Mission Completed

Traveling on the back of last years double disc Communion, psyched out Swedes Soundtrack of Our Lives set up church at a packed Casbah.

Singer Ebbot Lundberg was greeted like a new messiah. With his beard and long black smock over a mountainous frame, he certainly appeared larger than life. Two disciples, Ian Person and Mattias Barjed, mounted a doubled-edged Gibson axe attack, chopping out charged riffs from the opening strikes of set starter, “Babel On.” Lundberg had little time for small talk between songs, letting his husky voice bellow out like a firestorm over the music. The first 6 songs of the 16-song set were culled from the new album and included “Universal Stalker” and “Lost Prophets in Vain.”

The older numbers played sounded revitalized, including “Firmament Vacation,” “Rest in Piece,” and “Four Ages” from their debut and “Welcome to the Infant Freebase” and “Sister Surround” from the Grammy-winning Behind the Music. A cover of Nick Drakes “Fly” built up the delicate original into an epic wall of sound. Older classics were conspicuous by their absence yet testified to the wealth of material at their disposal.

The rhythm section’s Kalle Gustafsson played his Rickenbacker bass and Fredrik Sandsten his drums without mercy, while Martin Hederos’s keyboards swirled like a psychedelic dreamscape throughout.

Soundtrack exercised their versatility by switching from the bombastic rock ’n’ roll swagger of the Who and Stones to tender moments, like the haunting ballad “Second Life Replay,” in a heartbeat.

The band ended the set with a blinding “Jehovah Sunrise.” A new day dawned, mission completed, multitudes sated.

• Concert: Soundtrack of Our Lives
• Show date: February 24
• Venue: Casbah
• Seating: general