Morgana Lefay sooooooo rule! That’s that. You didn’t see them on tour? Your fault!

:: pics ::

…Ok, there is – of course – much more to tell about them ;) No panic… hehe.
Monday, blue sky and lotsa sun, finally spring is coming up bringing us a hot day. The fucked up conditioner in my cabin gave a foretaste of hot midsummer temperatures and its results. It did not became any better at the MarX, the smaller place under the roof of Hamburgs Markthalle that is characterized in every respect by its hot atmosphere. I wasn’t the only one who had to suffer since the bands nightliner had a fuck up conditioner too. Band members were moaning and LANFEAR teasing to cut the setlist short, just playing extra slow songs ;) While MINDCRIME was still busy with the soundcheck the guys and crew of MORGANA LEFAY and LANFEAR tried to get some fresh air to the feet, walking barefoot around outside. Not even 50 people attended the show but for that all attendees were die-hard MORGANA LEFAY fans, supposed to build up a sweaty atmosphere soon…
I was there quite early coz of a booked interview. Added by Nocturnal Hall’s finest Reverend and Moonchild we had a nice small talk with the Swedes, sounding out some interesting details, before it was time to do something nice for the neck muscles…

::MINDCRIME ::

I (Dajana) already knew this band from their last year’s opening appearance at Celtic Rock Festival. And again they managed to get the crowd moving. They had to struggle thru some technical problems, as the other bands had to do too. The backing vocals were hardly heard and the second guitar either too quiet or the keyboards too loud. Anyways, musically the band blends melodic death metal with classic metal and some discrete gothic influences. MINDCRIME played songs from their current album Tourniquent Sleep and other older stuff. Really noticeable was the relaxed atmosphere created by singer Christoph trying to be as close as possible to the crowd always including them to his performance. He seemed to be in top form, with his voice acrobatics and jokes he impressed fans and fellows. Well-done show just way to short! Way to go guys!
Setlist: Owner Of Secrets, Search For Serenity, Dream Haunting Ghost, Soil For Growling, Subdivided, Forsaken Smile, Burning Glass, Seven Letter Generation

:. LANFEAR .:

...get handled as one of Germany’s power metal hopefuls and delivered with The Art Effect and Zero Poems two albums not to be sneezed at. Now these nice gents have released their third record Another Golden Rage, that wanted to be performed live. Anyways, LANFEAR started out dynamically too bringing the crowd closer to the stage. Just one thing to raise an eyebrow: singer Tobias who joined the rank after the band’s sophomore has in fact a great voice but was ranging too often on the same high pitch, lacking of enough variety and emotions. That’s actually a problem appearing in the best circles, kinda genre-illness. Even singers such as James LaBrie and Timo Kotipelto got criticized for that. That made it quite exhausting to listen to them but the virtuosity of the musicians made it up again. Strongest feedback came up when LANFEAR inserted a cover version of Conception’s Roll The Fire that differed significantly from the band’s power metal and was much heavier. Since the ceiling above stage was quite low, the singer had to have a look upwards while jumping, letting him feel cramped and acting statically. But despite of these small inconveniences LANFEAR proved being a constant in the German scene. We are quite curious how the band will develop in the future…
Setlist: Eclipse, Shades Of Black, The Unrestrained, Stigmatized, Beneath It All, Fortune Lies Within, The Spell, Dispraise, Regression, Roll the Fire // Another Golden Rage

:. MORGANA LEFAY .:

These Swedish guys shortly turned the hot mood into a quick number while kicking “slower” tracks like Hollow, Master Of The Masquerade, When Gargoyles Fly, Creatures Of The Hierarchy and Symphony Of The Damned from the setlist (which was quite sad) kicking off with full force. MORGANA LEFAY revealed an overwhelming pleasure to play, they were downright starving for playing live and bursting for energy blowing everybody away. They fortunately played songs from all of their albums including two new ones from the brand new record Grand Materia. They kicked off with The Source Of Pain from ’96 album Maleficium brimming the fans over with enthusiasm. Once more MORGANA LEFAY proved that they ones of greatest live bands ever. Singer Charles Rytkönen interacted much with the fans holding his micro into the crowd checking if the audience lyrics and melodies (was quite lousy, he should have chosen us for that . We would have been much better in doing that ;) – Rev). Anyway, Charles didn’t mind and let us self-confidently know that he is very thankful for the lights on stage (“his toasters”) giving him the feeling to play in front of 10,000 crazy-heads. New and old songs went down well and got celebrated by the fans. Only bummer was the fact that not even one ballad got played (and there are really great ones *sigh* – Cal), instead the band focused on a short and crispy set. Even on emphatic demand to play Sculptures Of Pain Charles reacted with twinkling eyes and sassy comments but showed that he wasn’t keen on it. Nevertheless there is worth mentioning that we rarely experienced such a great atmosphere. Besides perfectly performed music we witnessed a water battle between Charles and guitarist Tony, starting with a cup of water in Charles’ pants and a calumet short after … too short after, as the show ended too fast as well. So we just hope that we get soon another opportunity to see MORGANA LEFAY live with an extended setlist.
Setlist: The Source Of Pain, Out In The Silence, Another Dawn, Angel’s Deceit, S.O.S., To Isengard, I Roam, Maleficium, End Of Living, Edge Of Mind, State Of Intoxication // The Boon He Gives, In The Court

It was damn fucking hot, sweating but grandiose evening. About both support band opinions differed but regarding MORGANA LEFAY everybody agreed: this show was awesome!
Afterwards most of the attendees were involved in talks, trying out Swedish words or decoding them and witnessing guitarist Peter Grehn who lovingly tried to untangle 4-stringer Fredrik Lundberg’s awesome mane. He failed, after just one strand he gave up… ;)