February 16th, 2011
By Lacey W.
After the three hour drive to Calgary, and some wandering around the university campus, it was nice to wait inside for doors to open instead of in the frigid cold. Doors at the MacEwan Ballroom opened right on time, with very few people lined up. Getting inside the venue, I was disappointed to see that there were no chairs or tables for those who wanted to sit through the show.
As Daniel Lioneye took the stage, the venue was still very empty. Throughout the entire set, two Bam Margera wannabes stood on the rail, more engrossed in the show than the rest of the crowd. They proved to to be good entertainment for my friends and I, as we got a good laugh out of them trying so hard to be someone else. Daniel Lioneye is comprised mostly of members of the band HIM, and honestly, they were better than either time I’ve seen HIM live. The music seemed like a mixture of punk and hard rock, with the vocalist providing energy and attempting to energize the crowd who were mostly unreceptive. The biggest cheers of the set came when the upcoming bands were mentioned. Although Daniel Lioneye played a decent sounding set, the relatively small crowd didn’t seem as into the music as the band itself.
By the time Turisas took the stage, the crowd had grown substantially, with a number of people dressed up and wearing the characteristic red and black warpaint of Turisas onstage. After their intro, Turisas burst into Holmgard and Beyond, instantly energizing the crowd even more than they already were. As Turisas burst into the next song, One More, the majority of the crowd near the rail were headbanging enthusiastically and shouting out the lyrics. Vocalist Mathias ‘Warlord’ Nygård showed incredible energy, pumping his fist in the air, screaming out vocals and leaping around the stage. Nygård had no problem encouraging a pit. Before starting the ‘party’ song, Jarislev, Nygård shouted out that he wanted to make the people downstairs (on the university campus) well aware that a concert was going on upstairs, and the crowd got even louder. By the time Turisas ended their set with Battle Metal, the crowd was yelling for more. It’s unfortunate that Turisas was only afforded a five song set, as they seemed to be the crowd favorite of the night. Security even mentioned that many people left after Turisas. Perhaps the brightest point to having such a short set was the suggestion by vocalist Nygård that Turisas would be back on a headlining tour in the near future, which would be well deserved as it’s safe to say that they stole the show on this particular night.
Although I won’t comment too much on Nachtmystium, as I didn’t spend much time watching their set and their style of music isn’t particularly appealing to me, they sounded quite good and drew a good response from the crowd.
As headliners Cradle of Filth took the stage, the crowd response was somewhat cold, possibly due to many Cradle fans still being in the bar downstairs, unaware that the set had started. I couldn’t help but thinking that vocalist Dani Filth looked somewhat reminiscent of Beetlejuice, making it a little more difficult to take the first few songs seriously even though I’m a Cradle of Filth fan. Cradle delved into some of their older material, pulling out the songs Heaven Torn Asunder and Funeral in Carpathia as their first two songs and later playing Ebony Dressed For Sunset and The Forest Whispers My Name. One of my favorites of the night was a rendition of Nymphetamine with the female vocals being impressively sung by keyboardist Ashley Ellyllon. In fact, throughout most of the set Ellyllon’s vocals were much easier to hear than Dani Filth’s, exposing a problem with the sound mixing. For the first half of the set, Filth’s vocals were mostly drowned out by the instruments, only being clearing discernible during high pitched screams. Although the mixing improved during the set, it was still disappointing that it wasn’t right to begin with. As Cradle of Filth ended their encore with From The Cradle to Enslave, many seemed slightly disappointed that the set wasn’t longer, consisting of a total of twelve songs. The projected images served to enhance the set, but it seemed as though the stage set-up itself was slightly lacking in comparison to other times I have seen Cradle of Filth live. Ignoring the sound problems, Cradle was reasonably solid, but overall weren’t as good as the previous two times I’ve seen them.
Needless to say, it was a fun night with friends and worth the trip down to Calgary to experience a venue I’d never been to and the live performances of Daniel Lioneye, Turisas, Nachtmystium and Cradle of Filth.
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