Kamelot + Serenity - The Button Factory, Dublin | Live Review

It’s all too rare that a tour of this nature makes it this far west of the European mainland, which is a great shame. Over the years DME have done wonders catering to the tastes of fans of the heavier end of the musical spectrum, but unfortunately the Irish Metal demographic just doesn’t lend itself to more than the lightest smattering of Power Metal (using the term loosely here) gigs. This is a fact underlined all too clearly once again last night in the Button Factory.

Were it not for the Poles, the Brazilians, the Italians and the Germans currently living in Dublin (but for how much longer?), the few Irish fans of this genre would surely have to resign themselves to travelling abroad for all their live entertainment. Perversely, this constellation does have some benefits though, most notably the fact that when such nights do crop up, they are usually a bit more special because of it. Whereas the vibe at many bigger Death Metal gigs has been somewhat subdued of late, in spite of the larger crowd numbers, the three hundred souls in attendance last night applauded, cheered and sang like a crowd at least twice its size.

The good mood was evident as soon as openers Serenity took the stage. The Austrians may not have featured much (at all?) on these pages, but it was apparent that their ‘Worlds Untold And Dreams Unlived’ and ‘Fallen Sanctuary’ albums were familiar to quite a few in the audience. This seemed to surprise the band as much as anyone, whose grinning faces suggested that nights like this have been rare so far in their career. There was no faulting the competent and enthusiastic delivery, and hopefully during the rest of the tour some of the headliner’s knack for penning a memorable hookline will rub off on the central Europeans, as the only discernable shortcoming of their set was the lack of one or two moments of brilliance.

Kamelot are a different prospect altogether. Over the course of nearly one hundred minutes, one great hook follows another, one epic chorus is quickly chased up by the next, and there’s volley after volley of powerful, catchy riffs to get the blood pumping. Norwegian frontman Roy Khan has the crowd well in his grip with his impressive stage presence, ably aided and abetted by Thomas Youngblood. Opener ‘Rule The World’ and ‘When The Lights Are Down’ set the tone for what is a near perfect setlist drawn primarily from ‘The Black Halo’ and ‘Ghost Opera’ albums. Picking out highlights is almost superfluous, but inevitably ‘Forever,’ the epic ‘Karma’ and closer ‘March Of Mephisto’ stand out just that little bit from the rest.

Also worth an honourable mention is ‘The Haunting,’ which features the otherwise slightly underused Anne-Catrin Märzke in duet with Khan. The backing singer’s transformation from nervous, withdrawn shade to ebullient performer as her confidence grows during the course of that one song is a sight to behold. Not even the slightly wimpy ‘Anthem’ or the (mercifully restrained) bass, drum and keyboard solos can put a dampener on the evening’s proceedings.

Seeing Kamelot in the flesh also serves to underline just how short Judas Priest came up with ‘Nostradamus.’ There is arguably no other band out there right now that does the epic Power Metal thing quite as well as these guys. Tipton and co. would have done well to listen to either ‘Karma’ or ‘The Black Halo’ while writing the songs for their latest secretion (and then promptly changed their plans utterly and concentrated on their own strengths instead). And, best of all, Kamelot manage to do it almost entirely without resorting to the musical self-indulgence and the kitsch that so often plagues the genre (and without ever mentioning swords, dragons or unicorns!).

It wasn’t only the fans who left the Button Factory happy, though. The band also seemed genuinely pleased by the reception and promised to be back next year. Whether they’ll manage or not remains open to question, but if they do make it, one can only hope that there’ll be more people there to witness it.

DBM ::: 26/03/09