Soilwork, Arch Enemy and In Flames - Sporthalle Hamburg 2024

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One of the benefits of living near Hamburg is, that there’s a good metal concert more than once a month.
In the past 6 years, my wife an I got to see more bands than I am able to recall. Some however, stay in my head, rent free.

This concert, in particular, will probably not be forgotten, because it was a birthday present my wife made.

I had to wait for it for nearly a year. You can probably imagine how I got excited at first, then nothing happened for a while, and then you suddenly realize that the concert is right around the corner. Wooohooo! 🥳

The event

Since we moved away from Hamburg, we had about an hour long drive to the venue. We got there early, so I used the time to get some patches for my vest and a new baseball hat with the In Flames logo embroidered on it, black on black.

Soilwork

The Soilwork text logo written across the stage backdrop, photographed from afar

Soilwork opened the event and played for roughly 45 minutes. Solid as always, I really like the guys and their style. The crowd loved them, too.

The last time I saw them was at “Markthalle” Hamburg, when they toured for their “Virkligheten” album with Amorphis in January 2019.

Arch Enemy

The stage backdrop for Arch Enemy, showing a pentagram and a skull left and right of it, photographed from afar

I’ve seen Arch Enemy a couple of times. Never as a headliner, if I recall correctly. They are a great band and I think Alyssa White-Gluz is a good match for them. I don’t listen to them quite as often anymore, because my interests changed a lot in the last years 😅
I still think they were a perfect third band for this tour.
After the break, they played their slot the same way, Soilwork did theirs: Powerful, energizing, getting the crowd active.

In Flames

The In Flames text logo written across the stage backdrop, photographed from afar

One of the first bands I got into, when I started to listen to metal, was in fact In Flames. It started with “Colony”, which the owner of our local records store recommended, just a few days after its release. Boy, was I hooked 😂

Since then, I’ve seen them multiple times. On festivals, as a headliner.. And I hope this was not the last time.
They played loads of classics and a few of my favourite songs. We all had a blast and people crowd surfed and moshed and just had a frickin’ good time.

Like many times before, Anders Fridén addressed the crowd, telling them how thankful he and the band were for the continued support and making their dream a reality.
Really nice to see, how even after years of success, artists can still be so humble.

PS: This post was written two days after the event, I just want to keep the correct date as a reminder.