Hello!
It's me again, coming back from a very long and exhausting, but,
nevertheless, very sweeeeet trip to Russia. Yeah, I know it's gonna be a
very uneasy task to review something that I saw more than a month ago (I
should have done it before I left for Moscow, but what's the point in
remorse?), but I will do my best to ensure that this review is as good
as all the other ones on this site. If you cared to read the name of
this particular review, then you already know that SOMNUS had to play
first that night. Well, that's exactly what happened, but not before we
all had to wait for no less than half an hour for SOMNUS to finally get
Amorphis
on stage and start to play. I think the reason they kicked off the show
late was that they were waiting for their second guitar player to
arrive, yet he never did. Later we got news that he broke his hand and
thus could not play that night. I am not sure if he broke his arm just
before the show or it happened earlier, but in any case I wish him a
speedy recovery, because with only one guitar SOMNUS just did not sound
the same. Moreover, like loosing one guitar was not already bad enough,
they also had major problems with vocal sound, to the point there you
just could not hear what was being sung whatsoever. Now, I am not saying
that it was a bad show, because all the usual favorites like 'Forever
Serpent' from their debut CD 'Awakening The Crown' were played and
energy was there too, but they can do much better than that and we all
know it. Up next was SANCTORUM, and it was kind of relief to see them
alive and well (more or less) after they missed several previous shows
due to some unknown (at least to me) reasons. Actually, I started to
suspect that this excellent band simply broke up, but, fortunately, it
was not true. But what the hell, SANCTORUM joined by FROM THE DEPTHS
mainman covered in the corpsepaint (by the way, it did not look too good
on him, sorry man!)?! Yes, it was the case, as the corpsepainted one
performed all vocal lines for SANCTORUM, although it was almost
impossible to say if he was really singing or just shouting some random
words in the microphone as SANCTORUM had just the same problem that
The Kovenant
corrupted SOMNUS' part of the show - practically indistinguishable
vocals. They also played with only one guitar (actually I suspect that
second guitar player from SOMNUS, who, so unfortunately, broke his hand,
is also a gutirist/vocalist for SANCTORUM, thus all the line-up
problems) and while SOMNUS could partly compensate that loss with their
keyboard melodies, SANCTORUM did not have such a chance, and thus
sounded a little bit dry and monotonous. Such was a partly failed return
of mighty SANCTORUM, the only bright spot of their show being an
announcement of upcoming MCD (self-financed?). Well, I'm waiting... THE
KOVENANT's performance left me with a feeling of uncertainty of whether
I liked what I witnessed or not. On one hand, their stage costumes
looked quite interesting and unorthodox (especially Hellhammer's white
mask), although the one that entity formerly known as Nagash from DIMMU
BORGIR was wearing looked way too extravagant (some individuals in the
crowd even mistook it for a dress, haha!). Plus their powerful and
energetic performance left me wanting for more than mere six songs they
played that night. Even though most of the songs clocked at over six
minutes, and whole show continued for no less than 35 minutes, I felt
like I was willing and eager to hear some extra material from them.
Actually I only own their second album (their first for Nuclear Blast)
'Nexus Polaris' and before that show had only heard some short samples
off their
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newest creation 'Animatronik', but after attending this show I
can easily testify that their new record offers much stronger material
with some of these new songs being almost real 'big hits', for example
'In the Name of the Future' and 'Jihad'. MTV, where are you??? :-) Now
to the drawbacks, and they were plentiful. First of all, ridiculous
circus in the style (almost a rip-off) of Marilyn Manson with ripping
apart a bible (boring and unoriginal), stupid comments about USA (we've
heard it before thousand times and don't wanna hear it again) etc. I
know that Nagash worships Marilyn Manson and I have nothing against
commercial music if it's done the right way, but at least come up with
something original imagewise instead of parodying somebody else! Another
minus: ALL the choirs, bass (!!!), and keyboard lines were prerecorded!
What a surprise! And it was a Metal band playing a Metal concert at the
Metal club! Thus it was quite difficult for me to judge what part of
their great sound was actually due to their musical abilities, and which
due to a phonogram. Nevertheless, quite an entertaining show, and I hope
they come back soon, just as Nagash (oops, sorry, it's now Lex Icon)
promised. But next time just leave a poor bible at the hotel where it
belongs, would you please? Second Skin anybody?! No, it was a second
chance for MOONSPELL to redeem their reputation after a couple of weak
albums and a very unspectacular show the last time I saw them. Well, I'm
happy to inform you that that time around they took no prisoners and
were at their best. Everything from a very unusual setlist and excellent
Sanctorum
stage energy to (finally!) good sound and warm crowd reception was quite
different from what happened the last time they played at that very same
place just six months ago. I was pleasantly surprised when Fernando
announced that that day they were going to have quite a different
setlist from what they had the other time, and, boy, was it good?! They
still played quite a few uninteresting songs from their newest creation
'The Butterfly Effect', but they also presented a lot of older songs
including several compositions taken from 'Irreligious', 'Vampiria' and
'Wolfshade' (!) off their best record 'Wolfheart', and even a very
chaotic, but still enjoyable cover of JOY DIVISION's 'Love will tear us
apart' (!!!). So maybe next time I see them they will even play some
songs from their debut MCD 'Under the Moonspell' :-) The only strange
thing about their performance was Fernando, in the beginning of the
show, wearing some kind of the robe which actually looked like a dress
(yeah, another one). Is it supposed to be some kind of the gothic outfit
or what? AMORPHIS? AMORPHIS! Their first visit to these shores in more
than five years (they last toured US in 1994). Man, it was long time
coming, hehe. OK, I'm just kidding. Back in those days I only started to
get into Metal and I did not really like AMORPHIS back then. Moreover, I
did not even live in Cleveland, so for me it could be as well 1984 :-)
Anyway, coming back to AMORPHIS and their music. What do you think
happened to them in the very beginning of their set? Surprise: problems
with sound, and, particularly, with vocals! After sound engineer's long
struggle with a mixing board, sound, at last, became a little bit
better, but it was far away from being perfect. AMORPHIS' setlist was
filled up quite nicely with songs from their (not so) new album
'Tuonela', which, in my opinion, seriously lacked in both aggressiveness
and feeling. It was quite evident, because those new songs were played
alongside with older favorites like 'Against Widows', 'Better Unborn'
and several songs off 'Tales from the Thousand Lakes' album, which
sounded far superior to newer material. Not to say that their new songs
totally suck, because it's not the case, but AMORPHIS can do, oh, so
much better. After they played ten songs they left the stage, but I knew
that they would be back in no time if we only asked them, because I saw
their setlist written on the piece of paper and it included two encore
songs :-) one being something new, and the other...yeah, 'Black Winter
Day'!!! ...pretty cool show it was, but, guys, do you really have to
play only this safe hard rock music to satisfy yourselves???
Andy.
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