PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
This year saw MFVF hit the magic tenth anniversary mark in style. Starting originally in the Belgian capital Brussels, the festival moved to the bigger venue of Oktoberhallen in Wieze which has since become its permanent and spiritual home. The venue is best described as an aircraft hanger in shape and size, which lends itself really well acoustically for a music festival.
Day one of the festival has in the past been a kind of party orientated affair, with maybe three or four bands on the bill but this year saw things take a big switch with the whole evening being taken over by the girls from Eve’s Apple, which in a nutshell is a community of female singers who have come together to support and offer advice and guidance to like minded female singers and artists, and is a group which is constantly growing.
Things start first however with the exclusive debut airing of a track penned by the Metal Queen Doro entitled ‘Strong And Proud’, and what a stormer that turned out to be. There can’t be too many festivals that can boast having world class artists write songs specifically for them, which again demonstrates just how far the festival has grown and progressed since its inception.
Another point to raise before reporting on the evenings main entertainment is the genuine community spirit that exists at MFVF, people from all continents (and most countries) of the globe can stand and chat to each other as if chatting to a lifelong friend, indeed, many of the audience only see each other in the flesh as it were at this festival but always leave having made new contacts and friends. The organisation of the event is such that you are always reminded that you are part of a family, hence in the many years I’ve attended, not once have I witnessed any fights or trouble of any kind, well, apart from the odd wrestling match to buy the last t-shirt from the Merch stand!
And so to business proper, Eve’s Apple begin with a set of acoustic songs performed by a number of interchanging singers, many of whom had had very little time to rehearse together, and although that showed through on some songs, it honestly didn’t matter, such was the atmosphere and ambience of a beautifully relaxed evening.
V.K. Lynne ( Vita Nova, The Spider Accomplice), together with Maxi Nil (Visions Of Atlantis) performing ‘Black Halo’ for example was superbly done, full of foot tapping rhythm , Kassandra ( Enemy Star) and Elina (Seduce The Heaven) with their rendition of Nightwish’s ‘The Crow, The Owl And The Dove’, bordered on bettering the original. ’Open Your Eye’s’, featuring Maxi, Marcela (Stream Of Passion), and on piano, Angel (Bare Infinity), also was beautifully performed, and for the first time I might add.
In many respects though the night belonged to one particular lady, namely Lisa Middelhauve (ex Xandria), who had originally been billed to perform a brand new track but due to the tragic passing of a dear friend decided to perform an unaccompanied version of Xandria’s ’Eversleeping’, which resulted in many a damp eye and quivering bottom lip, powerful stuff indeed.
The whole set ending with the entire troupe gathering on stage for one final song, ‘Find Me’ by V.K. Lynne, a true lighters in the air composition, and a perfect note to end on.
The evening ended far too quickly but all that were there realised they had witnessed something beautiful and truly special, a set unlikely to be repeated anywhere else, gathering some of Female Metal’s finest voices from all over the world into one venue is no mean feat in itself and I feel privileged to have witnessed it.
With day two fast approaching, I boarded the shuttle bus back to Brussels with the sound system blasting out more Female Fronted Metal and with a huge smile on my face.
http://www.facebook.com/metalfemalevoicesfest?ref=ts&fref=ts
http://www.metalfemalevoicesfest.be
Fan video of Angel Wolf Black and Clemintine Delauney performing a cover of AfterForever’s ‘My Choice’
http://youtu.be/cKEOPrpArGY
