Monday 16 March 2015

Omnium Gatherum / Insomnium / Ensiferum

I was at the Ensiferum concert yesterday. But, it's no secret that I expressly went for the sole reason of seeing Omnium Gatherum and Insomnium live. Here's the setlist:


It was awesome. It was far from perfect, yeah; but I still loved it. I knew Insomnium were sketchy as best live, and they really could do with either one more guitar or a synth, because their melodicness is one of the best things about them. To be fair, I don't know how much better they are with their usual guitarist/clean vocalist Ville, so... Because that's one thing that's definitely suffered - the clean vocals were inaudible, and poor Kari Olli messed up even the guitar a few times. Considering he's a fill-in, it wasn't so bad.

On the other hand, Omnium Gatherum were phenomenal even live. Yeah, they're a 6-member band, but like this, the sound just blew me away. They were the first performers, so they really set the mood. Also, they played all my favourite songs (Soul Journeys, New World Shadows...), so I was happy.

Afterwards, they came to the merch stand - I got my copy of Shadows of the Dying Sun signed by Niilo and Markus Vanhala and I felt like crying. I mean, that's awfully un-metal of me, but that's just how much I love these bands. Also, this album might be my favourite record of all time.

New Dynamic
Soul Journeys
Admittedly, this song sounds better on record than live. (But it's still my favourite.)
The Unknowing
New World Shadows
Amazing to sing along to. AMAZING.
Everfields

The Killjoy
I wonder whether they play this live because it's Markus Vanhala's favourite Insomnium song?
While We Sleep
Just as breathtaking as I thought it would be. (Even though the rhythm wasn't always okay...)
Every Hour Wounds
Black Heart Rebellion
Again, singing along the whole way is an incredible experience.
Where the Last Wave Broke
This was surprisingly good live.
Why don't they have a live synth player? With that, this song could have been perfect. It was still nice, and I liked it, but I knew the lyrics by heart... the clean singing might as well not have been there. Although I still can't get over how they consistently mispronounce 'realm' as [riːlm] when it's [relm], it's so cute.
Drawn to Black
By this I've drawn the conclusion that their less melodic older songs sound much better live.
Ephemeral
This is about their most pop songs, and I liked the live version even less than the studio one. It just doesn't really fit with all the others, albeit it's a good song.
A nice, slow outro. I couldn't really pay attention to the first part of it, since some people started to seriously push, so I was preoccupied, you know, not getting squashed.

All in all, it was a nice experience, although Insomnium has some way to go regarding live performances. I'm also a little sad that very few of my personal favourites were played - but since I love most things they've done, it's all good.
Oh yeah, and the main band, Ensiferum, they were great. Folk metal isn't really my genre but I still enjoyed it, in fact, I definitely like them better now. I mean, it's a right shame I actually contemplated leaving beforehand, they were super fun and energetic and overall really enjoyable.

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