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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
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MORGANA LEFAY - LANFEAR - MINDCRIME
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Matrix - Bochum (D)
May 3rd 2005
http://www.morganalefay.se
http://www.thelanfear.com
http://www.mindcrime-online.net
Lefay are back with Morgana, so that makes them Morgana Lefay again. It's been quite silent around the band that once decided to disband or at least have a rest due to personal reasons and it took them a while to sort things out. A lot of patience was needed, I had always had an eye on what they were up to but the more you concentrate waiting for something, the slowlier time passes. But now finally, five years after the last tour together with Angel Dust, the guys from Bollnäs are back on the road again, doing what they can do best: bring a live metal party to the people!
For that they teamed up with the two German bands Mindcrime and Lanfear for a short European tour.
MINDCRIME had the unthankful task to open the reign of metal that night. And to be honest, it didn't look all too well for them in the beginning. I was hanging around the merch booth when I heard an intro and decided to go up front, more out of sympathy than real interest. It must be a very frustrating sight if you stand up there on stage and have to play to a handful of people. But it was as if vocalist Christoph Weller had already gone through the school of interaction with an unaffected crowd and with the help of a bunch of Mindcrime fans (fanclub folk I reckon) that ignored the circumstances, Mindcrime managed to bring life into people. As for the music, the band themselves claim to play "dark melodic metal" and in fact I often was reminded of Darkseed, mostly for Christoph's voice and melody lines that I found quite similar. As for the rest, it's a mixture of many styles blending into something that I somewhat enjoyed listenting to there but that's it I'm afraid. I should mention their bassist Mario Junker provided some awesome growls on a few occasions next to some general back-up vocals for songs like the opener "Search For Serenity", "Guidance", "Burning Glass" and the closing track "Seven Letter Generation".
LANFEAR were a whole lot heavier and more powerful than Mindcrime. I had never gotten around to listen to any of their albums although I have heard about the band for the first time years ago already. Anyway, when they started playing I immediately thought that they were a much better support here just because their power metal is quite heavy and aggressive and in that aspect similar to Morgana Lefay. Then Tobias Althammer started singing and I must confess that he's the major "problem" I have with the band. It was ok as long as he didn't sing the highest of notes but when he did that, it kinda ruined the rest for me as well. And that happened way too often for my taste unfortunately. Musically, there's no doubt the band is playing well and I especially liked the tracks "Fortune Lies Within" and "The Spell" a lot. Good stuff! In the middle of their set, Tobias asked if we knew the band Conception and to my surprise they then covered the Conception track "Roll The Fire". Nice. Keyboardist Richard Seibel occasionally went totally nuts behind his keyboard which was an excellent sight :) Among the other songs Lanfear played were "Transmigration", "Another Golden Age" and even "Time's Dark Laughter" from their debut.
With almost 15 minutes delay the intro "The Chamber Of Confession" blasted out of the speakers and MORGANA LEFAY entered the stage who then started to play "The Source Of Pain". The place still was far from being packed but those who were there were to witness a great show by one of the best live bands ever. It's pure joy to see them back in action again, and I think Morgana Lefay enjoyed playing for us in return. It always seems these guys don't care about anything at all, they just get on stage, plug in their gear and start rocking the house. Singer Charles "Chulle" Rytkönen "complained" about Peter Grehn and Tony Eriksson who, in their role as guitarplayers, believed to have the right to own the stage...but that in fact it was him who does ;)
As if to prove his own statement Chulle definitely shone not only with a fantastic vocal performance but also with tons of evil or silly faces and interaction with the crowd. First track off the new album "Grand Materia" was a not-so-new-anymore song called "Hollow" that the guys have been playing at the 2000 Decibel festival in Sweden about a year ago for the first time I believe. The downside of this tour is that the new album is only being released these days and so next to nobody knew the new material. With the catchy "Hollow" though, it was not too difficult to make the fans participate and so already during the first chorus you could hear many sing along "Hollooooooooow" :) The same can be said about the track "I Roam" later on that night. But the next song might have been a little familiar to some people too as that song had been available as a sample and I must say that Peter and Chulle offered a nice "duet" there :) Apart from Peter also the newest member in Morgana Lefay, Fredrik "Lubbe" Lundberg on bass and to a certain extend Tony (and his rather new hair-extensions) provided backing vocals here and there, only to swirl around again soon after.
A couple of songs later drummer Robin Engström started with the beat for "Creatures Of The Hierarchy" and Chulle kept babbling with the fans until he realized everybody was waiting for him to shut up and so he said that Robin probably already got tired of that beat - which Robin denied with a grin.
"State Of Intoxication" as perhaps the party song for many was the last song before the band left the stage....to return for an encore of three songs ("Symphony Of The Damned", "The Boon He Gives" and "In The Court Of The Crimson King") of course.
If you possibly can, go and see Morgana Lefay. I can almost promise you won't be disappointed.
setlist:
The Chamber Of Confession (Intro)
The Source Of Pain
Out Of The Silence
Another Dawn
Hollow
Angels Deceit
Save Our Souls
To Isengard
I Roam
Maleficium
End Of Living
Creatures Of The Hierarchy
Edge Of Mind
State Of Intoxication
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Symphony Of The Damned
The Boon He Gives
In The Court Of The Crimson King
submitted by Cora 05.05.2005
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