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Review: Sirenia/Temperance/Symphonity, Thekla
Think of symphonic metal and you tend to picture the likes of Nightwish playing to tens of thousands of people in giant stadiums in Scandinavia or South America, accompanied by masses of pyro, multiple projections and an enormous lightshow. What you don’t perhaps picture is a three band bill aboard the good ship Thekla. But – hey – everyone has to start somewhere, and here at the budget end of the genre there’s plenty of make-do camaraderie and no shortage of backing tapes to keep the show on the road.
Symphonity have travelled all the way from the Czech Republic to find themselves playing to a rather sparse Thekla audience at 6:20pm. “We’re so glad to be here,” asserts frontman David Akesson, who’s celebrating his birthday (39, allegedly) this very day. Looking like the villains in an Eastern European gangland drama, they are tonight’s wild card. As the genre police would be quick to observe, much of what they play sounds more like power metal than symphonic metal, with a dash of folk metal thrown in for good measure, though these boundaries tend to be fairly fluid. There’s some particularly strong interplay between keyboard player Johannes Frykholm and founding guitarist Libor Krivak, and songs like the grand, anthemic In the Name of God are strong enough to stand out on any bill.
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The crowd fills out for the arrival of Temperance, making their first appearance in Bristol, and it’s clear that for many here the Italians are the main attraction. But they’re a man down, singer Michele Guaitoli being off doing the pirate thing with his other band Visions of Atlantis (who return to Bristol in October). They’re also unveiling their new female vocalist, Kristen Starkey, who’s quick to inform us that she’s from New York, “where we like to make fun of Italians”. She gets to share vocals with guitarist Marco Pastorino, and since they tend to sing in the same register some of the drama is missing. But Temperance make up for this with a keen sense of fun and a strong set drawing primarily on new album Hermitage – Daruma’s Eyes Pt. 2., with those backing tapes working overtime to supply the orchestrations. They even manage to summon up some boisterous audience participation during I Am the Fire.
Being cooler customers, headliners Sirenia lack the easy audience rapport of Temperance. It doesn’t help that vocalist Emmanuelle Zoldan is clearly having monitor issues at first, but these are quickly resolved. Like many a Norwegian metal musician, imposing founder Morten Veland looks like he’s just stepped off the set of Vikings, leaving fellow guitarist Nils Courbaron to do much of the headbanging and gallivanting about. Bass, keyboards and other instrumentation are pre-recorded. It’s all powerful, gothic-tinged stuff drawn mostly from more recent albums, especially newie 1977 – with Deadlight proving a standout. But after more than two decades in the game, Sirenia aren’t afraid to have some fun too, repurposing cheesy French electropop hit Voyage, voyage as a symphonic metal stomper. After a swift break, they’re back with their pounding signature encore, The Path to Decay. These guys might be on the lowest rung of the symphonic metal ladder, but they’re snapping at the heels of the genre’s biggest names.
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: May 2024
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