April and May: Concerts Galore!

I guess with the coming of spring the bands start showing up for performances once more. Excluding the recent All That Remains and Clutch concerts I went to in February (both of which were excellent might I add), there was a period that was about 2 months long that didn't have any compelling concerts. Now with April and May soon approaching I find that there's so many good concerts coming up that I'm not sure if I can afford to go to them all or if my work would let me book off that many days in order to see them!

But, despite that slight inconvenience I have decided on four concerts that I MUST go to and I went ahead and bought the tickets for said events. Here's a summary of the four:

April 11th: Symphony X with Epica and Into Eternity @ The Opera House

Symphony X is a band that I didn't listen to until the summertime of 2007 with the release of their latest album, "Paradise Lost". I must say that I was quite impressed with the material. The band (at least for this album) plays a really aggressive and scathing form of progressive metal. They have that Dream Theater vibe with the guitars and some of the keyboards but they avoid the annoying wankery that Dream Theater favours so much. I expect an energetic performance by them.

Epica will be the interesting band to see live since I don't really have any experience with them. From what I understand is that the band is basically a heavier version of Nightwish in that they have a female singer with a fairly operatic singing style and their secondary vocalist actually growls which should provide an interesting mix.

Into Eternity is a band that I could've seen live a few times all ready but I've just never had to time to get off work to go see them play. I will finally change that on the 11th. The band itself mixes progressive metal, death metal, and thrash metal for a melodic, heavy, and technical sound. I'm personally a fan of their 2004 album "Buried in Oblivion" but their recent album is still quite good and their vocalist has even more range than the previous one. I just found the songs to be less engaging as the ones found on "Buried In Oblivion". Despite that fact, I have a strong feeling that these guys are going to bring it that night and play their asses off. The guitars for this band are definitely something to hear.


April 25th: Paganfest @ The Opera House

This tour features a bunch of "Folk Metal" bands from Europe. I'm not really familiar with any of the bands but I plan to get the newest CD by one of the bands playing on this tour, Eluveitie, a band that mixes Celtic folk with Melodic Death Metal that invokes comparison to Dark Tranquility. That is definitely not a bad mix if ya ask me!

If there's one thing that's for sure is that this will be a fun night full with drinking. Hoo rah!

April 30th: Gigantour featuring Megadeth, In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job For a Cowboy, and High On Fire @ The International Centre

I'm going to this concert with 3 or 4 co-workers and my friend from high school so all ready I know this will be an amazing night. Personally I'm a huge fan of both Megadeth and High On Fire. I also expect entertaining performances by Children of Bodom and In Flames but I expect that the material they'll play will be from their more recent (and lackluster) albums unfortunately. In Flames ruled until Reroute to Remain and have since then been a bit safe and uninteresting in the songwriting department. Children of Bodom have only recently started doing what In Flames did a few albums ago. I don't have much experience with the band but I will at least expect them to be entertaining and I figure they'll have a significant fan presence that night which will definitely help out.

As for Job For a Cowboy... Hopefully I can stomach them. This band sticks out like a sore thumb with this lineup to be completely honest. Something like... Mercenary would've rounded up the lineup much better.

May 16th: Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility, Divine Heresy, and Firewind @ The Opera House

This one I am PUMPED for! The main reason for that would be Dark Tranquility, a legendary Melodic Death Metal band. From what I've heard, they are absolutely stunning live and I can't wait to hear them play. My high school friend will also be there for this because she is a huge Arch Enemy fan. I haven't listened to much Arch Enemy to be honest, but I know with a guitarist like Mike Amott, you'll definitely have a good sound. And supposedly their latest album is a step up from previous work with Angela singing so hopefully that will make for an excellent performance.

Divine Heresy is a band I saw when All That Remains played and I was definitely impressed by the energy they created. They were also pretty humourous as they threw out beach balls to the crowd to bounce around while they performed. I expect another intense performance by them. Hopefully this time I won't have to step outside during their set to wait for someone to arrive.

Firewind is a band I haven't heard yet. But from what I understand, they possess a sound that fits with these bands quite well so I expect it will be good. We shall see.