This was the third time I saw Susperia, even though their first concert ever was held exactly one year ago. After touring with Dimmu Borgir, Susperia have gained a healthy amount of live experience and delivered a solid performance tonight. The sound was great and tracks like "I Am Pain" and "Vainglory" seemed to convince people new to their sound that Susperia is indeed a band to watch out for.

I missed the first half of Destruction's set, but my bet is that the second half was quite representative of the whole. Playing both new tracks and old (and oldest) favorites with awesome sound, one couldn't complain about their performance. However, Destruction play more "in your face" thrash, somewhat monotonous with little happening in their music compared to Susperia and Dimmu Borgir. Combine this with the fact that most of the audience was unfamiliar with the band and a bored crowd was the result -- at least by the end of their set.

Dimmu Borgir can't seem to lay off the 4+ minute long intros -- something which greatly annoys me --, but the kids seemed impressed by the spookiness of it all. Opening with "Night Masquerade", Dimmu Borgir seemed in good form, but the synths revealed themselves as absolutely horrible some time into the song: awful sound and -way- too loud. Luckily this was corrected a couple of songs into their set. The guitars were mixed a bit too low and there was some resonance, mainly from the bass, but apart from this, the sound was good. The songs from their latest effort worked very well live and were executed with surprising precision. The highlight for me this time was the same as last time: Simen "Vortex" Haestnes' vocals on "The Insight and the Catharsis". Electric, goosebumps, he's magical! Dimmu's set could have been a bit longer, as they performed four tracks from _Enthrone Darkness Triumphant_, three from _Spiritual Black Dimensions_ and six from their latest album. I know many were expecting "Stormblast". Maybe next time.