This post is all about an evening of power metal that I witnessed last night at Sub89, Reading. The band I was intending to see last night were Finnish metalheads Sonata Arctica, when I saw they were touring the UK this month I just had to be there and the closest to me was the town Reading. The venue was brand new to me; it was very intimate, a lot different to what I was expecting. It was this one room with a bar on one side and a stage on the other; the general atmosphere was pleasant with it's friendly staff and excellent facilities. I bought my Sonata Arctica vest top and I was ready to enjoy some music.
The first band to play were Norwegian heavy metallers Triosphere; I heard some of their stuff before and quite liked it so I was particularly looking forward to seeing them play. Their entrance was definately a crowd pleaser where the band entered with such confidence and passion; once the music started I was absolutely amazed. Ida Haukland has such a powerful voice which sounded so amazing live and her skills on the bass guitar were spectacular. All these different musicians fit together perfectly, the melodies were awesome and there were some neck-braking guitar solos. Oh I also must mention their synchronised headbanging whilst on stage play their music gets a big thumbs up from me. Meeting them was pretty awesome too, Ida was very sweet, she reminded me of Anette from Nightwish. Hope they come back to the UK very soon.
Find Triosphere on their official website, Facebook and MySpace
Italian power metallers Labyrinth were next to play, their intro was heard on the speakers and I knew right away it was them. I had heard them before and to be honest wasn't too keen on their sound; the lead vocalist reminded me of a character from Lord Of The Rings and I loved how he got the crowd clapping. He took photos whilst on stage too, every single one was brilliant on their instruments. I really liked the keyboard sounds too. However as much as I tried to enjoy them, there was something missing in their performance that didn't seem to work for me. That was a bit dissappointing since they were such lovely guys and they tried their very best.
Last but not least headliners Sonata Arctica; I have liked them for about three years now so was really excited to see them last night, I had been listening Sonata Arctica for about two weeks non-stop to make sure I knew their material by heart. Excitedly waiting as the roadies performed soundchecks and took down a curtain to reveal another aspect of the stage, suddenly the lights went down and there were cheers all over the venue. A folk song was heard out of the speakers, to me that marked few seconds til these power metal heads embraced the stage; there was then a countdown from five and then ice blue lights spelling 'SA TOUR 2011'. I was shaking with so much excitement once I heard the smooth transition from this folk song to the instrumental of Everything Fades To Gray, it was that point I realised how much I love this band. This was possibly one of the best introductions to a band's set I had ever seen. The cheers got louder as the band members made their way onto the stage, opening with the almighty Flag In The Ground and performing it to such perfection. This got the crowd absoulutely pumping, from that I knew Sonata were well underway. The band performed a fantastic setlist mixing the old with the new from Replica to Last Amazing Grays, I also loved how the smoother tracks such as As If The World Wasn't Ending and Full Moon were performed setting a calmer tone to this energy filled evening. Tony's energy and sense of humour also highlighted the evening for me; his story of how the song Juliet was inspired through Shakespeare, singing a part of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart and he knows who Tim Minchin is, he sung apart of his song. Their encore was also spectacular; particularly the song Don't Say A Word where jumping up and down to the bouncy chourus like crazy just made me so so happy. Overall a mindblowing performance, so amazing that I was sad it had to be over. I hope they will make another visit to the UK, well with the news of them working on a brand new album I'm pretty sure they will.
Find Sonata Arctica on their official website, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter
Take care now Tuomaslotte
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