It could have been a real mistake this evening, or should I say afternoon perhaps… I didn't check the info regarding the concert sufficient enough and almost chocked while surfing the web at the hotel prior to the concert. Doors at 3pm! It was 3.15pm when I realized that! Sure, I've heard about matinees but not for concerts.

We made it to the Bibelot venue while STEEL ENGRAVED played their first songs so no real harm caused by my heedlessness. STEEL ENGRAVED did their best to get the place going but it was a dense crowd. Sure, you can't expect much as the opener but here people were lurking a little too far in the shadows. The strange thing was that they got quite big applause in the pauses between the songs and people were nodding approvingly around the house. But ok, to me this was the first time I ever heard of this band so they haven't been doing a good job promoting them selves. A shame really, they fit in this bill perfectly, right in the middle of VICIOUS RUMORS and CIRCLE II CIRCLE style-wise, pure, half modern, half Old School heavy Metal. Nothing really new but absolutely a bunch of decent songs, mainly from their "Stage Of Siege" release. STEEL ENGRAVED's music did a bigger impact on me than their stage show though. Felt quite embarrassing watching vocalist Marco Schober doing sexual gestures with the microphone and then enhancing them by spitting water… Especially since the space at the front of the stage still was really empty.

STEEL ENGRAVED setlist:

1. "Dead Of Night"
2. "State Of Siege"
3. "Black Gold"
4. "Godspeed"
5. "Wilde Rhoads"
6. "Stainless Steel"
7. "I Am The War"

That VICIOUS RUMORS is one of my absolute favorite bands is no secret and of course I'm partly prejudiced in judging their performance but anyone who's ever seen them live can go in good for that this band sure is a pleasure to see live. And as many also know is that the line up in this band changes a lot, this was the first visit to Europe with new vocalist Brian Allen and yes, he did a good job. He's a little bit rougher than Ronnie Stixx and that suite VICIOUS RUMORS perfectly. What's the most fun to see though, when the new-bee's from the previous tours all of a sudden become the ones with routine, they get a complete different confidence. I've seen it with bass player Stephen Goodwin and now also with guitarist Kiyoshi Morgan. Damn he's good. VICIOUS RUMORS has always been a twin guitar band, it takes time to find that dynamic and get as tight as Geoff Thorpe and Mark McGee once was. Geoff and Kiyo are sure close to get there now. As it has been over the last couple of years VICIOUS RUMORS has been touring with a greatest hits setlist which I don't complain a second on but it was really nice to hear something up-to-the-minute. Brand new "Razor Back Black" was a really fast piece with cool riffs but a little hard to judge for real if it holds the extremely high VICIOUS RUMORS standard since I had my head in the monitors and almost got the same blew off of pure volume. But it sure sounds promising.

The response they got from the crowd was also quite good. With consideration it was still afternoon the party mood was on top and people were drinking, cheering, singing and screaming the set through. Of course songs like "Abandoned", "Hellraiser", "Don't Wait For Me", "Digital Dictator" and so one got the most response but people were really aware of their whole catalogue and that's really cool. I keep repeating myself when it comes to this band but they did another excellent show and I can't wait for the new album.

VICIOUS RUMORS setlist

1. "Words & Machines"
2. "On The Edge"
3. "Soldiers Of The Night"
4. "Blistering Winds"
5. "Digital Dictator"
6. "Minute To Kill"
7. "World Church"
8. "Abandoned"
9. "Razor Back Black"
10. "Down To The Temple"
11. "Hellraiser"
12. "Don't Wait For Me"

Since I saw CIRCLE II CIRCLE just about a week prior to this gig in Gothenburg opening for PRIMAL FEAR where they had basically no space what so ever on stage, my expectations were pumped up high here. In a way I think Zak Stevens handled the minimal area he had then better than a real stage. Sometimes he looks so awkward and bothered with everything which is a real shame since he's such an amazing vocalist. Just because of that I think CIRCLE II CIRCLE lost towards VICIOUS RUMORS here, there's no way you can get up on stage an be timid after a gig like that and make the same impact.

But CIRCLE II CIRCLE did a really good gig as well, it felt absolutely more confident than Gothenburg and Andy Lee got both time and space to show off how damn good a guitar player he really is. People were grasping after air from time to time and I admit I too was absolutely speechless after that 8-finger tapping sequence. For me the two first releases from this band were the strongest, I don't think the subsequent albums are bad, not in any way but I don't think they hold the same standard neither in songs nor production. So for me it's a little unfortunate that they excluded the first few albums completely. But what I think is even more unfortunate, is that there's still people who only wants to hear the SAVATAGE classis. Sure, that's in a way how he earned his name in the business but it was long now since he quit that band. As much as I love SAVATAGE I still prefer bands playing their own songs. Of course they played a few, "Conversation Piece" is one of my all time favorites so that was good, then both "Taunting Cobras" and "Edge Of Thorns" are amazing songs so I'm not really complaining about the songs. One thing they should have commendation for though is that the songs, especially from the last two ones sounds better live. On "Consequence Of Power" I think the guitars were quite messy but live it all makes sense in particular "Episodes Of Mania" which is a perfect live song, everything sounds more vivid and vibrant and edgier. After these shows the album has grown a lot so even if they didn't stand a chance towards VICIOUS RUMORS they sure as hell did a lot of things right anyway.

CIRCLE II CIRCLE setlist

1. "Consequence Of Power"
2. "Symptoms Of Fate"
3. "Take Back Yesterday"
4. "Out Of Nowhere"
5. "Revelations"
6. "Soul Breaker"
7. "Blood Of An Angel"
8. "Antha Thema"
9. Andy solo
10. "Episodes Of Mania"
11. "So Many Reasons"
12. "Conversation Piece"
13. "Taunting Cobras"
14. "Edge Of Thorns"

(photos by the cobra whisperer Erika)