Opeth, Contrive @ The Tivoli,Brisbane (24/11/2009)

Sun 29th Nov, 2009 in Gig Reviews

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The weekend is winding to a close but the celebratory air hangs thick at The Tivoli, heavy music fans of all denominations piling into the venue and forming epic lines to the bar and the ATM. As Neil Young sang, tonight’s the night – even if the entrée proves to be largely sub-par.

Anyone with common sense would agree that it takes a highly proficient, original-sounding band to provide adequate support to an act of the headliners’ calibre, the fact organisers surely forgot when they appointed the Melbourne trio Contrive for the job. – œShit-metal” is one of the more flattering descriptions uttered by my disgruntled companion as we stand, arms akimbo, and listen to indiscernible screams and run-of-the-mill riffs, drowned out by punishingly obnoxious bass.

The textbook quiet-loud dynamics and Black Sabbath-recalling sludgy moments are executed without any genuine spark, while as far the token “proggy” bits go, there is a grand total of one vaguely interesting guitar line among the sub-Alchemist bluster. The crowd response is accordingly lukewarm, to a point where a collective sigh of relief is almost audible when Contrive disembark. Unfortunately having Full Metal Racket’s Andrew Haug as your drummer and Devin Townsend as the producer of your debut album does not equal automatic street cred.

It’s a vastly different picture, of course, once the house lights dim and Swedish progressive death metal heroes Opeth emerge to an overwhelming noise eruption. Damnation’s haunting Windowpane is a sublime opening touch, frontman Mikael Ã…kerfeldt blending his soaring, moody baritone with intricate fingerpicked patterns. Once the wild cheers subside, the band’s perennial leader straps on another guitar, cranks up Ghost Of Perdition’s huge riff and the place gets rowdy: the moshpit comes alive and the security commence fishing crowdsurfers out of the sea of raised arms. Celebrating their 20th anniversary next year, the long-haired Scandinavian deities treat us mortals to a blinding set spanning the decade between 1998’s My Arms, Your Hearse and last year’s revered Watershed.

Never a big fan of death metal in the first place, yours truly is blown away by the five-piece’s monumental chops and sheer musicality – even during the most brutal moments. Ã…kerfeldt’s voice, in phenomenal form tonight, effortlessly goes from heart-tugging melodic lamentations to bulldozer-like death growls, while his guitar interplay with the ex-*Arch Enemy* shredder Fredrik Ã…kesson (sporting a rad neckbeard) is water-tight and the rhythm section of Martin Mendez and Martin “Axe” Axenrot inflicts pure sonic Ragnarok. Back-to-back Lotus Eater and The Leper Affinity are positively imperious, Still Life’s folk-tinged Face Of Melinda is beautifully performed and the monolithic Reverie/Harlequin Forest gets its Australian live debut, Viking-like keyboardist Per Wiberg furiously headbanging along to the pummeling rhythms.

Another aspect of the show truly worth savouring is Ã…kerfeldt’s priceless crowd banter and comedy sense; after humming the opening verse of Scorpions’ Holiday, he informs us that “it’s a fast one, so bang your fucking heads!” before unearthing the vintage riff-fest of April Ethereal. Watershed’s mighty Hex Omega concludes the main set; a minute later, Opeth return to administer the wrath of Odin one more time. Introducing the band members, Ã…kerfeldt quips “My name is Crocodile fucking Dundee!” to loud hoots, Ã…kesson goes off on a lighting-fast fretboard excursion that would make for a top GuitarWorld instruction video and the band blow out whatever brains are left in the room with the grand finale of Deliverance, the last three minutes of which are face-melting. “That was fucking good!!” yells Ã…kerfeldt to a deafening roar of approval; The Grand Conjuration is complete.