18 February 2024 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Charlyn Cameron
Sunday night saw the final night of one of the biggest metal tours in recent memory, Klash of the Titans. The tour, featuring co-headlining sets, featured Swedish melodic death metal legends In Flames, with German thrash icons Kreator. In Flames have been a band I have adored since heading ‘Pinball Map’ in a random Tony Hawk game about 20 or so years ago, and every time they have toured, I’ve tried to catch them live. Having In Flames bring Kreator, who hasn’t been to Australia for about 7 years though, was the unexpected highlight for me for the night.
Kreator were up first for the night, as they walked out to the intro track to their new album, ‘Sergio Corbucci Is Dead’. The set was adorned with band mascot Violent Mind hanging from the roof, as well as impaled on giant spikes, and Violent Mind was also behind the stage as a giant inflatable. It was kinda sick to see all this stage production inside The Tivoli, as not a lot of bands do this kinda thing here. Kreator then launched into ‘Hate Über Alles’. It’s been a while since Kreator have been in Australia, and the crowd was absolutely rabid. Taking in classics like ‘People of the Lie’ and ‘Betrayer’, with what you could consider more modern songs like ‘Enemy of God’, the audience was lapping up every deep cut Kreator could throw at us.
After hyping the crowd, citing that “Kreator has returned”, we got ‘Satan is Real’ to a massive ovation. Lead singer Mille Petrozza demanded we show him the ‘Hordes of Chaos’ as they continued to blister through songs like ‘666 World Divided’ and ‘Strongest of the Strong’. Petrozza even brought out a giant Kreator flag and waved it on stage, before ‘Flag of Hate’ was played, and the show ended with the songs ‘Violent Revolution’ and the title track to the 1986 record, ‘Pleasure to Kill’. Kreator have never really been a band in my bag, but I couldn’t help throwing some of their stuff on the car stereo post show, to really give them a deep dive. I hope they come back soon, so I can give a true appreciation to the live show, as without knowing much about them, they were awesome.
Right around 10:30pm, In Flames walked out to a massive reception, as they dove straight into a seven song stretch that included a lot of newer material, like set opener ‘Forgone Pt. 1’, ‘Paralyzed’, and ‘All for Me’, mixed in with arguably some of my favorite In Flames tracks, like ‘Deliver Us’, and all time banger, ‘Pinball Map’. Anders spoke at length about how in 1986, he heard an album called Pleasure to Kill for the first time, and that was one of the albums that lead him down his musical journey. So to be able to tour with a band like Kreator, that directly impacted the rest of his life meant the world.
From here on out, it was legitimately a barrage of absolute bangers. We got some “good old shit” like 90s hits ‘Behind Space’, and ‘Food For The Gods’. That was followed up with ‘Only For The Weak’, which drew a nuclear reception when Anders announced the song, and another one of my favorite songs, ‘Cloud Connected’. While the mid set was incredible, the peak of the show was the end set.
After talking about how nice it was to play a show and see little to no phones out, we got what I would consider to be, the strongest six songs to close out a set that has been as epic as this one, with ‘The Quiet Place’, ‘State of Slow Decay’, ‘Alias’, and ‘Mirrors Truth’, each song drawing a bigger singalong than the last. There was no encore, but the last two songs of the night were ‘I Am Above’, and the set closer ‘Take This Life’. ‘Take This Life’ absolutely destroyed, as the fans were ripping crazy circle pits and just straight up having a blast, which ended the night on a high as In Flames left the stage with AC/DC cranking through the speakers.
