Symphonic Metal - Dutch (1 Viewer)

[Don Giro]

Some of it...problem is that there are FOUR duets on it: one with Tarja (great song), one with Howard Jones (the ex-Killswirtch Engage singer, not the cheeseball English guy from the '80s), another with Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum (please), and a fourth with...rapper Xzibit. It's out next Tuesday...

I have finally made peace with the fact that WT are now a rock band FAR removed from the Gothic/Symphonic band I loved so dearly. New WT is better than NO WT...

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Oy.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

There's a preview of Sirius/ XM at the moment, and this morning on the Octane channel, they mentioned that Within Temptation will be doing an in-studio acoustic set at noon tomorrow. I have no idea whether they delay stuff on the west coast.

I probably won't have a chance to hear it, but from the reactions to their new material so far, it doesn't sound like I'll be missing much.

 

[Don Giro]

Finally heard the new album...and I like it! I can't believe I'm saying it, but having Xzibit rap on that track actually adds a lot of power to the song! In other WT news, "Hydra" sold 15,000 units in the U.S. its first week of release, which is UNHEARD of for a band in this genre (not even Nightwish). They are now bona fide rock stars in Europe...they're headlining Wembley Arena in the UK soon...

Saw Leaves' Eyes last night, so I've now seen all of my "Big 4" of female-fronted symphonic metal live (Nightwish, Epica, WT, and Leaves' Eyes). They were far better than I even expected them to be! I thought that Liv was one of those singers who stands in one spot all night, but I couldn't have been more wrong. She was all over the place! She headbangs and "throws the devil horns" a lot, too. The place went batshit crazy when she hit the high notes during "Symphony of the Night."

A big highlight for me was that there was a woman there with her tiny daughter sitting on her shoulders. She couldn't have been more than four years old, with her hair in pigtails, a huge smile on her face, and the tiniest Nightwish T-shirt I've ever seen. What was even better was she had her tiny hand up in a "devil horn" salute the whole night. A few folks thought she may be Alex and Liv's daughter, but it's doubtful. The huge smile of surprise on Liv's face when she spotted the little girl was priceless, and the gesture of acknowledgment was very nice. The only thing I DIDN'T like was that you'd think the mother would have supplied ear plugs for her...

Not sure if you know, but Leaves' Eyes and Atrocity (who went on before L'sE) have interchangeable members. One of the guitarists plays in both bands, and Alex Krull sings in both, so between both sets, it's like a headlining show for those guys. What's weird is that neither band had a bass player; I guess the backing tracks provided that bottom end.

I've never been the biggest Moonspell fan in the world, but they were phenomenal live! I had to leave before their set ended (I work very early in the morning). Spectacular night out, all around..

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I suppose this could've gone in the Kickstarter thread, but this one needs the traffic.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evadingazrael/population-zero-evading-azraels-first-full-length

 

[Don Giro]

I FINALLY got to see Floor Jansen live with her band ReVamp a few weeks back, opening for the always incredible Iced Earth and surprisingly great Sabaton. She was absolutely amazing, and is without a doubt the best female rock singer alive. Being the first band on a three-band, male-dominated bill, I was completely taken by surprised at how well she was received by the crowd, who kept chanting "ReVamp! ReVamp!" after they left the stage. We couldn't get anywhere near her merch booth when she arrived there to meet fans, so we just stared at all six feet of her in awe. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, my friend John was still in the same spot, just gazing at her.

Big shows coming up later this year, all in October for me: Sonata Arctica/Delain/Xandria, followed by Within Temptation/Amaranthe (I had something to do with Amaranthe getting the tour, believe it or not), and then Eluveitie four days after that.

I started writing record reviews for a British forum called Black Phoenix Rising, and they're pretty happy with my work. The first I did is for the debut album by Savn, a "supergroup" of sorts from two guys from The Sins of Thy Beloved and Carmen from Midnattsol. It's possibly my favorite album of 2014 so far. I just reviewed the new Xandria album as well, a reviewI am much more pleased with (I haven't done anything like this on over 20 years, so I'm a little rusty). Now they want me to review an upcoming EP by an unknown (but excellent) band, so I haven't found much time to explore the new Epica album (I've only heard it once so far...it's WAY better than the last one).

I just heard "Herons," the new album from Evenoire last night, and it is pretty spectacular...

If you'd like to read what I've written about Savn and Xandria, just follow the links...

 

[Smithjhon77]

My most loved reward (other than the second show) is the hour-long :"tour journal" of the band going all through the world. It's just about surreal when they go from playing expansive venues and celebrations all through Europe and Japan, and afterward seeing them sound-weighing in a TINY club in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their transport driver brings up the little venue, and the band appear as though they simply couldn't care less, in light of the fact that they FINALLY got to play in the U.s....

 

[Don Giro]

I just realized that all those shows I mentioned are in September, not October...

My most loved reward (other than the second show) is the hour-long :"tour journal" of the band going all through the world. It's just about surreal when they go from playing expansive venues and celebrations all through Europe and Japan, and afterward seeing them sound-weighing in a TINY club in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their transport driver brings up the little venue, and the band appear as though they simply couldn't care less, in light of the fact that they FINALLY got to play in the U.s....

You're talking about the Within Temptation "Black Symphony" tour diary, right? I LOVED the part with the tiny club! Have you ever seen the tour diaries they did with the "Silent Force Tour" DVD? There's about three hours of "tour diaries" on that one. You need a DVD player that can play PAL: The Silent Force Tour DVD

 

[Don Giro]

I still have no intention of letting this excellent thread die...
What are your favorite female-fronted albums of 2014?
My top three are:

1) SAVN - "Savn"

2) EPICA - "The Quantum Enigma"

3) XANDRIA - "Sacrificium"

I spent WAY too much money on CDs and downloads, as evidenced by the

rest of the list (in no particular order):

WITHIN TEMPTATION - "Hydra"
LYRIEL - "Skin and Bones"
EVENOIRE - "Herons"
ELUVEITIE - "Origins"
DIABULUS IN MUSICA - "Argia"
SHEAR - Katharsis"
PYTHIA - "Shadows of a Broken Past"
DELAIN - "The Human Contradiction
KOBRA and THE LOTUS - "High Priestess"
AMARANTHE - "Massive Addictive"
AMBERIAN DAWN - "Magic Forest"
DIVIDED WE FALL - "Dreamcrusher"
NOISY TOYZ - "Forever One"
THE HOURGLASS - "Through Darkness and Light"
ENEMY OF REALITY - "Rejected Gods"
HELIOSAGA - "Towers in the Distance"
EX LIBRIS - "Medea"
LYRIA - "Catharsis"
ANETTE OLZON - "Shine"
ARCH ENEMY - "War Eternal"
RISEBACK - "Riseback"
FROM LIGHT ROSE THE ANGELS - "From Light Rose the Angels" (EP)
END OF THE DREAM - "End of the Dream" (EP)
ENKELINATION - "Tears of Lust"
STREAM OF PASSION - "A War of Our Own"
JATD (JANINA AND THE DEEDS) - "II"
CORONATUS - "Cantus Lucidus"
UNSEELIE - Urban Fantasy"
ELISA DAY - "Find the Answer" (EP)
GRAVESHADOW - Graveshadow (EP)
DEATH PENALTY - "Death Penalty"
THE OATH - "The Oath"
ANARIA - "Ancestors" (EP)
SEVENTH SIN - "When Reality Ends"
THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE - "Superstition"
DISKELION - "Remember Sorrow"
BENIGHTED SOUL - "Kenotic"
SISTER SIN - "Black Lotus"
FYRE! - "Missy Powerful"
KINGFISHER SKY - "Arms of Morpheus"
NEOPERA - "Destined Ways"
KALIDIA - "Lies' Device"
KARBALA WAR - "Karbala War" (EP)
EDENFALL - "Under Sultry Moons and Velvet Skies"
DAWN OF DESTINY - "F.E.A.R."
BROCELIAN - "Lifelines"
LACUNA COIL - "Broken Crown Halo"
ELYSION - "Someplace Better"
ENRAGED - "Jeremiad" (EP)
DREAMFERNO - Equilibrium"
VALKYRE - "Our Glorious Demise"
HOLY SHIRE - "Midgard"
THE GREAT ADVENTURE - "To Begin to See the Truth"
MY INNER BURNING - "Dead and Gone"
LAST DAYS OF EDEN - "Paradise"
NOVEMBER 7 - "Awaraxid 7mg"
CURVATURE - "Be{lie}ve" (EP)
INDICA - "Shine"
BEYOND VIOLET - "Frozen Words" (EP)
RAGE OF ROMANCE - "Rage of Romance"
SCARVED - "Dynamite"
LIV KRISTINE - "Vervain"
DAWN OF ETERNITY - "Guilty"
PANIC ROOM - Incarnate"
AMEDERIA - "Unheard Prayer"
DIATHRA - "Fascinating Impulses"
MIRABILIS - "Here and the Hereafter"
BLAME ZEUS - "Blame Zeus"
MEDEN AGAN - "Lacrima Dei"
MOONLAND - "Moonland"
ARKONA - "Yav"
REIGN OF SIRIUS - "Mirror Figures"
ADRENALINE RUSH - "Adrenaline Rush"
WINTER IN EDEN - "Court of Conscience"
THIRTEEN - "A Shot in the Dark"
LARK PUDEN -"Stories of a Mind Gone Astray"
STORK - "Broken Pieces"
TORI LAMOUR - "Purgatori"
TEMTRIS - "Shallow Grave"
MERKABAH - "Ubiquity"
ORISONATA - "Orisonata"
NERVOSA - "Victim of Yourself"
MACBETH - "Neo Gothic Propaganda"
SANCTORIUM - "The Depths Inside"
KOWAI - "Dissonance"
VAN CANTO - "Dawn of the Brave"
UNDER SANITY'S BANE - "A Cosmic Tragedy"
SEA OF DESPAIR - Seven Sins"