Edenbridge Live Report

My second time seeing the Austrian symphonic metal crew here in a new venue for me, namely Upstairs at the Garage. Basically a smallish room that was pretty full with a little more than 100 or so people inside.

First up we had two support bands to get through. Denmark's Sage's Recital were a strange band indeed and a touch awkward looking on stage. They played a kind of epic neo-classical Yngwie style metal but with no actual memorable parts just a shit ton of soloing. The tall basball capped lead guitarist was widdling away whilst the much shorter blonde singer had awkward moments whilst waiting to sing his lines. Might be an idea to exit the stage whilst the long instrumental passages are taking place otherwise you end up looking like a lemon standing there as yer man did! Not my cuppa at all overall though they are obviously skilled. The warbling high pitched vocals from the young chap were also not my cup of tea. The last song was over 20 minutes long and was a serious chore to wade through waiting for it to finally end. Sorry guys!

Next up were Dutch band Seventh Sin who I've never really heard of. They were ok but it just came across as a Within Temptation wannabe band to me but with less cool tunes. Not bad but I wasn't won over. At least they had a better idea about what constitutes a song than Sage's Recital did. The girl singer had some nice moves and sang in a girly high pitched voice. The band were decent players and maybe I should give them a chance to impress on record. Live they were merely ok for me but nothing special.

At 9.15 or so Edenbridge took their positions and launched straight into the heavy mid paced riffage that would dominate the next hour and a half. They played all their heaviest songs with the crunchiest riffs. The sound in that room was loud as hell but very crisp as well but it was a little bit too loud. I guess it's the old I'm getting too old for that level of volume adage. Anyway Sabine was in good voice indeed and despite difficulty with the subtleties of in between song stage banter in English, she had no problem as her beautiful lilting voice shined very well indeed. I would have liked more of the faster tunes I guess but they played quite long and not far from 11 o'clock it has to be said. Great value for the cheap ticket price indeed. Now that I've seen Edenbridge a couple of times now I must admit I probably wouldn't go again as they are very proficient but not really an exciting live band in my opinion.