Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Kamelot

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 09 April 2010

FZW, Dortmund, Germany
7th April 2010
Kamelot, Leaves' Eyes, Adagio

The queue lined up in front of the FZW promised a packed venue. But looking at it from the inside of the venue gave a different picture and it didn’t look like half as many persons were attending from that perspective. In the further course of the evening however more would come. Still the venue didn’t look near sold-out. Anyway, we were curious about the things to come.

Adagio

ADAGIO made their first ever appearance in 2001 with the release of the debut album ‘Sanctus Ignis’ to amazing reviews in most big magazines, becoming a considerable success in France and Japan as well. The second album ‘Underworld’ followed an intense period of work and reflection and was released in 2003, broadening their musical scopes with real orchestral support and a virtuoso on the piano. The first headliner tour follows with stops in e.g. France, Spain and the Netherlands.2005 saw the band switching to a new label for the release of their third album ‘Domination’. The current peak of the band’s discography is the release of the recent album ‘Archangels in Black’. ADAGIO is Mats Leven (vocals), Stephan Forté (guitar), Franck Hermanny (bass), Kevin Codfert (keys) and Eric Lébailly (drums). http://www.myspace.com/adagioofficial

Music & Performance
Sharp at 8 PM, the guys of ADAGIO took the stage and one of the first sounds heard was a heart-piercing growl, before the blasting rhythms of the opener exploded. Later on it became quite obvious unfortunately that ADAGIO, even though being a critic’s favourite, did sound like many other bands inside the Melodic Metal realm. With vocals mostly clean as a bell but also absolutely disposable the sound of ADAGIO wasn’t made to strike a big chord with me and surely doesn’t leave any long-lasting impressions. The audience however got fairly carried away by the encouragement calls of singer and front man Mats Leven. One thing though left me baffled during the performance. To one of the songs there’s been a piano introduction and here Kevin Codfert’s virtuosity came to stunning advantage. One great moment in an otherwise rather mediocre start of the evening!

Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 5.5 / 10

Leaves' Eyes

The band formed in summer 2003, short time before the split of front woman Liv Kristine with her former band THEATRE OF TRAGEDY. The year 2004 saw the release of the debut album ‘Lovelorn’ with a single called ‘Into Your Light’. The same year also had in stock a mutual tour with ATROCITY in summer. Quite quickly afterwards the second album ‘Vinland Saga’ was recorded and eventually released in May 2005, followed by a tour with PARADISE LOST through the US in September. In the following year already the EP ‘Legend Land’ came out and just as the second LEAVES’ EYES album gained a position in the German charts. The latest full-length instalment of the combo goes by the name of ‘Njord’ and saw the light of day in 2009. LEAVES’ EYES is Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull (vocals), Alexander (death grunts, keyboards), Thorsten Bauer (guitar), Sander van der Meer (guitar), Alla Fedynitch (bass, guitar) and Seven Antonopoulos (drums). http://www.leaveseyes.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/leaveseyespage

Music & Performance
Just a little break to rebuild the scenery and the elegiac introduction announced the coming of this evening's second band LEAVES' EYES, whose most astonishing feature is the contrast program of Alex Krull's hard Death Metal growls and the angelic frequencies coming from his wife and front woman Liv Kristine, dressed in a flowing, a bit vintage dress. Then after the introduction rolled past us, the show started with the recent album's title track 'Njord' and the entire band setup on stage began to move. Alex during the show was the contact point to the audience whom he encouraged constantly, which first brought hesitant but with the progressing of more minutes better results. His passion for the music just dragged everyone into it and also you couldn't help but being impressed by his head banging. Not by the actual movement however, but by the long hair that followed every head shake like a tail.

Following tracks like 'My Destiny' or 'Take The Devil in Me' kept playing with the ambivalence of the beauty and the harsh and so also provided for a musically varied programme aside from the events on stage. It was no wonder then they've been accompanied by huge applause when wandering off the stage eventually.

Setlist
01. Intro + Njord
02. My Destiny
03. Emerald Island
04. Take the Devil in Me
05. Ragnarok
06. Elegy
07. Froya's Theme
08. Outro - Mot Fjerne Land

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.9 / 10

Kamelot

KAMELOT's existence began in 1991 and 3 years of hard work later the band could sign a record deal in 1994 and in the following year released their debut album 'Eternity' already. The album was praised by the press representatives as one of the most promising debuts. The following album 'Dominion' broadened the musical palette and presented an even more diversified sound of the band. In autumn of 1997, after putting out the third record, the band went on their first encompassing European tour, just to return to a studio 12 months later for the production of their fourth long player. Their popularity grew and grew and from the critic's darling the band grew to a big name in the genre of diversified, forward-thinking Metal music. Their yet untitled new album is scheduled for a release some time in 2010. KAMELOT is Roy Khan (lead vocals), Thomas Youngblood (guitars, backing vocals), Sean Tibbetts (bass guitar), Casey Grillo (drums) and Oliver Palotai (keyboards). http://www.kamelot.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/kamelot

Music & Performance
All waiting was finally over when the curtain, veiling what's happening on stage, fell and revealed the fully fledged line-up of KAMELOT. Ok, not all of them were there. Roy Khan was still missing but followed right away when it was time to start the first verse of the set opener 'Ghost Opera'. Some bands need their time to get warm on stage first, need to play some time. KAMELOT obviously were none of these bands. From the very first minute there's been vivid dynamics on stage, the guitarist and bassist ever switched positions, came closer to the audience or in short: They hardly ever stood in one place for long. The one who was getting closest to the people was Khan, who kept stepping over a little "catwalk" with a box placed on it which he would be climbing often to sing and perform over our heads. Up there he lived through the stories he impressively delivered with his vocals and visualized with broad gestures and mimics.

Most of the time, during songs like 'Eden Echo' with its prog incursions, or on 'Pandemonium' which is a song from the yet untitled new album they're working on, he was doing it all on his own and pretty damn well for that matter. On 'The Haunting' for example he shared the stage with a beautiful female being, equalling at times excelling him in vocal strength. Needless to say the crowd was thrilled and stunned at the same time by all the things going on; frequently simultaneously. And you can surely imagine that when 'Forever' ended the main set' they didn't ask politely for an encore. Their demand was strident and called the band back for a string of four pieces, wrapped up by the monumental 'March of Mephisto', releasing the entirely content audience into an exceptionally mild April night.

Setlist
01. Ghost Opera
02. Eden Echo
03. Pandemonium
04. Human Stain
05. Center of the Universe
06. Wander
07. Pendulous Fall
08. Instrumental
09. Lights
10. Keys Solo
11. The Haunting
12. Hunters Season
13. Rule the World w/Intro
14. Drum Solo
15. Forever
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16. Black Halo
17. Seasons End
18. Karma
19. March of Mephisto

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10