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Swallow The Sun, Wolfheart, Adimiron on Tour

23.1.2016 Nosturi, Helsinki

I had the rare opportunity to attend the first and the last gig of the Swallow The Sun tour, the latter taking place in Finland with Hanging Garden and LIK. As the gig began unusually early due to another event in the same facilities, I feared that

Hanging Garden

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would play in front of an almost empty hall … yet it wasn’t so bad, and gradually more and more people arrived to celebrate the band. Their show that seemed way too short focused on the latest album with its rather atmospheric material, but the guys wrapped up with the rough Ten Thousand Cranes. Great gig, and I am looking forward to seeing the band live again soon (5.2., Vernissa, Tikkurila).

LIK

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from Sweden were probably unknown to most people in the audience, and although the beer drinkers had the chance to get close to the stage, I rather kept a safe distance – due to the sheer sound blast of this Death / Thrash mixture … Not bad, therefore a lot of cheering for the Swedes but in my opinion too many subtleties perished in this full volume attack.

Swallow The Sun

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faced a presumably pretty much sold out venue, and when Nosturi is crowded like this, everybody below the hight of 1.80m needs to follow the gig mainly via video screen. Catching a glimpse of the action on stage was difficult as the guys had created a slightly other-wordly atmosphere, which means that photographers struggled to capture more than “vague shapes in the mist”. Which of course suited the new triple album material quite well. Btw, Songs From The North has just received the best Finnish metal album of 2015 award. The acoustic part was shorter than in Berlin, yet featured Jaani Peuhu, Iconocrash, Vocal producer of the album as co-performer of the title track. Descending Winters closed this highly acclaimed show with many goosebumps moments. The band has proved once again to be one of the best from the North …

PS: Anyone who wants to enjoy STS as an acoustic trio can do that on 5.2. in PRKL Club Helsinki

(text & photos: Klaudia Weber)

17.12. 2015 Café Central, Weinheim

guest author: Sonja Kappes
The Café Central is a very small club on the first floor of a former school building. When entering the room, it feels like being in a huge living room, because in the back there is not only the bar but a couch, several seats and a couch table. The room/hall has originally been two different rooms and the wall between them had been removed. .

Adimiron (11)
Adimiron were completely unknown to me and therefore I was in for a surprise. Initially all you could hear was a hopelessly overmodulated sound-thunderstorm. I could not enjoy their gig due to the horrible mix – all you could distinguish was the vocals and the bass, the latter because of the Jazz-slapping which reminded me of Cause for Effect. The band also failed to convince the audience. Unfortunately I cannot evaluate this band, as my displeasure was mainly caused by a sound problem, which overshadowed the whole event.

wolfheart (15)
The first song of Wolfheart fell victim to the terrible mix, but during the second song the sound person managed to handle the job and the initial blur became an appealing concert experience. Thus the audience enjoyed a pretty epic Ghosts of Karelia, and during Zero Gravity the solo parts received extra applause. When ’Routa‘ was announced as being the last song, many people seemed truly disappointed: All in all Wolfheart delivered a good and inspiring set.

swallow_the_sun (5)
I had not seen Swallow the Sun live in almost 4 years and was therefore pretty excited, especially since I also have not listened to the full new 3-album-set yet. Initially there were the usual sound problems which caused the vocals to be drowned by the instruments.

Right from the start the guys unleashed powerful songs and immediately turned on the heat – even literally. You indeed felt exactly what singer Mikko commented as ‚..this is like f**ing Finnish sauna.‘ The setlist was quite diverse, containing mostly new material but also songs from all the previous albums. The positive surprise for me were the two acoustic songs in the set; they created an intense, melancholic atmosphere and gave the audience a chance to relax. Then they pulled the full power throttle again with Descending Winters and the final Swallow (Horror pt.1), releasing an obviously satisfied audience into the night and onto their way home.

(photos from Berlin gig by K.Weber)

26.11.2015, K17, Berlin, Germany

(watched by Kathleen Gransalke KG, Klaudia Weber KW)

Basically our ”stalking” had already started with Grit Kabiersch reporting about Unioni festival, yet this tour package headlining Swallow The Sun who play a much longer set can only be watched in central Europe. Reason enough to visit Berlin once again, and the location K17 which is a great club indeed.

Adimiron (15)

Adimiron were totally new for me, those Italians released a Progressive Metal with a touch of Thrash, reminding me a bit of VoiVod. Singer Giuseppe di Giorgio (Eyeconoclast, Black Therapy) showed great versatility, covering every shade from clean to growl. Not quite music for Slamdancing, hence the pretty big crowd focused on listening, from a respectful distance. (KW)

Adimiron: I was positively surprised, quite a good band, and you could hear all the instruments quite well. Afterwards it turned out that this wasn’t the regular singer but a tour replacement, therefore it’s difficult to evaluate the band; maybe they could still work on creating a trademark. A female performing in a Metal band is always a treat, unfortunately a rare one. Later we found out that also Cecilia Nappo joined for the tour only. (KG)

wolfheart (62)

Wolfheart did not perform in original line-up either. Quite a nice gig but it was difficult to hear the structure of the songs. Therefore I cannot quite evaluate this band, as you could hardly distinguish the instruments at the spot where I was standing. Only the last two songs had a clear structure and a better sound. Let’s put it like this, I didn’t feel like buying the album after the show (what I did after watching the headliner). (KG)

Wolfheart began their best-of-2-albums set with the established opener ”The Hunt”, and the crowd no longer kept a distance to the stage, headbangers and horn-raisers had a field day. No complaints from my perspective, what I found different to Lahti were Juho Räihä’s soli, much more his personal ”fluffy” style. Hearing the brilliant Routa II always comes with a sad aspect, as usually this is the end of the set, but this time they finished with Veri, and created such an intensity that almost moved me to tears. (KW)

swallow_the_sun (91)

Not much to say about Swallow The Sun, and there’s nothing to complain about. Maybe the acoustic part, which is basically a good idea, but I found it a bit too superficial and had not convinced me at all. Otherwise a perfect show with a great sound. The audience was very enthusiastic, cheering to all the bands of the evening. The Finns had lots of fellow compatriots in the audience – at least many raised their hands when Mikko dropped the question. And I noticed that they did not play anything from the New Moon album. On purpose? (KG)

I haven’t seen Swallow The Sun on stage for a while, hence I was curious about the live version of the fantastic new triple release – and I should not be disappointed. An intense experience, musically and visually with all these lights and lots of fog, creating a mystical atmosphere ( a bit difficult for making photos, though). A new face also an this band, yet Juuso Raatikainen is part of the line-up and seems to blend in nicely already. Well, STS have never disappointed me, the set focused on the new release but naturally contained several classis. In the end also those dudes who had shouted ”Morning Never Came” all the time earlier, finally got to hear a song from this album. Well, at least they didn’t follow Finnish customs demanding ”Paranoid” ….(KW)

Summing up, a fantastic package, so don’t miss it when they come to your town!

Adimiron Setlist: Collateral, The Giant and the Cow, State Of Persistence, Redemption, Liars Paradox, The Furnace Creek, Ayahuasca

Wolfheart Setlist: The Hunt, Strength and Valour, Aeon Of Cold, Ghosts of Karelia, I, Zero Gravity, Routa pt. 2, Veri

Swallow The Sun setist: 10 Silver Bullets, Rooms and Shadows, Hate Lead The Way, Cathedral Walls, Hope, Don’t Fall Asleep, Lost & Catatonic, Abandoned by the Light,

acoustic: Pray for the Winds to Come, The Heart of a Cold White Land, Autumn Fire, Descending Winters, Swallow

Photos in full size on our Flickr page

Contributors

Klaudia Weber

reckless and merciless dictator, so KNEEL! In other words, editor-in-chief, translator, website and ad admin, "Jane of all trades" - - - addicted to books (everything between Lord Of The Rings & quantum physics) and music, mainly Metal made in Finland. Furthermore, there's painting, drawing, movies, theater... so you can expect some variety on this website too. MA Master of Arts, English and American studies & Media communication = completed two full studies parallel within 5 years; very proud of my achievement - a bit later in life thanks to a scholarship - as a working class girl in a highlyconservative-romancatholic nation...

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