Cu toate ca sufar de o amnezie partiala datorita mamutului pletos ce a avut ideea geniala de mosh-pitting la Nightwish si”accidental”mi-a tras un cap in gura,nu o sa uit intreaga mea viata festivalul Artmania din acest an.Si nu doar datorita faptului ca pe mana mea inca sta(cat se poate de mandra)minunata bratara,verde,pe care sta scris cu litere negre:Artmania 2009 si gratie careia am putut intra in Paradis!
(A Paradise blacker than the blackest black times infinity!)
Nu voi uita acest an datorita faptului ca l-am putut vedea pentru prima(si probabil ultima)oara pe geniul muzical care este Mikael Åkerfeldt…But,who is he?Well.THAT IS A SHAMEFUL QUESTION.
Mikael Åkerfeldt(born Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt April 17, 1974, in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish musician, best known as the current lead vocalist/lead guitarist, songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth, and lead vocalist of death metal band Bloodbath. Åkerfeldt is known for his progressive rock-influenced songwriting style, and his frequent use of both clean and growled vocals.
Besides that,Mikael Åkerfeldt is God.
(Though he rather prefers to be called Satan)
Anyway,back on topic.The great review of the Artmania 2009 festival.Let us get started with trivial,simple things, as line-ups&setlists.
17th of July.Friday.
At about a quarter past seven Tristania made her grand entrance(although they were around from early five o’clock, enchanting the few people that were present with their impressive sound-check).For those who are virgins to Tristania’s music all that you must know-for a start-is that they are a gothic-metal band from Norway with doom&death influences.I’ve been surprised in a good way by their performance(haven’t expected to actually fall in love with Tristania again after Vibeke Stene left and was replaced by Mary).Anders was amazing with his guitar and vocal/growling skills but it was weird to see him with short hair(not weirder than seeing Mary in that pinkish~flowerish dress though*gets hit in the head by a brick*Ok,it was RED!Geezas).On a scale from 1-10…I’ll give them 7.50
Current members of Tristania:
- Østen Bergøy – clean vocals
- Mariangela”Mary” Demurtas – female vocals
- Anders Høyvik Hidle – guitars, growling vocals
- Ole Vistnes – bass guitar
- Einar Moen – keyboards, programming
- Kenneth Olsson – drums
Tristania’s setlist:
World of Glass,Libre,The Wretched,Shadowman,Mercyside,Down,Angellore,Beyond the veil, Sacrilege,The Emerald Piper
Next on the line is My dying Bride,the british doom-metal band that isn’t entirely unknown to those who have went to Artmania in the past years.Aaron gave a terrific show,with fake blood and all(very vampirish of him to suck his own fake blood~can you sense my sarcasm?).Shaun(which I haven’t knew back then by name,but went wiki on him when I got home)is for sure the most smexytalented violonist I ever laid my eyes upon!All in all they were good and lots of metalheads were singing along,ofc.But my feet were wobbly and hurting and I didn’t care at the moment for nothing that was going on around me.I looked forward only for Opeth.Anyway on the MDB topic…On a scale from 1-10…I’ll give them 9,00
Current members of My Dying Bride:
- Aaron Stainthorpe – Vocals (1990-)
- Hamish Glencross – Guitar (1999-)
- Andrew Craighan – Guitar (1990-)
- Lena Abé – Bass (2007-)
- Dan Mullins – Drums (2007-)
- Shaun Macgowan – Keyboards/Violin (2009-)
My Dying Bride’s setlist:
Fall With Me,Bring Me Victory,From Darkest Skies,The Thrash of Naked Limbs,And I Walk With Them,Turn Loose The Swans,She Is The Dark,Santuario Di Sangue,The Cry of Mankind,My Body a Funeral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14_eX0xvy4o&feature=channel <—Aaron’s little joke and my fav new MDB song.
Finally,the moment I have waited all my life had arrived!!!(ok,ok,the moment I have waited the whole year.BETTER?!)
Opeth…!
After a extremely long wait God Mikael appeared with his PRS Custom 24Tortoise Shell Flame Top!(*fangasms and dies*)I think he said something in the lines”Hi. I’m Mikael. We’re Opeth and we are from Sweden. Actually we are from Stockholm, which is the capital of Sweden. You wanna know what we do in Sweden? We drink and fuck.”At least the first part is correct since the crowd was fucking screaming and covering him up.Heh,enthusiastic little maggots(I understand them!).They played a few songs,threw some guitar picks*grits teeth*which I HAVEN’T caught.In between two I-do-not-know-which songs(God-uh,I mean Mikael!Forgive me for the ignorance!)Mr.Åkerfeldt apologised for never being on a tour in Romania before and promised he’ll come back soon.(“Not next year ’cause I’m painting the house.And probably not the next year after since I’m mowing the lawn.And the year after that we’ll be working on a new album.So,yeah we’ll come back!”)
He changed guitars after some time and I’m pretty sure he took up his PRS Custom 24Black Quilt.He paused again between songs and said more immortal words “…seems there are a lot of good lookin women around here!(he was referring to me,btw.)Unfortunately,he’s married(Fredrik),he’s married(Axe) and I’m married…but there are good lookin women around,yeah…” At which,ofc,the fangirl in me roared”WHO CARES?!”and basically killed the poor gothboy who was lurking around(my voice reaching a respectable yottahertz pitch,Mikael surely heard me…and did the o.O face)
Though I was hyper as on drugs(in fact,as on Mountain Dew,since that’s true)I was beginning to be really annoyed that they didn’t play Closure.Which is my favourite song.Ever.
The crowd started the shouting yet again.Many screamed”Closure”but to no result since God was on a roll with his jokes again.The guy next to me was yelling for some time when I decided to bring forth the ballistics”CLOSUREEEEEEE!!!”.Thought I killed some neurons but the guy was quite pleased and smirked at me.”That’s a fuckin’ real scream!”.Seemed like Mikael agreed with him since he DID start playing Closure!*squeeeeeeee*
At around 11:30 they left the stage.They returned for a encore which was Demon of the Fall and God presented the Almighty members of Opeth.He stoped at himself…and there was silence*enjooooooy the silence*.
“…Would it…Would it be cheesy to say I’m Dracula?”
Screams.
And then…A squeaky voice “Suck my blood,Mikael!”
*cough cough*What?!Wouldn’t you do that if you were in my place?On a scale from 1-10…I’ll give them …a well deserved 10!
They had impecable sound and stage effects( not too snobish as someone’s else)…And great interaction with the public!Metal Gods indeed!
- Current members of Opeth:
- Mikael Åkerfeldt: lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic guitars, bass on My Arms, Your Hearse (1990–present)
- Martin Mendez: bass (1997–present)
- Per Wiberg: keyboards, backing vocals (2005–present)
- Martin “Axe” Axenrot: drums, percussion (2006–present)
- Fredrik Åkesson: rhythm and lead guitars, backing vocals (2007–present)
Opeth setlist :
Heir Apparent, Ghost of Peridition, The Leaper Affinity, Closure, Godhead’s Lament, The Lotus Eater, Deliverance and Demon of the Fall(Encore).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55E3Ad7CwFk&feature=channel <—What would you want more?
18th of July.Saturday.
I was in a complete state of confusion while walking towards the stage.Who-the-fuck was singing in opening for Nightwish,except Pain?( that was pretty obvious since t-shirts with them were flung in my face every now and then.Talking about t-shirts…the amount of guys wearing Nightwish ones scared the crap out of me).Anyway,I made my way towards the closest place to the stage(which was waaaaaaaay far from it since the truefans of Nightwish-and even Pain-were pilling up from 10 hours earlier)…and sat elegantly on the ground.I’ve met with some friends(which had backstage passes and didn’t tell me.Grrr.)got acquainted with some new guys which were all amazingly cool.At least I remember so.
Me and Alex were waiting for some bloody long time when Subscribe finally decided to go on stage.
They sang hardcore but with deep influences of jazz, reggae, metal, funk and hungarian folk.After listening to a few songs…it actually started to sound like Rage Against the Machine(which was extremely well said by me since the guys had some RAtM tributes in their crazy playlist).They were very good with their stuff, fooled around&had fun but gave 100% of themselves.I think the temperature went up with a few degrees after their appearence and things were just getting better and better as the dreadlocked vocalist jumped off the stage and on the fence that held the crowd.I think he animated the thousands of people in Piata Mare rather well.And he had some nice groovinvery metalish moves.But their bassist was creepy.Really,really…creepy.
On a scale from 1-10…I’ll give them …a 9.Ok,ok…a 8,50.WHAT?!I really liked them…
…Hmph.Anyhow…
Current members of Subscribe:
- Miklós Anga-kis – bass (aka creepy guy)
- Bálint Csongor – vocal (aka dreadlocked vocalist/pseudo Zack de la Rocha)
- Attila Horváth – guitar (aka the dreadlocked guitarist usually standing on the left ><”)
- Tamás Reich – guitar (aka the other one)
- Attila Rékasi – drum (aka bush-headed man)
- Máté Tilk – vocal (aka baldie)
Subscribe setlist:
Kiss and Kill Your Boyfriend, Friendship, Roll and Rock, Use her Friendly, …
The following band was Pain,ofc.They had a very interesting logo of a man holding a child in his arms hanged in the backgroung of the stage(the cover picture of their last album, Cynic Paradise done by Travis Smith who also worked on Opeth’s artwork).
Of what I know, Pain( which actually is a industrial metal musical project…not a proper band as wikipedia states)is supporting Nightwish on the second half of their Dark Passion Play tour this year.
I have a weird feeling that I already made a review for Pain once but anyway…
Revenind la dulcea limba materna…(pe deoparte ca numele trupei ma duce cu gandul la un “feeling” cu totul rezervat mie si compatriotilor mei si pe de alta parte fiinca nu as vrea sa indoi limba lui Shakespeare precum indoia Neo lingurite in Matrix…Atata spun)
Publicul de pe a doua zi a fost impartit in oameni ce au venit sa vada Pain,alti oameni care au venit sa vada Nightwish si supraoameni care au venit sa vada ambele formatii.Acest lucru depasea o minte ingusta ca a mea.Scuzati-mi incultura in materie de metal industrial,dar pentru mine pana in acel moment singura formatie reprezentativa din acel subgen era Rammstein.Si m-am cam inselat.Ok, m-am inselat destul de bine (sau era destul de rau?Hm…)Pain au un sunet unic, inovator, pe care era cat pe aci sa-l numesc elecronic metal o data cu piesa Shut your mouth.Same Old Song si On and On au fost si ele piese de referinta Pain care au fost intonate cu sarguinta de amicii pletosi din spatele gardului.Follow me a fost privit cu destul de mult scepticism datorita aparitiei neasteptate (pentru unii) a Anettei Olzon.Nimeni nu credea ca enigmaticul Peter Tägtgren care si-a cumparat propriul sat pentru a fi lasat in pace avea sa lucreze,in mod ironic, cu solista Nightwish la o piesa.
Si o concluzie…
On a scale from 1-10…I’ll give them 7,50
Current members of Pain:
- Peter Tägtgren – Vocals, all instruments (1997-)
- Michael Bohlin – Guitar (2007)
- David Wallin – Drums (2005)
- Johan Husgafvel – Bass
Pain’s setlist:
Suicide Machine, On and On, Shut Your Mouth, Just Hate Me, Same Old Song, Nailed To The Ground, Follow me(featuring Anette Olzon), I’m going In, Monkey Business, I Don’t Care, Have a Drink On Me.
And now, supposedly human readers of my blog, get ready for…Nightwish!
With a big bang boom tam tam ta di da doom doom pew-ENOUGH ALREADY!-the members of Nightwish made their fabulous entrance…accompanied by the screams of hundreds and hundreds of sweaty fans(eww…) It was a near-deaf experience.The Nightwish fans were craaaaaaaaaazy but still, very smexy, chanting the names of the band members over and over again,pushing towards the fence,trying to reach their idols(but failing miserable.Muahahaha.The fence pwns Nightwish fans anytime!).
(On the otherside)
Even with all the special effects thrown at the public,you couldn’t make abstraction of the(plentiful)faults in Anette’s singing.Masterpieces like Everdream,Nemo and Wishmaster have been stripped off their original romantic&melancholic scent, butchered by the pop tendecies of the new Nightwish singer.
(‘Tis me personal opinion,mates. )
“Unfortunately” for Anette,the overall show was saved by the rest of the NW crew who gave an incredible live show,otherwise.Marco seemed to be particulary comfortable here,at the fest,and even joked with the audience.Meanwhile,Tuomas was sending kisses to the already exalted(female part of the)public.(I spy with my little eye…people that have fainted!Are the paramedics close by?:D)
Songs that may have sounded rather well even on the vocal part were the ones fron Dark Passion Play album.They are much more suited for Anette’s singing style(—>7 Days for The Wolves for example was really good)
Phew…*wipes sweat*I think that was enough.And with alot of “constructive criticism”…Hm,aren’t those Anette fans?
*Dodges knives(again)*Geezas!Those aren’t even sharpen!*Gun reloading sound*Uh-oh.But that sounds serious.BYE.
On a scale from 1-10…I’ll give them a 9.
Current members of Nightwish:
- Anette Olzon
- Female vocals (2007–present)
- Tuomas Holopainen
- Male vocals (1996–1998)
- Backing vocals (2001, 2007)
- Keyboards (1996–present)
- Emppu Vuorinen
- Acoustic guitars (1996–1998) (2004–present)
- Bass guitar (1996–1997)
- Electric guitar (1997–present)
- Marco Hietala
- Bass guitar (2002–present)
- Acoustic guitars (2004–present)
- Male vocals (2002–present)
- Jukka “Julius” Nevalainen
- Drums (1997–present)
- Percussion (1997–present)
Nightwish’s setlist: 7 Days to The Wolves, Everdream,Nemo, Romanticide,Sahara, Amaranth, The Siren,The Escapist,Dead Boy’s Poem, Wishmaster, Wish I Had an Angel(Encore).
Si mai am Luna Amara…Si voi avea impertinenta de a scrie review-ul in romana.Dar nu astazi.Prea multe pierderi intr-o singura zi,prea multe cuvinte transformate in prostii…
