Words: Letty Sharp // Photos: Ian Mc Donnell
Danish metal band Volbeat came to Ireland as part of their Servants Of The Road tour, the band last came here in 2019 when they played the 3Olympia.
They brought along noise/grindcore band Napalm Death and reggae fusion metal band Skindred this time.
Napalm Death We’re first up on stage. The band are touring, “Throws Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism”. The band introduced themselves as unapologetic noise and that’s what the crowd got. Lead singer
Barney Greenway gave it all to the crowd running and jumping all along the stage. Napalm Death were already over here this year playing Limerick on the 1st and Dublin on the 2nd of July. The band ripped through their sets giving no one a chance to breathe with their break neck fast riffs and guttural vocals. With the taste of the more extreme out of the way, the crowd were ready for a bit of reggae and metal with Skindred up next.
The Welsh band Skindred we’re up next, who have only played one previous Irish date before back in 2010. The band opened with ‘Stand for Something’ and got the crowd going. Lead singer Benji Webbe was quite upset that the band had only played here once. The band then went into ‘Rat Race’ and had some more crowd participation with Benji getting the crowd to join in with ‘That’s My Jam’. They paid homage to Van Halen by doing a little bit of their hit song ‘Jump’. Benji also emphasized through the night that anyone can be a Skindred fan not matter if you’re white / black / gay or straight, all you have to be is a nice person. They kept going with the energy with ‘Kill The Power’ / ‘Gimme That Boom’, their new single and covering a little bit of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’.
Goggin kept the beat going with some nice fills and ribbons throughout the night. Skindred rocked the 3Arena and they hope to be back again soon in the near future.
Skindread Set List:
Stand For Something
That’s My Jam
Van Halen’s jump medley
LOVE (smile please)
Kill The Power
Gimme That Boom
Nobody
(War Pigs)
Warning
Outro with Nobody Does It Better
With the crowd rocked and ready by Napalm Death and Skindred they were totally ready for Volbeat. The band opened with ‘The Devil’s Bleeding Crown’, and that got the crowd going. The band had a fan pit entitled the Parasite Pit with big walkways coming out of the stage, which the band used the full effect of with lead singer and rhythm guitarist Michael Poulsen going down there frequently. The band
continued with the energy with ‘Pelvis On Fire and throughout the night showed how good they were at fusing heavy metal, rock and roll, and country. The band had large screens so everyone could see lots of graphics that were used and interesting angles of the band showing what each band member was doing rotating frequently. The band played ‘Wait A Minute My Girl’ and took it further with, ‘Black Rose’.
They then kicked it up a the notch playing some of their heavier songs, ‘Seal The Deal’ / ‘The Devil Rages On’ and ‘Slaytan’. The band then went off for their encore after Dead But Rising and returned
to the stage playing ‘Let It Burn’ followed by ‘Die To Live’. The band used confetti throughout the concert with two bursts of it one of them resembling the colours of the Irish flag. Lead guitarist Rob Caggiano
also showed off his skills with him frequently shredding solos. Bassist Kapser Larsen also kept everything grooving with his basslines and drummer Jon Larsen was encased in his huge Pearl drumkit, showing
what he could do on it. With this being the first night of their second European leg the crowds for the rest of the date’s have a lot to look forward to. With a little bit of grindcore, a little bit of reggae, and a little bit of rockabilly, there’s something for everyone and would recommend go see the show if you don’t have tickets already.
Volbeat’s Set List
The Devil’s Bleeding Crown
Pelvis On Fire
Temple of Ekur
Lola Montez
Last Day Under The Sun
Fallen
Sad Man’s Tongue (Preceded by excerpts of “I Only Want to Be With You” by Dusty Springfield & “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash)
Wait A Minute My Girl
Black Rose
Say No More
Seal the Deal
The Devil Rages On
Slaytan
Dead But Rising
________________________
Let it burn
Die to Live (Preceded by an excerpt of ” Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis)
For Evigt
Still Counting
