Nightwish's "The Crow, The Owl and The Dove"

The second single from new album "Imaginaerum" is "The Crow, The Owl and The Dove". Marco composed the song and Tuomas described it as "Love is everything, and only Truth is our guide to a deeper state."
Click here and enter Yövissy  in the text box. Enjoy!
And if you will ever hear any band member talking about "Bird song" or "The Poultry song", yes they mean this one! :D

Just in case you haven't heard the official samples yet, you can do so here.


EDIT: for some of you, who can't wait to listen to "Imaginaerum", you can do so on RadioRock which  will play the CD starting at midnight  FINNISH TIME  when the clock turns from Tuesday Nov 29 to Wednesday Nov 30 which is the official release day in Finland.
I will add the link and other information as soon as possible. Please, don't forget to check time zones to work out the right time for your country.

Some humor: More metal bands in 10 seconds!

Remember my post of metal bands in 10 seconds? Well I found more videos of different bands and they are still cracking me up everytime!

Here is Rhapsody of Fire:

The legendary Iron Maiden!:

Here is Megadeth:



Animals as Leaders (actually 20 seconds):



And finally Judas Priest:



I actually like all of these bands, but it was just too much for me to resist! Enjoy!

Lacuna Coil's "Dark Adrenaline"

Lacuna Coil announced the release dates, track listing and cover artwork for its 6th studio album "Dark Adrenaline".

The album will be out on January 23th in Europe, January 24th in North America and January 27th in Australia & NZ. You can listen to the first single "Trip the Darkness" below.

Track listing:

1. Trip The Darkness
2. Against You
3. Kill the Light
4. Give Me Something More
5. Upsidedown
6. End of Time
7. I Don't Believe in Tomorrow
8. Intoxicated
9. The Army Inside
10. Losing My Religion
11. Fire
12. My Spirit

Few words by Cristina Scabbia regarding new album can be found here.

DVD Review: Nightwish's From Wishes to Eternity

In the dawn of the new Nightwish album Imaginareum, I have finally decided to review From Wishes to Eternity. I know I have waited a little long to review this DVD since I said I was going to review it back on my Dark Passion Play review, but here it is!

In 2001 during Nightwish's Wishmaster tour, the band released their first live DVD recorded in Tampere, Finland which was on December 29th, 2000. And boy what a treat it is to watch anytime I get around to it! I could honestly say that this DVD really gives me chills every time watching it as well as reminding me how great Nightwish was during the peak of their career with Tarja Turunen as lead vocalist. It is also the only live DVD of the band to feature Sami Vänskä as their bassist. I actually prefer Marco at bass since he brings a bigger dimension to the band with his powerful voice, but Sami did a great job in Nightwish nonetheless.

What is great about this DVD is that everyone in the band is performing at a very high level. For example, Tarja's vocals on this release shattered all of the studio versions of the songs performed at this concert. Her voice is very angelic and powerful, as it usually is, but her performance at this particular show is beyond amazing and nothing I have heard before from her! She really knows how to bring the emotions out in Tuomas' songs. And speaking of Tuomas', he showcases his best keyboard work on this DVD, most notably in "Wanderlust" and "The Pharaoh Sails To Orion" where is completely shreds with confidence and style.

The other members were also on top of their skill level too. Emppu's guitar work is creative and stellar, especially when he adds his own guitar fills where it actually enhances the songs more. I especially dig him in the "Crimson Tide" "Deep Blue Sea" covers, but unfortunately that track was not on the DVD I got, which is quite a shame because that performance was outstanding! Jukka's drumming is just fun to watch. I love how he always shows so much passion when playing drums, like how he still does to this day! Sami also seems to be pulling out some good bass licks in the songs too! It's great seeing the band have so much fun on stage together! During the song "Fantasmic part 3", Tuomas jumps out from his keyboard and headbangs with the rest of the band! That is something you don't see everyday! Another funny moment is when there was a break in "Wanderlust", Emppu gave a friendly pat on Tarja's head! How cool is that! :D

Another cool aspect of this DVD are the guest vocalists. My personal favorite performance of the concert is "Beauty & the Beast", where Sonata Arctica's vocalist Tony Kakko provides the male voice. He was a great choice to sing this as opposed to Tuomas, who is a great songwriter and keyboardist, but not a great vocalist. I love how both Tarja and Tony showcase great stage presence together with so much passion and emotion. It looks so theatrical and bad ass at the same time! The other guest vocalist, Tapio Wilska, provides live vocals on "The Pharaoh Sails To Orion". Being the former vocalist of Finntroll, his on stage theatrics are a sight to see. It is really cool to see a guy have so much fun on stage with a band like Nightwish. It is very rare that you will hear his vocal style in a Nightwish song. It is probably the closest Nightwish will ever sound to being death metal!

Other cool additions to the DVD are the bonus features on it. There are interviews with Tuomas and Tarja, two music videos, two live videos, a cool photo gallery, and their discography as of 2001. There is also some off-stage footage where you can see Nightwish backstage! If you happen to get this DVD, you need to watch that because you will get a good laugh at some of the stuff they did during their tour!

So that is my review of From Wishes to Eternity. Here are my overall thoughts:

Pros:

• An excellent performance by an excellent band!
• Great camera work and sound quality.
• Enough bonus material to keep you wanting more!

Cons:

• Wish there were a few more Oceanborn songs on the setlist, but this is a minor complaint.
• Some DVD's do not have the "Crimson Tide" and "Deep Blue Sea" covers.

You can tell by watching this that Nightwish was at the height of their career as a band during this show. The energy that radiated from this show is something that was special here and I don't think it could ever be repeated again! I actually think this performance overall tops End of an Era, though both concerts were very good in their own respect. This is probably my favorite live DVD despite the fact that the "Crimson Tide" and "Deep Blue Sea" covers were not on my copy. At least there is a video of it on YouTube! This DVD is a must have for any fan of Nightwish or symphonic power metal in general. It doesn't get much better than this! Horns up for me! \m/

Overall rating: 5/5

Come Cover Me: Spythriller's Nemo

Thanks to one of my colleagues at Sonic Cathedral, I saw this on Facebook this morning.  Though not my typical style of music, I really, really like this a lot.  It has a great ethereal quality to it that really goes well with the themes of "Nemo."  I've never heard of Spythriller before, but I think I'm going to check them out.

Here is the original by Nightwish:

And here is the cover by Spythriller:

Lucky Leak: Imaginaerum Samples!

Well, it was bound to happen: despite an embargo by the record label where no promo copies were available, parts of Nightwish's Imaginaerum have been leaked.  In fact, 12:33 minutes of Imaginaerum have been leaked, and being the weak soul that I am, I caved in and listened even though I was determined to wait for my CD to arrive in the mail (hopefully before Christmas as I have pre-ordered from Finland, but this is the Canadian postal system we're talking about).

Here it is:

Holy shit, is all I can say.  Seriously, holy shit.

Edit Wednesday Nov. 16:  well that was predictable & unsurprising: the video has been taken down by the record label, Nuclear Blast.  HMPH!  I hope some of you out there got to enjoy it before it vanished.  I know I did.

Review Up

My review of Van Canto's newest CD, Break the Silence, is up on Black Wind Metal.  You can read it here.

Tarja Turunen & Harus: "In Concert Live at Sibelius Hall"

Today earMUSIC released teaser trailer of Tarja's  upcoming CD/DVD with her project Harus.

The CD will be out on November 25th and the DVD December 2nd.

In case, you would like to buy a single "Walking In the Air (Live)", you can do it on itunes here.

Finally: Nightwish's "Storytime"

Hot off the virtual press, here it is, the first single from Imaginaerum, the long-anticipated "Storytime."

I know I love it. I know I've been playing it non-stop since it was leaked onto the internet Sunday night (Monday morning in Finland).

And here it is, in all it's glory!

CD Review: Metallica and Lou Reed's Lulu

Oh boy...... where do I begin? *Facepalm*

Metallica is one of my favorite bands, but what the hell is this crap? Metallica decided that they wanted to do something a little different by producing a concept album with another artist. Lulu is based on a series of two plays (Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box) by Frank Wedekind, a playwright who lived in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. They decided to record the album with Lou Reed, an old experimental rock musician who honestly has no business doing anything with a group like Metallica! This collaboration would be nothing more than a big mess, like mixing water and oil, and that is exactly what happened on Lulu.

Musically, the album is just pure noise! It sounds like Metallica came up with a bunch of rushed metal riffs and gave it to Lou Reed for him to make shitty songs. Metallica on this album sounds generic and boring, almost like the equivalence of nails on a chalkboard for metal listeners! But of course the worst part of this project are Lou Reed's vocals! He doesn't sing, instead he simply talks over the music and it sounds terrible and out of key. Everything just sounds so annoying on this album! Even some of the lyrics are laughable. In their single, "The View", James Hetfield sings lyrics such as "I am the Table", which has now become a big Internet meme as of late! Actually, I find that line pretty humorous myself and it seems that people are now calling James "The Table"! Unreal!

For a concept album, this was extremely horrible, awkward and poorly executed! It's one thing to try to be original, but please make it at least listenable! Why did Metallica sign up for this? What was the reason for creating this horrible album? Why would Metallica release this garbage after releasing a fairly decent album in Death Magnetic? What were they thinking?? Normally, I would do a song by song review, but this album was so bad that it did not deserve that! I would honestly rate this among the top 10 worst albums of all time! Seriously, it is THAT BAD! I have been looking for an album to give 0 stars and a DOUBLE horns down for, and that is exactly what this album deserves! /w\ /w\ Absolutely horrible! Do not buy or even listen to this, and this is coming from a long time Metallica fan! Metallica is going to have to do something really amazing in the future to make up for this garbage!

I am honestly ashamed to be a Metallica fan after listening to this..

Rating: 0/5 Abomination!

Come Cover Me: Angra's Phantom of the Opera version live Rock in Rio 2011 with Tarja

When I found out that Angra was performing live with Tarja in Rock in Rio 2011, I was so excited that I nearly exploded! Haha, just kidding but you know what I mean. I was excited until I heard the performance itself. I myself am a big Angra fan, but to be honest, their performance at Rock in Rio this year was pretty lackluster compared to what I have heard out of this band before. This video showcases Angra covering the famous Phantom of the Opera song with Tarja Turunen:

Nightwish's version of this song is obviously far superior and it is apparent that both Edu and Tarja are out of key. Apparently from metal gossip on YouTube, they were both mic'ed up very poorly and could not hear the music well at all. Well I can actually see that, but Edu's singing is just not very good here at all. I actually like his voice with the band normally, but he sounded very course and rough at this concert. He must of had a rough night because he even sang Angra songs very poorly as well. Here is a video of Angra's setlist in Rock In Rio 2011:

If you look up any Angra live video besides RIR 2011, you will see that they are normally a very good live band and that Edu is usually an excellent vocalist. I myself find them to be one of the best live power metal bands around, and this performance actually shocked me. We all have bad days and experiences so rest assured that Angra is still a very good band but had some issues that day.

So yeah, this is not a very good version of POTO.

CD Review: Visions of Atlantis's "Maria Magdalena"

I love how some bands save their best material for EPs.  Leaves' Eyes does this all the time, with the exception of Melusine, which was pretty bad compared to gems like their Legend Land EP and their Elegy EP.  From a marketing standpoint, these EPs make total sense, and it makes sense to keep some little surprises back from the fans so they'll buy more stuff.

Maria Magdalena, released Oct. 21, is VoA's first EP, and I have to say, though I liked Delta well enough (review here), I on the whole like this EP a lot more.

It starts off with the cover of a song I'd never heard before, "Maria Magdalena", originally performed by German pop artist Sandra.  You can listen to the original here.  It's very typical 80s pop and it kind of makes me cringe when I listen to it.  The VoA version, which you can listen to here, is a much more updated, modern version and it rocks.

Also included on this EP are a few new songs, the faster "Change of Tides" and "Distant Shores" and the slower, ballad-like follow up to "The Poem" from 2007's Trinity, entitled "Beyond Horizon - The Poem Part II."  This latter song is great, mainly because it shows of Mario Plank's sensitive side.  In fact, one of the things I liked most about this EP overall is that Mario uses his clean vocals and leaves his growlier voice at home for a while.  In "Beyond Horizon" he sounds amazing and emotional like he never has before.

The other song on this 6-track release that I enjoyed a lot was a remake of "Last Shut of Your Eyes", which originally appeared on VoA's 2004 release, Castaway, back when Nicole Bogner was still lead singer. (Oh, Nicole, where are you now?  You were so awesome!)  This newer version of course features current VoA female lead Maxi Nil, who is an excellent singer.  She really shines on this EP, and when listening to this song in particular, I got a sense of nostalgia.  This is a song that originally got me into the band, yet I hadn't heard it in ages.  Hearing "Last Shut of Your Eye" has inspired me to go back through VoA's discography and revisit my old favourites because it's just been plain too long.

This is definitely an EP worth listening to if you're a VoA fan, as I am, and if you're looking to get into the "new" VoA.  Though Delta is certainly a worthwhile listen, Maria Magdalena doesn't have a single weak or filler song on it, so I definitely recommend it.  Horns up! \m/

Nightwish's "Storytime" Teaser

OMG!  It sounds awesome!  I hope Canada's pitiful postal system doesn't slow up the path of my copy of Imaginaerum, which I ordered from NW's site and should be shipped on the 29th or 30th of November.

This just appeared on Anette's blog, check it!

The Making of Imaginaerum

Nightwish just released this 2-minute clip of the making of Imaginaerum.

Unshine Update

If you haven't heard of Unshine before, I suggest you get on YouTube and start listening!  I stumbled across them a few years ago and really liked what I heard, then I kind of got distracted with other stuff, and they fell out of my regular queue of listening.  Then, they came back to my awareness over the summer via Last.fm, and I realized how much I missed them and how much I was missing out by not listening to them very often.  They are ridiculously underrated.

Hailing from Finland, this female-fronted band has a Gothic-y kind of feel but their lyrical themes have a lot to do with Celtic & pagan stuff, and myth & legend.  Their singer, Susana Vesilahti has a unique voice for the genre.  They have two albums, and recently, Unshine announced that album #3 will be released in early 2012.  They aren't signed with a label at this particular time.

Here is a sample of 4 songs off the upcoming album:

And here are a couple of faves from previous albums.

New Find & Review: Obsidian Shell

My slave-driving boss over at Black Wind Metal sent me a copy of Hungarian Gothic/symphonic-ish metal band Obsidian Shell's newest release, Evershade, for review purposes.  The review is now up on Black Wind Metal here.

I really think this is a band worth checking out.  I really liked Evershade, once I got over the first song on the album, which was a bit on the bland side.  They have some good stuff.  Unfortunately, the singer & bassist left the band shortly after this CD was released, so I'm not sure what the future hold for them, but they deserve a bit of attention because I think they are quite promising.

Here are a couple of samples from Evershade for you to enjoy, "Hidden" and "Season of Light."

Crysalys Review Up

My review of Crysalys's debut album, The Awakening of Gaia, is now appearing on Sonic Cathedral's web zine here, if you are interested in hearing my thoughts about this promising new band.

Tarja's Christmas CD & DVD release dates

Aftrer a long time Tarja is releasing live CD and DVD from her Christmas concerts. The CD will be released on November 25th and the DVD on December  2nd. The footage is from Tarja's Christmas tour back in 2009.

Harus is Tarja's classical line up with whom she has done concerts together since 2006. Learn more about Harus here.











Live video of "You Would Have Loved This" from the DVD

 CD cover

DVD cover

Photoshop FTW :)

Thoughts After Imaginaerum Pre-listening

Tero Tolkki, who runs Metal from Finland, had an opportunity to attend a pre-listening of Nightwish's upcoming CD Imaginaerum.  No promos are being given out by the record label, which I can't say is a bad idea.  Here is Tero's write-up containing his thoughts and impressions after hearing the album.

This CD is sounding very promising!

Losing My Metal Gig Virginity!

On Monday, the long-anticipated day came: Sabaton played in Vancouver.  This Swedish power metal band, which plays and sings about the both the futility and heroism of war (they are a “war metal” band), has long been on my bucket list of bands to see live, after watching tons of YouTube videos of them playing at places like Wacken, etc.  On Monday, they came through Canada’s west coast (as so few on my fave bands do) opening for Swedish power/prog metallers Evergrey.  When the dates were announced in March, I knew this was an opportunity I had to take advantage of, and living in the sticks at the time, I began to scheme about how to get from Boonieland to Vancouver for the gig.  A surprise gift from a good friend yielded tickets and someone to accompany me so I didn’t have to go alone and feel like a loser.


I had just moved to the coast on Friday, for crying out loud, and the move itself was incredibly taxing.  It was hard to look forward to this gig because I had so much going on and I was extremely stressed.  But on the day of, I felt better, my cat was in good hands for the night (my friend came from out of town for this gig and we were staying at a hotel in downtown Van, and I was able to relax and look forward to the evening.

The lineup included The Absense, whom I’d never heard of, and since I was short on time before the gig, I wasn’t able to research.  I figured it would be a better use of my time to go late to the gig and miss this band in favour of meeting up with my brother & SIL for a pre-show libation at a nearby bar.  I also wanted to miss Powerglove; video game metal is not up my alley at all.  I was mildly curious about Blackguard, a Montreal band whom I’d heard previously was excellent live, and whom I know to be a hard-working, hard-touring band worthy of checking out.  

The stage at The Venue.  The big face belongs to the Evergrey set-up.

My friend and I arrived at The Venue at 8pm and The Absence was just finishing up.  I heard enough to know I’d made a good call by showing up late.  The next to take stage was Blackguard, which irked me because I’d hoped Powerglove would be before them & I could bow out after getting my wrist stamped at the door (BTW, I was also IDed at the door, which made my day because I haven’t been IDed in nearly 17 years).  I got to see the sound mixing board up close & personal and get an idea of what The Venue was like.  It was dark.  It had 3 bars and sticky floors.  There was a cool colour-changing wall.

There was a considerable amount of debate on my part as to what to wear to this gig, and after consulting some of my co-writers at Black Wind Metal, I learned that it was kosher to wear another band’s shirt to a gig, as long as the genres weren’t terribly misaligned.   Because my Nightwish shirt was both long-sleeved and not necessarily in the same genre as anyone playing that night, I went instead with my Sonata Arctica t-shirt, purchased nearly a year ago in Calgary.  I saw a lot of other shirts that night: Behemoth, Amon Amarth, Iced Earth, Cannibal Corpse, AC/DC and others.  There was a lot of great people- watching there.  There were scene girls and girls with black tutus on, one chick with a big bow in her hair and a black and white flouncy skirt with a polka-dotted jacket, and a very straight-laced, serious-looking guy with tight jeans, a white v-neck sweater, big glasses - and a murse.  He looked very out of the place.

Anyway, here is my band-by-band run-down.

Blackguard: not my cup of tea musically because their vocals are all growly.  Live, I couldn’t understand a word that came out of the singer's mouth, but I was impressed by the synchronized windmill headbanging the singer & guitarists frequently broke into.  Their power and stage presence was excellent.  Their tiny female drummer totally rocked it.  But the vocals got lost in the overall sound of the band an that was disappointing.

Powerglove:  As they were doing their sound check, they also brought out some props, one included a large, life-sized cut-out of a green monster with gnashing teeth. As the band went onto stage in the dark, I could tell there was something coming on that was higher than the band with a bit of a wave to it.  A butterfly, perhaps? No, it was a pair of skull-capped pennants with the band’s name on them - attached to the drummer somehow.  It was very strange.  When the lights came on at the start of playing, I saw that the band members had all dressed up in costumes that reminded me of Klingon gear mixed with a bit of the caveman look (horns & shit, not to mention the scull-capped pennants) and with some WWF championship belts.  It took me a while to process this...There were a lot of Powerglove fans there - barely over the drinking age of 19, which is what you have to be in order to get to a gig like this.  During their set, out came the inflatable giant mallets and inflatable swords, which were dispersed to the crowd, who went crazy for them.  There might have been some beatdowns.  Bizarre!  They were mainly instrumental which was great, though the one guitarist looked like he was 12 and had no stage presence.  Mind you, he wore the most ridiculous costume of all: he had big tusky horns sticking out of his shoulders.  After they were done, off went the green monster & skull-capped pennants.  Their fans held fast to their inflatable props.  Oh yeah, and it was during Powerglove that the weed came out!

Joakim Broden of Sabaton

Sabaton:  Now we’re talking.  I had found a good place near the bar in a back corner, with seats, so one of us could always look after our stuff since there was no coat check.  But this was Sabaton and I wanted to get closer of course!  I took off while my friend looked after my things and got as far forward as I could without getting too close to the rowdy crowd up front.  Turned out I had a great vantage point for photographing Joakim Broden in action, as well as the fill-in bassis, Emile, I think his name was.  Before they came on stage, the place went dark and on came “The Final Countdown” by fellow Swedes, Europe.  That brought me back.  Then the lights came on, and there they were, pounding out “Ghost Division.”  Seeing them live was just such a great experience.  They are powerful, animated, and so energetic live.  Joakim is way hotter live, too.  He wore a muscle shirt, showing off ripped biceps that totally indicated this guy is a big-time weight lifter.  His thighs were huge.  It was impressive, I must say.  I used to weight lift and was married to a body builder, so big muscle-y men impress me.  His skin also quickly became covered in an attractive sheen of sweat.  I could barely keep my eyes off him.  I took about a bazillion pictures.

I can’t remember the entire set list.  “Primo Victoria” was one song, and they wrapped their set up with “Metalizer.”  The crowd was amazing.  I didn’t think there would be too many Sabaton fans there, but they by far had the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd of the evening, and Joakim remarked several times at how impressed they were that they were in a new country and a new city and they were receiving such a warm welcome.

Sabaton!

One exchange stood out, and why wouldn’t it?  Before the second to last song, Joakim said, “And now we have some very serious business to discuss: my penis.”  This elicited a bit of a roar from the crowd (which was mostly male).  When he heard that he said, “Well, I didn’t say it was big business!”  I was like, where did that come from???  It was funny, but odd!

During “Metalizer,” someone got out a big beach ball and threw it up into the crowd and everyone batted it around.  One girl behind me headbanged so hard she was nearly whipping me with her hair.  For this song, Joakim took off his ever-present sunglasses - at last!  And - there was a wall of death!  It was a very small one, and it looked completely absurd, but it was there!  

Sabaton’s time on stage was too short.  I think it was 7 - 8 songs.  But the crowd was so into it and I was so into it I just wanted it to go on and on...

And the whole time I was up there, fist pumping and horns-upping, I was so grateful that I had this opportunity.  It made the hassle of my move completely worth it.

And then I got to meet some of them!  They were at their merch table in the lobby after their set!   I hesitated about going back there because of my shyness and nerves.  But I had to take this opportunity...so I went.  I left my stuff with my friend and I went back to the merch table.  Immediately, Daniel Mÿhr was right at the door as I walked in.  He’s the keyboardist.  We had a chat!  He noted my Sonata Arctica t-shirt after I told him this was my first metal gig.  He was surprised and when I said Sabaton was on my bucket list, he said, “But you’re wearing a Sonata Arctica shirt!”  I said, “Yeah, well it was a choice between this and a longsleeved Nightwish shirt.”  He nodded and said he understood.  I asked him some questions about touring and the set list and mentioned to him that my fave Sabaton song is “Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)” and he said that they haven’t played that one live in 3 years.

And then I spotted Joakim...Immediately I became very nervous and I could feel my heart in my throat.  For me, this was like meeting a big celebrity.  I waited very patiently as he was surrounded by a crowd of different people, but eventually I stepped forward and offered my hand for him to shake.  He was shorter than I’d expected.  I said nice to meet you and thank you for the great performance, and then it got very awkward...Yep, I was tongue-tied.  Instead of mentioning the Van Canto video, I mentioned that this was my first metal gig and he seemed very surprised and asked me how I came to this one.  I gave him a garbled answer I can’t even repeat, saying something about living in the boonies and being far away from Vancouver, where not many of my favourite bands come anyway, but I don’t know if he understood me because he kind of gave me an odd look and then got distracted with other fangirls and people wanting autographs etc. and I just stood there a moment longer before realizing my time was up, so I just thanked him again and left.  I went away feeling stupid and embarrassed, but also, as a reporter and writer for a paper, I’m used to people wanting to talk to me, dammit!  He wouldn’t have known that, though.  Anyway...not an ideal interaction and the space was so crowded I was having a hard time coping with the noise, so I just went back to my place where my friend was waiting, patting myself on the back that yeah, I did go up to the guy and shake his hand, which for me took some guts (since I don’t have many), and reassured myself that he probably wouldn’t remember me or the awkward exchange anyway.  

Tom Englund of Evergrey.

Everygrey: This band I wasn’t particularly familiar with.  I listened once to their most recent album, Glorious Collision and I did enjoy it.  They were really good live, but we wound up not staying for their full performance because their lighting was driving me up the wall and making my friend dizzy.  That was disappointing because I thought they had a lot of soul and emotion on stage.  Sabaton had pretty straightforward lighting, but Evergrey had a bunch of effects with their lighting that really annoyed me.  My friend and I couldn’t stay for the whole thing, so we left about halfway through.  I felt really guilty about this because after Sabaton, the crowd thinned considerably and was decidedly less enthusiastic.


Summary: Fantastic experience.  Good call with getting ear plugs; my ears would have been bleeding after Blackguard if I hadn’t worn any. I am so glad I went and so grateful that my friend was there with me.  It wasn’t her cup of tea at all, but she was a total trooper.  If you’re a Sabaton fan, I totally recommend seeing them live because they are pure power to watch and experience, and I was so happy I had this opportunity.  And I look forward to more opportunities like this in the future now that I’m down on the coast.  In fact, I plan on attending the Arkona gig in December, where they open for Korpiklaani (whom I’m not really into).  That might even involve an interview for Sonic Cathedral’s web zine.

You can see all my photos of the gig here.