Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg25th April 2023
Sabaton - “The Tour To End All Tours” - Support: Lordi, Babymetal
On Tuesday, the time had finally come. The Swedes from SABATON performed in an almost sold-out Rockhal. The “The Tour to End All Tours”, like many other tours, had to be postponed due to the pandemic, so the audience was very happy after a year or so. The band included the most famous monsters of our time, LORDI from Finland and the Japanese kawaii metal band BABYMETAL.
Lordi
LORDI is a Finnish Rock band, formed in 1992 by the band’s lead singer, songwriter and costume maker, Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu). Influenced by Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music, LORDI are known for wearing monster masks and using horror elements with pyrotechnics during concerts and music videos. The band rose to fame in 2002 with their hit single ‘Would You Love a Monsterman?’, and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with their song ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’.
Music & Performance
The evening started exactly at 7 pm when LORDI entered the stage of the Rockhal. The Finns opened the evening with ‘Dead Again Jayne’ and gave the audience the finest Heavy Rock sounds. In their hilarious and very elaborately made monster costumes, all eyes were only on them for 40 minutes. But it wasn’t just the costumes that captivated the crowd, the sympathetic singer Mr. Lordi also had the audience firmly in his grip, wondering what language they would speak in Luxembourg. Since most of the audience knew German and/ or French, the frontman fooled around a bit and lovingly explained the difference between “Ja” and “Ja ja”.
Their most famous song, ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’, was also not to be missed this evening and ended the set of the charming monsters.
Setlist
01. Dead Again Jayne
02. Would You Love a Monsterman?
03. Thing in the Cage
04. Blood Red Sandman
05. Lucyfer Prime Evil
06. Devil Is a Loser
07. Who’s Your Daddy?
08. Hard Rock Hallelujah
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.5 / 10
Babymetal
BABYMETAL is a Japanese Kawaii Metal band consisting of Suzuka Nakamoto as “Su-metal”, Moa Kikuchi as “Moametal” and Momoko Okazaki as “Momometal”. The band was formed in 2010 with the concept of creating a fusion of the Heavy Metal and Japanese idol genres. BABYMETAL have released four studio albums since their inception: the first, ‘Babymetal’, came out in February 2014. Their second album ‘Metal Resistance’ was released worldwide in April 2016. The group released their third album ‘Metal Galaxy’ in October 2019. Their fourth album, ‘The Other One’, was released in March 2023.
Music & Performance
The next support act was a very popular band in Japan: BABYMETAL. The Japanese started with ‘Babymetal Death’. With a few exceptions, the audience didn’t really seem ready. Probably because the opener song was rather instrumental and there was no singing and jumping along. But this changed from the second song on. The intro of ‘Megitsune’ rang through the Rockhal and the audience began to cheer to the band. At the first guitar note, the crowd was unstoppable, and there was also a lot of action on stage.
The three protagonists jumped back and forth on stage, making the audience head-bang and dance along even more. The choreography was incredibly impressive and perfectly synchronised. The energy level rose again with ‘PA PA YA!!’ and the audience sang along loudly (and probably mispronounced some of the Japanese lyrics). The Kami band, BABYMETAL’s backing band, were convincing with their expertise, even if they stayed a bit more in the background. After the somewhat quieter song ‘Monochrome’, the Rockhal started to shake again. The reason for this was ‘Gimme Chocolate!!’ The energy of the trio from the stage was really infectious that almost nobody stood still. BABYMETAL should not be underestimated. Even if many smile at them and don’t take them seriously, they stay on their path and don’t let themselves be intimidated.
Unfortunately, there was quite a lot of space in the back rows of the Rockhal, so probably not everyone was enthusiastic about the Japanese band. But people could sometimes jump over their shadows and make their own picture of a music group. Because when young people manage to inspire hundreds of thousands of people and fill concert halls, offer surprises in this clichéd society, it means that they are really good and know exactly what they are doing. Arigatō BABYMETAL, see you in December!
Setlist
01. Babymetal Death
02. Megitsune
03. PA PA YA!!
04. Maya
05. Monochrome
06. Gimme Chocolate!!
07. Road of Resistance
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 9 / 10
Sabaton
SABATON is a Swedish heavy metal band from Falun, Sweden. The vast majority of their albums are written about historical events, mainly wars and significant battles. SABATON has been referred to as one of the “big four” Power Metal bands, along with HELLOWEEN, BLIND GUARDIAN and DRAGONFORCE. They are one of the most successful metal bands in Swedish history.
Music & Performance
After the changeover break, it was time at 9.15 pm for “The Tour to End All Tours” (a direct allusion to the band’s last album ‘The War to End All Wars’) to reach its peak. The Rockhal was ready to go into battle. SABATON opened the concert with the song ‘Ghost Division’ from their fourth studio album ‘The Art of War’. It was already clear that the Swedes were in great condition and would literally heat up the Rockhal. Already at this point there was the first explosions. This pattern continued throughout the whole concert. Whether it was waves of flames in ‘Bismarck’, ‘Into The Fire’, ‘Carolus Rex’ or snow in ‘Soldier Of Heaven’ and ‘Christmas Truce’ (a song about the Christmas peace in World War I) - there was always something happening on or off-stage. Their songs tell musical stories of historical battles and the protagonists involved in them.
The band played in military trousers as usual, and the drummer was sitting on a tank! In addition, soldiers in British, German and French uniforms appeared on stage. But not only the Swedes were energetic, also the audience. They sang along loudly with singer Joakim Brodén. But the Swedes could also play a softer note. With songs like the MOTÖRHEAD cover ‘1916’ and ‘Soldier of Heaven’, the fans had a short break to catch their breath. At the end of the show, the band came back for a fired-up encore and made the fans’ hearts beat faster. With ‘Primo Victoria’, ‘Swedish Pagans’ and ‘To Hell and Back’, the Swedes ended their stop in Luxembourg with flames and confetti.
Setlist
01. Ghost Division
02. Bismarck
03. The Last Stand
04. Into the Fire
05. Carolus Rex
06. Winged Hussars
07. Sarajevo
08. Stormtroopers
09. 1916 (Motörhead cover)
10. Soldier of Heaven
11. Dreadnought
12. The Red Baron
13. Father
14. The Attack of the Dead Men
15. Christmas Truce
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16. Primo Victoria
17. Swedish Pagans
18. To Hell and Back
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
All Pictures by Elena Arens
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