Celebrating their fifteen year anniversary as a band, Finland’s Sonata Arctica made a return to North American shores for the first time since 2012. Now supporting their eighth studio album, Pariah’s Child, excitement levels ran high when the tour was announced in the beginning of 2014 to include fellow Europeans Delain and Xandria to join the bill. With both bands also proudly showcasing new records as well to Symphonic Metal fans this was a show circled and highlighted on their calendar. A long eight months past and midway through the cycle the tour came through to Southern California on a warm Tuesday evening, September 30th, to play The Grove in Anaheim.
Opening the show to a fairly large crowd for a weekday evening was Symphonic German Metal band Xandria. Founded by guitarist/keyboardist Marco Heubaum nearly two decades ago, Xandria has forgone some alterations over the years. Now six records deep into their career, the band has seen five vocalists grace their line-up with the most recent being Dianne van Giersbergen. Finding comfort with their new voice on their latest album Sacrificium, this would mark their first North American tour with van Giersbergen. Providing a great performance, winning over new fans and pleasing their old fans, Van Giersbergen’s operatic voice lingered though the large venue with every note she sang. New songs like “Nightfall” and “Stardust” mixed in with previous album pieces “Valentine.” As the band shredded away with high energy, utilizing the big stage to its fullest, the set closed out with some fantastic guitar work by Philip Restemeier and Heubaum, as well as drumming by Gerit Lamm. Impressing the audience, Xandria’s time on stage was nothing else than exhilarating as they bowed graciously to the cheers. Pleased to see the band, many fans hope next time they come around they will have the chance to play a longer set of material.
Next up was Dutch band Delain. Brainstormed in 2002 by former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt, Delain’s first studio album Lucidity came out in 2006 causing a buzz around the scene. Now supporting their highly engaging new album, The Human Contradiction, Delain return to North America for the second time in 2014 after a successful run with Kamelot. Fronted by the charismatic vocalist Charlotte Wessels, as always, she manages to engage and captivate her audience. Performing songs from their latest album including “Army of Dolls” and “Stardust,” older pieces such as “Electricity” also excited fans. Speaking of electricity, the power output of Delain on stage was so intense that at times the lights in the lobby began to flicker from the overload of this high octane mix of guitars, keyboards, and soaring vocals. Pleasing their fans of their older material, Wessels announce to the crowd that they will be back on tour soon in late spring of 2015 with Nightwish, which received a roaring crowd response. Delain ended their set with the angelic track “We Are the Others” to which everyone continued to applaud, wanting more. Delain’s continuity to rise in popularity is something special and deserved as they provide a brand of conceptually intelligent music with melody and edge. It will be exciting to see them back on the continent again in a mere few months.
The time had come for the guests of honor and that was none other than Sonata Arctica. Thinking back on the past fifteen years of the band and their introduction to countries all over the globe, their continued run has been remarkable. Staying true to their Power Metal roots while tapping into more progressive and dark tones along the way, including the popular 2009 album The Days of Grays, Sonata Arctica always seems to be adventurous in their endeavors from album to album. With a reputation that precedes them, Power Metal fans often rave of how spectacular Sonata Arctica are live and, judging by the turnout at The Grove, many were ready to bare witness once again.
Jump-starting the set with their new song “The Wolves Die Young,” everyone cheered as vocalist Tony Kakko belted out powerful clean notes. Offering fans a wide spectrum of their discography in honor of the celebration, other songs such as “My Land” and “Replica” were sprinkled in with “Cloud Factory” and “Black Sheep.” As Kakko continued to sing, his delivery accented the powerful lyrics with each breath as guitarist Elias Viljanen, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg, and bassist Pasi Kauppinen provided intense musical backdrops. Klingenberg’s keytar abilities were unbelievable as his showmanship gave Sonata Arctica a more animated appeal to the crowd all night along. Playing on with “I Have A Right,” favorite “Fullmoon,” and “Kingdom for a Heart,” the room was at the height of excitement with even some crowd surfing. Wrapping up the set with a blast from the past was the song “San Sebastian” which has not been heard on American soil live in some time now. Seeming as if Sonata Arctica had given the audience everything they could have wanted, they came out for a tremendous encore of “Wolf & Raven” and “Don’t Say a Word.”
It is not often a band gives their fans as balanced a retrospective set as Sonata Arctica did. Living up to their name of heart-stopping instrumentation and passionate live energy, this was a show no one will forget. Their debut album, Ecliptica, will be re-released as a special edition on October 24th to fans excitement, which hopes to see the band return to North America again very soon.
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