Xandria Live at the Underworld

I'm literally nearly a resident at the Underworld these days. Near enough all the gigs I go to are held there and very handy it is too as long as there's no tube strike on that is! Anyway Friday night was female vocal night at my favourite haunt with the headline set of Germans Xandria being the headline draw. To be honest the new Xandria album has not worked it's magic on me yet. The new singer Dianne is good but I feel the album is a little too boring in places and doesn't have the big melody and class of the previous album with the Tarja clone chick on vocals. Anyway I had my ticket so it was time to see how they fared in a live setting.

I missed the first couple of songs from support band Apparition. I don't think I have heard them before and I won't be desperate to remedy that situation after that insipid live performance. One of the lamest and most bland female fronted bands I have ever had the misfortune to witness. Really bad indeed but that's just my opinion of course. The girl was at least pretty if I look at them though my basest instinct! The gathered throng clapped politely but I don't think they thought much of them at all to be honest. Personally speaking,  it was truly awful, sorry!

The Underworld was filling up pretty nicely though and it helped that it was a Friday night and people had the weekend on the horizon. I would guess the audience to be around the 350 mark by the end of the night which is not bad at all really for a band with Xandria's profile.

Second band on the bill were Stream of Passion. Another band I've never gotten into. Their sort of melancholic prog goth tends to bore me. The girl can definitely sing though and she had a sweet and pleasant voice. The band were pretty tight and next to Apparition sounded like world beaters but the rather mundane and slow delivery bores me. I have tried a couple of songs off their new album and it's not my cuppa. They went down very well with the crowd though and there even a few SoP shirts dotted around so they definitely had and won over a few fans.







































Finally at 8.30 it was time for the Germans led by a young Dutch woman to take to the stage. The professionality suddenly went up 10 notches as did the sound quality over the PA. The band sounded tight and had big smiles on their faces as Dianne took to the stage with big smiles and looking very sassy indeed with her stage moves honed to a tee. Her voice was angelic and light and operatic when needed. She sounded like she was perfect for the band pretty and it felt like she had been in the band since the beginning even though we know they've had a couple of singers come and go already. One thing to note is that the choir vocals were taped in so the band had to be very tight and that they were. The new songs had a bit more power in the live setting that they do on record and Dianne sang them very well indeed.

It of course helped that she's fairly easy on the eyes and if any inadequacies were noticeable people would be quick to forgive them considering her charm and grace in performance. I enjoyed their set but I think the album is a disappointment overall though I need to give it a few more spins. Dianne said it was coming up to the 10th anniversary of the band as she introduced one of their big early hits Ravenheart which got a huge response by the filled out Underworld. The final song of the night was their huge hit from the last album Valentine which was a great way to end with a big Nightwishy anthem like that and send the punters home happy.

Not an amazing gig by any means but it's a reasonably cheap night out and it was a Friday so no harm done!

Toxik Live at the Underworld

I only read about this gig a couple of days ago but what the hell I don't like to miss a killer thrash gig with a cool line up like this one. Of course this was Toxik's first appearance in the UK I believe and it was worth it to nab a late ticket to see these tech thrash legends for the first time. I must admit though I can't recall a single note of Think This and World Circus but I do know that they are held in high esteem by thrashers of a certain vintage. Another draw was the great supporting cast of Savage Messiah and Shrapnel. There was a fourth band listed which was a band called Ramraid.

Alas as I walked into the venue and went to check stage times I saw that Shrapnel were no longer playing. Big bummer indeed 'cause their new album kicks all kinds of butt. I don't why they weren't playing but playing they were not. First up were Ramraid. I detected a Scouse accent from the rotund front man so they were from up north hehe. They played regular thrash metal. They were ok and pretty tight but they only had about 20-25 minutes on stage. Not bad stuff and I will endeavour to check out their tunes online somewhere when I can.

With Shrapnel MIA, it was the turn of local masters Savage Messiah to get the slowly filling Underworld to rev up ready for Toxik. And boy did they do that! These guys are like a well oiled machine these days. They have a very engaging front man and a set of songs that really push the bar high as far as melodic thrash goes. They pumped up the 100 or so crowd with a superb set indeed. In fact they were even better than the last time I saw them a while back. These guys are just fucking killer. Everything about them screams metal and the live setting sees them really cut loose with mean face pulls and shredding guitars galore. Every song was a highlight and I could hardly pick a favourite as all the tracks tore the roof off. It wasn't a huge crowd with it being a Monday night but these guys played like their lives depended on it. They deserve to go on to much bigger things that's for sure. If Maiden had any sense they'd take them on tour!

Finally it was time for Toxik and some wicked shredding technical thrash and boy did they deliver. I didn't recognise even one song from the guys but they were tight as the proverbial gnat's ass. I have heard both albums many moons ago but I never got the chance to play them before the gig. I will play them again soon to see what I think about it now in 2014. The baldy guitarist was a shredder supreme with some sizzling axe work on show as well as plenty of bouncy jumpy riffs that made the moshers happy. My enjoyment of their set was reduced from being unfamiliar with the songs but nevertheless these guys were ace and it's no wonder there was clamour for them to make a comeback. The singer's high pitched voice was grating on occasion but thrash vocalising hardly matters too much now does it. They played three new songs which sounded pretty similar to their older material so it looks like they haven't missed a beat. A special mention for the bass player. The guy played awesome technical bouncy bass and pulled some mean and studious faces as he was banging away at his strings. Cool dude!

Another enjoyable night of thrashing goodness in the Underworld but it was a damn shame Shrapnel weren't there as advertised. Make sure you come next time you fools!

Within Temptation Live at Wembley Arena

Within Temptation is big business in Europe now and whilst this show was far from sold out Wembley Arena was packed with 8000 or so punters to see the symphonic Dutch troop go through their paces ably supported by newcomers Delain. My seat was unfortunately a bit far back from the stage but I guess the good seats had gone by the time I bought my ticket. In fact the seated areas were pretty much all sold out with the floor being pretty full at the front and more open at the back.

At 7.45 on the dot Delain took to the stage and played songs new and old from both their albums. They were afforded a clean sound thankfully and front woman tried to get the crowd going which was a little reserved at first but they gradually got the message. They played for 45 minutes in total and they were pretty much on top form and a great warm up act for the headliners. I guess their aim is to be the headliner in a show of this size. It might or might not happen for them but that's the aim. It's happened for Within Temptation. As for last night they were spot on although I must admit I have yet to get to grips with the new album which seems a little harder going than the debut in the sense that the melodies are a little harder to come by in my opinion anyway.

Go Away
Get the Devil Out of Me
Army of Dolls
Stardust
Electricity
Sleepwalkers Dream
The Gathering
Not Enough
We Are the Others

After a shot turn around time the roadies got the stage ready behind a Hydra backdrop so we didn't actually see the stage being set up. Finally at 8.45 the intro started and the band took to the stage and the guitarist played the opening riff to Let us Burn and the Arena floor was finally much more animated than it was for Delain not unexpectedly. Sharon sounded huge and the sound seemed to be twice as loud as it was for Delain but still pretty crystal clear with Sharon's vocals booming out over the top. The thing I like about WT on record is that their songs are just supremely catchy blessed with monster pop hooks. The question is can they transfer this to the live Arena? Well with the amount of experience they have under their belts now the answer is a resounding YES!

WT are a full time big Arena band now. Their songs demand an elaborate stage set and that's what they get with two fire breathing dragons ie Hydra at either side of a step tiered stage allowing band members to move up and down as they please and a short runway at the front as well allowing either Sharon or the guitarists to get closer to the audience a little. It was hard to say which songs went over best as all the songs were pretty much awesome. Personally I enjoyed Paradise which sounded monstrously huge with the video with Tarja playing in the background.

Surprisingly enough I loved their cover of Summertme Sadness in the encore, that was really great. Hydra is a great album no doubt and the band are just a highly tuned live outfit with a shed load of fans many of which aren't even really metal fans judging by many people that I saw. Their songs transcend metal pretty much these days and plenty of normal folk can enjoy a Saturday night out at Wembley with these Dutch symphonic metal stars as evidenced by the wide ranging audience. Whether they can go any higher I doubt but for a metal band to headline Wembley Arena you can safely say they've made it!

Let Us Burn
Paradise (What About Us?)
Faster
Iron
Edge of the World
In the Middle of the Night
Our Solemn Hour
Angels
Dangerous
And We Run
Tell Me Why
Elements Intro
See Who I Am
Stand My Ground
The Cross
Covered By Roses
Mother Earth

Encore:
What Have You Done
Whole World Is Watching
(Acoustic)
Summertime Sadness
(Lana Del Rey cover)
Ice Queen

House Of Lords/Coldspell Live Report

This gig was originally billed as a Coldspell headline show with support from Lawless. House of Lords were then added to the bill as a result of their own headline shows getting cancelled due to poor sales I guess. Anyway with the HoL addition to the bill, I had to bite the dust and get a ticket for this one. Unfortunately even with 3 bands now on the bill the attendance for the gig was not great by any means. Maybe somewhere around the 100 mark or a little more. It seems melodic rock just doesn't draw big here in the UK. People like it more metallic. Not to say that both the co headliners aren't heavy bands as they proved consistently throughout their sets.

First up were Stoke's melodic metallers Lawless. I really like their Rock Savage album from last year. It's a nice melodic rock album with plenty of upfront guitars and nice vocals. Live they were ok but they only played to about 20 of us as the crowd wasn't too bothered yet. They were ok as I said and have an amiable front man with a nice melodic voice. A couple of nifty tunes helped a passable 30 minutes from Lawless indeed but they weren't amazing or anything. The lead guitarist played a few decent solos with feeling as well.

Next up were original headliners Coldspell from Sweden and their brand of hard hitting edgy melodic metal. They started opening track Heroes unfortunately the guitarist hadn't even plugged in yet lol! They back tracked with much Swedish mirth and finally launched into Heroes. It sounded heavy and super chunky as expected. Their very diminutive front man's voice got rather lost here and there in the stupendously loud Underworld sound mix(still deaf a bit now). The band has got some serious tunes though and have a great guitar and bass tandem going. The bass player is typical shape and face pulling Swedish dude. The band played songs from both their albums and varied the pace from tasty riff fests to more more brooding mid paced stompers to allow the punters to lock on to the groove. An enjoyable set from the guys and it was always cool to watch the antics of the bassist.

My second time seeing House of Lords as they finally took to the stage sans James Christian and I wondering where he was as they launched to a song I didn't recognise with the bass player singing! His voice was actually not bad funnily enough, but what songs were they? They played 3 songs before James finally came out. Very weird indeed. The drummer said something about testing out monitors and then getting James out to start the House of Lords set proper. Okey doke but it's the first time in my gigging history I recall a band playing 3 songs before their front man actually joined them to begin the set proper. There was a reason but I missed it whatever it was lol!

Anyway a shades wearing James finally joined his band mates and they sped headlong into the first HoL tune and I must admit they sounded pretty good. James explained the need for sunglasses as there was something wrong with his eyes and he was protecting us from a gory sight or something though I didn't quite catch what he said to be honest. The guitar sound from Jimi Bell was super heavy and crunchy and blew everyone's ears off. They guy was playing some awesome riffs too with a few tasty pinch harmonic squeals here and there. They played 3 or 4 songs off the new album Precious Metal which were super heavy as well. The groovy Permission to Die was very heavy indeed and the guitar melted brains. Lead single and pace filled Battle sounded very good too and James screamed the high notes pretty well.

The band was in pretty fine form and Jimi Bell was ripping riffs and solos with great ease on stage left. I think they were probably a little disappointed at the turnout is my guess but hey you've gotta live with it and still put in a show for those that have bothered at all. Don't forget their own headline shows with Rock Beck, James' wife had to be cancelled completely. Overall I would have liked to hear more songs from Come to My Kingdom than just the title track, but that's my own trip, although it was still the song of the night in my opinion anyway.. The set list featured some of their earliest classics of course which I guess they must play at all HoL gigs. The show finally ended at 11pm and for £10 we certainly got our money's worth in the end. Not an amazing night by any means but it was fun nevertheless though I'm not sure I would go and see HoL again to be honest.