I’ve photographed a lot of metal shows over the years, but there’s something about a perfectly curated tour package that just works. The Blood Dynasty tour hit Vienna’s Gasometer on a cold winter night with four bands that had no business fitting on the same bill, and yet somehow, it made perfect sense.
Gatecreeper opened with death metal stripped to its ugliest essentials, all groove and punishment. Amorphis followed with their signature blend of melodic death and Finnish melancholy, Tomi Joutsen’s voice shifting between growl and croon like he was channeling ancient spirits. Then Eluveitie brought the folk metal chaos: hurdy-gurdies, flutes, and blast beats colliding in ways that shouldn’t work but absolutely do. By the time Arch Enemy took the stage, the room was already at capacity and completely spent, but somehow they found another gear.
What struck me most wasn’t any single band’s performance: it was the way the entire night built momentum. Each act handed off energy to the next, until the Gasometer felt less like a venue and more like a pressure cooker about to explode. This is what a proper metal tour should feel like: relentless, diverse, and leaving you drenched and exhausted by the final note. Four bands, four different flavors of heavy, one perfect night.
