in the summer of 2023, and which was yet another step-up the ladder towards conquering the entire country with energetic and bombastic thrash.

The band is notorious for violent discharges of energy when they play shows, and this night in Aalborg was no exception. It’s 110% intensity and aggression, without any unnecessary fuckin’ around. This was my first live encounter with this strong and relatively young act who plays plays gut-crushing, hard-hitting and unfiltered thrash metal that most people from the audience seemed to enjoy and appreciate this cold and snowy Friday night.

Demolizer Setlist:

1. Post Necrotic Human
2. Ghoul
3. Get Out Of My Way
4. Qin’s Tomb
5. Gore
6. Insomniac
7. Copenhagen Burning
8. Cancer In The Brain

I believe most of our readers and fans around the country know about Manticora and their high-octane thrashed power & prog metal. Esp. when performing live, the boys from Hvidovre are known for delivering massively energetic shows, every time.

Most of the songs performed this night at ‘Studenterhuset’ are taken from their 2020’s final album To Live To Kill To Live. It’s an album where the band made their blood-curdling horror/thriller concept almost perfect, with accompanying novel – best reviewed Danish metal album in 2020. It’s clear that the band are at the top of the game, doing what they’re doing best, presenting a horror show to the exited audience. The audience were well entertained most of the way, and Manticora were convincing in their uncompromising energy trip, with Lars F. Larsen more or less constantly up in the bright tonality. Sometimes even the frontman has to take a small break, so while he was dancing on the stage, band’s guitarists Kristian Larsen and Stefan Johansson, together with bassist Kasper Gram, took center stage with cool, black-clad elegance in the smaller vocal parts of the set.

In conclusion; Manticora were pretty good on Friday night, and they also had the technical skills to make it work live. They constantly created contact with the audience, and for majority of the fans, it was simply an excellent evening in good and committed company.

Manticora Setlist:

1. Intro + Necropolitans
2. Golem Sapiens
3. Tchaikovsky Intro
4. Echoes Of A Silent Scream
5. A Long Farewell
6. Slaughter In The Desert Room
7. Disciples Of The Entities
8. Diá De Los Muertos

Artillery is an institution in Danish and international thrash metal. The band, which began their thrashin’ raid in 1982, has delivered one rock-solid album after another ever since. They’re also known for delivering top-notch live shows, with an enthusiasm and joy many of their younger collegues just don’t have. They’ve played 12 song long set, and most of the fans were happy and exited, as an hour quickly passed in what felt like really good company. Their performance was hard without being repulsive, melodic without being pop, and consistently happy music despite the grim faces of the guitarists.

Artillery are a safe bet every time a party is thrown – and they did that too tonight in Aalborg. They simply sell tickets, and for good reason. It was another second to none performance by a top-notch act – may it last forever!

Artillery Setlist:

1. Devil’s Symphony
2. The Almighty
3. Turn Up the Rage
4. By Inheritance
5. The Face of Fear
6. 10.000 Devils
7. The Eternal War
8. Khomaniac
9. Legions
10. Beneath the Clay (R.I.P.)
11. Terror Squad
12. Deeds of Darkness

* Our special Thanks and Horns Up! go to ‘Metalized Magazine’, Lars from ‘Intromental Europe’ & all the volunteers at ‘Studenterhuset’ & ‘Metalized Tour’.