I think it's this "meek" look that always get me about his growling as well, as he looks fairly unbecoming for that particular style, but once he gets going, woah.

 

Opeth were excellent - I like them both growly and non-growly so I was well pleased with their set, including most of Heritage.  Akerfeldt's vocals were great and also his usual dry sense of humour!

I was expecting that both performances would be recent release based ones, obviously so in the case of Opeth, and so they were.

Gildenlow et al. opened with [Road Salt Theme] and Softly She Cries and proceeded with the rest of their 45 minute set in a, roughly, RS1/2 Song, Older Song, RS1/2 Song, Older Song etc. format.

Daniel's voice live is flawless hit all the highs and just sounds great throughout; songs were excellent, and the way in which they were positioned and the kit they used made it feel as if you were sitting in on a studio jam session. The whole performance had a fun, group, easy (without being sloppy) feel to it; just five guys taking a break from it all.

Whilst I was happy to hear Ashes chucked in there, I felt the group was a lot tighter and more cohesive playing the Road Salt songs. I know the duo have caused some controversy among fans, but I personally have enjoyed them both and so felt fully gratified in seeing them live.

If there was one weak moment in the performance it would be that I cringed somewhat through the performance of Kingdom Of Loss- not really into that speaking in a song and colloquial-conversational lyric format!

Opeth opened with [Heritage] and The Devil's Orchard. Magnificent. If PoS had the feel of a jam-session to their performance, Opeth had the ambience and technicality. As I'm sure any of you who have heard it would agree, TDO is a beast of an opener and didn't fail to disappoint.

Opeth, not surprisingly, played a much longer set at just under 2 hours and managed to fit a lot into the time given.

They played a number of tracks from Heritage including, TDO, Slither, Famine and Folklore. They also managed to squeeze in quite a few older songs including the first live performance in Europe of Porcelain Heart as well as a few unusual ones and a mid-set-acoustic-session.

As with Gildenlow, Akerferldt has a fantastic voice and doesn't lose any quality live. The whole group are clearly technically proficient and give a great performance (we were also treated to a drum solo during the set).

One thing that became obvious part-way through the set, and I assume this is due to the stylistic direction of Heritage, is that they were not going to be playing any song with Growling in them. I personally didn't have a problem with this as, while I enjoy Mikael's growling, I enjoy all Opeth songs regardless so it wasn't an issue. Some of the more 'metal' fans couldn't seem to let this go and some heckling and idiocy ensued: the only downside to their performance.

On the flip side of this Mikael I learned is a crowd-engager and anti-heckler. He filled the gaps between songs greatly with funny anecdotes, or just funny comments, making for a great night.

Summation: fantastic from both, great night, be wary if you didn't like their recent releases respectively though.