First, let me tell you about Coliseu dos Recreios. It's an old theatre, with a capacity of around 2000 people, that's considered the best concert room in Lisbon, and it's kind of a mythical room. I mean, as far as Portuguese bands or artists go, playing there is a career landmark. And, besides, as far as I can recall, this was the first metal show in there -- ever!

The show was scheduled for 20:00, but when I entered it at 19:45, Uncle Meat were already doing their set. I didn't know this band; I only knew they played thrashcore with an industrial edge because of the use of samplers/keyboards. The room was really empty by then, and only around 100 people were looking at the band but not moving at all. The band has 4 members: a front man who is vocalist/growler and guitarist, a bassist, a sampler/keyboarder, and a drummer. The front man was a really good guitar player who did some great riffs and a good solo on the last song. But I guess they weren't in their environment.

Uncle Meat finished up and I prepared to see Sundown. I knew and liked Cemetary, but this new project from vocalist Mathias Lodmalm is a bit different. I had only listened to some songs from their debut, _Design 19_, so I didn't really know their material. They started with "I Don't Like to Live Today", which is a great song. The keyboards (sampled, unfortunately) are very melodic and omnipresent, which gives a gothic, tragic edge to the music. Sundown continued for about 30 minutes and received a decent response from the crowd, who, by then, had increased to around 1000 people). They ended up with "19". Lodmalm's voice had some failures, but nothing too serious.

After some 30 minutes of delay, the lights went out and Paradise Lost started their show. All hell broke loose at the first chords of "Say Just Words" as everybody began jumping and singing with them. The band continued with "Hallowed Land", "Blood of Another", and "True Belief", which is my favorite song of theirs. During the show, they were projecting some pictures on the wall behind them. On that song, an image of Christ, an elderly Indian, and Buddha were passing one after the other -- a great moment. The show continued with the band playing mostly songs from their new album, but songs like "Elusive Cure", "Remembrance", and "Embers Fire" weren't forgotten. To my surprise, the crowd sang along with every song, especially on the new ones. They seemed to know the last 2 albums, but not the other ones. They didn't play anything from _Lost Paradise_ or _Gothic_. During "Forever Failure", the picture of Charles Manson appeared on the wall, while his voice was sampled. On the encore they played "Embers Fire" and "As I Die", their great classic. They ended up with "The Last Time", with everyone jumping and cheering them and screaming "PORTUGAL! PORTUGAL!" and "PARADISE LOST! PARADISE LOST!". Overall, it was a good show as Greg Mackintosh performed his solos perfectly and Nick Holmes acted a little different from what he used to; he's more a rock front man now.

The Coliseu was half empty, but I'm sure noone who went there was disappointed. All three bands had a great sound quality.