Umeå Arena 31/3 2017. SABATON, TWILIGHT FORCE , ACCEPT Live Review

Umeå Arena 31/3 2017. SABATON,  TWILIGHT FORCE , ACCEPT

We started  the evening  slowly  by walking to the concert hall.  We arrived 40 minutes before the doors were to open. After about 20 minutes the queue started moving and we could enter the arena.

The show started on time and the lights were dimmed down. TWILIGHT FORCE  , a newly established  Power Metal band,  was the opening  the gig. The band  was dressed as if they came right out of  The Lord Of The Rings . It's always nice to see a band that has also concentrated onstage wear.

The band was formed in early 2011 and quite recently released their second full length album Heroes Of Mighty Magic via Nuclear blast.   These guys surely  know how to make a big entrance.  These days Power Metal is a sadly  underrated genre mainly because of many un inspiring bands coming from Finland.
Swedish TWILIGHT FORCE proved to be something quite different, with blistering guitar solos, and an  insane amount of fast drumming.  The songs were done to perfection, a really good  stage presence, with engaging the audience, and most of all a surprisingly  good band.  The  group set the standard for the night.  TWILIGHT FORCE,  inspired by  STRATOVARIUS and RHAPSODY,  shows that they can become one of the big names in Power Metal. I think it's safe to say that Ronnie James Dio would  have been very pleased with them.  After a short break to give you just about time to wander off to the merch stand, ACCEPT enters the stage.

ACCEPT,   formed in the 1970s in Germany,  is well known  as pioneers of Heavy Metal.  ACCEPT  is a great live band no doubt about it.   I miss their earlier singer Udo Dirkschneider fronting the band, but I must admit  that the  new singer Mark Tornillo   does a good job filling in the shoes for Dirkschneider.  My impression is that the set list is taken out of their old and new material.  The audience consisted of people from the ages of 15 to up to 70. This is a band that has been around for awhile. The overall reaction is that the elderly fans felt more satisfied than the younger. The top hits for the night were two classic  tunes Fast As A Shark and Balls To The Walls.  SABATON was the band everyone had been waiting for.  The intro to the song GHOST DIVISION begins as the bands is about to enter the stage.

When listening to SABATON you know exactly what you'll get. For the real fans SABATON truly are the greatest. And they usually have a big stage show with pyro and loads  of light. There are so many things going on the stage , that I find it hard to really focus on the actual songs.  The set list for the night  was as always the same as you'd expect from a Sabaton show. Some older and some new songs.
You have a feeling that you have seen and heard it all before. SABATON is one of those bands that you ether love or hate.  In my opinion SABATON needs to come up with something new to keep their position as one of the leading bands.  The Crowd as a whole  seems to enjoy them ,and sings along to the songs. To sum up:  The bands TWILIGHT FORCE was the only band I felt some sort of desire to see more of ACCEPT was good and tight but it was not the best set list.  They should have been given more time.  SABATON is just like always great a  live band.





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