Symphonic Metal - Dutch (2 Viewers)

[James Lee]

LOL, we did the exact same thing. I watched the two hour documentary last night and listened to Vinland Saga on the drive to work this morning.
I thought it was kind of cute that Liv's grandparents were so happy and excited to go see their granddaughter in concert. Wonder if they brought ear plugs.

 

[Don Giro]

I'm digging the new Lunatica...

 

[Ron-P]

Has anyone here listened to Krypteria? A buddy at work stumbled upon them while do a search on Pandora. I pulled up some YouTube stuff, pretty good.
Krypteria© | official website

 

[James Lee]

I've listened to some of their stuff. Pretty unusual band. German with a Korean female lead singer. I'm not crazy about her voice though. I little too nasally for my taste but instrumentally, very good.

 

[Don Giro]

I like Krypteria, from what I've heard on Pandora, but I don't plan on RUSHING out to buy their cds.
Nightwish at Nokia, NYC tomorrow night!
EDIT: After a few You Tube clips, I may HAVE to rush out for those Krypteria CDs!
Just to reiterate: Nightwish tomorrow night...

 

[James Lee]

Don, I want a full report here ASAP!

 

[Don Giro]

NYC show SOLD OUT! Opening act Volbeat (from Denmark) has been described as a cross between Metallica and Social Distortion. while the Social D. influence is obvious (in catchy hooks and stage presence), I didn't really get the Metallica influence, except for one riff that they stole from "The Four Horsemen." Very odd choice of support to a symphonic metal fan, but they were very good, and the audience LOVED them.
NIGHTWISH were amazing. The only complaint is the drums were WAY too loud!
Anette has REALLY come into her own. She obviously is no soprano, but I was surprised by her vocal prowess. And there isn't a hint of "diva" in her. She's much more of a fist pumping, hip shaking frontwoman. She is QUITE chubby (especially in her face), and I HATE her taste in stage clothes (she wore what looked like a white flower sack with black unreadable letters.
Marco was hilarious in the few "raps" to the audience: he explained that they're considered rednecks in Finland, said that they don't get to see many beautiful girls, commented how beautiful the girls in the audience were...and followed up by saying "You know what? Some of you GUYS are pretty hot, too!" Before the encore, he asked the crowd if they wanted more, and the screams could actually hurt your ears. To which he answered "I'll take that as a unanimous NO."
Odd setlist, with MANY "missing songs" that have been long standards in Nightwish's live canon: No "Kinslayer," "Sleeping Sun," "Bless the Child," or "Wishmaster."
Forgive me if I can't list the setlist in order, but this is pretty close:
7 Days to the Wolves (NOT one my favorites)
Dead to the World
Amaranth
Ever Dream
The Siren
Romanticide (dedicated by Marco to all the guys who "stay home and scratch their b*lls in front of their wives")
The Poet and the Pendulum
Dead Boy's Poem
Nemo
Sahara
The Islander
Last of the Wilds (complete with the guest pipe player and stretched out to about six AMAZING minutes)
The Escapist (SO unfair the studio version isn't available in the US)
Dark Chest of Wonders (her voice was SPECTACULAR)
Encore;
Wish I Had an Angel
It was a TRULY remarkable. Another highlight: my friend lost his cell phone. Someone found it and started texting all our friends trying to find out who the phone belonged to. Long story short: by dialing my friends, THEY got a hold of me, and my friend got his phone back, and the Good Samaritan wouldn't even accept a $7.00 beer for his trouble...
What a memorable night...
Oh, yeah, interspersed between the Nightwish, Stratovarius, and Dream Theater T-Shirt wearers were a LOT of death/black metal fans: Immortal, Einsiferem, and Dimmu Borgir, among others. Very odd...

 

[James Lee]

Sounds like a great show! The set list was slightly different than what I remember when I saw them in San Francisco. They didn't do Nemo for one. I'm a little surprised they did that. I recall that they were getting kind of tired of playing Nemo. It doesn't surprise me that they omitted a lot of the older songs. For one, I don't think Anette has the vocal range to pull them off. She's had problems with her voice at times on tour the past year or so. I'm sure the band wants to distance themselves from the whole memory of Tarja as well. Too bad. I would love to hear them do stuff from Wishmaster, like Fantasmic, probably one of my favorite Nightwish songs. How often do you see a heavy metal song about Disney movies?
Anette's fashion style is very hit or miss. When I saw her, she was wearing an outfit that looked like a Catholic schoolgirl's uniform. Very hot.
Never heard of Volbeat. Sonata Arctica opened for Nighwish when I saw them and they were awesome. Someday I'd love to go to Finland, or somewhere else in Northern Europe, to see Nightwish play in a larger venue where they play longer a longer set on a stage worthy of their material.

 

[Don Giro]

OMG, I FINALLY got to hear Sonata Arctica for the first time yesterday. Although I prefer my symphonic metal to be female fronted, S.A. are beyond BELIEF! I'll be purchasing their stuff ASAP.
Another great band I got to hear for the first time is Visions of Atlantis and their revolving door of female vocalists. Here goes more of my money. And, I need to get the new Lacuna Coil for completeness" sake (I heard it's not very good).
Yeah, Volbeat were a VERY odd choice as a support act. Like I said, they looked and sounded like a heavier version Social Distortion (which in itself isn't a bad thing). They were quite enjoyable. My guess is that they either belong to the same record label, have the same management, of are friends of Nightwish (HOW many side-projects does Marco have? THAT could be a factor).
Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan of Anette's fashion sense. But, MAN, she's borderline FAT (not putting her down, I only need to hear her sing, and I was VERY impressed with her voice). But she looks NOTHING like the pix of the "Dark Passion Play" shoot.
Oh, yeah. One more thing that made the night great: the Nokia theater in NYC has a GIGANTIC, hi-def marquee (made of "bulbs," just like WT's 'Black Symphony' screens). It felt so warm and exciting to see the Nightwish logo HUGELY looming over the entrance, complete with pix or the band from the aforementioned "D.P.P." shoot)...

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Weirdest opening act ever: Co-headliners Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth brought Alice In Chains. AIC was good but got booed off the stage anyway.
Interesting note: I discovered that my Pioneer 563a (off the Best Buy shelf) plays PAL discs! In went the bonus disc from my Black Symphony BD.

There's a little jitter to the image, but the sound is fine.

 

[Don Giro]

Regarding AIC: thaey may have been booed off stage, but they went on to sell more records that the three bands they opened for COMBINED. BTW, other than a song or two here and there, I have NEVER been an AIC fan...
My friend wants all his Visions of Atlantis CDs back. He won't wait until I buy them for myself...
Isn't it GREAT when you find out that your DVD player can handle PAL just fine? Once I played the bonus disc on the 4-disc DVD import (before I bought the Blu-Ray), I IMMEDIATELY ordered the PAL "Silent Force" DVD.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

AIC may have sold more records, but I'd rather be Joey Belladonna, Dave Mustaine, or Tom Araya than Lane Staley.

 

[James Lee]

Alice in Chains? Blech. Never been a fan.
Here's another obscure band for you guys. A Romanian metal band called Magica. Kind of cheesy, but not bad sounding. They have a video up on YouTube for a song called "All Waters have the Colour of Drowning".
I also picked up Queen of Light by Imperia. It's been out a a couple of years and isn't too bad.
Just biding my time until some of the bigger releases later this year...

 

[Don Giro]

Just to reiterate, I am NOT an Alice in Chains fan.
Aaron, I completely agree, and not just because Staley's dead...
Ordered the 2nd and 3rd Visions of Atlantis CDs, along with a super-deluxe CD/DVD version of "The Heart of Everything" that I didn't know existed before yesterday. I figure another couple of bucks and Sharon will realize that I'm the man for her...
(Yes, I'm kidding, lest anyone think I'm a stalker or something.)
Oh, and I ordered the CDs from Laser's Edge...

 

[James Lee]

Bring out yer dead!
The Epica symphonic live double CD is out. I have it and it's pretty awesome. The first disc of symphonic stuff is hit or miss. Mostly hit. My favorite is the Imperial March from Empire Strikes Back. The second disc is the Epica material and I am full on crushing on Simone Simons. She has the voice of an angel and is stunningly beautiful. *sigh*
Laser's Edge has it for $15. What a steal.

 

[Don Giro]

My Epica is on it's way. I HAVE heard The Imperial March. John Williams with double bass kick drums. Hilarious...
Laser's Edge is great, but I got screwed on tax, since I'm in NJ. The deluxe "Heart of Everything" is GREAT because of the bonus concert DVD...
I also picked up a CD by Brazilian act Thalion from Laser's Edge for five bucks. Nothing to really write home about, but their hearts are really in it, the singer's cute (if a bit too "nasal"), and it was only five bucks...

 

[James Lee]

Arise from the dead!
You Nightwish fans out there might be interested to know that Laser's Edge is carrying the Blu-Ray edition of the End of an Era concert video, which was out only on DVD previously. If you have a Blu-Ray player, it is definitely worth the double dip for the improvement of the video quality alone. The old DVD version was a non-anamorphic widescreen release, so on an HDTV, you'd get black bars on the sides and the top and bottom. Plus, the video quality was not that good, looking muddy and with lack of detail in dark scenes. So the Blu-Ray version is encoded in true widescreen. No more black bars. Video looks pretty good, although it appears to be a bit excessive in the color contrast. It's still pretty decent and certainly a huge improvement over the DVD version.
Anyhow, it's $22 well spent from Laser's Edge.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks for the tip! Is it a different edition from the one Amazon's selling for $18?

 

[James Lee]

Nope, it's the same version.
Finally, I can retire the crappy DVD version...

 

[Don Giro]

SWEET on the Nightwish! Thanks!
Heard a few good bands up our alley recently: Tears of Magdalena stands out in my mind. There's quite a bit of "growling," but it's a good experience. I think they're Italian...