"We've got a smorgasbord of Swedish metal for you right here," beams Björn 'Speed' Strid, Soilwork's imposing but ever-affable frontman. He's not kidding; tonight, his band are opening up an absolute dream bill of all things melodeath at Hammersmith's iconic Apollo, and the singer looks genuinely floored to be overseeing such a historic (and, it should be said, pretty rammed) auditorium. Soilwork never quite made the same breakthroughs as tonight's two co-headliners, but they've maintained a remarkably consistent hit rate across their near-thirty year career, steadily evolving from grooving, hooky death metal towards the hyper-polished melodeath with which they made their name. The six-piece will never win any awards for dynamism on stage - Speed's casual swagger bearing the mark of a man who looks more like he's soundchecking rather than playing one of his band's biggest ever UK shows - but when you're armed with choruses as big as Distortion Sleep and Stålfågel, who cares?
In Flames know this venue all too well having first played here all the way back in 2004, but that doesn't stop this feeling like a special occasion for band and fans alike. An outrageous opening one-two of Cloud Connected and Take This Life sets the tone for a joyous, career-spanning set that underlines exactly why they remain death metal's biggest success story. The likes of Trigger and Only For The Weak still sound absolutely colossal decades on, while some welcome deeper cuts in the form of Food For The Gods and Coerced Existence serve as a reminder of just how vital and powerful this band were in their metal pomp.
