 | Written by Alex Stojanovic Photography by Rob Botten @ Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON, Canada March 1, 2018 Presented by Live Nation Click here to see our interview with Mille Petrozza of Kreator |
(C)2018 www.metalmasterkingdom.com
2018 has been hopping with some great tours so far, and there's more to come. One of those tours is the co-headline run between Sabaton and Kreator, and it has proven to be a great success. The tour featuring the two headliners with Cyhra as special guests steamrolled through Toronto at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on March 1st. It was a cool but mild Thursday night, but that changed really quick when it started to snow again later in the night, which we had a nice break from for a couple of weeks. The sold-out show drew in people of all ages and it felt like a Friday night. This was also my first major show of 2018.
Cyhra kicked off the night with some melodic metal with a tinge of hard rock. The selling point of this band is that it features Jesper Stromblad and Peter Iwers of In Flames and Joacim Lundberg of Amaranthe. Peter however was absent from the band for this tour, so the band was devoid of a bass player. You don't see that too often, but they managed to have enough bottom end in the guitars to make it feel like a bass player was present. They managed to get the crowd interested in their set and they even managed to get the crowd to light up the room with the lights of their cellphones.
Cyhra kicked off the night with some melodic metal with a tinge of hard rock. The selling point of this band is that it features Jesper Stromblad and Peter Iwers of In Flames and Joacim Lundberg of Amaranthe. Peter however was absent from the band for this tour, so the band was devoid of a bass player. You don't see that too often, but they managed to have enough bottom end in the guitars to make it feel like a bass player was present. They managed to get the crowd interested in their set and they even managed to get the crowd to light up the room with the lights of their cellphones.
| Photo: Rob Botten (C)2018 www.metalmasterkingdom.com | Coming out of a melodic and hooky set into a heavier thrash set is a huge contrast, but the crowd was really excited for Kreator. "Mars Mantra" played as Kreator entered the stage and kicked off their set with "Phantom Antichrist". The mosh pit erupted without hesitation and was continuous throughout the entire set. Co2 blasters and smoke machines filled the entire room with smoke to the point where the band looked like silhouettes on stage. For anyone that has seen Kreator live before, that shouldn't be surprising, but I kind of wish the band pulled back on the smoke a bit. As far as the setlist was concerned, the song selection primarily stayed in the region of the last two records: Phantom Antichrist and Gods Of Violence, with tracks like the title tracks, "From Flood Into Fire", "Civilization Collapse", "Hail To The Hordes", "Satan Is Real" and "Totalitarian Terror". As a big fan of the band, I found their set pretty predictable, and that's not a knock by any stretch. All the title tracks of the albums from Violent Revolution onward, have become permanent fixtures in the band's setlist, along with classics like "Pleasure To Kill", "Phobia", "People Of The Lie" and "Flag Of Hate". Every time Mille Petrozza talks, he commands your attention, and whether it's asking the crowd to |
open a pit, do a wall of death, headbang or just make noise, the crowd obeys his orders with confidence. Kreator never disappoint, but my only criticism is that I wish they would turn up Sami Yli-Sirnio's guitar more to match the volume of Mille's guitar because you could barely hear Sami's solos.
| Anticipation grew high as the crowd waited for Sabaton to enter the stage. To warm up the crowd, the band's cover of "In The Army Now" played on the P.A, followed by "The March To War" and the set kicked off with "Ghost Division". It was my first time seeing Sabaton live after always missing them the last few times they came to town, but I knew what they were all about live. The band's stage setup was pretty standard with no fancy props, but it was enhanced by the video screen in the back. Combine that with the exuberant energy the band gives off on stage, and you've got an outstanding live show. Anyone that has seen Sabaton live before, knows that that the band enjoy unleashing their funny sides both on stage and off. Comedy is always that extra icing on the cake to make the show more fun for both the band and the audience. Some funny highlights that occurred during Sabaton's set include Joakim Brodén playing "YMCA" on guitar, gesture exchanges between the band members with middle fingers and thumbs down, and Joakim announcing that it was the end of the show when it really wasn't, only to receive grumbles, boos and middle fingers from the crowd, then laughing it off by claiming that "that shit has never worked." | Photo: Rob Botten (C)2018 www.metalmasterkingdom.com |
Some other fan-favourites the band treated us to include "Uprising", "Winged Hussars", "Swedish Pagans", "The Final Solution", "Resist & Bite" and "Night Witches". There was also a request round where Joakim gave the crowd the choice of hearing "Far From The Fame" or "Into The Fire", with the latter being the winner. As we arrived in the encore, we were treated to "Primo Victoria", "Shiroyama" and the night closed out with "To Hell & Back". Both Sabaton and Kreator delivered outstanding performances that left fans smiling and raving as they were leaving the building at the end of the night. I look forward to seeing both bands again.
| SABATON Joakim Brodén - Vocals Pär Sundstrom - Bass & vocals Chris Rörland - Guitars & vocals Hannes van Dahl - Drums & vocals Tommy Johannson - Guitars & vocals Label: Nuclear Blast Records Website: www.sabaton.net www.facebook.com/sabaton | KREATOR Mille Petrozza - Vocals & guitars Sami Yli-Sirnio - Guitars Christian Giesler - Bass Jurgen "Ventor" Reil - Drums Label: Nuclear Blast Records Website: www.kreator-terrorzone.de www.facebook.com/KreatorOfficial | CYHRA Joacim Lundberg. - Vocals Jesper Stromblad - Guitars Euge Valovirta - Guitars Peter Iwers - Bass (Absent) Alex Landenburg - Drums Label: Spinefarm Records Website: www.cyhra.com www.facebook.com/CyHraofficial |
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