Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
May 2nd 2014, House Of Blues Sunset Strip, West Hollywood CA: Longtime purveyors of American heavy metal, Tampa FL’s Iced Earth have been around for nearly 30 years. They entered a brand new chapter in their career with the recruitment of former Into Eternity singer Stu Block as the Iced Earth frontman after Matt Barlow’s departure in 2011, and as a follow-up to his stellar debut on the ‘Dystopia’ album, they released ‘Plagues Of Babylon’, their eleventh LP overall, last January via Century Media Records. To promote the release and present a selection of other material from their long, revered musical catalog, they set foot on a North American headline tour on April 4th with support acts Sabaton and ReVamp, and four weeks later on May 2nd, descended upon the House Of Blues Sunset Strip with the promise of a glorious heavy metal night for all in attendance.
This was an earlier show as compared to most shows at this venue, with doors opening promptly at 6:30 and first band scheduled to go on at 7:30. By the time I entered the concert hall at around 7:15, it was already packed with eagerly waiting fans, and the atmosphere was indeed excellent.
Dutch progpower quintet ReVamp began the show with an extremely solid 30-minute set. They were making their Los Angeles live debut and as expected, attracted a lot of attention from an audience that was curiously excited to see this Floor Jansen-led outfit play songs off of their two studio albums in the live setting for the first time in this city. This being my very first viewing of Floor Jansen on stage, she formed a very positive first impression and based on this performance alone she warrants a place amongst the top female rock/metal singers going around at present. In this ReVamp set, while she retained the singing qualities that brought her fame and recognition through her former band After Forever and got her recruited as the new Nightwish frontwoman recently, she also mixed those traits with growing vocals, something entirely different to what she did/does in those bands and totally alien to people who might be hearing ReVamp for the first time. As a heavier side-project, ReVamp certainly works, and while each of the six songs played by the band were enjoyable in their own ways, ‘Neurasthenia’ was the standout item of the set in my opinion. Besides the vocal delivery itself, Jansen showcased her skills as a true performer with stage movements that fit with the band’s musical presentation perfectly and weren’t over-the-top as is the case with a few other female singers. But besides her efforts, the other four band members also played important roles and as a result of most of them having been in the band since its start, their tightness as a group was quite evident. ReVamp’s Los Angeles debut was undoubtedly successful as the crowd gave them a fantastic response, and it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if they were to return here before the end of this year.
Related: Floor Jansen interview
Check out a gallery 19 ReVamp photos below (view it here if you’re on a non-Flash device):
ReVamp links:
ReVampMusic.com
facebook.com/ReVamp
twitter.com/ReVampOfficial
Set List:
01. Wild Card
02. Limbic System
03. Head Up High
04. Neurasthenia
05. Disdain
06. Wolf And Dog
Following a 20-minute intermission, Swedish metal warriors Sabaton marched onto the stage, and hearing the ‘Sabaton! Sabaton!’ chants from this zealous crowd during the intro music just before they did so, for a moment it almost felt like an Iron Maiden concert, and that feeling instantly permeates good vibes in every true heavy metal lover’s heart. Sabaton went on to play a hefty 50-minute set, treating this grateful audience with the best possible representation of what they stand for aurally and visually. In addition to his ever-solid performance on vocals ably backed up by his four band mates, frontman Joakim Brodén brought his usually charismatic personality to this stage, clearly perfecting the art of crowd interaction more and more each time Sabaton returns to LA. He delved briefly into the subject matter of ‘To Hell And Back’ off of the band’s upcoming Nuclear Blast release ‘Heroes’ before they played the song, and upon his mention of Audie Murphy, America’s most decorated WWII veteran, chants of ‘USA! USA!’ emanated throughout the crowd and the electricity in the atmosphere rose further, with guitarist Thobbe Englund playing the first verse of the USA national anthem, much to the pleasant surprise of his singer. I’ve heard the entire ‘Heroes’ album several times now and can say with confidence that it’s Sabaton’s best work. But they also played a great selection of older material as well, tunes such as ‘Swedish Pagans’ ’40 : 1′, ‘Primo Victoria’ and the set-closer ‘Metal Crüe’ getting the crowd off their feet and garnering a unison of raised fists and metal horns. The fanfare for Sabaton at this show was incredible, and it would be fair to say a lot of people were here for Sabaton almost as much as for Iced Earth. All kinds of age groups were represented during this set, with two kids being carried on their parent’s shoulders the entire time. Joakim gifted his sunglasses to both kids and brought one of them on stage for the last song. For Joakim he might have been just another kid, but that 7-year old will remember it for the rest of his life. All in all, this was another righteous performance by Sabaton. While too many of the so-called ‘metal’ bands coming out of Europe at a dime-a-dozen take the folk/symphonic element a tad too far, Sabaton continue to be a refreshing exception, embracing the delightfully cheesy aspects of bands such as Iron Maiden, Europe, Queen and (classic) Bon Jovi, giving it their own spin and ‘rocking’ in the real sense. Regardless of whether one likes their music or not, their ever-strengthening status as one of the greatest live bands on the planet is undeniable.
Related: Joakim Brodén interview
Check out a gallery of 29 Sabaton photos below (view it here if you’re on a non-Flash device):
Sabaton links:
Sabaton.net
facebook.com/Sabaton
twitter.com/Sabaton
Set List:
The March To War (intro)
01. Ghost Division
02. Gott Mit Uns
03. Carolus Rex
04. Swedish Pagans
05. To Hell And Back
06. White Death
07. 40 : 1
08. Art Of War
09. Primo Victoria
10. Metal Crüe
And lastly at 9:40, headliners Iced Earth took the stage with an 80-minute elixir of pure American heavy metal. When it comes to the Stu Block-fronted version of this band, I’m rather late to the party as I didn’t get a chance to see the band perform live with him on vocals, missing their last couple of LA/SoCal shows due to my forced India exile of 2012-13. But having thoroughly enjoyed ‘Dystopia’, I’ve been eagerly waiting for a chance to rectify that, and finally, here it was. It was not only my first time seeing the ‘new’ Iced Earth, but I also hadn’t seen Stu Block on a stage since 2008 when Into Eternity opened for Iced Earth at the Wiltern. Naturally, being an admirer of what Stu did in Into Eternity and on his first studio album with Iced Earth, my expectations were sky high. In many cases, excessively high expectations can lead to equally bitter disappointment, but I’m more than glad to say this wasn’t one of them.
They played four songs off of the new album ‘Plagues Of Babylon’, which I must admit (and if you read my review of the album you already know) I haven’t been able to appreciate as much as I would like to in my capacity as an admirer of almost all of the band’s past catalog, but upon hearing these songs live I’m already a bigger fan of the album, with the set-opening title track and ‘If I Could See You’, the heartfelt ballad based on guitarist/mastermind Jon Schaffer’s grandfather, standing out as my favorite of the four. It just goes to show that sometimes you really need to hear a good portion of a new album in the live setting to fully understand it. A lot of people skip out on attending shows when a band is promoting an album they’re not fans of, but I’d venture to say that the exact opposite mentality needs to be incorporated, as proven by Iced Earth’s renditions of the ‘Plagues Of Babylon’ material.
But with that said, I still enjoyed the three ‘Dystopia’ songs, namely ‘V’, ‘Boiling Point’ and the title track, a lot more than anything off of ‘Plagues Of Babylon’, all three sounding just as great as I had imagined and expected. But in addition, the band definitely brought forth some of the older, more classic material as well, with songs such as ‘Red Baron / Max Blue’ also making a highly welcomed entry into the set, and despite the fact that Stu Block did an undoubtedly terrific job on all songs old and new, for me the Dystopia tracks were the highlights of this Iced Earth performance, with ‘V’ being the absolute standout of the 16-song set. The song ‘Anguish Of Youth’ off of Dystopia was neither played on the actual touring cycle for that album nor did it feature in this set, and the band would be well-served to introduce it into their live show next time around. But set list-wise, Iced Earth is definitely appeasing fans on this tour, specially with the manner in which their singer is pouring his 100 per cent to do complete justice to each of these songs.
The efforts of Jon Schaffer and Troy Seele on guitars, Luke Appleton on bass and touring drummer Jon Dette were excellent as expected, but one guy who singlehandedly blew me away was Stu Block. I can’t honestly remember being this impressed by a singer, and while the majority of Iced Earth’s fan base remains obsessively fixated on previous singer Matt Barlow, I’d put my neck on the guillotine and say that Stu Block is a much better frontman and live performer than Matt Barlow ever was, and Stu might be the best thing to have happened to Iced Earth since Tim Ripper Owens. Talking of whom, as a die-hard supporter of that era of Iced Earth, it was extremely heartening to see the ‘Glorious Burden’ album well-represented, although there was nothing off of ‘Framing Armageddon’ and my all-time favorite Iced Earth song ‘Ten Thousand Strong’ was still a glaring omission. But to see Stu Block indulge and revel in his performance with utmost enthusiasm, using his entire body to sing every note, was nothing short of pure delight and I take my hat off to Mr. Jon Schaffer for recruiting the perfect frontman three years ago. As a Maiden/Priest/Tim Ripper fan, Stu’s high-pitched wails automatically stood out to me but he showed exemplary range even otherwise.
Overall, Iced Earth put on an immense show for their LA fans gathered here, who will await their next visit, and with the help of Sabaton and ReVamp’s brilliant performances, they managed to deliver what I would deem as the best of the 103 metal shows I’ve seen in the year 2014 so far. So while I now go and listen to Dystopia on an endless loop, I suggest you to attend the tour if it’s coming to your town in its remaining two weeks.
Related: Jon Schaffer interview
Check out a gallery of 21 Iced Earth photos below (view it here if you’re on a non-Flash device):
Iced Earth links:
IcedEarth.com
facebook.com/OfficialIcedEarth
twitter.com/_IcedEarth
Set List:
01. Plagues Of Babylon
02. Apocalypse Segue
03. Democide
04. Burning Times
05. V
06. The Hunter
07. Red Baron / Blue Max
08. If I Could See You
09. Boiling Point
10. Vengeance Is Mine
11. Cthulhu
12. My Own Saviour
13. Coming Curse
14. Dystopia
15. Watching Over Me
16. Iced Earth
Remaining Tour Dates:
May 3–Slim’s–San Francisco, CA
May 5–Knitting Factory Concert–House Spokane, WA
May 6–El Corazon–Seattle, WA
May 7–The Venue–Vancouver, BC
May 9–The Starlite–Room Edmonton, AB
May 10–Republik–Calgary, AB
May 11–Riddell Centre–Regina, SK
May 12–Park Theatre–Winnipeg, MB
May 14–The Summit Music Hall–Denver, CO
May 15–Sunshine Theater–Albuquerque, NM
May 16–Diamond Ballroom–Oklahoma City, OK
House Of Blues Sunset Strip links:
HouseOfBlues.com/LosAngeles
facebook.com/HOBSunset
twitter.com/HOBSunset
instagram.com/HOBSunset