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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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NEVERMORE - ARCH ENEMY
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013 - Tilburg (NL)
Zeche - Bochum (D)
September 30th/October 1st 2003
http://www.nevermore.tv
http://www.archenemy.net
Two days in a row we would go to see two of my favorite bands. Nevermore I've seen quite a few times by now, but I can never get enough. Highly anticipated were the Arch Enemy gigs though, because somehow we never managed to attend their shows before! So finally, FINALLY it was going to happen! On Tuesday September 30th, Nico and I met up with Cora in Tilburg and at first the turnout seemed really small, but once the show started the venue was pretty full. The sound wasn't loud enough, but the mix was very clear and well-balanced. After the show we were invited backstage by our buddy Steve Smyth who joined Nevermore on this tour as the 2nd guitarist. We had some drinks with Steve ("noodle!"), Jeff and Jim. I also went to meet Chris of Arch Enemy and (just like with Jim) I introduced myself since I interviewed him recently. It was fun! Metalheads are such nice people *grin*. I would've loved to meet the fellow metal girl Angela, but no such luck.
The day after we drove to Bochum and we planned to meet Cora there extra early to grab some dinner before the show. We knew the traffic would be bad, but it was 10 times worse. Instead of an hour and a half (tops) we needed 3 and a half hours to get there! So thanks to our dinner plans we at least barely made it in time for the first show! After the show we hung out with a.o. Steve again at the restaurant upstairs. Then it was back to home and normal life again...but not until I tell you about the shows of course!
So I was really looking forward to see ARCH ENEMY. And most of all Angela, because it's not often I get to see a real fanatic metal girl and certainly not on stage. I also love Angela's vocals, so I was very anxious to hear how she'd sound live. Well...she fuckin' blew me away!!!! Cora isn't as much a fan as I am, so she wasn't too crazy about them (even though she thought the band did well). For me it was a dream come true to finally see them. I missed some favorite songs off the older albums, but I wasn't surprised they only played songs from the last two albums (if I remember well). I'm not sure if I got the whole setlist, but I wrote down "Tear Down The Walls", "Silent Wars", "Heart Of Darkness", "We Will Rise", "Dead Eyes See No Future" (about the disgrace of war, written on the road in the US), "Dead Bury Their Dead" and the last song (one of my faves) "Ravenous".
Bochum was of course almost a home match for Angela and in German she told us how she gave the guys her tape in 1999 and now she's touring with them - so that we had to believe in our dreams. Her voice was very powerful, what a volume out of such a small girl! Like I said, I was blown away by that and by her energetic (headbanging) stagepresence. She and Sharlee D'Angelo moved around on stage a lot, but Michael, who was on the other side from us, stayed there mostly and came over to our side maybe once or twice. We had a good view on the drummer, Daniel, though and I just loved to see Chris play (when I wasn't headbanging too much myself), so I was fine!
NEVERMORE started not with the intro of the new CD, but with "Inside Four Walls" off "Dead Heart In A Dead World", followed by "Never Purify". Warrel was his brilliant, mental, as well as emotional self, as usual - whatta voice! Not many vocalists can put this much emotion in and that's why he's one of my very favorites. Unfortunately on our side we hardly got to see Jeff, but his solos were godly and we did see a lot of Steve, who, with his enthusiasm, is always a sight for sore eyes - not to mention a great shredder! In Tilburg the crowd shouted for "Over The Wall" and Warrel said he should do a Testament riff for them after the next song, but somehow we never got it :( Van and Jim's rhythm section was awesome too, and Jim just loved to hang over the spotlight on the floor in between the monitors and tried to look as mental as Warrel - in combination with the light he was succeeding too! ;) In Tilburg "Lost" was dedicated to their webmaster Wendy, followed by the beautiful "In Memory". After some thrash with "Narcosynthesis" Jim started with the "Dead Heart In A Dead World" intro that fluently merged into one of my all time favorites: "The Heart Collector", sung by the whole crowd! After "Ambivalent" we finally got "Enemies Of Reality" (including the intro). When introducing "The River Dragon Has Come" Warrel told the audience he wanted chaos and in Tilburg they love moshpits, so he didn't have to say it twice! As far as I could see the crowd in Bochum just stuck to headbanging, singing and some crowdsurfing. It was followed by some thrash ("Seven Tongues Of God"), the beautiful ballad "Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday" (again with the crowd enthusiastically singing along!), "Who Decides" and "Engines Of Hate" ("I uncreate... I desecrate... I spit the truth... into the engines of hate!"). For a last encore they played the unrecognizable Simon & Garfunkel cover "Sound Of Silence" to close their set with a lot of stagediving! Shouts for more encores were not honored, so lots of favorite songs were not played - so many songs, so little time... it'll keep us hungry for the next time!!
Inside Four Walls
Never Purify
Lost
In Memory
Narcosynthesis
Dead Heart In A Dead World intro
The Heart Collector
Ambivalent
Enemies Of Reality
The River Dragon Has Come
Seven Tongues Of God
Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday
Who Decides
Engines Of Hate
Sound Of Silence
submitted by Marlies 13.10.2003
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