Leaves’ Eyes and Atrocity live at The Garage, London, UK on January 19th, 2014

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Live Photos and Gig Review Credit: Adrian Hextall (Photographer/Live Gig reporter Myglobalmind Webzine

Sunday night at The Garage and Europe’s hardest working husband and wife combo get ready to deliver a dose of Death Metal and a smattering of symphonic wonders to balance it all out.

ATROCITY

http://www.atrocity.de/

Alexander Krull’s band Atrocity has been in action since 1985, initially under a different name playing grindcore before Atrocity delivered their first Death Metal album Hallucinations in 1989. Fast forward to 2013 and the band release the first of 3 concept driven albums, ‘Okkult’. Although the current tour is to promote the new Leaves’ Eyes album, ‘Okkult’ gets good coverage tonight with ‘Pandaemonium’ , ‘Haunted by Demons’ and ‘March of the Undying’ all appearing in the opening salvo.

Krull’s vocals are truly brutal and the power behind the band is pretty intense along with the machine gun drumming are particularly impressive as well. Krull charges around the stage his (unbelievably) long hair flying in all directions and he shouts and growls at a warm and receptive crowd.

It’s a short set, livened up by a couple of local ‘exotic dancers’ for want of a better description coming on stage for 2 tracks, notably Satans Braut (Satan’s Bride) where the girls writhe around the band for the duration of the song.

Two more tracks including fan chant along ‘Death by Metal’ and the band leave the stage to allow for rest and recuperation before they return later with Liv Kristine as Leaves’ Eyes.

SETLIST

Pandaemonium

Haunted by Demons

Fatal Step

March of the Undying

Satans Braut

Death by Metal

Reich of Phenomena

Outro

PYTHIA

http://www.pythiamusic.com/

Pythia take the second slot of the night for a short 8 song set and play a tight set that also highlights their latest (3rd) release, ‘The Serpent’s Curse’. Recent line-up changes means that the tour with Leaves’ Eyes is really the first opportunity we have to hear new member, Oz Wright on lead guitar.

Fronted by Emily Alice Ovenden, UK band PYTHIA were formed at the end of 2007 and their music is a rich mix of gothic imagery and soaring melodies. Their set is well received by the crowd that has swelled considerably since Atrocity were on stage. Their dress code and style evokes not only images of medieval warriors but a little bit of Mad Max as well.

Although they are consummate professionals, play their music note perfect and Emily Alice hits all of the right notes you wonder if their style is a little too close to Leaves’ Eyes and thus their impact is diluted slightly by the knowledge of what is yet to come. A shame as they could easily build a strong following on the strength of their set tonight. A headline show might well allow them to step up and prove their mettle.

SETLIST

The King’s Ruin

Betray my Heart

Highwayman

Sword of Destiny

Army of the Damned

The Key

Bring me Home

Heartless

LEAVES’ EYES

http://www.leaveseyes.com/

With a 45 minute breather, Atrocity return to the stage accompanied by Liv Kristine and become Leaves’ Eyes.

Touring in support of ‘Symphonies of the Night’ a stunning album that is crying out to be heard live, Liv and Alex hit the stage together with ‘Galswintha’ and ‘Take the Devil in Me’ showing how their unique blend of operatic vocals and deathly growls can complement each other so well.

‘Fading Earth’, ‘Farewell Proud Men’ and ‘Velvet Heart’ give Liv the opportunity shine on her own and the crowd lap up the performance. Powerful vocals combined with lyrics like

“Velvet heart, Poison reaches my veins when you caress me, I’m not alone, A deadly kiss in the dark” really move the listener and paint a beautiful picture. The sound mix works well and allows Liv’s voice to carry over the strong sound from the rest of the band.

‘My Destiny’ sees husband Alex return to the stage and whilst Liv smiles, waves and sings beautifully to the enraptured crowd, Alex bounds around with a huge grins working the crowd and getting them to join in at every opportunity.

Title track ‘Symphony of the Night’ follows with Thorsten Bauer and Sander van der Meer trading some excellent licks on one of the standout tracks off the new album as well as Joris Nijenhuis on drums having also done it all once tonight with Atrocity show off their considerable skills in being able to play such a different style of music.

It feels that Leaves’ Eyes with this latest release have really found their calling and the live arena showcases how the band has grown with each album. Consistently evolving from the naturalistic ‘Lovelorn’, the Viking inspired ‘Vinland Saga’ through ‘Njord’ and the folk influences of ‘Meredead’ , the venue tonight almost feels too small for the rich wall sound that the band can deliver. For the people here (and sadly it has not sold out at perhaps ¾ full) they lap up every word and movement and the joy at performing to them is evident by the wide smile on both Liv and Alex’s faces.

‘Maid of Lorraine’ which sees Alex leading the vocals and ‘Hell to the Heavens’ which has the crowd bouncing build out the tail end of the show.

Leaves’ Eyes will soon start a lengthy tour across the US with Atrocity (of course) and Moonspell in tow as well. That can only see them build on their fan base and come back to these shores to bigger and better venues in future.