IN FLAMES | THROWN | DISTANT

THE SETUP….

It is not lost on me that we in Canada are fortunate to have a Swedish death metal band such as In Flames visit North America as much as they do; the effort is astounding even to me, being a huge fan of this band. Specifically with Canada, we are the fourth most-visited country by them over decades of touring, even with many more countries closer to the band’s homeland. Starting the year off with an intense South American tour that worked its way into a seven-date headlining Eastern North American tour bookended by festival appearances, the melodic death metal experts crossed the border and made another exclusive headlining Canadian stop in London, Ontario, again for the second year in a row, but this time with two European bands opening. This unique arrangement of opening bands not originating from North America hasn’t happened in quite some time.

DISTANT

Deathcore is slowly becoming a very prominent subgenre, gaining traction as more bands gain exposure at the local and national levels. The combined efforts of members from the Netherlands’, Distant (returning to North America for the first time since 2023) got the packed venue moving; the four-piece band brought some of the heaviest riffs and bass drops reflective of this genre, complete with neck-breaking headbanging from both the guitarist and the bassist, with the gigantic bassist throwing his body so much that the instrument almost smacked the floor. With how serious and brutally forward this music is, there was a moment of comedic relief after the second song, with the vocalist doing the cutest high-pitched “thank you” that made me laugh out loud at the timing of it. This band was absolutely dialed in and animated in not only facial reactions but also every single movement that seemed to have a purpose, including the vocalist’s continued arm swinging and fist pumps during specific drum moments to add another degree of emphasis. The thirty-minute set went by very quickly, due to the intensity of the songs, and the execution of the quick bursts of music, which the incoming London crowd received very well.

THROWN

Continuing the night of heavy metal subgenre and core tangent, Stockholm’s Thrown took the stage with a unique blend of nu-metal, hardcore, and metalcore, which the London crowd absolutely ate up, much to the band’s delight. There was an equal amount of movement on stage by the vocalist, who was not on a wireless microphone, as well as from the crowd, non-stop movement during the short but fully engaged and energetic performance. Much like the blending of the subgenres, this set was long in the sense of the number of songs, but the timing of each song went by super quick, like as soon as you would get hooked on a groove or a riff, the song was over. Although I am not familiar with the band at all, the musicians came through the speakers with a lot of energy and punch. Not the band’s first time on this side of the world; no doubt they will be back sooner rather than later, and I will have to catch them again.

SETLIST
‘Bloodsucker’, ‘Split’, ‘Backfire’, ‘Nights’, ‘Look At Me’, ‘Parasite’, ‘New Low’, ‘Guilt’, ‘Dwell’, ‘On The Verge’, ‘Grayout’

IN FLAMES

Back to London, a year and two weeks to the day from the last Ontario visit, In Flames yet again chose to headline in this small Ontario town over Toronto, which has been the case for the last three visits to our province, as Toronto has not had a headline show from the band since 2022. No complaints here for my favourite band of all time, as they visit locally almost every single year without issue. With new music being produced by the band, announced earlier this year, taking a break from the new album to tour, the band is still promoting the 2023 album Foregone. The album art was digitally uploaded onto the stand display screen for the performance. The London Music Hall crowd was introduced to a completely new intro for the band, which will most likely be part of the upcoming 15th album, whenever that happens.

After this brief intro with all of the band members coming out one by one, the melodic death metal experts ripped right into one of the most classic songs ever, ‘Pinball Map’, much to the delight of a packed venue. On this night, everyone was ready to go, with lots of movement, with some chanting of the band’s name, and no shortage of crowd surfers. “How the fuck do you feel?!” asked Anders, which was met with vocal approval from the crowd while transitioning into the next song. It didn’t take long into the performance to hear a new dynamic in the band with the addition of Jon Rice on drums; as part of this band, the intensity and flavour of Jon’s drumming were instantly felt. Bassist Liam Wilson, as well, has made some serious levels of comfort in playing with the band and touring over the last year; although technically nothing was wrong in previous performances, his playing feels more fluid, and he looks incredibly comfortable chugging away on the bass.

The banter for the first half of the set was very minimal, but in true Anders fashion over the years, his constant egging on of the crowd will forever be hilarious to me, even bringing up that it’s a Friday night and going out of his way to thank security staff for keeping everyone as safe as possible. As the performance went on, the sharing of lead vs rhythm between Bjorn and Chris was extremely seamless and enjoyable, with both of them making sure to alternate stage sides while smiling at each other in passing. Anders’ continual vocal prowess just advances to another level each time I see him, and in saying this, he continues to go out of his way to let the crowd sing some of the key moments in some of the biggest songs; after hearing the crowd nail the lyrics, he triumphantly beats his chest in approval.

Pulling out some classics throughout the set, including some choice cuts: ‘The Quiet Place’, ‘Cloud Connected’ (minus the extended intro), ‘Artifacts Of The Black Rain’ (not played since 2012 and I’ve never heard it live), fan favourite ‘Trigger’, and ‘Only For The Weak’. There was an excellent display of balance throughout the setlist between the newer and older songs in the three-plus-decade-long catalogue; for context, though, the setlist was not a song from every single album, as it was on the last visit. After so many releases, it becomes increasingly more difficult to do that, but it’s still impressive for In Flames to create a setlist that keeps the energy up for over an hour. When we reached the end of the set, Anders empathetically started to yell, “Start running, start running, start running, start running, start running,” just before ‘The Mirror’s Truth’ started playing, one of the shorter songs from the band, but with an elevated BPM tailor-made for a circle pit. The final message from Anders before arguably the most infamous song, ‘Take This Life’, was, “Until next time, my friends, remember to be nice, remember to be kind, remember to show love and respect, which we all need now more than ever.”

Ultimately, this headlining performance from In Flames was different enough from the previous visit a year ago to keep things fresh enough that the crowd not only showed up but ultimately proved that London was the right choice for a stopover on this short tour; my favorite song wasn’t played on this stop, but I’m continually impressed that my favorite band will pull out rare songs with each returning visit. With new music coming soon and consistency in touring, there is no doubt that the band will be back in Canada, as Anders says, “Canada is a second home for In Flames.”

SETLIST
‘Pinball Map’, ‘The Great Deceiver’, ‘Deliver Us’, ‘The Quiet Place’, ‘In The Dark’, ‘Voices’, ‘Cloud Connected’, ‘Artifacts Of The Black Rain’, ‘Trigger’, ‘Only For The Weak’, ‘Meet Your Maker’, ‘State Of Slow Decay’, ‘Alias’, ‘The Mirror’s Truth’, ‘I Am Above’, ‘Take This Life’