First
up tonight is Katatonia, no not that one, this
is the other one, I'm pretty sure I've seen them
before. Tonight they are playing an album in it's
entirety, 'Viva Emptiness' and that just about
sums up how I feel about their set this evening,
it starts off pretty slow with the opening songs,
they are dull and lifeless affairs, thankfully
the pace is picked up but for me it's just not
engaging enough to get me excited about this band,
who are playing in very low light and are pretty
much rooted to the spot all night, although it
may be down to the fact that there are 3 drum
sets on stage, but I doubt it, they don't seem
like a band that is energetic on a stage with
more space. Overall for an opening band it's not
starting the night off with a bang to get the
crowd warmed up, it's more starting off with a
damp squib.
Next up are Lacuna Coil, a band I'm seeing for
the umpteenth time, never seen a bad set of theirs
and tonight is no different, it's certainly not
the best but not the worst either.I'd have gone
for a different
opening set of songs, maybe would have started
with 'Heavens a Lie' instead that's the 4th song
in, they open with 'I Don't Believe in Tomorrow',
'Kill The Light' and 'Fragments of Faith', not
bad openers but could have been livelier but still
better than the band before, from which the crowd
has now come to life and are rather animated to
see the Italian band. I'd say the set is not 'best
of' but there are always a few staples in there
like 'Spell Bound', 'Heavens a Lie' and 'Swamped',
these songs giving the set a shot in the arm but
it never really lags at all, as it's a really
solid set from these guys as always.
Paradise
Lost are on their 25th anniversary tour which
is a mighty mighty feat for any band, most don't
see past 10. I've seen this band a few times now
and they have always been pretty good, they are
a straight up heavy rock band, with a touch of
darkness to the music and lyrics. They open the
tour in Wolverhampton with 'Mortals Watch The
Day', it's a solid opener and gets the crowd going
again after the set change, this is followed by
'So Much is Lost' and 'Remembrance', this seems
to keep the crowds energy on the up, speaking
of which earlier in the night the room wasn't
all that full, but it has filled out nicely now.
'Gothic
Enchantment' and 'Faith Divides Us', open into
the main bulk of the set, with the latter track
taking things down a notch to give the crowd a
bit of time to get their energy back, but it's
a really decent mellowed/melodic song in which
the crowd happily claps along to when prodded
by the vocalist. It's also good to hear some proper
banter between crowd and band as it was lacking
from the previous bands sets.
These guys are seasoned pros so they know how
to keep things ticking over and tootling along
and before we know it, we're over the half way
point with about half an hour to go before the
close of play.
The
band rocks the Wulfrun with the likes of 'Never
For The Damned', 'Isolate', 'Tragic Idol' and
main set closer, 'Say Just Words', this main set
was quite entertaining even for me who knows practically
bugger all about this UK band, it has been a good
nights worth of music but thankfully we're in
for a few more songs like, 'Rotting Misery', 'True
Belief', 'One Second' and a superb rendition of
'Over The Madness', which tops off the first night
of the tour quite nicely, it's been a night that
didn't start well but got much better as each
band played. Superb show from these 25 year veterans.
Katatonia 2/5
Lacuna Coil 3.5/5
Paradise Lost 4.5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence
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