By Avinash Mittur
Feb. 18th 2012, Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA: When it comes to power metal, few tours get better than this. Iced Earth and Symphony X, two bands that have been among the best in their styles for nearly twenty years, have come together to give North America a show they won’t soon forget. With the ever reliable Warbringer supporting, this show is guaranteed to please audiences everywhere. Los Angeles was no exception; the crowd at Club Nokia were treated to a spectacular display of some of the best power metal American bands have to offer.
As expected, Warbringer blew the door open with a scorching performance. There were a couple of key differences between this show and their last performance in Los Angeles supporting Sanctuary though. First was the absence of former guitarist Adam Carroll, whose shoes were filled by Andrew Bennett. While he didn’t replicate Adam’s solos, he more than ably stayed on top of every riff. John Laux, the band’s remaining original guitarist, truly stepped up in terms of stage presence to make up for Adam’s absence. More so than usual, John ran about the stage and gave plenty of cool guitar poses for audience members to gawk over. Frontman John Kevill was his usual crazy self, running about all over the stage and karate-chopping the air like no tomorrow. Even drummer Carlos Cruz managed to stand up and engage the audience during the second half of Living in a Whirlwind while still playing his parts perfectly. The second primary difference in this show was the crowd. Unlike the poor turnout for the Sanctuary gig, hundreds of fans clustered about in Club Nokia for this show, with the front pit being nearly packed. Warbringer’s set was evenly balanced between their three albums, but the most amount of violence came with their set closer, Combat Shock. Warbringer left the crowd more than warmed up, and ready for the fun that would ensue.
Setlist:
1. Living Weapon
2. Severed Reality
3. Shoot to Kill
4. Demonic Ecstasy
5. Living in a Whirlwind
6. Combat Shock
Symphony X took the stage next, and gave their fans a fun eighty minute set that, while overly safe, was still enjoyable. Symphony X fans tend to be of the hardcore variety- if the band comes to town, chances are they’ll go out of their way to see them. As such, many of the Symphony X fans in attendance tonight had also seen them on their headlining run last spring. Between these two tours, the setlists have about half of their songs in common. In other words, fans that had seen the previous tour (of which there were quite a few) were treated to about half of the same set they had already seen. For fans seeing them for the first time, this obviously wasn’t an issue. For everyone else though, myself included, the set felt a little too familiar. Of Sins and Shadows, Set the World on Fire, Eve of Seduction and The Serpent’s Kiss are all great songs, but most fans have heard them all played on the last two tours. The new tracks were stunning as expected though, with Bastards of the Machine and Children of a Faceless God coming off as absolutely monstrous in the live setting. Inferno was also a pleasure to hear for the first time- the song sounded far meatier and heavier live when compared against its somewhat sterile sounding studio version. Instrumentally, the band was as dead-on as ever, but singer Russell Allen sounded rougher than expected. Russ, one of my favorite hard rock/heavy metal singers ever, nailed the songs from Paradise Lost easily enough, but struggled with higher notes on a regular basis. I’m sure the fact that he would take a swig of whiskey occasionally throughout the set didn’t help either. Symphony X did play a great set, but a couple of minor issues prevented it from being as good as it could’ve been.
Setlist:
1. Iconoclast
2. End of Innocence
3. Dehumanized
4. Bastards of the Machine
5. When All is Lost
6. Inferno (Unleash the Fire)
7. Electric Messiah
8. Children of a Faceless God
9. Of Sins and Shadows
Encore
10. Eve of Seduction
11. Serpent’s Kiss
12. Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies)
Returning to Los Angeles after a year and half of touring and recording, Iced Earth showed their fans that they are back, and they have no intention of going away. The band started the set with the title track to their newest album, Dystopia. It was a great showcase for the band’s new vocalist, Stu Block. Stu ably hit all the high parts, and pulled off a low bark that would make Matt Barlow proud. Stu was a charismatic presence onstage, always in motion and encouraging plenty of fist-raising and chanting. When the Night Falls was the first epic of the night, but the band was more than up to the task. This was the first song where guitarist Jon Schaffer truly got to shine. His signature “stuttering” rhythm guitar playing was in full force here, providing one of the best driving guitar sounds a metal band could get. The set consisted of many tracks from Dystopia, and a track or two each from the band’s other albums. While this made for a career-spanning set, many classic tracks were ignored. Even Burning Times, a live staple, was glossed over. The new songs fit in well the old ones though, Iced Earth’s return to a more aggressive sound is most welcome, and their live set is better for it. The set was still pretty good, but adding only one or two more songs from the first Matt Barlow era of the band would have made it nearly perfect. The sound was also great for the most part. Occasionally Troy Seele’s guitar solos would be mixed lower than Jon’s rhythm, but this was usually fixed very quickly.
The band members themselves all delivered tight performances, with Stu being the standout. He managed to sing the classic tracks enough like Matt Barlow to make the old-school fans happy, but still put his own stamp on the phrasing and tone of the vocals and effectively made the songs his own. The only songs he seemed to struggle on were Declaration Day, and weirdly enough, Dark City, a track from Dystopia. Stu couldn’t quite nail the melody of Declaration Day’s chorus, depending on his falsetto frequently in order to sing what Ripper Owens used his natural register for. Dark City in turn sounded completely different, largely because the band downtuned their instruments for this song. Instead of the more triumphant tone of the album version, the song gave off an almost melancholy sound when played live. Stu was nearly inaudible during some parts of the song, and his voice lacked confidence compared to his outstanding delivery on the other tracks. These really are small issues though, only noticeable because of his amazing work on the other songs.
Among the older songs, Angels Holocaust, Damien and Watching Over Me were phenomenally performed. Having the crowd sing the choir intro to Angels Holocaust was a surprisingly cool move on the band’s part, and the audience was more than happy to oblige. Damien let bassist Freddie Vidales shine, while Stu brought as much emotion to Watching Over Me as Matt Barlow did to the studio version. The highlight of the whole set was easily Dante’s Inferno, the band’s longest song and an epic in every sense of the word. Jon’s intricate picking patterns, powerful vocals from Stu and blazing drum work from Brent Smedley were all displayed. Capping off the set with their traditional show-stopper, the band’s self-titled track, Iced Earth left the stage to a massive applause from Club Nokia. In this case, an encore would have been most welcome since the crowd clearly wanted it.
This tour package was ultimately a very successful one. All the performances were first-class, even if a couple of minor changes could have made them perfect. I especially look forward to Iced Earth’s future with their present lineup, and I know Warbringer and Symphony X will deliver the goods when they come by next time.
Rating: 9/10
Related: Iced Earth pictures | Symphony X pictures | Symphony X “Children Of A Faceless God” video | Symphony X “When All Is Lost” video
Setlist:
1. Dystopia
2. Angels Holocaust
3. Slave to the Dark
4. V
5. Stand Alone
6. When the Night Falls
7. Dark City
8. Damien
9. Anthem
10. Declaration Day
11. Days of Rage
12. Watching Over Me
13. Dante’s Inferno
14. Iced Earth
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