Torontonians had a night of dark, melodic metal in store for them at the Opera House. Starting off with Texan metallers Oceans of Slumber, we got the slow melancholic tunes that you would expect from such a name. Vocalist Cammie Gilbert made up for the lack of headbanging with plenty of theatrical swaying and killer vocals. Bassist Keegan Kelly and drummer Dobber came out with tied back hair but halfway through the set their manes were let loose for some small doses of headbanging. The tunes themselves got heavier as their set progressed, riffs got grungier and they increased while keeping the grim theme throughout the set.
If I thought Borealis was easy listening metal it’s only because I had not heard Voyager yet, who take that title home. We finally see a some action on stage as the Aussies rock out and are constantly switching places, keeping the crowds attention. Not to mention Ms. Lady Shredder herself Simone Dow who kicked everybody's asses at headbaging and keeping the energy high. However, there is one thing that rubbed me the wrong way, and that is when a guitarist plays a simple scale and acts like they’re performing a fiery solo, but it dud make for great theatrics. Vocalist Daniel Estrin has a voice that is very agreeable to the ears and a has a fab mane of what I like to call princess hair (cascading, broken waves. c’mon. Princess hair!). We got some heavier tunes as their set progressed as well as an electronic/dance song at one point where we saw bassist Alex Cannion show off some dance moves. However they totally won over the crowd when Daniel broke out his keytar and Voyager treated us to a tasty medley with the GOT theme song, Ghostbusters, Backstreet Boys, What is Love and Meatloaf all metalified.
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Evergrey w/ Voyager, Borealis,
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EVERGREY
Tom S. Englund - Vocals/Guitar Henrik Danhage - Guitar Rikard Zander - Keyboard Jonas Ekdahl - Drums Johan Niemann - Bass Label: AFM Records www.evergrey.net/ |
VOYAGER
Daniel Estrin: vocals/Keys Simone Dow: Guitars Scott Kay: Guitars Ashley Doodkorte: Drums Alex Canion : bass/vocals Label: IAV Records www.voyager-australia.com/ |
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BOREALIS
Matt Marinelli: Guitars/Vocals Mike Briguglio: Guitars Sean Werlick: Keyboards Jamie Smith: Bass Sean Dowell: Drums Label: AFM Records www.facebook.com/borealisband |
OCEANS OF SLUMBER
Cammie Gilbert – Vocals Anthony Contreras – Guitar Sean Gary – Guitar Keegan Kelly – Bass Uaeb Yelsaeb - Synthesizers Dobber – Drums www.oceansofslumber.com/ |
Local Ontario boys Borealis took over to inject some energy into the night. A heartbeat intro kicked into a very catchy tune with amazing vocals. Their sound is an easy listening type of metal similar to Firewind and Nocturnal Rites, making them huge crowd pleasers. I really dug the keyboards with all the symphonic arrangements that gave the songs an extra edge. You can tell that Borealis is part of a big league world with their performance and a set full of perfectly energetic songs while keeping it on theme with the melancholic style of the headliners.
The Swedish Gods of melancholic metal took to the stage without much flair. This is one of those bands that doesn’t need your everyday metal theatrics, as fans go for the music not the show. They pretty much set the pace for the night starting off with “King of Errors” and “Leave It Behind Us.” “Monday Morning Apocalypse” was a treat for fans as all the voices in the band were brought together for the chorus of “If I had known how to get out of solitude…” Sadly, it was quite apparent that Evergrey was suffering from some technical issues, which had vocalist Thomas Englund just the teensiest bit peeved. Despite the sound issues the band prevailed in giving a fantastic show. Things got a bit heavy with “Blinded” and we even got a peak of a bit of headbanging all around. During “I’m Sorry” the crowd was serenaded to by Thomas and even got the chance to serenade him back. For their last song of the set, “Missing You,” Thomas and keyboardist Rikard Zander performed it as a duo on stage. Damn, Thomas’s powerful and melancholic voice paired with Rikard’s piano and was enough to make a metalhead shed a tear!
For their encore Evergrey came back with a renewed energy and a “fuck the technical problems” attitude. We had witnessed drummer Jonas Ekdahl constantly whipping his hair during the first round of songs and now the entire band joined in for some light headbanging. We got treated to a long encore of “When the Walls Go Down,” “Recreation Day,” “Broken Wings,” “A Touch of Blessing” and for the finale, “The Grand Collapse”.
For their encore Evergrey came back with a renewed energy and a “fuck the technical problems” attitude. We had witnessed drummer Jonas Ekdahl constantly whipping his hair during the first round of songs and now the entire band joined in for some light headbanging. We got treated to a long encore of “When the Walls Go Down,” “Recreation Day,” “Broken Wings,” “A Touch of Blessing” and for the finale, “The Grand Collapse”.
