3rd December 2019
Eluveitie - “Ategnatos” European Tour 2019 - Support: Lacuna Coil, Infected Rain
Together with INFECTED RAIN and LACUNA COIL, the Swiss Folk Metal band ELUVEITIE are currently touring the area. With their new album ‘Ategnatos’ in their luggage and enormous live power they want to make the stages in Europe shake. On Tuesday they were guests in Saarbrücken and made the Garage sweat a lot.
Infected Rain
INFECTED RAIN is a Moldovan Nu-Metal / Nu-Metalcore band, formed in 2008 in Chișinău. The group was formed in 2008 by the guitarist Vadim “Vidick” Ozhog, the lead vocalist Elena Kataraga aka Lena Scissorhands, and the DJ Ivan Kristioglo aka DJ Kapa. They debuted on 3 August 2008 at a concert dedicated to SLAYER. INFECTED RAIN has been known to fuse various musical styles, from Nu-Metal, Metalcore, to Melodic Death Metal. Vocals ranges from high-pitched screams to death-growling, clean singing and to a lesser extent some rapping on part of Elena. INFECTED RAIN have signed a worldwide deal with Napalm Records earlier this year and released their 4th album ‘Endorphin’ in October this year.
Music & Performance
For INFECTED RAIN, with her expressive front woman Elena Cataraga, it was of course very cool that the Garage was already quite full. And the Moldovans didn’t take long to warm up and fired their energetic mix of Nu-Metal, Metalcore and a little Melo-Death into the crowd. The band itself went full throttle on stage and was able to draw more out of the audience with their performance than just the obligatory applause. This was not least due to the charismatic front woman who is known under the stage name “Lena Scissorhands”. Not only her hair colour and hairstyle attracted attention, but also her singing, which is mostly growling and guttural. She was able to do this very well and she was able to sing in normal voice as well. Beside Lena, the two guitarists Vidick and Sergey and the bassist Vladimir were also especially remarkable assets and went wild at the edges of the stage.
All this energy of the Moldovans was then transferred to the grateful audience. After ‘Sweet, Sweet Lies’ the band was sent into the evening with a lot of applause. Solid performance.
Setlist
01. Mold
02. Passerby
03. Orphan Soul
04. Lure
05. Black Gold
06. The Earth Mantra
07. Sweet, Sweet Lies
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 6
Light: 7
Total: 7 / 10
Lacuna Coil
Formed in 1994, LACUNA COIL quickly became one of Century Media’s biggest selling bands. From ‘Comalies’ (2002) and ‘Karmacode’ (2004) to ‘Shallow Life’ (2009) and ‘Broken Crown Halo’ (2014), the high-flying Italian act demonstrated an uncanny ability to pull in Rock, Gothic, and Metal audiences. The band’s spirited and lauded live performances have also earned them a solid reputation for a band that not only delivers night in/ night out, but also a band whose stage performance reverberates long after the show is over. Indeed, LACUNA COIL’s heartfelt, heavy, melodic, and rhythmic Metal - a hybrid of Gothic, Groove, and Alternative - has created a rabid worldwide following. Whether it’s ‘Our Truth’ and ‘Delirium’ or ‘Nothing Stands in Our Way’ and ‘Trip the Darkness’, LACUNA COIL’s dual-vocalist assault is immediately identifiable. New album, ‘Black Anima’, continues the Italian’s reign atop the Metal stack.
Music & Performance
At the latest when LACUNA COIL started their intro, there was almost no getting through in the Garage. The crowd stood tightly packed in front of the stage and stretched out their fists to the band. Drummer Richard Meiz was the first to come on stage and cheered from his drum kit on to the crowd. Shortly thereafter the rest of the band appeared and went with ‘Blood, Tears, Dust’ immediately to the fullest. The sound was powerful and the performance was very atmospheric due to the outfits and the corpse paint of the protagonists. Even though the outfits created the right atmosphere, they weren’t really adapted to the music style of the band. The vocal duo Andrea Ferro and Christina Scabbia were the last to come on stage in a black hooded gulf. The new album ‘Black Anima’ seemed to be relatively familiar to the crowd and songs like ‘Layers Of Time’ or ‘Reckless’ were celebrated. All in all LACUNA COIL limited themselves to songs of the recent past.
The early phase of the band was only represented by the classic ‘Heaven’s A Lie’. The cover ‘Enjoy the Silence’ by DEPECHE MODE was full of jubilation and at times a little astonishment. Also at the end of the gig the audience was allowed to give their all again, when Christina Scabbia intoned the obligatory words “We fear nothing” and announced the last track ‘Nothing Stands In Our Way’. Here everything was given in front of and on stage once more and the performance was brought to an end according to the status.
Setlist
01. Blood, Tears, Dust
02. Our Truth
03. Reckless
04. Layers of Time
05. Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode cover)
06. The House of Shame
07. Sword of Anger
08. Heaven’s a Lie
09. Veneficium
10. Nothing Stand in Our Way
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8 / 10
Eluveitie
ELUVEITIE is a Swiss Folk Metal band from Winterthur, Zürich, founded in 2002 by Chrigel Glanzmann. The name of the band comes from graffiti on a vessel from Mantua (c. 300 BC). The inscription in Etruscan letters reads ELUVEITIE, which has been interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic (h)elvetios (“the Helvetian”), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua. ELUVEITIE describe themselves as “[t]he new wave of folk metal”. The band’s style incorporates characteristics of Melodic Death Metal combined with the melodies of traditional Celtic music. They use traditional European instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes, amidst guitars and both clean and harsh vocals. Their lyrics include references to Celtic mythology, particularly of Celtic Gaul. The lyrics are often in a reconstructed form of the extinct ancient language Gaulish.
Music & Performance
The Swiss Folk Metal band ELUVEITIE made it exciting. Only the mic stand of singer Chrigel Glanzmann was visible. Then three ladies, masked in white, stepped onto the narrow stage and set the mood for the evening with mystical verses and a lot of fog. Seamlessly the intro went over into the first song, ‘Ategnatos’, to which thundering drums were added and the nine-headed band gradually came on stage and let the audience applaud and cheered. The audience seemed impressed by the full stage and the many different instruments. The second song was ‘King’ and the atmosphere in the Garage was great. At request of band head Christian “Chrigel” Glanzmann, the band classic ‘Call of the Mountains’ was sung in their national language (in Swiss German) and was then called ‘De Ruef vo de Bärge’.
The band was super playful and in a good mood and singer Fabienne Erni also proved that she can convince with her strong, clear voice and harsh tones. They continued with current material. Songs like ‘Deathwalker’, ‘The Slumber’ and ‘Worship’ were fired into the crowd and celebrated from beginning to end. The current ELUVEITIE line-up was agile and joyful. Again and again the positions were changed and the audience was motivated to participate. With ‘Artio’ and ‘Epona’ there were also two quieter ELUVEITIE songs from the 2017 album ‘Evocation II - Pantheon’. Whereby the latter mostly led to exuberant dancing and moshing in the audience. The ballad ‘A Rose For Epona’ came just in time. A real energy explosion were ‘Ambiramus’ and ‘Thousandfold’. Shortly before the final spurt drummer Alain Ackermann was allowed to show once more how well he can play drums and thus give the rest of the band a short break. The latter apparently made good use of it, because they came back on stage full of verve and shot with ‘Havoc’, ‘Breath’ and of course ‘Helvetios’ another three pack of the very best quality into the crowd.
The setlist didn’t wipe off to most of the shows this year, but with so many hits it’s also irrelevant. Every song sat and every song was celebrated. In addition a fine light show and a good sound, which is also worth mentioning, considering the many different instruments that had to be mixed together. Of course the new album ‘Ategnatos’ was the most represented with seven songs. The final number ‘Inis Mona’ mobilized the last forces of band and audience. A great evening came to an end after 90 minutes of ELUVEITIE.
Setlist
01. Ategnatos
02. King
03. De Ruef vo de Bärge (Call of the Mountains)
04. Deathwalker
05. Quoth the Raven
06. The Slumber
07. Worship
08. Artio
09. Epona
10. A Rose for Epona
11. Ambiramus
12. Havoc
13. Thousandfold
14. Breath
15. Helevitos
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16. Rebirth
17. Inis Mona
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 9
Light: 9
Total 9.3 / 10
All pictures by Elena Arens
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