PARADISE LOST

www.paradiselost.co.uk 

NOVEMBER-7

 www.n-7.ch  

at Kofmehl in Solothurn - Switzerland - May 23rd 2012  

www.kofmehl.net    www.facebook.com/tschieh 

photos and review by dalia di giacomo

.........     >>>DIRECT LINK TO THE PHOTOS

A nice spring day smiled over Solothurn  in spite of  the announced weather instability. This beautiful city, capital of the homonymous Canton Solothurn,  guested on May 23rd a Swiss clubshow (and till then announced as the only Swiss clubshow)  of the British Gothic Metal legend Paradise Lost, who just crossed many European lands  after the very recent release of their new album “Tragic Idol” . This gig was a kind of "bridge" between  the German dates of the  Tragic Idol European tour and the Sonisphere in Spain. Anyway there will be soon another possibility to see PL in Switzerland: at the Earshakerday on June 23^rd at the St. Jacobshalle in Basel.  

The atmosphere was really relaxed and easy going. The  Swiss fans brought here honest support and , above all, the well knokn  competence of the Swiss metal scene and in this scene the location "Kofmehl"  has reached a leading position among the Swiss venues. In cooperation with the venue , GryphonMetal.ch organised  a ticket competition for this concert,  won by Sandra Christ, whom I had the pleasure to greet personally. 

There were around 350, maybe 400 people: a number which filled  the concert room, although the balcony was  not crowded. These persons came not only from all corners of Switzerland, some die hard fans came indeed also from near countries like Italy.

Sandra (winner of the ticket contest) and me

The support band was not Swallow The Sun, but the explosive female-fronted Swiss outfit November-7 which I saw for the first time (.........  >>>GM review written by Salvo Russo about album Season 3). The band announced this support at their Facebook profile on May 22 as last minute news. Italian vocalist Annamaria Cozza has proved that she is a frontwoman full of temperament with a very strong sense of rhythm. Stephane Geiser and Matt Walters took care of rhythmics and guitar riffs, while  Yann Siegenthaler's drumming  sounded amazing and very powerful. The energy put on stage was of  great quality, witout speaking  about a certain degree of true hystrionism from Annamaria. Pity that the sound was not well calibrated and the drums were louder as the strings, the latter sounded indeed quite pale. I noticed a similar problem  in the sound of Paradise Lost too.  The style of November-7 is a bit difficult to be classified, being a mix of gothic/electro industrial and melodic modern metal. There is much of the structure on which  Lacuna Coil are based and even a bit of Tapping The Vein, everything meeting Evanescence. But on that evening the sound was surely more unrefined and less melodic as the samples couldnt  stand out. All in all it was an enjoyable show and among the many songs presented the crowd had obviously the possibility to enjoy the wonderful Parasite.

Annamaria told the crowd that November-7 were honoured to share the stage with Paradise Lost and that Paradise Lost indeed were the stars of the evening. Anyway November-7 had the possibility to play a long show of 45 minutes like the rising stars deserve, show which began around 20:15 .  

When PL hit the stage  drummer Adrian Erlandsson and guitarist Aaron Aedy were  the first  to gather warm applauses. Although the presence on the stage was basically similar to the one i knew from of a couple of years ago, a renewed injection of force in this veteran band was evident, also due to the wider possibilities that the (ab)use of the drum kit offers now.  Awesome was the  enthusiasm coming  from composer and mythical guitarist Greg Mackintosh and from frontman and symbol of the band Nick Holmes, whose vocals and acting seemed to me more solid. While Mr. Aedy and Mr. Edmondson took care of the rhytmic pillar empowered by the great drumming, Mr. Mackintosh provided enchantment , dynamism and heaviness  with his unmistakable style, playing his black customized  left-handed Mayones. The atmosphere (considering lights too) was “normally” metal reaching the rawest point that the masters of Gothic can offer now. In the setlist there were many songs of Paradise Lost's  unforgettable Doom Death era, which founded  and evolved the Gothic genre, like the ravenous Pity The Sadness and Forever Failure and Widow. But that era has been well reinterpretated in the new album with songs like Tragic Idol, Fear Of An Impending Hell, Honesty In Death, songs that were played at Kofmehl with big success. Moreover, One Second was emotional like always and Say Just Words remains a  true catchy earworm. Nick wanted the crowd loud, alive and bit-feeling , maybe he didnt like one isolated  hosanna to Vallenfyre, yet certainly Nick smiled for "one second" at the little cute stuffed animal, a plush pig- toy, tossed by a fan who was in the second or third row . Finally the new stuff from album Tragic Idol  impacted well on the Swiss crowd ,which was anyway enthusiast in hearing the classic oldies. Singing along and headbanging fans were there in devotion, the show was nice, the encore was top. 

After the show the fans were laughing, speaking loud and drinking beer outside the venue and they seemed everything but depressed. In few words we were quite far from a canonic gothic audience, since PL won again the interest of extreme metallers. By the way beer: the PL merchandise-stand  was  small but had some new interesting products: near  the new “Tragic Idol” shirts there were  long, thick black wristbands with "PL" embroidered in gold (10SFr.) and  tankards, perfect for enjoying beer, with the classic legendary Crown of Thorns in relief (30 SFr.).

PHOTOS