Gig Review: Enslaved, Insomnium and Black Anvil Live at Théâtre Corona, Montreal, CA

INSOMNIUM and ENSLAVED are back in Montreal for the first time since 2018. The pandemic era forced them to stop touring for two years and they were awfully glad to be back in La Belle Province.

First things first, the city of Montreal was hit two days prior by its worse ice storm since January 1998, and over 1.2 million homes were still powerless at the time of the show. Even though the Friday weather was a cold grey day, the power was still out in many cities all around the province. The events of this week greatly affected the people that were at the show, some took this show as solace, yet you can see the tired and angry faces of people that were hit hard by what was happening.

In another sold-out show, 10 of the last 11 big metal tours that have come here since the autumn of last year has been sold out. The Montreal metal scene is alive and well, probably even healthier than ever before. The pandemic really made people realize how much going to see shows were important (in any genre obviously) and people have made a beeline to see as many shows as they can.

The Corona Theatre was the site for one of the most anticipated tours of the year with BLACK ANVIL, ENSLAVED, and INSOMNIUM. This is a co-headlining tour with bands interchanging the top spot from show to show with BLACK ANVIL opening the festivities and trying to rile up the crowd.

BLACK ANVIL were off and running at 7 PM on the dot with their brand of Blackened Thrash Metal. They were not new to the crowd; they have been here 7 times since 2011 and have toured with many eclectic bands from pretty much every genre. This time they didn’t really fit in with the co-headliners, their straight-up Black Metal with some Thrash Metal elements didn’t warm the crowd at all. I don’t know if it’s because of the events of the week or just simple disinterest from the crowd. Lead singer Paul Delaney is the most energetic of the group, trying to make the best of a bad situation, is very active on the stage and you can plainly see he is the mastermind of the group. The rest of the band is very static, not moving around much just doing their parts, which hurt the overall connection they had with the crowd. The lack of stage presence hurt their performance and the crowd just didn’t lift as it usually does with openers. The last song of their set was the most reaction they got, and you had a bit of a mosh pit going on but overall it was very flat.

INSOMNIUM has been waiting since March 15^th of 2020 to finally get back to Montreal. Their co-headlining tour with OMNIUM GATHERUM was one of the first tours canceled due to COVID and they were antsy, to say the least. They were so happy to be here, and it really showed from the second they hit the stage. They were touring with the equivalent of two new albums worth of new material because of the pandemic so they had a lot to choose from yet they concentrated much more on their recent masterpiece ‘’Anno 1696’’. Half of the setlist was from this album and three other songs were from ‘’Heart like a Grave’’. The lack of prior or older material was nitpicked by many of the crowd present but all in all, it was a great performance by one of the leaders of Melodic Death Metal.

Their last album is something quite personal to them, speaking about the witch hunt that happened between the years of 1696 and 1697 that decimated 30 percent of the population. The themes of fear and paranoia are ever-present and there are some aggressive elements throughout their album and their set. They concentrated on this album for this live show and the crowd was mostly reactive. The crowd didn’t feel alive until half of the set and Niilo Sevanen had to reenergize the crowd at times, unfortunately. The crowd was into it but not as much as they had hoped, I don’t know if it’s the weather or if the crowd was there mostly for ENSLAVED, might have been a mix of both.

INSOMNIUM proves once again they are the masters of melancholic and beautiful death metal. No other band can project this type of music to the open world. With their last album, they were able to craft a beautiful story in this brutal setting and create music that is expertly woven to fit perfectly with the story. It would have been awesome to get the full spectrum of the album but we did get most of it and it’s only been out a few weeks now. It will grow on people, being a masterpiece in the making for the genre itself.

As for the band’s performance, Niilo Sevänen’s unmistakable harsh vocals, which always add an extra layer of aggression to the band’s sound, and the engaging guitar leads that deliver some of the tastiest solos within the genre, remain true to themselves. They were on point and it may have taken a few songs to get the crowd going, by the time it had ended, the crowd wanted more and that’s a testament to their epic performance.

Setlist:

1696
White Christ
While We Sleep
Godforsaken
Lilian
And Bells They Toll
The With Hunter
Valediction
Mortal Share
Heart Like a Grave

And for the final act of the night, the incomparable ENSLAVED. The connection between them and the city of Montreal dates from their first appearance at Foufounes Électriques all the way back in 1995. They have developed a cult-like following ever since but an incident back in February of 2013 cemented themselves as beloved musicians in the eyes of many. They were caught In of the biggest snowstorms in the last few decades and pulled through after 40-50 hours straight to come to play a show they arrived at 2:30 AM, with no sleep and no energy. They decided to play a full set because the people were waiting for them to play. They played like it was in front of 10000 people yet they were just a handful present that night. Their passion and love for their fans is unmatched and they showed what they were all about and they still talk about it to this day.

Like INSOMNIUM, they had two albums of new material to present to us, ‘’Utgard’’ and the delightful ‘’Heimdal’’. They only played ten songs on this show but it was a varied setlist with songs from 1995 till today. They played a more varied set of old songs compared to their co-headline mates.

The words redundancy and complacency are obviously not in the dictionary of the legendary ENSLAVED. They are always ready to explore new territories and have never put out the same album twice in the three decades since their inception. Try to find another band that has attained unreachable boundaries yet still comes back to its roots in different ways, you won’t find better than ENSLAVED.

Like all ENSLAVED shows, this one has its fair share of acoustic instrumentals parts. These provide a nice contrast to the black metal. They are hauntingly beautiful, sometimes including ambient for added atmosphere. This album doesn’t focus exclusively on the atmosphere though; there is no shortage of engaging riffs. Part of what makes this release so successful is its ability to flow seamlessly from atmospheric parts to powerful metal parts, and then back again. One great example of this is how the ominous ambient sounds turn into some of the most memorable riffs, which later turn into an eerie acoustic passage.

This band is creating expansive genre-defying songscapes with antique elegance. There is a cold, somber atmosphere to the music, which encompasses a lot of acoustic passages, but there is also a heroic quality to the rhythmic hymn-like melodies that contradicts its dark tone. It’s controlled chaos at its best and they were acclaimed when they came on stage and it was a deafening roar for the crowd. The crowd seemingly were present for them, with no disrespect to the other bands on this tour. From the opening notes of ‘’Jettegryta’’ to the thundering finale of ‘’Alfoor Odin’’, the crow was into it, a whole lot of smiling faces and a headbanger’s delight.

They were able to make haste and make people forget about the very tough week and they brought much-needed relief to the city and its fans. They gave a rip-roaring set of oldies and new stuff yet interwoven to the best of their abilities. It was a much shorter set than I thought it would be but those ten songs were performed with heart, passion, and the utmost musicianship. When you have co-headlining shows, you have shorter sets but you get what you paid for, something compact yet so beautiful.

Enslaved were without Ivar Bjornsson, their founding member and his absence was never felt during the show, as a four-piece they were on top of their game with Grutle doing most of the parts of his fellow bandmate. For most of the electronic effects, he tapped into his console and replaced masterfully his friend. You would have thought that missing a founding member would have hurt the band but all in all, it didn’t deter them from giving an awesome show.

If it started slowly, the crowd became unglued when ENSLAVED hit the stage, and the love for the band and its city will always be everpresent and tonight was no exception.

Setlist: