More than 2 years after their last show in Belgium for the « Turn On The Light On » in January 2020, Imminence were back on 23 May. Promoting their brand new album « Heaven In Hiding » out last year. Announced a while ago and rescheduled once – like 99% of the shows happening in 2022 so far -, this evening was soldout, feeling twice more tickets than the last time. Proof that the success of Imminence is growing well! Worth it or not tonight? Yes but could have been better.
To open this tour – as well as the whole tour -, Port Noir had the job to warm-up the Kavka Oudaan. Unfortuntaly, we missed their show… even if the wrong schedule available in the venue said we missed Novelists instead. But the French band is still the main support of Imminence on this tour. So after a small change-over and a beer, we’re ready to see them for the first time live with their new singer Tobias Rische, ex-frontman of German act Alazka.
We got a good mix between old, really new and in-between songs. As the French quintet announced earlier this month their upcoming album « Déjà Vu » to be release on 2nd September 2022 through Out Of Line Music and announced their new guitarist Pierre Danel, it was all natural to introduce some new stuff. But the audience was not in the mood at all and the band a little bit tired. The many solos of guitar didn’t help to keep an high level of intensity in the show – even if it’s one of the band’s trademarks – which we never succeed to achieve anyway.
The whole venue was only there to see Swedish Metalcore Imminence. Around 9.15pm, the stars of the evening made their to way to the stage. They really had to made their way in the crowd as there aren’t any backstage or direct way from the dressing rooms to the stage. Keep it simple!
Obviously, the new album « Heaven In Hiding » occupied the biggest part of the show with 8 songs, followed by the previous one « Turn The Light On » with 7 songs. Only This Is Goodbye and Up survived from the first releases of the band. Unfortuntaly. Some classic songs really deserved to stay on the set-list but that’s the thing with band when they start to get high success: they somehow forget their roots and focus on their commercial scores. Can we blame them? Of course not! Can we be a bit sad? Of course!
On stage, Eddie and his friends gave everything from the first tp last song. Big up indeed for their great vocals, including the scream of Harald. Sounds more a debut tour than 3 weeks of tour where they are right now (if we count the acoustic leg before).
In the crowd, the public is more calm than expected but still a good atmosphere. Lot of signings and not of mosh pit but that’s not now. And obviously we see a big difference between older and new songs. Even if the 300+ people present tonight knew well the lyrics of Ghost, Alleviate or Surrender, the old songs always get a bigger success. With maybe one exception: the powerful Temptation, as last song, that proved this single worth this important ending position. But This Is Goodbye, Erase or Paralyzed were some of the highlights of the night!
Set-list : I Am Become A Name, Ghost, The Sickness, Disconnected, Erase, Surrender, Chasing Shadows, Lighthouse, Saturated Soul, Alleviate, This Is Goodbye (acoustic), Up, Infectious, Paralyzed. Encore: Infinity, Heaven In Hiding, Temptation.
At the end of the night, we’re a bit in a middle: yes, the show was great but so much better than the previous one? Not really. The new album « Heaven In Hiding » was a small disappointment as it sounds too similar to « Turn The Light On ». But it’s of course great to see fresh air in the metalcore area with bands like Imminence or Landmvrks. We just hope we gonna have a better setlist next time!
