By Jason Williams
December 4th 2016, City National Grove of Anaheim, Anaheim CA: Living in America, we’re inherietly spoiled. From the ability to vote, create your own business, owning property in any state desired, this country definitely has it better than various places and countries. Musically however, and discussing metal specifically, we don’t have the luxury as Europe does, with quality festivals and tours all across the yearly calender. But on December 4th 2016, we would be given that luxury, as Finnish power metal legends Sonata Arctica played the Grove of Anaheim. Joining them were Leaves’ Eyes and Omnium Gatherum, solid symphonic and melodic metal bands with their own fanbases to bring along.
This event took place the week and a few days after Thanksgiving, and at a venue that holds up to 2,000 fans, it’s extremely difficult to get these kind of shows right. Even though Sonata has their own audience and do better than others touring here, it looked like only a couple hundred were in attendance. The bands definitely deserve to play in front of packed venues. But starting off the night absolutely livid and sound, Omnium Gatherum opened the show to the very slowly and somewhat surely trickling in audience, with their enormous melodic death metal brand and energetic stage presence. Seeing them on proper support shows with Dark Tranquility and Insomnium within years past, it was truly special to see the reactions from fans. Frontman Jukka Pelkonen running across the stage, involving the audience as he always does, bringing the “metal party” as he happily claims, it inhibits a positive aspect in the air. Having a smile on your face, nodding your head all along; very difficult to capture these days. The music of course, was the true highlight, with their newest record ‘Grey Heavens’ on display. They opened with ‘The Pit’ and ‘Skyline’, continuing their unique darker aspect of blissful melodic death metal, with keyboardist Aapo Koivisto providing such a frosty and visual symphony, all in his fingertips. ‘New World Shadows’ was the best song of the night, with guitarist Markus Vanhala providing the festive riffs and compelling hypnotic aura the music entailed. I hope some day they’ll have a proper small club headlining tour in North America in the very near future, as a 7-song set is nowhere near enough. My third Omnium Gatherum show, and still getting better, and better. The highlight of the night.
Omnium Gatherum set list:
1. The Pit
2. Skyline
3. Ego
4. Frontiers
5. The Unknowing
6. New Dynamic
7. New World Shadows
With some more in attendance arriving in the venue, highly anticipated symphonic metal veterans Leaves’ Eyes took the stage, with many fans in Leaves’ Eyes shirts, and dressing in various corsettes and metal armor too. It’s lovely seeing fans getting involved with their favorites and going the extra mile in feeing confident and more in tune with the music they love. They openedtheir 40-minute set with ‘Halvdan the Black’ from their 2015 record ‘King of Kings’, much to the excitement of those in attendance singing along, even to their latest material. It almost felt like most would leave before Sonata Arctica, just from what I was seeing. The focal point of the band of course, would be the vocalists in frontman growler Alexander Krull and newest singer Elina Siirala, who has taken the place of legendary operatic singer Liv Kristine, which of course is no easy task to say the least. Truth be told, witnessing Liv for the first time was my original and largest reason for wanting to see them perform. Drama aside from the band within themselves, Elina did a fine job singing the material and did very well with the fans screaming the lyrics and dancing to the symphonic noises embracing the air. Ironically, for how important the vocal work is for Leaves’ Eyes, the volume was lower than I was expecting, making the listener work and focus more to hear the lyrics. The musicians did more than provide the quality music, and watching Thorsten Bauer bring in the riffs was rather nostaligic as he’s been with the band since the beginning with Krull, and with Leaves’ Eyes not a regular performer in North America, it was appreciative for me to see their audience give respect and passion back. The vocals could have been higher in the mix, and not seeing Liv Kristine sing definitely took a hit, but overall, Leaves’ Eyes gave a solid performance.
Leaves’ Eyes set list:
1. Halvdan the Black
2. My Destiny
3. The Waking Eye
4. Swords in Rock
5. Edge of Steel
6. Take the Devil in Me
7. Fires in the North
8. Sacred Vow
9. Blazing Waters
Judging from the response go Leaves’ Eyes, I had a feeling the attendance would wane for the headliner, but thankfully everyone stayed and chanted “Sonata” loudly, minutes before the Sonata Arctica set took place. ‘The Ninth Hour’, released just two months ago, was heavy in the set, with five tracks represented. ‘Fairytale’ and ‘Life’ were solid and well played, as I’m aware the Sonata Arctica fan community haven’t been too kind to their most recent album work, but the songs provide character live. Speaking of the buzz word, singer Tony Kakko gave a rather more impressive than usual vocal performance, with the setlist focusing on more of the dynamic aspects instead of the higher tempo songs. I always enjoy him singing while sitting down in the middle of the stage, bringing the focus all to him from the fans’ perspective. Thankfully though, the rest of the set was quite varied, with ‘Tallulah’ from their sophomore album ‘Silence’, as well as ‘FullMoon’, their only song from the first record ‘Ecliptica’. This song was the highlight of the evening and brought forth the first mosh pit, although this audience didn’t appreciate it, and I get it, it’s not really for this kind of touring bill, but nevertheless, others in the crowd found it appropriate to show their love and passion for the band in physical form. I won’t admit and pretend that I know all of their material, as I’m only most familar with their first few albums, but this was my second time watching Sonata Arctica, and I find their live act to be quite enjoyable. Definitely a veteran power metal act that’s been around since 1999, and although the attendance for this show wouldn’t prove it, as I believe making this kind of show at a larger club venue on a Sunday, the week after Thanksgiving, isn’t the greatest idea. I will say their “Vodka” music bit they’re famous for doing, is rather fun to see, but not to close the show, after their last song ‘Don’t Say a Word’. It’s best to perform that bit to open the song, not after. It felt a little off, for sure. But nevertheless, a proper performance from Sonata Arctica.
As a vastly large and often flawed country we live in, America gets the rare treatment of underrated metal touring packages, and tonight was proof that we’re bound for more of these in the near future, and hopefully better planned after the holidays, for each band to be given the oppportunity to perform in front of the largest possible audiences.
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Sonata Arctica set list:
01. Closer to an Animal
02. Life
03. The Wolves Die Young
04. In Black and White
05. Tallulah
06. Fairytale
07. FullMoon
08. Among the Shooting Stars
09. No More Silence
10. Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited
11. We Are What We Are
12. Power of One
Encore:
13. I Have a Right
14. Don’t Say a Word
Remaining Tour Dates:
12/08/2016 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theater
12/09/2016 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada
12/10/2016 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
12/11/2016 – McAllen, TX @ Cine el Rey
12/13/2016 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamo Music Hall
12/14/2016 – Houston, TX @ Scout Bar
12/16/2016 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
12/17/2016 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade