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You know the place will be packed when Opeth is in town and this Montreal show at the Olympia was sold out for many weeks already. For the occasion, fans would also discover Tribulation, another Swedish band.

Tribulation got on stage in front of a good crowd and kicked things off with “Tainted Skies”, a song from their forthcoming album titled Sub Rosa In Aeternum. With this new song, you can see that their death metal days are behind them and that their style is inching more towards gothic metal now. The majority of the crowd don’t really know this band and are in the discovery mode, but you can see a few that are headbanging to their music. The band also played “Saturn Coming Down” and “Hungry Waters”, two other songs from their upcoming album. Their set got heavier with each song and ended with the songs “Strange Gateways Beckon” and “Melancholia”. The band members were dynamic on stage but singer/bass player Johannes Andersson did not interact much with the crowd. 

It was now time for Opeth to please the fans with new music as they played “§1” right off the bat from their forthcoming album and things instantly got serious in the pit. They also played “§3” later on as those were the only two from that were chosen from the upcoming album called The Last Will And Testament. The giant LED screen displayed animations to fit the mood of each song throughout their show and created a great atmosphere.

Mikael Åkerfeldt was in great shape, his voice was spot on and his growls were powerful.  As usual, he took time interact with the crowd between each song. Being the record aficionado that he is, he mentioned that he finally found the second album of the Canadian band Sweeney Todd and everyone screamed in appreciation. He then asked the crowd who was the singer on that album and the crowd went dead silent, he added that it was none other than Bryan Adams. 

It was interesting to see that Opeth balanced their song selection between newer songs and older, more brutal songs. They brought back the songs “The Grand Conjuration” and “Face Of Melinda” that were not played in the recent years and they played “Demon Of The Fall” for the first time on this tour. As expected, “The Leper Affinity”, was one of the most appreciated songs and got the crowd hyped early in their set but “Heir Apparent” and “Ghost Of Perdition” made the fans push each other aggressively at the end of their show. The traditional Olé, Olé, Olé, got the band back on stage and fans knew exactly what was coming when they heard the jazzy keyboard and drum introduction of the “Sorceress”. Sadly, all good things had to end and fans knew it when they heard “Deliverance”.

This was the best Opeth shows in many years and fans loved every second of it! The Montreal fans did not only sell out the venue, they also sold out their  merchandise as the only item left to sell after the show was a beanie or two!