Baroness, Graveyard & Pallbearer, 31st October 2024, Amager Bio, Copenhagen, Denmark

Photo: Zoran www.sonic-shot.com

Last night offered three good bands on the same stage, but it was also a somewhat odd combination of bands. Diversity is for the most part welcome and can add to the dynamics, it can also make for a somewhat uneven ride. This evening in Copenhagen, the line-up consisted of American Doom Metal band Pallbearer, Swedish Hard Rock band Graveyard and American Heavy Metal quartet Baroness.

Pallbearer took the stage at 7:30 PM and opened with “Thorns” from their 2017 breakthrough album Heartless. The atmosphere and cinematic qualities play a massive part in the band’s music, but last night band had a hard time translating those qualities into their live performance.

As the case is often when there are three bands sharing the stage the first of them gets rather limited space and in Pallbearer’s case that meant that drummer Mark Lierly was all the way in front together with the rest of the band. It’s, however, a bit of a puzzle why the band chose to place him in the very middle, instead of guitarist/vocalist Brett Campbell, who was on the far right side.

The band’s presence on stage, in general, didn’t quite match their music, and they had a hard time really grabbing the crowd’s attention, but as the show progressed they managed to pull them more in. Pallbearer sounded quite good, with especially guitar tone (and interplay) standing out.

The highlight of their short show came at the end, in the form of the epic “Worlds Apart” from their Foundations of Burden, which came 10 years ago.

Pallbearer did their thing, but didn’t impress and most likely didn’t gain many new fans either. But those of us who know and appreciate the band are most certainly looking forward to the next time they visit the city for their own headlining show.

PALLBEARER SETLIST:

1. Thorns
2. Endless Place
3. Signals
4. Worlds Apart

Graveyard were listed as co-headliners, last night, which generally means that the crowd gets two main bands, who often switch for the closing spot of the evening. Unfortunately, that also means that none of the two bands is playing what would be considered as a full headlining set. And while such constellations have several advantages, they also do have some shortcomings, most noticeably less time for including deep cuts or curveballs in general. Setlists at such shows are often more safe and there is less room for experimenting or challenging the audience.

Swedes however played close to that 90-minute benchmark of a headliner show. During the 80-minute-long show, they came around and displayed the diversity of their back catalogue, which is one of their strengths. They also managed to keep the flow of the show quite smooth despite the different nature of the songs. It also served the dynamics well, when bassist Truls Mörck would take over the lead vocals. Oskar Bergenheim drumming is a treat, with especially elegant use of ghost notes.

In general, Graveyards did well, but it did take them some time to really set the mood and feel for this concert. However, their performance got more intense with each next song, and the band achieved that simply by putting in hard work. And the power of good old-fashioned hard labour paid off, making each next song come across as “better”. As such, Graveyard did what was expected from them.

GRAVEYARD SETLIST:

1. Twice
2. Please Don’t
3. The Fox
4. Slow Motion Countdown
5. Bird of Paradise
6. Seven Seven
7. No Good, Mr. Holden
8. Cold Love
9. From a Hole in the Wall
10. An Industry of Murder
11. Hisingen Blues
12. Goliath
13. Uncomfortably Numb
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14. Rampant Fields
15. Ain’t Fit to Live Here
16. The Siren

While this might have been a co-headlining show, by the time Baroness took the stage, it was clear that they were the reason most people bought tickets for last night’s show.

Baroness are out promoting their latest release the 2023’s Stone, their second album with the current line-up, and their sixth album overall. It’s another strong record in the band’s collection, and it’s also a record that serves as a very good representation of the band, here and now, but also Baroness in general. If you wanted to introduce the band to someone who doesn’t know them, Stone would be a good place to start, because it encapsulates pretty much everything the band has done so far.

Just like the album, the band’s concert opened with the eminent “Last Word”. Live, it worked just as well as the opener as it does on the album. Its fat groove, big riffs, flawless guitar solos and that big chorus did the trick expected from opening songs at these kinds of shows. They followed it with “Under the Wheel”, another new song, which despite being one of the highlights of the album, seem like a song that would work better as a third or even fourth song on the setlist. But Baroness got away with it, thanks to a stellar performance and what seemed like unlimited amounts of the positive energy from the four on the stage.

And that very energy and positivity coming from the stage characterized the rest of the show as well, making this such an enjoyable experience. That together with one strong song after another resulted in perhaps the strongest Baroness gig, truly yours, has witnessed since they played Copenhagen in 2008 while supporting their debut album. And the band most certainly delivered on whole another level comparing to their 2017 appearance at Copenhell festival.

Despite a fairly short gig, the band got around to playing most of the live-musts as well as several less obvious songs such as “Swollen and Halo”, “Green Theme” and the above-mentioned “Under the Wheel”.

Stone was a statement of a band who’s at a good place and has a lot to offer musically. The same goes for their last night’s performance. Next time they stop by, they might consider a headlining tour where even more of this band’s spectrum can unfold.

In general, Baroness, Graveyard and Pallbearer worked just fine, and it also gave the audience diversity, but it also did seem a bit like a festival, where the bands following each other on stage don’t necessarily fit together.

BARONESS SETLIST:

1. Last Word
2. Under the Wheel
3. March to the Sea
4. Green Theme
5. Beneath the Rose
6. If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain?) / Fugue
7. Shock Me
8. Tourniquet
9. Swollen and Halo
10. Chlorine & Wine
11. Isak
    ———-
12. Take My Bones Away