Written by:	wrathchild
Published:	April 20, 2008
Event:	Ghost Opera European Tour Part II
Location:	Elysée Montmartre, Paris, France

Kamelot, Firewind and Forever Slave together on tour, that's a great lineup as far as it's power metal you want. Yet for the two months preceding the show I was surprised not to see any flyer advertising for it when queuing for gigs such as Symphony X, Apocalyptica or Rage. Still, fans managed to find their way to the Elysée Montmartre on this Friday night - most of them wanted to catch the US power metal band on their European tour.


Forever Slave

When I arrived, Forever Slave were already playing. When climbing the stairs to get to hall, I could hear the delicate voice of their delicate singer - Lady Angellyca. I must admit she was what I knew the most about the Spanish Gothic band, since photos of her are widely spread on the Web (you may remember this nice Follow The Storm cover, one of the first we made). But this voice I heard was really nice, and it wasn't fucked up by any bad sound setting or anything like that. And the sound was still great when I ended up somewhere like 4 rows from the stage, on the right, close to the speakers.
The music was pleasant, in the vein of Within Temptation/Nightwish, I hardly remember in fact as it sounded pretty much like something I've heard before, not surprising yet definitely not bad. And I could see them perform only 3 songs, so it's hard to judge. The only one I got the name was the very last they played, Gasoline, from their new album "Tales For Bad Girls".
A pleasant opener, that's for sure,but I don't see them as headliner for quite some time.




Firewind

The Greek band powered by young guitar hero Gus G was second on the bill. Having seen them in this position before (when they toured with Angra) I knew what to expect, and my expectations were met: that was a great show!


Cause yeah, Firewind is a great band, and their power metal is very accessible while being quite subtle, sometimes thrashy at the same time. Believe me, I've only listened to one of their albums once (and I didn't love it to be honest) but when they're playing live on stage all their songs manage to draw my attention as if I knew them from before. Still, the only song I could put a name on is Falling To Pieces, the hit song from the 2006 release "Allegiance". They did announce a few songs from their latest opus, "The Premonition", and those tracks sounded good to me, just like all the songs they played that night.


The musicians are all great performers, especially Bob Katsionis (wearing his "iBob" t-shirt) and Apollo Papathanasio, the singer, who could have been disappointed by the lack of cooperation from the crowd (I suspect part of the crowd was saving some energy for Kamelot) but of course it didn't stop him from trying to wake us all.
I can reveal it now, Firewind was the best band of the evening to me.


Kamelot

After more than 20 minutes, if not 30 - I became bored of checking the time - and the use of fine songs through the PA (we even got Megadeth's Hangar 18), Kamelot finally took the stage. Hopefully the wait has not been in vain as the Americans clearly satisfied the people who came for them. Well, at least it's what I gathered after hearing some comments here and there once the show was over. Cause I, on the other hand, wasn't totally pleased by their performance. Sure, the setlist was nice, and contained lots of classic songs (Soul Society, Center Of The Universe, Forever, The Spell, Karma, The Haunting, Rule The World, March Of Mephisto, etc.) and the girl they hired to do the backing vocals was nice too. But the whole thing sounded weird to me, it sounded like the band couldn't deliver their "touch" on stage: it sounded like plain power metal to me, when I like their studio albums precisely because they have their own touch that I can easily identify among any other power metal band.
The bassist (Glenn Barry Sean Tibbitts) was wearing a rather pathetic black jacket, too tight for him and covered with useless D-rings. Added to the color mismatch between his hair and facial hair, that made him look rather like a clown than the talented musician he is. Cause I enjoyed watching him play, even though it was nothing spectacular.
As usual, Roy Kahn knelt way too much.
Several custom flags were handed out to the band by the crowd, proof that the band's French fanbase is active and thoughtful. This must have made the band happy, yeah, I guess they were.


Yet altogether, I have the feeling this was a standard Kamelot show. I won't remember it for a long time, or say, I'll probably remember bits of Firewind's performance, a vague vision of Forever Slave on stage, and then I'll think "oh, and I got to see Kamelot too". I was disappointed but I must admit I probably belong to a minority of the attendants of this concert.



Thanks goes Roger (Base).