Fri 17 Jul – Artmania Festival



So indeed, might be the general impression that Sweden's the land of metal, but as Mikael Åkerfeldt said, you won't ever see a festival this big right in the middle of the city. Huge props to the city council of Sibiu.

At around 10 in the evening the guys from Opeth walked on stage in the frantic cheering of the crowd, with their standard lineup:
Mikael "Bubba Smith" Åkerfeldt
Martin "Uruguayan Deity" Mendez
Martin "Axe/Legolas" Axenrot
Per Wiberg
Fredrik Åkesson



Song number 1 - Heir Apparent; as seen in other gigs from Opeth this is the sound checker, crowd stirrer, atmosphere mining piece.

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These are Opeth from Sweden! Damn right you should be sorry for not coming to Romania earlier, mr Åkerfeldt!

Then the second to latest, second to oldest second to latest whatever it is record, first track, Ghost of Perdition, this time with a really marvellous resonance to it - the concert sound kicking into its sweetspot, to last until the end.

A nice thing for the crowd, at least the ones in the first rows, singing along with the band during the mellow passages.



From Blackwater Park The Leper Affinity powerhouse. Really lovely job there from Åkesson; this guy doesn't look like he fits with the band on stage, but his guitarwork is definitely among the best even though he's not on PRS and Laney. Also Åkerfeldt's singing has improved a lot (I state that based on the Lamentations, the Roundhouse Tapes and The Wacken Carnage DVDs) while he's also probably taken some guitar lessons from Fredrik.








Fourth and with a good touch of genius, the eclipse piece - Closure. This is what me and b3nighted have been waiting for to see Mendez at work. It was psychedellic, with awesome lighting and smoke screens and a great deal of improvisation. This piece made me miss Lopez' drumming back from the old days of Lamentations. Makes you wonder how, after so many (close to) perfect representations with (mostly) unchanged setlists, some musicians can enjoy so much their music as Opeth do. Mendez was completely into his own world, slowly headbanging laterally in cadence, Axenrot blasting away and Wiberg just maintaining that eerie atmosphere of eclipse caliber.
These are professional musicians at their workplace:



Now why would anyone believe any crowd would hate Godhead's Lament? That's what Mikael seemed to imply while introducing the track. Thinking about it, I don't see any Opeth song not to be liked by the fans. I certainly wasn't even hoping for this awesome song gift from this favorite band!

With a Swedish child's tune in the opening, The Lotus Eater blastbeat its way through the Large Square in Sibiu.



Top notch drumming, Martin!

The sound of a downtuned guitar, introducing one of the heaviest pieces, Deliverance from Deliverance. Just in front of me there were these two old school elder guys going absolutely nuts on this piece. Admirable how this music can appeal to both the kids (probably students seeing to how university just ended on Friday) and a more mature audience (mr Åkerfeldt is indeed an old pops as he's stubbornly been stating throughout the interviews in the past years).

For encore, the climactic Demon of the Fall. Heavy and good, \m/, Åkesson and Mendez!

The night's main dish consisted of:
1. Heir Apparent from Watershed
2. Ghost of Perdition from Ghost Reveries
3. The Leper Affinity from Blackwater Park
4. Closure from Damnation
5. Godhead's Lament from Still Life
6. The Lotus Eater from Watershed
7. Deliverance from Deliverance
and encore
8. Demon of the Fall from My Arms Your Hearse

For Sibiu's Large Square, I give a hearty 100% appreciation. The mayor know his stuff and one's got to recon that.
The sound engineers managed a stellar performance, highfive, guys (also Opeth's Laneys, PRSs, Marshalls and the rest), the front rows were especially favored, where one could even hear the stage amps.
Solid lighting show.



Thank GaveUp for the setlist, MercerTraieste for the pics and b3nighted for the vidz!
The pics available in html at http://141.85.0.93/~foxx/mob/Opeth Sibiu and the YouTube playlist at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9E522D509A7F6170.