31-08-2007 Poisonblack

Venue: Hellä, Tampere (Finland)
By: Sabine van Gameren

This night I went to the metal club Hellä to see Poisonblack playing. Hellä is a very nice club, totally decorated with sculls and evil paintings. There were flames are painted on the wall, there are also light effects which make it look like the flames are actually burning. You shouldn’t pay too much attention to it, especially not when you are drunk, because it looks quite realistic. A pillar in the middle of the venue is completely covered with skulls and again, very well thought light effects on it.

The stage looked quite small for Poisonblack but it seem to fit. Quite some enthusiastic fans gathered in front of the stage waiting for the band, fronted by Ville Laihiala (Ex-sentenced). There seem to be a lot of Sentenced fans in the venue, a few minutes before the gig started, a song of the latest Sentenced album was played and everybody was singing along. When the gig started out it was a success immediately. The audience was slightly happy to see them and it was already clear that Poisonblack had them on their side. Although on the first Poisonblack album the vocals were done by Charon singer J. Leppäluoto, Ville Laihiala is now responsible for the vocals. If you like the first album, you might have problems to like the live version of the songs, but Ville is doing a great job on them tonight.

Right from the stage there is a cage situated where two chicks are dancing during the gig. Unfortunately for them, no one is paying attention to them. All eyes are for the band. Even the band did not seem to realize there are girls dancing next to them. Only at the last song before the encore… when the audience requests the song “Rush” the keyboard player noticed them.

We had to wait a little longer for “Rush” since they played it in their encore, but here you see people really enjoy their selves. Singing along and showing their appreciation. Poisonblack has done a great job this evening, but I think it was not that hard for them, since the audience already carry them in their hearts and all waiting patiently for the new album.