Metal Female Voices Fest VII – Day 2
Continued from "Metal Female Voices Fest VII – Day 1"
And we had of course the MFVF Awards. (These are my comments.)
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Tarja Turunen |
(Depends on which one - 2007 was great, but 2008 a bit of a disappointment.) |
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(Could be better in the “Most Original Band” entry.) |
(Does this band still exist?!) |
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(I strongly disagree with this one. Nothing beats "Enter!") |
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Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy has never done a MFVF gig so what is she doing here?) |
Sunday 18.10.2009
After the Sunday debacle of the 2008 edition, the MFVF organization did their best to create a strong Sunday line up (personally, I prefer the small show Friday, full length Saturday and return home Sunday version like in 2007).
We got fan favorites Tarja, Doro and even Leaves’ Eyes managed to squeeze a small set in a fully loaded line up today.
To-Mera
Julie - Vocals
Tom - Guitar
Mark - Bass
Paul - Drums
Hen - Keys
www.myspace.com/tomeraband
www.to-mera.com
The day started early with To-Mera at 10:40. This is a band from England and despite the early time slot, the Octoberhallen was getting crowded. To-Mera’s music might not be that spectacular compared to all the bombast of Tarja or Epica, but Julie is a good singer and she could consider a job as model when her musical career goes south. She is a real classic beauty.
Coronatus
Ada Flechtner - Vocals
Carmen R Schäfer - Vocals
Mats Kurth - Drums
Fabian Merkt - Keys
Jo Lang - Guitar
www.myspace.com/coronatus
www.myspace.com/127550532
www.myspace.com/carmina_r
www.coronatus.net
Coronatus will look very familiar for people from Holland that visit gigs on a regularly basis. Coronatus has two female singers like A New Dawn used to have before Sanne left the band. Lisa and Carmen gave a good show and I hope they will do more gigs in this part of the world.
Lahannya
Lahannya - Songwriting / Vocalist
Lutz Demmler - Bass
Belle - Drums
Chris Milden - Guitar
www.myspace.com/lahannya
www.lahannya.com
Lahannya was the second band from the United Kingdom this day. Lahannya (the band is named after the singer) was dressed in a tight latex costume that reminded me of the costume Kate Beckinsale had in the movie Underworld. It was entertaining, but not really special. If there was a MFVF award for the most tight leather and latex outfit, Lahannya would have been the winner.
Deadlock
Gert Rymen - Guitar
Johannes Prem - Vocals
John Gahlert - Bass
Sabine Weniger - Vocals
Sebastian Reichl - Guitar
Tobias Graf - Drums
www.myspace.com/deadlock
www.xdeadlockx.com
Deadlock, the second German band, was the first today with shared male / female vocals. The band started the wrong way with some kind of cyber, gothic, electronic intro and what followed was not much better either, but I’m 35 years old and everyone under the 20 seemed to like this band. Not me. If there was a MFVF award for the most ugly outfit onstage, Sabine would have won it with ease.
Stream of Passion
Marcela Bovio - Lead Vocals, Electric Violin
Johan van Stratum - Bass Guitar
Eric Hazebroek - Guitars
Stephan Schultz - Guitars
Jeffrey Revet - Keyboards & Synths
Martijn Peters - Drums
www.myspace.com/streamofpassionband
www.streamofpassion.com
Stream of Passion is a band I’ve seen many times and the band has never done a bad gig. However, I always worry about the light conditions with Stream of Passion. Sometimes the band has good light, but most of the gigs it is too dark and with too much smoke like this gig - a good show, but not for a photographer.
Darzamat
Nera - Female Vocals (Agnieszka Gorecka)
Flauros - Male Vocals (Rafal Goral)
Chris - Guitars (Krzysztof Michalak)
Darkside - Drums
www.myspace.com/darzamat
http://www.myspace.com/neranature
Darzamat was the second band with male and female vocals. Like Unsun yesterday, Darzamat is from Poland and this is the only thing the two bands have in common. Darzamat was the fastest band today and of the entire festival, although Trail of Tears came close. For me Darzamat was one of the highlights today. Like many bands from Poland, Darzamat uses a beautiful mic standard. Behemoth has a metal snake microphone stand and Vader has something that resembles the rib cage of a human skeleton.
Van Canto
Sly - Lead Vocals
Inga - Lead Vocals
Stef - Lower Rakkatakka-Vocals
Ross - Higher Rakkatakka-Vocals
Ike - Deep Dandan-Vocals
Basti - Drums
www.myspace.com/vancanto
www.vancanto.de
After the sonic violence of Darzamat it was time for the third German band, Van Canto. German Female Voices Fest anyone? When I entered the photo pit (I always arrive early to have some chats with the die hard fans and a colleague photographer who managed to loose his photo & backstage pass during the Epica gig yesterday and the first thing I noticed was how empty the Van Canto stage was. Only the drumkit was occupying some space, leaving vast territories unused. Remember, until this moment I had never heard or see anything of Van Canto.
And then the gig started. With the exception of the drummer everything was done by singers. Guitar riffs? Van Canto had two singers for that. Bass? One singer to imitate the bass lines. And the male & female voices combo of course. Was this original? Without doubt. Did I like it? No. It reminded me of some karaoke party gone bad. And Van Canto did covers. Usually I’m not afraid for an experiment, but this was absolutely nothing for me.
Trail Of Tears
Ronny Thorsen - Vocals
Cathrine Paulsen - Vocals
Bjorn Erik Naess - Guitars
Pál Olsen - Guitars
Endre Moe - Bass
Cato Jensen - Drums
www.myspace.com/trailoftearsmetal
http://www.myspace.com/ronnythorsen
http://www.myspace.com/cathrinepaulsen
www.trailoftears.no
But all the bad feelings were blasted away when Trail of Tears entered the stage. Like last year Trail of Tears did a very good gig, fast and without compromise. I’m already looking forward to their gigs with Epica in January 2010.
Leaves' Eyes
Liv Kristine - Vocals
Thorsten Bauer - Guitar
Mathias Roderer - Guitar
Alexander Krull - Vocals
Alla Fedynitch - Bass
Seven Antonopolous - Drums
While the Doro roadies were busy rebuilding the stage the Leaves’ Eyes workforce did their thing on the few square metres Doro could spare onstage. This was supposed to be an acoustic gig, but I’ve never seen so many electric cables onstage to amplify the acoustic gear. Besides that, there was no Drakkar onstage, nor any fireworks. Back to basic for Leaves’Eyes and if I am honest, this small gig was better than the one in 2007. You do not really need all those special effects when you have good songs and a good singer. Especially Scarborough Fair was done very well. I did a little headcount and to my suprise Alla, the new bass player was absent. And the reason why:
“As some of the fans already noticed, for two songs at the show in Wieze, Oliver Holzwarth (Tarja, Blind Guardian) played the bass on two songs as substitude for Alla Fedynitch who suffers from a herniated vertebral disk and paralysis on her right hand which made it only possible for her to just play one song.
Alla has to take a physiotherapeutic treatment for the next six weeks which makes it impossible for her to play the upcoming shows in Italy (31.10.09) and the "Beauty & The Beast" Tour (with Leaves' Eyes, Atrocity (Werk 80 Show), Sirenia, Elis, Stream of Passion). “
I hope she will get well soon.
Secretly I had hoped for a duet between Carmen and Liv, but sadly not this time. However, Carmen and some one that could have been her boyfriend were present in the photopit to watch the show big sis gave. And, as I’ve said before, it was a good gig.
Doro
Nick Douglas - Bass
Joe Taylor - Guitar
Johnny Dee - Drums
Luca Princiotta - Keys / Guitar
www.myspace.com/doroband
www.doro.de
During this day I had noticed an enormous number of German Doro fans. Dorothee Pesch is without doubt the queen of female fronted metal. She and her band did a great gig in 2007 and this gig would top that one several times. Everything was perfect and we had some special guests of course. Tarja did a duet with Doro and so did Floor Jansen and Liv Kristine.
Tarja
Doug Wimbish - Bass
Alex Scholpp - Guitars
Mike Terrana - Drums
Maria Ilmoniemi - Keys
Max Silja, Markus Hohti - Cello
Toni Turunen - Lead & BV, guitars, additional electronic drums, keyboards
Tarja - Lead vocals
www.myspace.com/tarjaturunen
www.tarjaturunen.com
Tarja and Doro were the co-headliners today and despite the fact that Tarja was the last act I think Doro was just a bit better today. Tarja has changed much of her band since I first saw her at the Melkweg and this incarnation lacked something Tarja version 1.0 had. But Tarja is still a great front woman and I still do not understand how the decision makers behind Nightwish could have been stupid enough to kick her out of the band. At the other hand, Nightwish is rapidly spiralling down when it comes to writing good songs.
And the MFVF award for the most expensive drumkit: Mike Terrana
Conclusion: another great edition. Next year will give us Leaves’Eyes, Dejafuse and Dylath Leen among others and at 7.11 there will be a Metal Female Contest at the Biebob.
Next year I will also bring my monstrous 150 – 500mm lens into gear for this festival. Since all the fun starts after the usual three songs (or two with Delain) I hope to get some real cool shots.
www.myspace.com/mfvf
www.metalfemalevoicesfest.be
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