Concert Review: Tyranny & Bloodshed Tour

Firewind: Awesome.

Dark Tranquillity: One of my favorite bands.

Arch Enemy: A band I've always wanted to see live.

Tyranny & Bloodshed Tour: Heavy metal at its finest.

Firewind

When I first started listening to heavy metal about 4 years ago, I desperately tried to figure out what genres I liked, so I illegally downloaded songs from just about every metal band that I had heard of. Tracks off of Burning Earth was my first introduction to power metal and I loved them. But, time went on, I lost all my music files and I never got around to picking up any of their albums. Fast forward to 2008. I got my hands on a copy of The Premonition and absolutely love it.

I normally like my power metal to be more symphonic and epic, but I still love listening to Firewind and was genuinely excited to see them play live. Gus G is a reported 'guitar god' and his playing was flawless at the show. The rest of the band wasn't too energetic; the lead singer mostly stood in place most of the time and the drummer looked like he was 45 years old...nevermind just looked it up. He's 43. And he used to be the drummer for Helloween. Ok, he's cool. The band mostly played songs off of The Premonition and sounded pretty good. Unfortunately they had to open. Greek Metal FTW!

Energy 3/5

Sound 4/5

Crowd Interaction 3/5

Song Selection 4/5

Divine Heresy

Deathcore. Meh.

Dark Tranquillity

As I mentioned earlier, they are one of my favorite bands (I know I say that a lot but I consider about 20 bands to be my 'favorite') I saw them about 3 years ago at the same venue and loved their show.

Mikael Stanne is one of the most unique metal frontmen. He sings death metal yet has a smile on his face the whole time and is continually telling the crowd how much he loves them. They played a fantastic set which strangely didn't feature any tracks from Character but was brilliant nonetheless. Mikael was on the monitors half the time and did multiple stage dives; I love it when singers try to have fun with the crowd. There was too much bass and not enough drums and guitar, but that's my sole complaint about their set.

Energy 5/5

Sound 3/5

Crowd Interaction 5/5

Song Selection 4/5

Arch Enemy

One of the few metal bands that I love but have never seen live. I've heard they put on a fantastic show and was really excited to see them. They did not disappoint. They entered the stage as silhouettes with blood-red backlighting. Very metal. It was pretty ominous and at first but got a little frustrating after the blinding strobe lights came on and stayed on the whole time. I would have liked to be able to see a bit more of their features but shows are about the music first and foremost, right? They were loud without being painful and started the set by going seamlessly from "Blood on your Hands" into "Ravenous." Unfortunate Angela Gossow is about 5'1" and I didn't even get to see her until they were about 10 minutes into their set. She didn't move around and get into it as much as she could have, but she made up for it with her perfect voice and constant emotion.

It's always frustrating seeing a female-fronted band because the audience is continually screaming some less-than-savory remarks that get old fast. Instead of ignoring them or being confronting, Angela took it in stride. After their first five songs she said, "It's getting pretty hot in here, am I right?" Of course, half the crowd responded with a resounding TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT! And surprisingly, she obliged, revealing a skimpy camisole underneath. After hearing our cheers and jeers she told us "If you're good, maybe I'll take this one off too..." Wow. Never thought I would here that from a lead singer. The show continued as amazingly as before with the obligatory Anarchistic/Anti-Bush statements from Angela that drove the crowd into a frenzy during "The Last Enemy." They ended their set with an encore of "We Will Rise" and everyone left the building with a smile on their first. A damn-near perfect headlining set.

Energy 4/5

Sound 4/5

Crowd Interaction 5/5

Song Selection 5/5

Concert Review: Nightwish 05/23 San Diego

Don't you love coincidence? The second time I ever visit San Diego for a weekend Nightwish just happens to be playing on a tour where they skipped Seattle. Awesome.

Unfortunately I came late to the Nightwish scene, only getting into them after Once came out and not even checking out their back catalog until recently. As much as I am ashamed to say that, I still consider them one of my favorite bands. Their 2005 North America tour was canceled so I was never able to see them with Tarja. When they came to Seattle last Halloween in support of Dark Passion Play it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. It's a fantastic feeling to see a band live that you have been listening to for years.

Anyway, back to San Diego. I got to the show 10 minutes before they hit the stage, so I don't know-or really care-who opened. It's weird seeing a show in a city that you don't call home. It just doesn't feel as...intimate I guess. I'm used to seeing shows with the majority of the crowd being 15-30 year-olds. House of Blues has a policy that if you are under 18 you must be with a parent. WTF? So almost a quarter of the audience were middle-agers who weren't into the music. Weird.

Nightwish, however was damn near perfect. They sounded awesome and I didn't even need to use my earplugs. (Yes, I know it's metal to be loud but I just can't stand a noise-induced ear hangover) Like I mentioned earlier I have been listening to their earlier works a lot recently so I was pretty disappointed that their setlist was EXACTLY the same as it was 6 months ago; playing almost exclusively recent material. None of it was bad, I was just hoping for a little more variety. They were energetic, happy and had a moderate interaction with the crowd. Annette is still absolutely gorgeous and I'm pretty sure most of the guys were just staring at her cleavage the whole show.

Even though it wasn't as thrilling as the first time I saw them, it was still as epic as you would expect a Nightwish show to be. Good times.

Energy 4/5

Sound 5/5

Crowd Interaction 3/5

Song Selection 3/5

Concert Review: Paganfest 05/05 Seattle

I have been looking forward to this show for a long time. I got into Ensiferum about a year ago and Victory Songs quickly became one of my favorite albums. Turisas I had always known but I never took the time to listen to them much. Tyr and Eluveitie I only recently started listening to.

 

Eluveitie

Slania is so far my favorite album of 2008. Its new take on both melodic death and folk metal is extremely refreshing and its not often that you hear a band that is in a genre of its own. After hearing Slania, I picked up Spirit, musically similar but with a lower production quality. Before the show I was able to meet with Chrigel the lead singer and give him an interview. It was a very fun time and it's cool to see a lead singer who is so friendly and down to earth. The interview is posted in MP3 and text.

Their live show was fantastic! At first I was skeptical about how interactive they would be considering they have 8 members in the band. These doubts were swept away seconds into their opening song. They were navigate the stage surprisingly well and had some very cool choreographed headbanging and water-spitting. They played a selection from the two aforementioned albums and the sound was crisp and clean, although at times I had trouble hearing the hurdy-gurdy and fiddle. I have never seen a crowd react so well to an opening band before.

Energy 4/5

Sound 4/5

Crowd Interaction 4/5

Song Selection 5/5

Tyr

Hardly even worth mentioning. I've always thought their recordings were good but unoriginal and slow at times. Their live show was awul. Tyr stood in place and did absolutely nothing special. They only played about 5 songs, one of which is from their most recent album and two of which are unreleased so the crowd couldn't really get into. And for some reason it sounded like they weren't hooked up to the PA. Didn't even bother taking pictures.

Energy 2/5

Sound 2/5

Crowd Interaction 3/5

Song Selection 1/5

Turisas

I've heard that Turisas is an amazing live band and it's true. They were extremely energetic, very crowd-oriented and the costumes/war paint they wore only helped their performance. Hearing their version of 'Rasputin' live was incredible; the audience went crazy. They sounded BETTER than they do on their albums, I have no idea how that is possible. Oh yeah, and their accordion player was insanely hot. One of the best live bands I have ever seen.

Energy 5/5

Sound 6/5

Crowd Interaction 5/5

Song Selection 5/5

Ensiferum

Ensiferum was initially the only reason I wanted to go to this show. I was extremely excited to hear 'One More Magic Potion' and 'Blood is the Price of Glory' live and they did not disappoint. They had a very good mix between the songs, playing mostly Victory Songs and Iron stuff. Unfortunately they hardly spoke to the crowd definitely could have used the stage space a lot better. Their sound seemed somewhat quiet and I'm still questioning their decision to put their keyboard in the corner hidden between a banner and the rhythm guitarist. Nevertheless it was still wonderful to see them play; a great end to a great night.

Energy 3/5

Sound 4/5

Crowd Interaction 2/5

Song Selection 5/5

Overall the show was fantastic. I have always loved tours with multiple semi-well know bands instead ones that have one big headliner with a bunch of unknown. Paganfest was an extremely unique tour and its popularity proves that the folk metal scene is finally started to get the praise it deserves in this part of the world. It's going to be a long time before I forget this show.