Tarja,
Pythia London Electric Ballroom 20/12/2007 Review by James
Young
With a brand new album out, Tarja was bound to gather a massive
crowd for her first English appearance for a long while. With new
and old fans alike in attendance, there was a massive queue outside
the Electric Ballroom upon arrival. Wandering through the doors we
were each given a Christmas card and a signed poster of the Finnish
star herself. Pretty classy for a gig, and it hadn’t even started
yet!
Pythia were the only support
tonight with what was their first ever show - a strange choice
really, but front-woman Emily Ovenden’s work with the Medieavel
Baebes and Celtic Legend, both classical acts, may help explain why
they were added to the bill. Their female-voiced symphonic power
metal was sure to go down a storm with the old Nightwish fans, and
there were hints of gothic metal at times too. ‘Tristan’ had some
nice operatic vocals over some sublime melodies, whilst ‘Sarah’ had
a nice little solo slotted in. Guitars were handled by Ross from UK
modern thrashers Descent, and Tim from UK black metallers Abgott.
These fairly well-known characters added a professional stage
presence, capturing the excitement of a band’s first gig with some
experienced showmen. Unfortunately Ms. Ovenden was suffering from a
sore throat, but all this affected was the inter-song banter, with
the operatic range strained at times but not off-key. The bizarre
deranged-Cinderella dress and some sword fornication on stage showed
that they firmly placed themselves in the power metal camp.
Musically, the band were nothing really original, but it was an
enjoyable romp through some cheesy power metal, with some of the
faster songs like ‘Sweet Cantation’ hitting the spot more than
others. I have a feeling this lot will be hitting it big in 2008.
It was time for Tarja to hit the
stage, and the erection of a big white curtain in front of the stage
showed that this was going to be a theatrical show. Her outline
appeared and ‘Boy And The Ghost’ burst forth with her silhouette
swaying and waving. After a while, the curtain dropped, and the full
band could be seen.- two cellists to the right of the stage, Max
Lilja and Markus Hohti, with the keyboards to the front of the
stage, keyboards to the left of the stage and bass and guitarist to
the right. Mike Terrana’s massive drum set up towered over the back
of the stage, allowing Tarja to dominate most of the main stage. It
was only after a couple of songs when I noticed Toni Turunen,
Tarja’s brother, playing various instruments at the very back of the
stage. It was busy to say the least, but never crowded, with a nice
chemistry between all the band members. The band stormed through
‘Boy and The Ghost’ and ‘Lost Northern Star’ without any real break,
and Tarja seemed to be enjoying every second of it. ‘Passion And The
Opera’, an old Nightwish song was next, which got the crowd going
with its wonderful vocal lines. The pretty ‘My Little Pheonix’,
‘Sing For Me’ and ‘Damned And Divine’ all sounded perfect, with a
nice sound for the Electric Ballroom. Tarja left the stage for a
weird little instrumental section, which saw the band go a just a
little bit technical for about ten minutes. Doug Wimbish was the
centre of attention for most of the proceedings, making his bass
sound like a guitar somehow, which had me questioning my own
knowledge of instruments. Another noteworthy moment was when Mike
Terrana, the drumming powerhouse, formerly in Rage and many other
bands, blasted his way through an awesome solo, and it was all very
impressive. When Tarja returned, in new attire, the heavy ‘Ciaran’s
Well’ kicked in, followed by the gorgeous ‘Our Great Divide’,
sounding as glorious as ever. Toni was brought onto stage next for
an excellent rendition of ‘Phantom Of The Opera’; not to take
anything away from the new album, but it was certainly a highlight
of the night, leaving my heart racing after its awesome finale. We
were told how near Christmas was, and ‘Walking In The Air’ was sung,
half in English and half Finnish, paying homage to her Nightwish
version and solo Christmas album, The cellos were a little bit loud
from where I was standing, adding an uneasy echo to the sound, but
heck, it’s not every gig you get cellos, so let’s not complain too
much! After ‘The Reign’ was played, the Alice Cooper cover ‘Poison’
finished the set. I’m not the biggest fan of the song, but she
managed to pull it off live without any problems, and it sounded
pretty good. After going offstage (which naturally gave Tarja time
for yet another clothes change), the band returned with ‘Nemo’, much
to everybody’s surprise. The choice was perhaps slightly
controversial, but it sounded as good as ever, so there was no
complaining from anyone. There was no surprise however in the next
song, ‘I Walk Alone’, the single from the album, which despite its
commercial appeal is one of the best songs on the new album, and
another great live song. There was just time for a nice acoustic
closer, ‘Calling Grace’, which brought the evening’s entertainment
to an end in wonderful fashion.
It was an interesting night, which was as over-the-top but musically
as exquisite as it comes, at least in terms of gigs in Camden.
Efforts are being made for a tour in 2008, so let’s hope we can see
this kind of excellence again very soon. |
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Shining,
Code, Skitliv, Hellsaw London Underworld 13/12/2007 Review
and photos by James Young
Don’t you just love it when rumours come true? An elusive Shining
gig in the UK has been on the cards for a while, but whether or not
it was ever going to happen was up in the air. Being at the
Underworld for the gig itself was surreal to say the least, as was
the massive turnout, which truly shows the popularity of black metal
today.
Whether this popularity is a good or bad thing, it didn’t matter,
but getting in was and due to this I missed perhaps the first song
or two from Hellsaw. Arriving to
a barrage of shrill screams and excellent blast beats, I was pretty
sure what these Austrians would sound like. I was proved wrong when
the wall of sound burst into some fast paced black and roll, which
went down a treat. The Underworld was the most crowded I had seen in
ages, and it lapped up every second of this grim cataclysm of noise.
‘Silent Landscape’ was hardly silent, but its frost-bitten
atmosphere certainly hit the spot. There were only two fully fledged
members of the band present tonight, the rest of them live members,
but the quality of the musicianship, with even a passable sound for
the Underworld (shock, horror), was a fantastic opener for the
night. |
| A demo band they may be,
but Skitliv have had tongues
wagging in the metal circuit for some time now. With an ex-Mayhem
member, Maniac, on vocals, and Shining’s own Kvarforth on guitars,
this doomy black metal outfit have the credentials, but whether they
could pull it off live was yet to be seen. Donning a pink hooded top
was Maniac, clearly making a break with the traditional black metal
attire. A bold statement indeed, but before anyone could criticise
it, the band exploded into action, with some apocalyptic riffs and
hideous rasps out the front-man’s throat. Unfortunately being in the
front row, I spent most of the time swerving to avoid the mic stand,
which spent more time in the air and flying around the stage than it
did on the floor. Despite being slightly terrified for my own
safety, I recognised pretty much all of the tracks from the
‘Kristiansen and Kvarforth Swim In The Sea Of Equilibrium While
Waiting’ demo. Maniac certainly lived up to his stage name, dropping
his guitar after a song, before taking a knife from Kvarforth and
slashing his stomach a couple of times. The final song seemed more
of an improvisation, and things went from good to slightly sloppy as
the band experimented with making guitars scratch and basically not
sound too pleasant (in the bad way). For the most part though,
things were most impressive and I was sorry to see it finish. |
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| A strange
choice for this bill came next in the form of
Code, but then again the bill was pretty eclectic
anyway. Okay, so we didn’t expect twig-laden microphone stands or
members covered in enough talcum powder to keep the Norwegian and
English baby populations rash free for years, but it still was in
keeping with the black metal theme. A rare show for these guys, ICS
Vortex was out doing Dimmu Borgir duty, so DHG nutter Kvohst was
filling his shoes. Looking like some kind of suave Victorian who
hadn’t changed his clothes since 1900, his voice perfectly fitted
the avant-garde stylings of this bunch. A lot of the material came
from the band’s only album ‘Nouveau Gloaming’, which was played in
its entirety save for the last song. Kicking off with the energetic
‘The Cotton Optic’, with it’s heavy black and roll edge, things went
from strength to strength, with the likes of ‘Tyburn’ and ‘Radium’
weird and spectacular at the same time, with Kvohst doing some
bizarre dancing to the freaky music on display. The drumming was
handled superbly by My Dying Bride’s Dan Mullins, hitting you in the
face quicker than the talcum powder which by the end of the set had
turned the stage white. Carnage! |
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Shining’s shows have caused such great controversy in
recent memory that I was a little apprehensive about what to expect
tonight. Word was going round that cutting was forbidden, and the
band were not covered in blood when they came out, so you would
think that we would have got a regular Shining performance focussing
on the music, right? Oh, how wrong. Kvarforth, who had been so
well-behaved during his Skitliv set, had turned into a sleaze-ball,
touching himself and others in the front row, and getting carried
away with a couple of girls in the front row, and most notably with
Maniac who was watching from the side of the stage. Quite bizarre,
and not really what suicidal black metal is about to be honest. The
music was spot on most of the time, with the band playing most of ‘V
- Halmstad’ as it should be - dark, depressing, and cemented to the
spot. Fredric ‘Wredhe’ Graby’s guitar solos were particularly
noteworthy, and the chunky bass lines of Phil A. Cirone benefited
from a rich sound. Sadly they were upstaged by Kvarfroth’s antics,
which included rapping (yes, rapping…) during some songs, grabbing
his fellow band members by the crotch, and throwing up before eating
it and offering it to the crowd. During the closer ‘Svart
Industriell Olveka’, the mainman smashed a bottle on the stage and
cut his arm to bits with |
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the shards. I wasn’t originally looking
forward to any self-harming antics, but this was more in keeping
with the theme of the music, so it was fairly welcome in the
context.
Shining had been depressing for the wrong reasons, but the music was
almost sublime enough to make up for it. The other bands made this
gig for me, and we should be grateful for such a good line-up, even
if Shining didn’t quite cut it tonight.
This concert was promoted by Arcane Promotions
www.arcanepromotions.co.uk |
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Vader, Malevolent Creation, Cattle
Decapitation, Light This City, Abigail Williams, and Veil Of Maya
Venue: House of Blues, West Hollywood, California Date:
December 3, 2007 By: Dave Schalek
Oh, boy! You had better believe that this one was on my list! Not
just for the two main headliners, but also because I was able to
score my very first face-to-face interviews with none other than
Phil Fasciana and Peter Wiwczarek from, respectively, Malevolent
Creation and Vader! Look for those interviews here at Live 4 Metal!
At any rate, the first band of the evening was
Veil Of Maya, a deathcore band from the Chicago area.
I was totally unfamiliar with the band prior to their performance,
and I wasn’t particularly expecting anything of note. However, much
to my surprise, Veil Of Maya were a fairly tight outfit with some
catchy songs, presumably from their debut full-length from 2006
entitled “All Things Set Aside”. The response from the sparse crowd
was positive with a small pit opening up towards the end of their 20
minute or so set.
Abigail Williams were up next,
and I had seen them about a year ago opening up for Dark Funeral and
Enslaved. Immediately of note was a new keyboardist, Kristen
Randall. Abigail Williams’ version of melodic black metal combined
with metalcore has garnered them some notice, and some of the fans
in the growing crowd were definitely into their performance. Good
musicianship and tight songs were on display, but the time is fast
approaching for Abigail Williams to show us all whether or not the
hype is worth it with a rapidly becoming overdue full-length debut.
San Francisco’s female fronted, melodic death metal act
Light This City were up next and
I spent most of their set propped up against the bar. Once again,
another competent performance, but the crowd’s response was rather
muted. |
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Fresh off of their win at
the recent San Diego Music Awards were none other than
gore/vegetarian greats Cattle Decapitation.
I’ve seen them a few times over the last few years (unavoidable in
SoCal), and they always seem to be a bit off. At any rate, any
previous difficulties the band may have had were absent as Cattle
Decapitation ripped through a taut set that immediately had the
crowd moving. Flying spittle, gore metal hilarity, and feel good
song titles such as “Testicular Manslaughter” were all present
during an impressive performance. A band on the rise?
As enjoyable as the warm up acts were, I was there to see Malevolent
Creation and Vader. A few months back,
Malevolent Creation floored me with an impressive
performance at the Gathering Of The Bestial Legion III and I was
hoping for a repeat. Flying through a 45 minute set, Malevolent
Creation were firing on all cylinders with a set list that included
tracks from “The Ten Commandments” through “Doomsday X”. Of note
were the additions of Fabian Aguirre on drums, and Marco Martell on
bass. Each fit in well with the veterans with a taut performance.
Vader are a death metal machine,
period. Anticipation had grown considerably by the time Vader took
the stage with a blistering rendition of “Shadow Fear”. Unbelievable
musicianship, energy, and stage presence typified Vader’s hour-long
set with tracks from throughout the band’s long discography.
Notables included “Dark Age” and “Black To The Blind” as well as the
set closer, a mind melting version of “Black Sabbath”. Throughout
the set, a huge pit opened up as the crowd raged. Fantastic!
Luckily, though, this one was over at a reasonable time and I was
actually able to get about 6 hours of sleep before getting up for
work the next morning. However, my eardrums and neck were definitely
shattered from yet another great show! As usual, you can check out
all of the crap at
http://metalrunsinmyveins.blogspot.com |
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