Was this an omen for the evening; I walked into the venue to be faced with rather a lot of smoke. This seems to be a bit of a thing for the Institute of late, ho-hum!
Liv Jagrell converted her former band, Sister Sin, into her current band, LiV SiN and brought with it her somewhat manic on-stage persona.
The thirty or so minute set packed in seven songs taken from her last three albums all of which were delivered with an overdose of energy.
Her 2025 album, Cross Your Eyes, provided four of the seven songs. She kicked off with Raven then Praise the Winner, both from that album. Next was possibly my favourite song, I am the Storm taken from 2023’s Kali Yuga, complete with growls and heavy, heavy guitars!
LiV strolled around the stage, stomped across the stage, jumped all over the stage while delivering her songs to a modest, but appreciative, audience.
Run and Above the Line from Cross Your Eyes were split by Forget my Name from Kali Yuga before she finished with a throwback song, Chapter of the Witch, from 2019’s Burning Sermons album.
I’ve waited quite a while to see LiV SiN and I wasn’t disappointed!
Setlist:
Raven
Praise the Winner
I am the Storm
Run
Forget me Name
Above the Line
Chapter of the Witch
Next on stage we have Royal Metal from Sweden – Rexoria!
Fronted by the imposing and very fiery redhead, Frida Ohlin, the band play power metal pure and simple. Every song had movement and energy, with Frida commanding the stage as the band around her gave everything. While the band could have used this purely to ‘advertise’ the album, Fallen Dimension, they released a little earlier this year they, instead split the set with their 2023 album, Imperial Dawn, plus one track from 2019’s Ice Breaker.
Paradigm from Imperial Dawn got everyone going straight away; soaring guitar, super strong vocals, highly musical! Break the Wave from their latest album came next. This starts with a screaming guitar that soon gives way to some fine power metal and more imposing vocals from Frida. The band move back and forth between the two latest albums with Set me on Fire, Rage & Madness, Metallic Rain and Dancing in the Ruins.
The Hammer of the Witches, aka Malleus Maleficarum, was a 15th Century treatise used to identify, prosecute and exterminate witches and gave its name to the next track; this was Malleus Maleficarum from Fallen Dimension. Two more songs in this to-and-fro game of two albums followed until the last song was reached. This was Reach for the Heavens in Time from Ice Breaker.This song had a different feel to what had gone before. Th double kick bass drums were still there but the song itself was lighter, if that makes sense, with a higher sense of musicality; a great song to finish the set.
I think the crowd enjoyed this set.
Setlist:
Paradigm
Break the Wave
Set me on Fire
Rage & madness
Metallic Rain
Dancing on the Ruins
Malleus Maleficarum
Light up the Sky
Enchanted Island
Reach for the Heavens in Time
Headliner time; This is ELEINE!
Some symphonic metal sir/madam . . . yes please!
The crowd had come to see some energy and they got it by the bucket load tonight. Eleine hit the stage as a four-piece band tonight, with a temporary (maybe) drummer and no bass player, opting instead for a bass backing track.
All the songs tonight were taken from the bands three releases since 2020 plus a significant taster from their new album due out next month, The Water Taste of Blood.
They open come on to a song taken from the EP released last year, We Stand United, this was Towards the Fields (Intro) which had a dark, almost Middle Eastern feel to it.
The band waste no time between songs and move onto Enemies from Dancing in Hell. This showed the bands death/thrash metal skills coupled with the very musical vocals of raven-haired Madeleine Liljestam plus the occasional growled interjection of guitarist Rikard Ekberg.
Did I say that Madeleine has the most piercing blue eyes?
Moving on (quickly) . . . the first taste of material from the new album wasn’t far away and it came as a double header; Empire of Lies, which was the first single from the album, followed by Liars Linger. Heavy fuzzed guitar starts Empire of Lies, followed by some beastly vocals by Rikard before Madeleine gets stuck in with some truly remarkable vocals; she really does have a tremendous voice and If this is an indication of the songs from the new album, it’s going to be a cracker.
The remainder of the set is spread between the three album/EP releases and then add in three more songs from the new album.
The band finish with We Shall Remain, the title track of the 2023 album.
Setlist:
Towards the Fields
Enemies
Never Forget
Ava of Death
Empire of Lies
Liars Linger
Dancing in Hell
As I Breathe
Watch as we Rise
We March
War Das Alles
Ich Sehe Dich
Where Your Rotting Corpse Lie
We Stand United
We Shall Remain
This was a great set of music, highlighted by the strong vocal talent of Madeleine Liljestam – if they come anywhere near you, be sure to go and see them.
My thanks go to Kate and Elvis for arranging the press pass.
Words & images: Reg Richardson (@rock_stars_rising)
