PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Tonight was a great lineup – Serenity who once again are playing London, and with them are Visions of Atlantis, here for their first ever UK show. Both bands have new albums released around the day of the gig, so fans are expecting to hear some new material as well as being able to buy the albums at the gig. Opening for these two bands are German band Souldrinker.
The night kicked off with Souldrinker. They’re quite a bit heavier than either Serenity or Visions of Atlantis, falling somewhere between Kobra and the Lotus and Arch Enemy. The female vocals are very heavy and are clean vocals that border on growls at times. Alongside these are male growling vocals. Alongside their own songs they did an excellent cover of Judas Priest’s ‘Nightcrawler’. I really enjoyed their set, and if the band hadn’t disappeared after they played leaving nobody who knew the price of the EP (it was labelled as both £4 and £5) then I’d have bought a copy.
Next up came Visions of Atlantis. As they have no bass player, the bass parts were on a backing track, but in some ways it’s lucky they didnt have a bass player with them or the stage would have been even more cramped. Their setlist was made up of a good mix of tracks from the new album and more familiar material from earlier albums. To put it simply this was a superb performance. I’d seen them play a couple of times before at MFVF in Belgium and enjoyed it, but this really did sound so impressive that for me they stole the show from the headliners, Serenity, tonight. Ater their set I purchased a copy of the album from the merch stand, and can definitely recommend it. Judging by tonight’s performance, their next UK visit in May when they’ll be supporting Delain at the Dames of Darkness festival, is going to be one hell of a good show.
Visions of Atlantis setlist
The Ark
New Dawn
Memento
Vicious Circle
Avatara
Seven Seas
Hypnotized
Burden of Divinity
Machinage
Elegy of Existence
At The Back Of Beyond
Passing Dead End
After Visions of Atlantis came tonight’s headliners, Serenity. Since they played the UK last, Clementine Delauney has become a full member of the band, rather than just being a guest singer for touring. Like Visions of Atlantis, Serenity have a new album out, but tonight they take a different approach with their setlist, preferring to stick mainly to their earlier albums and songs that the fans know already with only a few new songs thrown in. With Serenity, some songs have male lead vocals, some have female lead vocals and some share vocals, so the two singers, Georg and Clementine are constantly coming on or off stage, which does tend to disrupt the flow slightly. Serenity put in a great performance tonight, but coming after such a good performance by Visions of Atlantis, they did suffer slightly in comparison.
Overall I’d give Serenity 8/10 versus 9/10 for Visions of Atlantis, and a 7/10 for Souldrinker.
Serenity setlist
Age of Glory
Far From Home
Coldness Kills
Heavenly Mission
The Matricide
Rust of the Coming Ages
When Canvas Starts to Burn
For Freedom’s Sake
Forever
The Chevalier
Fairytales
(Piano Version)
Reduced to Nothingness
Wings of Madness
Engraved Within
Encore:
Velatum
Serenade of Flames
