Event:	Atrocity + Leaves' Eyes: Baltic Dates
Written by:	Ivan
Published:	03.06.2007
Galleries:	Leaves' Eyes - Nõmme Cult, Tallinn, Estonia, 11.05.2007 by Ivor (20)

The peculiar thing about these two bands is that it's actually the same band, just playing different music under two different names. In fact, on some occasions (Shout, Temptation) you can easily confuse one for another. What more, the lead singers of the two bands, Alex Krull ("the man with the longest hair in Europe") and Liv Kristine (the owner of angelic voice that used to decorate Theatre Of Tragedy) are married to each other. Atrocity is fronted by Alex and play more aggressive music (a mix of Gothic and Death) with Liv providing back-vocals on some songs, while in Leaves' Eyes they switch positions, tone down the aggression a bit and add some norwegian/viking themes and wonderfully atmospheric ballads.

After all that, it's no wonder that the two bands are always touring together. They have already visited Estonia last year, playing in Narva on Biker's Fest, but not many people were able to go there to see them - thankfully, they decided to come back and play in Tallinn this time.

Apparently, Leaves' Eyes used to be the first to play, but now that their popularity overwhelmed Atrocity's, they were 'promoted' to headliners. Atrocity started off with a lot of energy, intensity and bad sound (usual thing on first song). Already on the next song the sound improved and the band quickly convinced me that they sound much better live than on CD. Alex has an incredible stage presence, and with that mind-bogglingly long hair and the intricate microphone stand he looked like some prophet from hell, chanting his predictions of impending doom for all mankind.

At some point during the set some drunken chap decided the crowd is hot enough and ripe for some stage diving. He clearly overestimated estonian public, which doesn't get excited about drunken chaps falling on them that easily. Still, he managed to hit someone before landing on the floor, so it wasn't a complete failure.

Sadly, none of the Atrocity own songs were more popular than their cover versions of 80's pop music (from Werk '80), so the song that they saved for last, and the one that provoked the most reaction from the audience was Shout, the cover of the old Tears For Fears song. The song is way too long as it is, but they managed to drag it even longer live. Not that I didn't like it - it was nice, and the chemistry between Alex and Liv made it even better - but 8 minutes of "Shout! Shout! Let it all out!" just seemed a bit too much and somewhat anti-climatic...

Atrocity set felt quite short, and I've heard people complaining about that during the break. Though, of course, it's understandable, since the band had yet another set to play. Here are the songs in non-particular order:

Reich Of Phenomena
Gods Of Nations
Enigma
The Great Commandment
Seasons In Black
Blut
Apocalypse
Cold Black Days
Shout




Leaves' Eyes set was considerably longer (over an hour) and seemed to include more edgy songs, to give Alex something to do (read: growl), though they also played a couple of ballads. Alex was very enthusiastic about the first, and kept asking the audience whether we wanted "another viking song?". Sure we did!

Liv gave a fantastic performance and while a lot of (especially female) singers fail to match their studio recordings, Liv does that effortlessly. In her long dress, with hair blowing in the gentle wind (I still have no idea where it came from) she looked just like in the Elegy video, beautiful and graceful. Her warm voice, combined with Alex' brutal chants and atmospheric music were way larger than the confides of the tiny club, but even the lack of space didn't stop the band from sounding majestic and hmm... epic, in the good sense of it. Close your eyes and you could've found yourself in the mythical lands populated by vikings and sea maids, conveniently impersonated by Alex' and Liv's vocals.

The set list:

Farewell Proud Men
Ocean's Way
Tale Of The Sea Maid
Into Your Light
Legend Land
Norwegian Lovesong
Temptation
For Amelie
The Thorn
Solemn Sea
Skraelings
New Found Land
Leaves' Eyes
The Crossing
Elegy