OpethAfter years of waiting for a round of Australian club shows, Katatonia fans are finally able to rejoice as the band arrives in Brisbane for only the second time in their 22-year history. With the room at near capacity, their aura spills out from a stage dressed in their characteristic imagery. They run through a set that focuses most heavily on material from the latter decade of their catalogue and remain thoroughly impressive throughout. They bid farewell with Leaders and leave many hoping that the not-too-distant future finally delivers them onto these shores for their own headlining tour.
For their seventh ever show in Brisbane, Opeth open with a glorious rendition of The Devil's Orchard; the same song they opened with when they last toured here in support of 2011's controversial Heritage album. Much to the dismay of their more conservative fans, that tour saw them bypass any death metal offerings, so it comes as a great relief to many when they divert from their previous course and blast into the complex fury that is Ghost Of Perdition. For good measure they sink further into darkness and channel a frighteningly intense version of Still Life's epic closer White Cluster. There is certainly no sign of them having become diluted with age. They prove they can still belt out death metal on level with the best of them, however, it is the dynamic play between contrasting modes that has always made Opeth so fucking brilliant. And with Atonement they remind of this fact with capital letters and three exclamation marks; it is quite possibly the most transcendentally sublime moment of any show they've played here. Frontman and band mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt is ever the joker as he introduces the band by name and then himself simply as “cunt”. Deliverance is of course a crowd favourite, and rightfully so because as always it's an absolute beast in its live incarnation. Hessian Peel and Häxprocess bring things back to a simmer which is extended on into a surprisingly successful acoustic version of the classic Demon Of The Fall. They depart into Harlequin Forest, but not all is lost – they re-emerge for a devastating encore of Blackwater Park that leaves all and sundry swimming in the murky depths of its disturbed core. Another raging success from one of the most consistently brilliant death metal bands of all time – bring on tour number eight!
