Its seems that The Pearl Room is turning into the new venue for Chicago metal. Too bad it isn’t in Chicago, but that’s just a little bump in the room for a show that was definitely worth the drive.
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Enslaved with Dark Funeral
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 Entertainment
 Art
The Pearl Room
Mokena, Ill.
January 15, 2007
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Co-headliner Enslaved hit the stage around 8ish for what proved to be the superior performance of the whole evening. Opening with “Path to Vanir”, from their highly acclaimed Ruun album, the band quickly fell into a groove, enjoying the good sound system and a mix that was surprisingly worked with the 5-piece.
With “Fusion of Sense and Earth”, the band truly locked in as Grutle confidently manned his bass/vox duties, Ivar held it down on guitar and in that allowed Ice Dale the opportunity to show off a bit with the songs heavy as Hell main hook. The nearly sold out crowd kicked in their support and gave their undivided attention for the rest of their set that included mostly material from their last 3 albums.
It’s easy to see why Enslaved are nominated for a Norwegian Grammy this year. Their strange, Prog-metal hybrid set was nearly perfectly executed, spearheaded by drummer Kato's angry rhythms. Closing with a fiery version of “Jotonblod”, the band delivered over an hour of excellent performance.
Dark Funeral followed with their version of extreme, angry black metal. Singer Caligula led the band into an immediate barrage of noise, sporting his new skull inspired corpse paint look. Lord Ahriman and company did what they do best, deliver a non-stop, driving set full of super fast riffs with a nice dose of pomp and swagger.
Their long years of road service to the metal masses showed as they confidentially smashed their way through a set that spanned the bands entire album repertoire. Caligula walked away from his bass duties a few years ago to focus solely on his natural front man persona and appears to be a wise move that has only strengthened these Stockholm based motherfuckers.
Trying to compare these 2 Scandinavian metal legends is like comparing apples and oranges. Enslaved is a band that challenges the listener and boldly leaps into uncharted territory with aplomb and near perfect execution.
Dark Funeral is a band that aurally assaults its audience with sheer volume, raw speed and Satanic hatred. They may have fared slightly better in crowd reaction if they didn't have the balls to take out a fellow veteran, and equally professional band.
If Dark Funeral relied on less spectacular bands they would have clearly stood out as the most competent band on the bill. Yet they achieved in giving the audience its money's worth (a whopping $25 dollars) by setting up a truly co-headlining experience that did nothing short of blowing the crowd out of the water.
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