Rockfreaks.net

support Knogjärn
author AP date 24/11/23 venue Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, DEN

Friday night is upon us once more, and this week it’s going be spent watching metallic hardcore by some of our neighbours in Sweden. Raised Fist have returned to Denmark for their first headlining performance in more than 15 years, and even though their more recent appearance at the 2022 edition of Copenhell left me feeling disappointed, I am hellbent on giving a band who have yielded several iconic albums for the genre another chance to convince me of their alleged live prowess. And given that the venue’s larger upstairs hall is very close to sold out, this sentiment seems to be shared by plenty of others as well. But before the legends can make their mark, they’ve invited their countrymen in Knogjärn to get the crowd’s muscles loosened up for what is certain to be an evening full of intense pit action.

Knogjärn

Knogjärn wastes no time in revealing what kind of shows we are in for tonight. The quartet’s first song has barely begun when their vocalist Kim Eriksson makes a split-legged leap from his central platform, which is adorned with the band’s glowing knuckle duster logo. “Is it alright if I speak Swedish?", he asks after this initial blast of metallic hardcore has been delivered, to which the audience enthusiastically answers: “YEAH!". In an amusing turn of events, he then asks whether anyone can understand him, and it is met with a resounding “NO!”. Clearly, people are in a festive mood, though with the exception of a handful of fans right upfront, it does not seem to translate into physical expression on the floor. On stage though, Eriksson is a relentless kinetic force, jumping, bouncing, and storming around his headbanging colleagues — guitarist Markus Hurtig, bassist Rasmus Sörbom and drummer Johan Hidén — but the crowd seems reluctant to mirror his antics. And simultaneously, after the second track, “Vad vill du ha” (taken from the quartet’s latest studio album “Mera bedövning”, has lent its title to a chorus that even those of us who don’t speak Swedish can join in on, a certain musical predictability begins to emerge.

The only thing that really pierces through the garden variety, metallic hardcore fabric of Knogjärn’s music are the nasal clean vocals that Eriksson switches his screams for in many of the choruses. Coupled with Hurtig’s taste for a groove metal riff, his singing renders some of these songs downright strange, like amalgams of pop punk and Lamb of God that no one asked for. If you ask me, Knogjärn are at their best when they keep things simple, such as in the final track — a primal chug-fest that draws parallels to the likes of Terror and Lionheart. It is telling that this is the first song of the evening to elicit a powerful reaction from an otherwise placid crowd. With a live performance as fervent as Knogjärn’s, this is what you want to see. Yet it seems like when Eriksson drops the screams for cleans, the band also loses the support of the audience, which, with each passing song, appears to become impatient for the headliners to take over.

Raised Fist

Industrial noises and flickering strobe lights herald the arrival of this northern Swedish juggernaut as the clock strikes 22:00, and immediately, the buzzing conversation is replaced by a collective roar of approval and fists in the air. “Perfectly Broken” off 2006’s “Sound of the Republic” opens the show and with it the moshpit, with all five musicians teetering on the edge of the stage, egging us on. Frontman Alexander ‘Alle’ Hagman’s distinctive, piercing screams sounds more chaotic than on record, rendering the hulking vocalist into a deranged, visceral force who looks like he’s fixing for an MMA fight. “FUCK YEAH!”, he bellows as the tune comes to an end, revealing in the thunderous response from the crowd, before he and his companions plunge headfirst into a trident of tracks taken from their revered 2015 offering “From the North”. The pulsating rhythm and confrontational lyricism of “Flow” produce an early highlight, which is followed by a brief moment of reminiscence about the group’s previous appearances in Denmark, including a particularly memorable show on this very stage two decades ago. It is the first of many speeches given by Hagman throughout the evening that both nurture the connection that Raised Fist pride themselves on forming with their fans, and provide context for their songs. The standout “Man & Earth” is framed by the impossibility of living each day as though it were your last and urging us to embrace environmental stewardship — something that seems to resonate powerfully with the audience. This track is bolstered by hundreds of additional voices in the chorus, not to mention a veritable maelstrom of a moshpit, presaging a night to remember.

The following “Working on Wood” from 2001’s “Ignoring the Guidelines” is a rarely aired and well received deep cut, though one that also confirms the live renditions of Raised Fist’s material to sound be less sharp than on record. These imperfections have always been an emblem of the band’s punk ethos (as Hagman admits at one point, the five musicians rarely rehearse), allowing them to express themselves with a raw intensity that involves risky jumps, swinging instruments and other such mayhem. Whether this works in the group’s benefit is a matter of opinion, but as the raucous response of the audience shows, most people here don’t give a f**k. There is a real basement energy about this show, in spite of attendees having shelled out some 300 DKK for a ticket; the band and audience are feeding off each other’s ardour. That is, for the duration of just 11 full songs. Indeed, the ordinary set draws to a close via the anthemic “Some of These Times” and brief snippets of “You Ignore Them All” after only 50 minutes of showtime, which feels pretty insufficient, even insulting to an extent. The room is at a boiling point at this stage, and although an intense encore featuring the beloved “Friends & Traitors” from the band’s 2006 album “The Veil of Ignorance” does ensue with moshing and fists in the air galore, I am still struck with a feeling that the concert never got the chance to reach its zenith. It is a hard-hitting, invigorating finale to be sure, but I cannot escape this sense of something being left unfinished here.

Setlist:

• 1. Perfectly Broken
• 2. Chaos
• 3. Flow
• 4. Man & Earth
• 5. Working on Wood
• 6. Anthem
• 7. Murder
• 8. Killing It
• 9. Venomous
• 10. Some of These Times
• 11. You Ignore Them All (outro only)

— Encore —

• 12. Friends & Traitors