In Flames, Kreator @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 13/2/2024

The Osbourne’s vs Kayne isn’t the only ‘Klash Of The Titans’ happening this week. The boards of Hindley Street Music Hall are creaking underneath the metal gargantuan weight of Kreator and In Flames tonight.

The Swedish purveyors of harmonic metal In Flames against one of the original trash metal titans in Germans Kreator, both could be headliners, both will be extraordinary.

And it’s the godfathers of thrash who swing first with Hate Uber Alles and boy does it land. On a stage basked in red, there are effigies hanging from the rafters, bodies impaled on spears and the giant presence of Beelzebub overlooks the carnage. If there was ever a visual of hell, it’s right here.

Except for the music, cause it’s actually good. People Of The Lie has everyone up and about singing as the band show their class with that imperious riff.

Coma Of Souls gives an opportunity for vocalist Mille Petrozza to instruct the audience into the nights first wall of death before the song erupts with guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö solo work outstanding.

Having been around for a while, the band know how to get each corner of the room engaged as they headbang constantly, the front three swapping positions during Satan Is Real.

Petrozza continues to leads cheers and fist pumps throughout as he gets everyone into Hordes Of Chaos which incites more anarchy down on the floor.

There’s flag waving before Flag Of Hate, circle pits during Pantomime Antichrist and by the time Kreator finish on Pleasure To Kill, everybody is feeling pretty good about what they’ve just seen from the German legends.

But wait, there’s more.

Having watched and taken the blows, it time for the Swedes In Flames to fight back.

Vocalist Anders Fridén arrives understated but imperious as Foregone Pt 1. hits. There’s no jockeying around the stage, the band mean business and the infectious crunching riff of Deliver Us already has you on the ropes.

In Flames are not just a standard metal band, they subtly bring different genres into their style and while guitarist Björn Gelotte swaggers on his Les Paul like a southern blues legend, the outfit keeps the grooves coming hard and fast with Everything’s Gone, Paralysed and All For Me that sways like a boat in the ocean.

Behind Space digs deep into the back catalogue as Fridén conducts the room in song over the Iommi -esque riffs. There are impressive guns out on show from Chris Broderick – which consumes chatter after the show – and the sound of bombs dropping with drummer Tanner Wayne every swing of his sticks.

By the time Only For The Weak comes on – a stormer of a track with a boot stomping rhythm – I’ve made my way into the pit and down the front in a rare excursion away from my comfort zone. That is how good the show is.

Talk of tight trousers intersperse circle pits, crowd surfers and more razor cutting tracks like State Of Slow Decay, The Mirrors Truth and finishing with Take This Life and In Flames finish to loud applause.

Both the Northern Europeans arrived from the land of ice and snow and both put on a hell of a show. Literally. It was epic, it was titanic, it was truly a ‘Klash Of The Titans’. This was only round 1. To the rest of Australia, prepare for the battle of the year.

Live Review By Iain McCallum