PRIMAL FEAR & CIRCLE II CIRCLE
HELSINKI, FINLAND
OCTOBER 9th 2010
Text and pics by VILLE KRANNILA
For yours truly a second dose of Primal Fear (first round was back in 2007)
came recently on a Saturday evening at Helsinki's Dante's Highlight rock club.
Add to this they were supported by Circle II Circle, who I'd never seen live
previously so I was expecting a good night of high quality metal.
There was some good, bad and the ugly at display here. Let's go through
the bad first. The promoter changed - or at least announced different -
playing times more than twice during the week before the show. The final
announcement was made at Saturday afternoon, which of course was too late
for us as we had already left for Helsinki. Thus we arrived at Dante's sometime
after 9 pm. Usually the doors always open at Dantes 9 pm but they made an
exception and opened at 8 pm. First band started at 8.30. As we thought they
would kick off at 9.30 we came to the place few minutes before that time -
only to find out we had missed the first band Maya Roxx completely and Circle
II Circle were already halfway through their set. This was disappointing to say
the least.
Also the promotion of the shows was weak, so surprisingly (probably because
it was Saturday) the house was still nicely filling before PF's set. There was
however still tickets sold at the door when we walked in.
Anyways, Circle II Circle played about 6-7 songs after we came in. Most
were from the new album "Consequence Of Power" (which I don't have yet)
and couple from "Delusions Of Grandeur". The new stuff didn't sound very
impressive and the band's playing seemed strangely sloppy.
They ended with two Savatage numbers "Taunting Cobras" and "Edge
Of Thorns". The latter especially was great to hear and left a good final
impression. Zakk's voice was excellent as one would expect and he definitely
had a great stage presence. However, the other players seemed a bit
amateurish next to him. I'm sure they are fine musicians but for whatever
reason, lost a lot in the charisma department. Plus like I said, their playing
could have been tighter.
On to Primal Fear, now this was a different story altogether. Instantly it was
obvious they are a live band with, not just great chemistry, but pure adrenalin
and drive many bands simply lack. This was clear right from the get-go as they
kicked off their set with "Sign Of Fear" – a great opener from "New Religion"
that really tested vocalist Ralf Scheepers' lung power.
The whole set definitely worked and except drummer Randy Black's relatively
short solo, no time was wasted on anything else than solid heavy metal.
Personally highlights were "Fighting The Darkness" and "Seven Seals." Both
were classic melodic rockers that really came off brilliantly in a live setting.
Of course one always hopes for something and in this case, it would have
been nice to hear "Iron Fist In A Velvet Glove" that was one of the best tracks
during the aforementioned 2007 show. However, you cannot have everything
and overall PF played a good strong section of material from all their releases.
As far as I could tell, only "Black Sun" was ignored completely.
Scheepers kept the song introductions to a minimum, only adding few Finnish
words in between. Mat Sinner also thanked the enthusiastic crowd couple of
times. Sinner at one point also requested 10 seconds of silence in respect
of Gotthard vocalist Steve Lee, who had perished recently in a horrible
motorcycle accident. Almost everyone paid their respects and this was a nice
moment. Almost everyone, as of course some idiot felt the need to shout song
requests right at that point. Luckily he was ignored.
Three fast belters "Final Embrace," "Metal Is Forever" and "Angel In Black"
closed the set. The band came back to play "Running In The Dust," which
went down like a storm. The final extra encore was a great surprise. Ralf
said something like "a song by the mighty Judas Priest" and they launched
into "Metal Gods"! This was an awesome way to end the show and crowd was
really into it. This left a great feeling for everyone to head out into the night.
Ralf Scheepers was definitely the star of the show. His voice soared and
according to few of the other witnesses, didn't break once throughout the
whole concert. The Swede behind many classic hard rock and metal releases,
the one and only Magnus Karlsson has fitted in very well on guitar. In Henny
Wolter's absence, Silent Force's Alex Beyrodt filled in with his somewhat
flashy, Malmsteen-influenced antics. Karlsson and Beyrodt played well together
and Mat Sinner offered strong backup on vocals and bass. Black was a strong
bottom end on drums, keeping the rhythm heavy and steady throughout.
And like I said before, set list was fine too. I'm not huge fan of the new album,
so I was glad they only played three songs off it. The ones they did play were
probably the best tracks on it, so well done.
Overall Primal Fear once again delivered an astounding set of classic power
influenced heavy metal. It literally (as I'd forgotten my ear plugs to my hotel
room) had my ears ringing for days after the show.
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