König-Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
29th December 2007
On a Dark Winters Night: Van Canto, Tarot, Jesus on Extasy, Dope Stars Inc., Amorphis, Blind, Letzte Instanz, Nightwish
It was a fixed date for every Gothic and Metal Fan when the festival was guest in Oberhausen even though the information on the line-up were rather spare, the name NIGHTWISH was enough to make the hearts of Metal Fans leap for joy and more than once we saw people with NIGHTWISH shirts passing us by. The venue got fuller and fuller but unfortunately a truck with basic equipment for the stage had not arrived yet and so everyone was wondering when the show would finally start. After a long waiting time, the show finally started with a delay of two and a half hours...
Van Canto
The first band of this evening was VAN CANTO, a band from Germany which has a rather short history. Founded in 2006, the debut album ‘Storm to Come’ was released in the same year the band was founded. In 2007 the band played several festivals like the Bochum Total and the Rock Harz Festival for example. In the same year, the debut album was re-released via Gun Records. http://www.vancanto.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vancanto
Music & Performance
The specialty of this band is the A Cappella Metal and as far as I know it’s the only band that does this kind of Metal, so it’s quite unique thing. NO Guitars, NO Bass or any other string instruments, just drums and four guys and a woman who performed in different pitches and replaced the missing instruments. It was a bit unusual at first but you have to admit that there’s something to this kind of Metal and they did a quite good job. The audience was a little bit restrained, but when they were encouraged by Philip they started to clap their hands. The set was quite short and ended with a cover of METALLICAS ‘Battery’.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7
Tarot
The evening went on with TAROT who are also called the “Godfathers of Finnish Heavy Metal” in their home country. The whole story started at the beginning of the 1980s when the two brothers Marco and Zacharay Hietalia founded the band under the name PURGATORY but when they got their label contract the label asked to change the name because there were already plenty of bands with the same name, so they changed it to TAROT which is the name ever since. The band released 9 albums and countless singles. The latest album is called ‘Crows fly back’ and was released this year. TAROT are: Tommi Salmela (vocals, samples), Marco Hietala (vocals, bass; also NIGHTWISH), Zacharay Hietala (guitar), Janne Tolsa (keyboards) and Pecu Kinnaro (drums) http://www.wingsofdarkness.net/ / http://www.myspace.com/theofficialtarot
Music & Performance
I would describe TAROTS style as Heavy Metal with gothic influences. Apart from the usual Guitars and lush drums they also use monumental strings and keyboard melodies in their sound. Marco’s voices sounded clean and trained to me but maybe he’s just a talented singer but the voice put a stamp on the compositions they played. For my taste there could have been some more movement on the stage. Of course there was some movement here and there but there could have been more. The audience obviously wasn’t in the mood to move either except for a very few folks or when they were animated to do so.
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.2
Jesus on Extasy
Next one on the list and “Just another band on the way to NIGHTWISH” was JESUS ON EXTASY from the Ruhr Area in Germany founded in the summer of 2005 by Dorian and Chai Deveraux. They became a quick rise in the scene. As the band had no drummer, the first songs were recorded with a drum computer. The band has released one album to this day called ‘Holy Beauty’. JESUS ON EXTASY are: Dorian Deveraux (vocals, keyboard), Chai Deveraux (E-guitar, keyboard), Alicia Wayne (E-guitar), Ophelia Dax (keyboards) and BJ (drums). http://www.jesusonextasy.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/jesusonextasy
Music & Performance
One of the main influences of JESUS on EXTASY is Industrial Rock but you also find Goth, Pop and even a little bit of Glam Rock in their sound. The spherical and dense keyboard sounds are a nice counterpoint o the mostly harsh guitar melodies. The whole scenery was illuminated by different kinds of lights but they used the darker colours, so the atmosphere would be creepier I guess. As the band has only one album out in stores, all tracks of the short set were taken from that one. The guys - Dorian in the first place did their best to make the audience boil and at some points the actually succeeded with that task but it seemed to me that much of the attendees were just waiting for NIGHTWISH
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.9
Dope Stars Inc.
Founded in spring 2003, this band has a rather short but nevertheless successful history. When they released their first EP ‘10.000 Watts of artificial pleasures’, they attracted much attention from scene magazines even though it was initially published as a digital download only via Internet. In 2005 they signed a record deal with the German label Trisol. Short after that happened, the band entered the studio together with Thomas Rainer from L'AME IMMORTELLE and John Fryer who already worked for acts like NINE INCH NAILS or DEPECHE MODE, to produce their first full-length album ‘Neuromance’ which hit the stores at the end of August 2005. An EP called ‘Make a Star’ was the next musical sign of life released in august 2006 followed by the second album ‘Gigahearts’ at the end of 2006. DOPE STARS INC. are: Victor Love: (vocals, guitar, synths, programming), La Nuit (guitar), Darin Yevonde (bass) and Ash Rexy (live synths). http://www.dopestarsinc.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/dopestarsinc
Music & Performance
“Industrial Rock ‘n’ Roll” is the first thing you recognize when entering the website of the band and that hits the nail right on the head. The basic rhythms and sound are created by a drum computer and synthesizer. The rest is pure handmade Rock. At the beginning there seemed to be a problem in the mix as the guitars really drowned the drums and you had to listen very carefully to hear them, but that problem was solved during the performance even though the drums were always a little bit low in my opinion. The band had fun on stage that was clear right from the start. Except for the man behind the synths, everyone was moving. Mostly Darin who never really stood on one place for a long time and if he stood he was moving to the rhythm like his band colleagues did.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.2
Amorphis
In 1990 Esa Holopainen, Toni Koivussaari and Olli-Pekka Laine decided to found their own Death Metal band after the bands they had played in ceased to exit. The first demo was recorded in only two days and even though the band wasn’t satisfied with the sound the demo was sold out in the summer of the same year. The band is considered as one of the most successful Finnish Metal bands. Almost every release in the last ten years reached a top position in the charts. http://www.amorphis.net/ / http://www.myspace.com/amorphis
Music & Performance
The style has constantly changed over the years. Back at the beginning it was pure Death Metal which AMORPHIS presented, but later on also elements of the Progressive Metal and even influences of Finnish and Arabian music found their way into the sound of AMORPHIS. At a certain point the renounced the Growls and switched over to a more clean chant but on stage they combined elements of their past and future but first things first. The band entered the stage which was illuminated in dark colours accompanied by a kind of classical lead-in tune. In the background a projection wall was mounted with a picture on it that looked like it was painted showing a magical landscape. During the show, various coloured spotlights bathed in different lights while the picture remained the same. The mood was slightly better than before and the people screamed and clapped their hands on almost every song. Toni’s long dreadlocks flew around his had and it was clear he had much fun on stage. The chant was very varied and pended between the dark growls and a pretty good clean chant.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.5
Blind
Blind go their way without any compromises and following this agenda, it is no wonder they rejected several proportions from labels and switched producers in early demo stage because they didn’t show enough encouragement. The members of the band are perfectionists and the first album is still not released but will be finally released in 25th January 2008. The preceding single called ‘Break away’ is available since the 22nd December. http://www.blindpage.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/officialblind
Music & Performance
A statement on the website is “We don’t try to sound American, we just try to avoid to sound typically German” but what does that mean in particular? Let’s get a little bit more precise. The result of their long lasting maturing process is a sound that mixes up elements of Power Pop, Alternative Rock and Modern Metal to a unique style and that was exactly what was presented at the festival and although that mixture came over very powerful, there wasn’t that much movement on stage as I had expected. A little bit more motion from the other members might have been better but that’s just my opinion of course.
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.2
Letzte Instanz
LETZTE INSTANZ arose from the band RESISTANCE and was founded in 1996 in Dresden. After they approached some labels under the name RESISTANCE they signed a record deal with the label Costbar and recorded their first songs which are included on the first album. Later the band then changed their name to LETRZTE INSTANT to distinguish themselves from other bands that got the name RESISTANCE. Before they even released their second album, the singer Hörbi and bas player Kaspar left the band. Sebastian Lohsa aka Robin Sohn and Rasta F. took over as singer and Bass player. After the release of their fourth album ‘Götter auf Abruf’ three members of the band (incl. the singer) left the band. After a long search they found a new singer with Holly and meanwhile recorded two other albums with ‘Wir sind Gold’ as the latest. http://www.letzte-instanz.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/letzteinstanz
Music & Performance
The first album ‘Brachialromantik’ was clearly influenced by medieval rock bands like SUBWAY TO SALLY or INEXTREMO so the band was categorized to that draw, but with every new album those influences got less and less and the guitars came to the fore while the strings went more and more into the background. Elements of Folk and on some songs they even rapped not to forget the electronic elements appearing here and there. From the very first moment after the band entered the stage there was a feeling of energy floating through the room. Holly moved up and down the stage like a curly whirly the whole time while M. Stolz danced around all the time when playing the violin. It was much fun to watch that spectacle on stage and the fun the band had went over to the audience. I wondered if the people had been replaced. The people followed every order Holly gave them. When he said “jump”, the crowd jumped and when he asked them to raise their hands they did that as well. It was like the crowd got hypnotized.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 8
Nightwish
The moment everyone was waiting for had finally arrived. It was time foe NIGHTWISH, one of the most successful Metal bands in Finland. The music of NIGHTWISH is heavily inspired by Movie scores and is considered as defining for their genre. In 2005, Tarja Turunen left the band and with Anette Olzon a new singer took her position. The first album produced with Olzon succeeded all expectations and reached the top position in the Finnish album charts. The band is currently on a world tour until fall 2009. NIGHTWISH are: Anette Olzon (vocals), Tuomas Holopainen (keyboard), Emppu Vuorinen (guitar), Jukka “Julius” Nevalainen (drums) and Marco Hietala (bass, vocals). http://www.nightwish.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/nightwish
Music & Performance
The mood in the venue was about to boil over the nearer the moment came but on stage everything stayed dark and it seemed like the band would let their fans wait maybe to boost the tension even more, but when the first notes of the intro sounded through the hall there was no holding back anymore but the band still didn’t appear on stage. But then the moment came and everyone took his positions on stage to deliver a great show on this evening. You didn’t know where to look first. At the light show or at that what was happening on stage? There was energy all over the place and the mere appearance of the band on stage seemed to be enough for the people to get ecstatic. One eye catcher surely was Anette in her sexy dress and her voice that enchanted the crowd all over the place. Another really impressing thing about the performance was the light show. Spotlights flickering like stars, well-dozed fog and fireworks accentuated certain parts of the songs. When ballads performed, the stage was bathed in a dark light and torches lit up to create the right feeling. An overall impressing performance in my opinion!
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 10
Total: 8.2
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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