Crawl Through Knives with my Eyes Closed

Some friends and I went to Higher Ground to see In Flames. Opening bands were Nevermore, Evergray and Throwdown.

When we got to Higher Ground, there was a long line outside. I think it must have been for the show in the smaller room, but we were planning on having some beers and cranking In Flames’ latest album in the car before we went in anyway, so we waited it out.

Growing up, I was never a metal fan. I don’t know that I would really call myself a metal fan now. But playing in my own hard alt-rock band has definitely expanded my horizons musically, as my bandmates are heavily influenced by the metal bands of today and days gone by. They have shown me a lot of stuff that I’ve never heard before, and have really started to appreciate things that I never even paid attention to before. As a result, I went into the show with a completely open mind, which I don’t think I could have a few months ago.

Nevermore was playing when we walked in. I liked them almost immediately. They were definitely hardcore, but their singer had a voice like an opera singer. It was a really cool combination. My friend commented that they reminded him of Iron Maiden, and were a definite throwback to 80’s metal. I gathered that this was a good thing. Their song titles seemed to be pretty cheese-laden, though. And they did a lot of over-the-top metal posturing, saying things like “all things will become metal, blacker than the blackest black times infinity.” That was just silly. They rocked, though.

The next band was Throwdown. They seemed to be much harder - at least their vocalist was. He was pretty much all about the screaming, and not much melody. I don’t think I heard him actually sing a line during the whole show. Despite my newfound appreciation for metal, I still can’t wrap my ears around that kind of stuff. The band was really tight, but the screaming just kind of washed it out. On the other hand, the dude was an awesome performer. He really knew how to get the pit moving. People were animated for that band almost as much as they were for the headliner. They even compelled one of my friends to “throw down” when they played a Pantera song. Ha.

In Flames was the headliner, and they definitely sounded like it. The band’s from Sweden. Their singer said it was “an honor to come from a shitty little town in Sweden and play in front of all of you here.” He said similar things during all of the breaks. It was interesting to see that contrast. Whereas the lead singer of Throwdown was all about the anger and aggression, this guy seemed almost pacifistic when he was talking between songs, despite the intense screams and singing he put out during the songs. For me, it seemed to give the music more credibility, because there was a kind of separation from the “art and the artist.”
The other thing I really liked about them was their guitar work. This kind of metal is generally about the drums - the drummer is usually playing so fast and hard that the guitar parts tend to take second stage a lot of times. In Flames did some awesome harmonized guitar runs, though, the kind of stuff you could never hear in any other kind of music.
The problem with their performance, I thought, was their lighting design. At first it was impressive. They had four or five of these vertical LED light bars, which were incredibly bright and displayed all kinds of pattern runs and colors. And there were these two rotating spotlight robot devices on either side of the drum kit, which seemed like they were living machines, preparing to take over the world. After a few songs, though, I couldn’t look at the stage anymore, because the lights were too intense and it was distracting - even painful at times when those robot demon machines shone right in my eyes (which happened more often than you might think). Eventually I just closed my eyes and listened that way, and I enjoyed it a lot more. I listened to most of Crawl Through Knives this way.
Overall they were really good. For a show that only cost $19, it was beyond worth it.