SONATA ARTICA
With the venue already packed, a sea of Sonata Arctica shirts and hoodies illuminated under the bright lights, tonight's only support band PAGAN'S MIND take to the stage, showered with cheers and applause. "LONDON! ARE YOU READY FOR US?!" comes the cry of beaming frontman Nils K. Rue.The band, hailing from Norway, hit the crowd with their fury of power/progressive metal, and it's very easy to detect the Iron Maiden influence in the music, and in particular, in Pagan's Mind vocalist Nils, who seems to glide and dance across the stage like a Norwegian Bruce Dickinson, while his shrill, powerful voice hammers down on the audience, with a fusion of guitarist's Jørn Viggo Lofstad's heavy, vibrant riffs and twisted solos which seems to glide alongside Nils' soaring voice.
Bassist Steiner Krokmo delivers on the dirty, almost rock 'n' roll vibe, as well as providing the eerie backing beat clashing with the searing notes played by keyboardist Ronny Tegner. Both Ronny and Steiner provide such hilarity and fun, with their face-pulling and eager screaming at the crowd, who in turn respond with a minor mosh-pit which still delivers. But with the utterly prodigious Stian Kristoffersen as the drummer, he excels in providing such talent behind the drumkit, his glare fixed directly at the crowd, and using actions such as pounding his fist down on his head everytime he hits the bass drum. He maintains the cool, icy back-beat of the band, differing between slow, sombre drumbeats to a flurry concussion upon his kit.
With 45 minutes of sweat, Scandinavian grins and endless toasts to the Londoners, the band go out on a high note with an interesting cover of "Hello, Spaceboy" by the talented Mr. David Bowie, and with the combination of Nils' tenor-range vocals and the band's collective attraction between the power of dark and light, makes the cover really shine through.
"SHE SHOULD NOT LOCK THE OPEN DOOR! RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!",comes the cries and furore of excited Sonata Arctica fans in the midst of the band's popular song "Fullmoon". Sonata's visibly excited vocalist, Tony Kakko, stares on in amazement, left pretty much speechless as the refrains of the song are echoed against the wall's of London's Islington Academy. Never as a music lover and photojournalist have I seen such a beautiful unison that left pretty much all of us with huge grins on our faces, and I'm sure on the faces of Kakko's talented bandmates, guitarist Elias Viljanen, bassist Marko Paasikoski, drummer Tommy Portimo and keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg. Now, let's just go back go to a couple of hours prior to our Finnish heroes taking the stage...
With the venue already packed, a sea of Sonata Arctica shirts and hoodies illuminated under the bright lights, tonight's only support band PAGAN'S MIND take to the stage, showered with cheers and applause. "LONDON! ARE YOU READY FOR US?!" comes the cry of beaming frontman Nils K. Rue.The band, hailing from Norway, hit the crowd with their fury of power/progressive metal, and it's very easy to detect the Iron Maiden influence in the music, and in particular, in Pagan's Mind vocalist Nils, who seems to glide and dance across the stage like a Norwegian Bruce Dickinson, while his shrill, powerful voice hammers down on the audience, with a fusion of guitarist's Jørn Viggo Lofstad's heavy, vibrant riffs and twisted solos which seems to glide alongside Nils' soaring voice.
Bassist Steiner Krokmo delivers on the dirty, almost rock 'n' roll vibe, as well as providing the eerie backing beat clashing with the searing notes played by keyboardist Ronny Tegner. Both Ronny and Steiner provide such hilarity and fun, with their face-pulling and eager screaming at the crowd, who in turn respond with a minor mosh-pit which still delivers. But with the utterly prodigious Stian Kristoffersen as the drummer, he excels in providing such talent behind the drumkit, his glare fixed directly at the crowd, and using actions such as pounding his fist down on his head everytime he hits the bass drum. He maintains the cool, icy back-beat of the band, differing between slow, sombre drumbeats to a flurry concussion upon his kit.
With 45 minutes of sweat, Scandinavian grins and endless toasts to the Londoners, the band go out on a high note with an interesting cover of "Hello, Spaceboy" by the talented Mr. David Bowie, and with the combination of Nils' tenor-range vocals and the band's collective attraction between the power of dark and light, makes the cover really shine through.
[Click on the following pics for full high res versions!]
The wait leading up to Sonata Arctica's seems unbearable amongst the excited fans who pile up closely and offer chants of "SONATA! SONATA! SONATA!" before finally, the lights dim, the intro music ushers in as Tony Kakko & Co. seem to glide gracefully up to the stage to raucous applause and screaming. "HELLO, LONDON!" screams an excitable Kakko, who leads the band straight into their first song, "In Black & White", taken from the first track of their most recent album, 2007's "Unia". Immediately there's an uproar among the fans, fists pounding, moshpits circling with such vigour, and a sea of voices which at times seem to dampen Kakko's vocals, although Kakko responds in a display of utter glee.
It's live that you really get to envisage Kakko's talent not just as a gifted vocalist, but as a strong frontman with a real obvious bond with his fans. He runs back and forth to the side of the stage, jumping up and down like an excited child, as well as interacting, even playing games, with the fans! Midway through the set, the others descend from the stage, while Kakko brings forward a drum-stool, lowers his microphone stand, grabs his drumstick and teaches the crowd to be his "live drum-kit", with the crowd divided into groups of 3; one to make the sound of the hi-hat, one to do the bass drum and the last to the snare. Using his drumsticks to "play" the crowd, he then creates a beat exactly like that of Queen's "We Will Rock You", singing the lines so powerfully that it made each and everyone of us scream the chorus in response; Kakko's knack as a Pied Piper to his audience is so obvious and thoroughly enjoyable. I'd also have to take a second here and thank Kakko for the hilarity he too provides, in particular when he singled out myself and a poor girl as starters for "group 1" [AKA the hi-hat], before greeting our embarrassment with an excitable hello! I just had to laugh and wave back. Mr. Kakko, I hope you don't mind me mentioning this because that alone made the night spectacular.
Alongside Kakko is his right-hand man, guitarist Mr. Viljanen, who leads the band with his staggering riffs and insane solos, glaring and swinging his head like a madman. Kakko takes great joy in constantly air-guitaring alongside Elias, who joins in the fun by "strumming" Kakko's makeshift guitar in the form of a mike stand. Henrik really shows off his keyboard skills, his fingers dancing away at light speed, the concentration just etching on his face, as he gives bassist Marko a look as if to challenge him to go faster. Although I was fairly unimpressed with Marko's lack of moves upon the stage and facial expressions, his stony stare while churning out guttural churning from his bass really gives Sonata that defined darkened edge to their mostly light-hearted, fist-pumping action. Tommy, whose physical presence was barely noticeable beyond the drum-kit, made up for it greatly in his drumming, sounding like waves crashing upon the rocks, while simmering down to a gentle heartbeat for the more slower, moving numbers.
With 2 encores at the end, each time the band came back, the crowds yells become more deafening while the grin etched on Kakko's face just seemed to grow wider. At the time of farewell, Kakko is the last man standing; dishing out "invisible hugs" (by wrapping his arms around himself), blowing kisses and constantly telling the crowd how much he loves them, which was so apparent by tonight's excellent performance. Let's hope it won't be long before our Norwegian heroes return to give us another outstanding show.
It's live that you really get to envisage Kakko's talent not just as a gifted vocalist, but as a strong frontman with a real obvious bond with his fans. He runs back and forth to the side of the stage, jumping up and down like an excited child, as well as interacting, even playing games, with the fans! Midway through the set, the others descend from the stage, while Kakko brings forward a drum-stool, lowers his microphone stand, grabs his drumstick and teaches the crowd to be his "live drum-kit", with the crowd divided into groups of 3; one to make the sound of the hi-hat, one to do the bass drum and the last to the snare. Using his drumsticks to "play" the crowd, he then creates a beat exactly like that of Queen's "We Will Rock You", singing the lines so powerfully that it made each and everyone of us scream the chorus in response; Kakko's knack as a Pied Piper to his audience is so obvious and thoroughly enjoyable. I'd also have to take a second here and thank Kakko for the hilarity he too provides, in particular when he singled out myself and a poor girl as starters for "group 1" [AKA the hi-hat], before greeting our embarrassment with an excitable hello! I just had to laugh and wave back. Mr. Kakko, I hope you don't mind me mentioning this because that alone made the night spectacular.
Alongside Kakko is his right-hand man, guitarist Mr. Viljanen, who leads the band with his staggering riffs and insane solos, glaring and swinging his head like a madman. Kakko takes great joy in constantly air-guitaring alongside Elias, who joins in the fun by "strumming" Kakko's makeshift guitar in the form of a mike stand. Henrik really shows off his keyboard skills, his fingers dancing away at light speed, the concentration just etching on his face, as he gives bassist Marko a look as if to challenge him to go faster. Although I was fairly unimpressed with Marko's lack of moves upon the stage and facial expressions, his stony stare while churning out guttural churning from his bass really gives Sonata that defined darkened edge to their mostly light-hearted, fist-pumping action. Tommy, whose physical presence was barely noticeable beyond the drum-kit, made up for it greatly in his drumming, sounding like waves crashing upon the rocks, while simmering down to a gentle heartbeat for the more slower, moving numbers.
With 2 encores at the end, each time the band came back, the crowds yells become more deafening while the grin etched on Kakko's face just seemed to grow wider. At the time of farewell, Kakko is the last man standing; dishing out "invisible hugs" (by wrapping his arms around himself), blowing kisses and constantly telling the crowd how much he loves them, which was so apparent by tonight's excellent performance. Let's hope it won't be long before our Norwegian heroes return to give us another outstanding show.
~ Liz, ©DEFUNCTPHOTOGRAPHY
Note: All photos/words are copyrighted to the owner, ©DEFUNCT PHOTOGRAPHY. DO NOT take any material without the Owner's consent.
Note: All photos/words are copyrighted to the owner, ©DEFUNCT PHOTOGRAPHY. DO NOT take any material without the Owner's consent.
