The Markthalle has been used for most of the Metal concerts in Hamburg the last couple of years: CANNIBAL CORPSE, DIO, Bruce Dickinson and many more acts played here or in the smaller venue called MarX (THE HAUNTED and NILE, for example). It’s quite a nice place with a rather low stage and usually no photo pit. Therefore you get much closer to the musicians, an almost cosy atmosphere is the result. The venue is fairly close to the railway station and there is plenty of space in the car park (parking lot) as well. Ascend the stairs to Metal Heaven but don’t be too early in the winter because usually doors don’t open soon and the place is quite windy. Entering the building there is a roomy lobby with a bar in front of you, tables on your left and the vendors’ booths on the right. The MarX is left from the bar next to the bathrooms. Leaving the bar on your left you pass a door, collect your ticket and climb up a few more stairs and see the main stage right in front of you. Due to a puncture I missed the opening act called GRIFFIN but came right on time for SINERGY. What can I say: either this was a completely different band Nhashi saw in Wacken or he simply doesn’t like them. In fact, everybody was rockin’ off his or her arse, especially Alexi Laiho (CHILDREN OF BODOM) did the complete guitar hero posing right from the opener on, namely ‘The Bitch Is Back’. I had expected Melanie Sisneros (ex-NEW EDEN, check out their new demo tracks at their homepage, one of the best progressive Power Metal bands in the world) on bass but she wasn’t. What the heck, he was great as well. The venue could have needed some more audience but as both bands as well as the fans were highly motivated, it felt a lot more packed than it actually was. ‘Beware The Heavens’, ‘Gallowmere’ and ‘The Fourth World’ were some of the highlights until Kimberly asked somebody from the audience to come up on the stage and sing along ‘Lead Us To War’! What a great idea! Finally, Alexi did the “atmospheric” intro to ‘Spit On Your Grave’ and the band proved to the DARK TRAQUILLITY fans that they are not boring at all! The last DARK TRAQUILLITY record I bought was their ’97 release "The Mind’s I" and the second the band hit the stage I knew I have to make my collection complete. One could feel that this was the first day of the tour as the band was hungry and especially singer Mikael was a smiling blitz of lightning. The band played quite a few old songs even I recognized (thanks for that, guys): ‘Hedon’, ‘Lethe’ or ‘Zodijackyl Light’. Man, I haven’t seen a band going mad like this and being so happy for hitting the stage again for a long time! At that point, the venue even looked somewhat packed, at least from the front row! As still everybody is drawing parallels to their fellow Swedes IN FLAMES I can assure you that DARK TRAQUILLITY were much more fun to watch this year. Give these guys another listen, they truly rock!

http://www.darktranquillity.com/
http://www.sinergy.org/
http://www.markthalle-hamburg.de/

Story & pics: Ramon Claassen

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