Written by:	Jeff
Published:	November 07, 2007
Event:	Paradise Lost: European Tour
Location:	Transbordeur, Lyon, France
Galleries:	Paradise Lost - European Tour 2007 by Jeff (16)

This article is actually a double concert review of the two performances of Paradise Lost in Lyon and Toulouse. The one of Lyon was written by Collin and the one of Toulouse by Jeff. The photos were all taken in Toulouse by Jeff


Collin: For some reason, Paradise Lost's September French Tour had been advertised for months as Paradise Lost/Swallow The Sun/Pain, which is, in my very humble opinion, a much more attractive line up than PL/Eyes Of Eden and Neurosonic. On the other hand, I'm not much into Pain and I only really appreciate Swallow The Sun's first album. I was going mainly for Paradise Lost, who are on of my favourite bands, and who released earlier this year their best album in ten years, the great, old-school sounding In Requiem. I just hoped the two, unheard of support bands would be decent. Hopes painfully crushed.


Jeff: I have nothing to add to the perfect introduction of Collin? All the people who were at the Havana Café of Toulouse were there to see Paradise Lost (or? unfortunately for them, Pain and Swallow the Sun). Like in Lyon, the only "real" band of the evening was Paradise Lost, the two other ones didn't deserve to open for them? but business is business I suppose?


Collin: I missed about half of Neurosonic's show because I was busy with shovelling people out of my way to the bar, and I don't have regrets. Visually, Neurosonic are a very frightening band. You all know Tokio Hotel, right? Well, think of Neurosonic as Tokio Hoyel's older brothers. Musically speaking, decent hard-rock mixed with alternative rock and samples. Decent, sometimes groovy and almost listenable. But the vocals. Oh, the vocals. Can you please be any more emo? These whiny clean vocals were just unbearable. I just wanted to start throwing things at this guy so he would finally shut up. Most people fled to the bar before the set was over.


Jeff: The "emo" boys of the evening! It was not bad musically speaking? Well, wait a minute, I'm not saying that it was a fantastic music but I have already seen worst bands on stage. Though even if their mix of groovy Hard Rock with electronic sound was not so bad, the "emo/punk" voice of the singer was just horrible. At least they tried to play with a lot of energy and it wasn't easy in front of 20 people?





Collin: Next up was Eyes Of Eden. From what I heard on their myspace page, they were just another, run-of-the-mill female-fronted goth-wannabe metal band. From the little research I made, their first singer was Sandra Schleret (ex-Dreams Of Sanity), but she quit the band before the recording of the album. Too bad, at least they'd have had a bit of charisma in the band. The songs were just plain boring, there wasn't even a catchy chorus or anything that aroused your interest. The singer was pathetic. Most of the time out of tune, she had about as much stage presence as an old condom. Waldemar Sorychta, the famed producer and Grip Inc's guitar player, fucked up every riff and threw miserable solos that sounded as out of tune as that lame singer. I thought I was going to choke when that girl said: "We've only just released our first album, as our band was formed earlier this year, and this is our first live appearance ever". What the fuck? There is something I need to understand. So, you're telling me your band was formed at best six months ago, you never even recorded a demo and yet you're signed with Century Media? You never played live before and yet you're touring with Paradise Lost? Excuse me, but this stinks. This reeks of a commercial coup. Century Media wanted to sign another female-fronted band like the millions that are already out there, and Waldemar Sorychta, seeing that Lacuna Coil and the other bands he produced earn millions with their music, wanted his piece of the cake before the trend wears out. I can't find any other explanation for why a crap band like this one would be so soon under the spotlights. This disgusts me. What I find eve more disgusting is all these people who mindlessly acclaimed this band. Metalheads like to bash mainstream people for buying everything the majors feed them, but they are just the same. Give them one crap trendy band with bad songs and no presence at all, and they'll swallow it in one gulp, and they'll be happy with it. This is pathetic.


Jeff: What's happening to Waldemar Sorychta and Centuty Media? I thought that both were respected people of the Metal scene but now that I've seen this show I can tell you that money is not a good thing? I still don't understand how CM found the way to sign this really bad band but it was a mistake for sure and I hope that all the Metalheads, even the ones who like Metal with female vocalists will not buy the first album of this "joke". The songs were bad, without anything interesting in them. The soli were extremely average (I don't understand, I thought that Waldemar Sorychta was a great guitarist?) and the singer (who doesn't have any charisma) even sang out of tune? Arggg I cannot talk anymore about it, I think that I would even prefer to be pushed in the Tokyo Hotel pit instead of to see and listen to this band again?





Collin: Anyway, Eyes Of Eden's show was fortunately soon over and everybody massed up in front of the stage for Paradise Lost, when the first notes of The Enemy resounded. Last time I saw the band was in 2002, during the Symbol Of Life tour. Back then, they were supported by Within Temptation, who had only just released Mother Earth and were not famous yet. I recall Within Temptation had been amazing and definitely stole the show, as Paradise Lost had been plain boring. I remember a lifeless concert, with bored-looking musicians and shallow music.

Well, this show was much much better. Okay, The band members are not the most expansive people, and Nick Holmes was pretty drunk, judging by his face every time the lights shot in his face and his obvious inability to stand up without wobbling. But his old vocal issues (you know he more or less ruined his voice after Draconian Times) seemed to have disappeared. The setlist was great: among the usual classics such as As I Die, One Second, Enchantment or Say Just Words, they reached as far back as the Gothic and Shades Of God albums. Although Gothic (the song) will never really be the same without growls, its addition was a very cool surprise. But THE standout track, the one which kind of launched the fury, was 1992's Pity The Sadness, a fast song which even brought a little moshing.

There's one thing that must be said about the venues in Lyon. They are really great, every single one of them. Whichever one you go to, you are always so close to the stage that you can, for instance, feel Nick Holmes' alcoholic breath. That, plus the sober yet excellent lights, all in tones of deep blue, added to the impression of intimacy. It looked like the band felt it as well, as they seemed quite pleased with the crowd's very warm welcome. I even saw half a smile on Holmes' face, can you imagine that? I assume the fact that the whole audience sang along to Enchantment, One Second and the new songs (especially Never For The Damned was a great moment), helped a lot.

Altogether, this was a very nice show. Certainly not the best ever, but definitely better than expected. The setlist had just the right balance between their old and new catalogues, and the whole show somehow felt like family at times. Too bad the opening bands really sucked big time, but Paradise Lost was way too good to let that get in the way of perfect enjoyment.


Jeff: Finally, Paradise Lost was on stage. After the two openers I can tell you that it was like a salvation, though it was a bit expensive to pay 28? only for one band (even if it's a great band). Like in Lyon, the show was really good even if one more time with PL, it was a bit short?

It was my fourth PL show and it was probably the best one! First, the guys were happy this time because the audience was just crazy as hell. Nick even said that it was the first time that he saw a mosh-pit on the song "One Second" (I can understand why). All in all, I really felt a lot of good things in their minds and Nick talked a lot to the crowd with a lot of thanks and nice words to the audience of Toulouse. But if the Metalheads from Toulouse were so "good" this night it was probably in reason of the really good show of our British monsters.

The set list (the same than in Lyon with the only difference that the band only added "Erased" on the set list in reason of the good attitude of the public) was great with new really good songs live like old classics like "As I Die" or "Gothic" which both got a lot of positive responses from the people from Toulouse. All in all the show was full of energy, the songs were well played and the ambiance was top-notch! It wasn't a bad thing when you know that we had to listen to the two other bands before Paradise Lost?

It wasn't a perfect evening, you all know why now but Paradise Lost was great. Isn't it enough? I think so, so even if I have seen this band a lot of time already I can tell you that I will not miss them in the future. Plus, they're returning to a "heavy" music and Nick Holmes even remember now how to sing with a Death Metal voice so? No I don't need anything more.





Setlist:
The Enemy
Gothic
Ash & Debris
No Celebration
So Much Is Lost
Pity The Sadness
Praise Lamented Shade
Enchantment
Requiem
Grey
As I Die
Unreachable
One Second

Encore:
Never For The Damned
Over The Madness
Erased
Say Just Words


All photos taken by Jeff in Toulouse, please don't use without permission.
Many thanks to Roger "The Boss" of Base Prod!