07-09-2007 Soulgrind

Supports: Evilion, Beautiful Betrayal; Venue: Hellä, Tampere (Finland)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Three bands would play in Hellä tonight. First one was Beautiful Betrayal.
I actually immediately disliked the band from the start, but of course I gave them a change to see if they could convince me later on. During the whole gig the vocals were pretty unbalanced and not really pleasant to hear. Musically, it could not really got my interest as well. It suppose to be melodic metal. The first time they got my interest was when they announced to play a song from
my all-time favorite band Sentenced. “Blood and Tears” was it. To be honest, they only song which was played nice during the set. But then again. It was just singing someone else his song. There was not much added by the band. That disappointed me a lot and that with the fact that I already disliked them, made that tears are almost there and my eyes are willing to murder to get the
blood and complete the scenery. No, I don’t liked this band.

And then to complete this horror, when I found a set list to let you know what songs they played, I found this:

Circle
Follow the anus
Blood and anus
Funeral
My bleeding anus
A step from the
Released

Next one was Evilion. Completely different then what I heard before. Some more gothic spirit in the music. I like this way more. Two female singers who tell you a story by their songs. Besides that, musically it all fits way better together. It seems like they have more stage experience as well. Though their website tells me about some line up changes. Nothing left for me then compliment them with doing a nice job. One of the highlights of their set were the songs “Hide the stars” and “Black ice”.
The audience seem to like this band as well, it was pretty crowded in front of the stage. Totally different from the first band, where the singer had to beg for people to get their asses closer to the stage.

Setlist:
Bread& circuses
Birthmarks
My Silver
Shadow
Wreck
Hide the Stars
Black ice
Blind spot

As last band for this night: Soulgrind. Absolutely a big hit today. In the start people were a little hold back, but after a few songs of nice dark, moody, melodic metal they got the point. I have to say that I was surprised about how I liked them. Especially female metal vocals does not get my interest very easily, but the sound of Miss W Lilith totally got me. When you just hear the music then you expect to see a sweet little girl singing this, but live you see a true metal chick rocking out. This in combination with the heavy, dark vocals from Azhemin it makes it very pleasant to listen to. Instrumental, there is nothing wrong as well. Not all their songs are in English, they played also the song “Pakana”.
For some reason this is one of the songs which got me listening tonight. The same with “Though the gates of” which you can also hear on their myspace.
I highly recommend everyone to see this band live if you have the opportunity.

setlist:
The valley
As Bronze may much be
Northlander
Though the gates of
Desperation
The soul of the Battle
Pakana
The swan & the Fox
The Tree of life
Lost Gardens Beyond the…
Kalma
Lurid Circle