IN FLAMES, Urban Grey
20.03.2009,В 'Denitsa hall', Sofia - BulgariaВ 

words by Steffan Yordanov, photos:В  begemot

... And the Bulgarian audience has no fucking reason to complain about their first gig here, in Sofia. The venue was a great choice. Only 2000 km West places like 'Denitsa' hall are may be the most desirable ones because they are in fact large spaces with no seats whatsoever where 2000 people can move freely and piss in the numerous mobile toilets without queing for hours and missing the actual event on stage.В 

And God knows there were events there that night. I believe everybody who was there will agree with me. The schedule was unbelievably exact with perfect time keeping. Urban Grey hit the stage in 19:56 and executed a smashing 40-minute set with lots of inhuman energy and self confidence. They all stayed pretty confident on stage and did not afraid to demonstrate their perfect work-out routine, admirable and in the same time more characteristic for a band with daily tour engagements. I think the audience appreciated that attitude and accepted Urban Grey without the ordinary for such cases yawns and swearing.В 

The band handled it all. They performed a short but memorable massacre, which can convert them into a favorite support act for every international bill.

Shortly after 21:00 the music from the speakers sounded like we were going to sleep or something. A large crowd from Greece was gathering around the merchandise and the poor bastard who had to deal with it seemed a little dazed (from something with unknown origins) and acted a bit slow while trying to find certain items among no that various designs. The atmosphere was getting hotter.

Crowd chants “In Flames! In Flames!” looked like a warm welcome and such it was. It was obvious that a little part of this crowd was at the In Flames show last summer. The reaction was amazing! Everyone went totally bollocks with the first chords of the set. I had the impression that every single person in the hall had been learning the lyrics of the band by heart especially for the event and now they were trying to overshout Anders Friden.

That didn’t remain unnoticed and the band did a short break to allow everyone to scream and shout as much as they wanted to, before executing a sharp storm of riffs right from the point they stopped. Then Anders said he was happy to be again in our “beautiful country”. He then noticed the huge Greek flag and said “Hello Greece” which was followed by a massive boo from the ret of the crowd. Like a skillful front man he managed to calm the emotions down by saying; “Hey, hey, they traveled to your fucking country.” Soon the confusing incident was all forgotten. There was something else worth paying attention- the sound.

It was fucking amazing, people! If anybody has a single pretension about it, please go home and do me a favour, listen to your CDs, ok?

In Flames are incredibly positive band. They play with fire! Even if you are not a fan, you begin to love them more with each minute you see them. Part of this feeling seemed to have reasons in their vocalist Anders, who always makes fun out of a situation. This time he wanted to swap a t-shirt for a local beer and ended up with some Tuborg in his hand. Better than nothing though. I remember on last year’s Graspop metal meeting he was asking the audience for clear underwear because his was totally wasted. And he is always doing this with an even, almost unemotional voice, which makes the fun even bigger. In Flames are natural. And naturally they cut our heads off with classics (‘Cloud Connected’ and ‘Еpisode 666’), and newer anthems (‘Leeches’, ‘Come Clarity’ и ‘Take This Life’).

В 

And the original guitar player Stromblad wasn’t missed at all, probably because the inhuman playing routine of this band. As they say, sometimes the sum is bigger than its parts. We were scattered to our constitution parts by the way. And we will be staying like this until the next time. And we are already waiting for it. 

GALLERY

TANGRA INTERVIEWВ IN FLAMES