23-05-2011 Theatres des Vampires

Supports: My Sweet Torment, The Foreshadowing; Venue: Underground, Cologne (Germany)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Theatres des Vampires is on tour and brought some bands with them.

Starting this night is My Sweet Torment. The band has had line-up changes through the years but now comes with a quite upfront show element: female vocals. Besides that she contributes in show and vocals, there is also the addition of some keys, which makes it slightly melodic and dramatic. The band played some songs of their album “Seven” and mainly surprised on the guitars. It was not crowded in the venue on this Monday evening so there were not too many people that could be impressed. Nevertheless they made a nice show of it.

Up next is the Italian Doom formation The Foreshadowing. The band released their album “Oionos” in 2010 on Cyclone Empire and that is where most of their songs were coming from. The title track of that album was played quite early in the setlist, with which the album got introduced.

The sound during their performance was quite loud and therefore you could feel the music coming through your body, supported by the metal plates that are on the floor in front of the stage, which strengthen it. The ultimate way to feel a concert like this! The strenght of the drums is almost overwhelming at some points but the voice of Marco Benevento still comes over it. Mainly in the into’s you may be even more aware of it.

In the set list of the band, there is the song “Russians”, a Sting cover, to be found. This one brings a little recognition with those in the venue who have not seen the band before and seems to make an impression on most of them. The band had the most balanced sound of the evening and seemed to have impressed those who were there this evening.

Gothic metal band Theatres des Vampires was headlining. Fronted by vocalist Sonya, who knows quite well how to grab the attention, the band made a show that seemed quite interesting. Unfortunately, the vocals were quite soft. Partly a volume problem and the fact that femme Sonya was showing her ass to the audience instead of her face for a substantial part of the performance may not have done good either. Not that audience seem to mind. The band released a long line of albums though the years “Moonlight Waltz” being the most recent. Overall it was a nice performance from them, though the sound was breaking it down a bit to me.