This show was originally due to be opened by Visions Of Atlantis, but unfortunately they ran into vocalist issues, so the honour was instead passed to Forever Slave, yet another female fronted, gothic sounding band. Whilst they appear to try and tick all the necessary boxes, and that included vocalist Lady Angellyca wearing the obligatory corset style dress and dancing away to all the songs, sadly her voice sounded poor and the band appeared to lack any depth to their material, all adding up to the fact that they struggled to make much of an impact on the Wolverhampton crowd.  Indeed the loudest cheer they managed to raise came with the announcement that the next song would be their last, only for the band to realise that they didn't have time to play it after all.  

Firewind started off proceedings with two new songs, namely ‘Into The Fire’ and ‘Head Up High’ from new album The Premonition, before they moved into more familiar territory with a clear fan favourite in the shape of ‘Insanity’.  To open with such new material was certainly a brave move as at the time of the show The Premonition hadn't actually been released in the UK and hence the majority of the audience was totally unfamiliar with the songs. Although Firewind were to revisit the new album later in their set, playing both the single ‘Mercenary Man’ and ‘Circle Of Life’, they also delivered older songs in the form of ‘Destination Forever’ and the title track of the Between Heaven And Hell album, which is understandable given that they are trying to promote the album’s re-release.  In saying that it was the material for their last album, Allegiance, that got the crowd going the most but sadly, apart from ‘Insanity’, we were only treated to ‘Falling To Pieces’, with the band rounding things off with ‘I Am The Anger’ from the Burning Earth album.   

OK so they were good, but then again they always are and vocalist Apollo, who sat out some of the bands performances last year, was obviously on form.  He got the crowd pumping fists and shouting along during the more instrumental moments in the set and even traded vocals with the crowd at one point, but what let the show down was the choice of material, there was simply too much of the new in favour of more familiar songs.  

Last year saw main act Kamelot give a sterling effort at the Prog Power festival (R.I.P.), and tonight they also put in another great performance. Their show started with a single female violinist taking centre stage for the intro before the rest of the band joined her and, as they are touring last year's Ghost Opera album (which has recently been re-released) it meant that a lot of the set was drawn from that opus: ‘The Human Stain’, ‘Rule The World’ and bonus track ‘The Pendulous Fall’ all got an airing although it was an older song, namely ‘Center Of The Universe’, that really got the masses singing.  This, along with ‘When The Lights Are Down’, and ‘The Haunting’, from previous album The Black Halo, showed that Kamelot have plenty of popular songs in their arsenal but it was with ‘Abandoned’ that they really shone, vocalist Khan on top form and the song simply majestic despite the drums kicking in to overpower the latter part.   

There was of course the obligatory instrumental, linked into a drum solo and a separate keyboard solo, which, whilst slightly unusual worked well enough and helped break up the evening as well as giving Khan a chance to change costumes as he went through at least four or five jackets during the length of the set. Costume changes aside Kamelot were truly amazing, helping to prove that, at least within the confines of their genre, they are at the top of the pile.  After an encore which included ‘Ghost Opera’ and ‘Love You To Death’, the band and subsequently much of the crowd left, happy with the evenings entertainment but the house lights didn't come up and as ‘March Of Mephisto’ hadn't been aired at this this reviewer was going nowhere. Sure enough after a short break the band returned to play the song to end things on a high, and those that had made their way out must surely now regret it.  

Return To Gig Reviews Main Menu