Following the success of their May 2014 UK tour, multi-national melodic metal band
EDEN'S CURSE returned to Glasgow, Scotland on Friday 28
th November 2014 to record their debut live album for AFM Records. Following the announcement, fans began to plan their travels and did whatever it took to come to the show. Some of the locations they traveled from included various parts of England, Ireland and Wales with some other countries like France, Holland, Belgium and Spain having representatives travel to the show and two fans even traveled from Japan just to be at the show which is pretty amazing as it shows the amazing international diversity of the band's loyal and dedicated fan-base. The venue for this show was The Classic Grand in Glasgow, Scotland which has also had some other big names in the industry record live albums there too and this is my report of my attendance at the show.
Originally when the show was announced, it was an immediate yes for me although I never took how I was going to get there into consideration so after a while I gave up. That all changed when I found out about the company Megabus and soon after, my attendance was officially confirmed as I now knew I could attend this special event. The journey there had to be overnight for me as I lived so far down south, I kind of had no choice but in the end I knew it would be worth it. I got a train on Thursday the 27th around 10pm and was in Glasgow by 12noon the next day as part of the journey involved a coach journey from London at around1am on Friday morning. The journey seemed to take a long time but I was glad when I arrived. I took the time to look around a bit before going to lunch at a restaurant which was very close to both the concert venue and the hostel I stayed at which was handy.
At around 5:30pm, I entered the venue to conduct an interview with EDEN'S CURSE bass player Paul Logue but I had to wait a bit first as there were others before me but this gave me a chance to modify my interview questions as I originally had questions to ask the whole band but once the interview was conducted, I'm glad I got to interview Paul as I got some really good answers and you can see the interview on this site once it's been uploaded the official Metal Temple YouTube channel.
At 7:30pm, it was time for the magic to begin and first on stage was the support band
COLDSPELL from Sweden who I checked out before the show and I was glad I did as they were exactly what I expected from a great Swedish band and their live performance was pretty darn amazing. Over the 45 minute or so set they played, they covered the albums they had already released so far including their latest release
"Frozen Paradise" which they released in 2013.
Some of the songs played included "Paradise", "Heroes", "Angel of the World" and "One in a Million" and throughout the set, all of the band were amazing to watch on stage including the singer Niclas Swedentorp's amazing vocal performance, the bass player Chris Goldsmith's insane skills, the drummer Perra Johansson's amazing beats and of course the insane riffs from the guitarist Micke Larsson.
At around 9pm, it was the turn of
EDEN'S CURSE and introducing them was Scottish DJ
Tom Russell who has been a long time friend and supporter of the band. After the introduction, the show commenced and having already seen the band live once this year so far already, I knew what to expect but I have to say, this show blew me away even more. I think that maybe it was the fact that this show was being recorded for a live album or maybe it was the amazing performance from the band that made me enjoy it more. Whatever the reason was, it was nothing short of absolute perfection.
The set mostly consisted of songs from the May UK Tour as well as one song from their new album "Symphony of Sin" which they didn't play live the first time around ("Devil in Disguise"), one song which they haven't played live for a long time ("Masquerade Ball") and one song they haven't played in the UK before ("Black Widow"). The other songs they played covered all 4 of their studio albums including their debut self-titled ("Judgement Day", "Fly Away"), their second album "The Second Coming" ("Just Like Judas", "Angels and Demons"), their third album "Trinity" ("Trinity", Jerusalem Sleeps", "No Holy Man") and of course their new album "Symphony of Sin" ("Evil & Divine, "Unbreakable", "Break the Silence")
Throughout the 1hour and 45 minute or so set, every single member of the band was on fire and it was clear they wanted to make this a night to remember and they achieved that goal with passion and pride as it was indeed a memorable performance. The new vocalist Nikola Mijic put on one hell of an amazing vocal performance and it's clear that his vocals were meant for the band's songs as even when he sang the old songs, it does make you think that he should have been the band's singer from day one but that's just how good his performance was if it makes you think like that. His stage presence was also pretty amazing too as watching him move around while singing, getting the crowd involved with the music and generally giving it his all was clear that like everyone else in the band, this was a show where they were giving it their all to make this live album one to remember.
Next up was the sensational shredding skills from guitarist Thorsten "TK" Koehne and let me tell you, this dude was on fire as during the solos, his fingers were everywhere on the neck of his guitar. In 2013, this dude won the prestigious "Guitarist of the Year" on the MelodicRock.com awards and it was well deserved as both his studio and live performances are amazing. However, it's the live shows where TK really shines as you get to hear the amazing tones, riffs and solos from his left handed backwards strung Dean Razorback with your own ears up close and personal.
It's not just guitarists who can have fun while performing at rock shows too you know as some bass players also know how to rock out too while performing and I have seen this a few times this year from various bass players including one Paul Logue who was playing his custom made "Curse Bass" for the show, all the while rocking out with the other members including Nikola and TK and allowing us to hear some pretty groovy bass melodies as well.
Usually the rule with keyboard players is to stand behind a rack of keyboards and just play right? WRONG! There are keyboard players who can rock out even while standing behind a rack of keys. Steve Williams is just such a keyboard player and having already played in a Power Metal band prior to his joining EDEN'S CURSE, he knew a thing or two when it came to playing live at that was made clear as he was headbanging and getting the crowd pumped up while playing some pretty awesome keyboard melodies to accompany the rest of the instruments on the stage.
Lastly we have the new drummer John Clelland who became a member of the Curse family this year and having already toured with the band once in the UK this year, everyone knew what to expect from him and needless to say we were not disappointed. At this show we were reminded of that as he was able to perfectly replicate the melodies and skills from previous drummer Pete Newdeck and his band TAINTED NATION were the opening act for a couple of shows on the May tour. I may not have been able to see John due to my underestimating the size of the stage and the lighting which made it tricky to get shots of him in action but I knew he was there as I could hear his amazing drumming with my own ears.
In and throughout the evening, it's safe to say there was and forgive the corniness of what I'm about to say but there was a lot of magic to be had that night from everyone including
COLDSPELL, EDEN'S CURSE and of course the fans who had traveled from all over to be a part of this memorable show. In March 2015 when the live album is released, we will get to hear the result of the recording and I look forward to placing a pre-order for it and getting a copy to remind myself of the magic that was had that night as we all stood united as one for we are UNBREAKABLE rockers in arms.
Setlist:
1. Symphony of Sin
2. Break the Silence
3. Masquerade Ball
4. Black Widow
5. Trinity
6. Fly Away
7. Just Like Judas
8. Fallen from Grace
9. Jerusalem Sleeps
10. Time to Breathe
11. Rock Bottom
12. Devil In Disguise
13. Wings to Fly
14. No Holy Man
15. Unbreakable
16. Judgement Day
Encore:
17. Evil & Divine
18. Angels & Demons
