Nightwish Concert with Delain & Sabaton

On April 11th, I went to the Palladium to see Nightwish live in concert with special guests Delain and Sabaton! I had an amazing time.

I took pictures of Delain as they were performing, however I failed to adjust my camera until Nightwish appeared. Sorry!

I love this band, but they performed only about 6 songs. I know they performed more when they were here last time with Xandria and Sonatic Arctic, but all of the bands that played that time were all just about as popular as the next, so I understand why Nightwish performed the longest.

I have to say, Johanna Charlotte Wessels is quite the rock singer! Her voice and cheerful performance are intoxicating!

I was surprised at Sabaton's performance. I was not that familiar with them beforehand, but now I am a fan at least.

Joakim Broden can sing and he is hilarious on stage! I cannot believe the jokes he came up with & how he just pulled this ten year old fan up onto the stage for a song!




I knew Nightwish had Annette Olzon and Tarja Turunen as their main female vocals, but I had no idea that they fired both of them until I came to the concert that night. They required a replacement...

And to my surprise, they hired Floor Jenson...

The former singer of Forever After and has been in a band called Revamp. I have her album of Forever After on Itunes, and I was giddy to see her onstage in this band! She is amazing!

Not only was she able to sing songs perfectly from the previous albums that fans love, but she helped bring a new sound to Nightwish that I have never heard before and I am excited to see where it goes!

This seems like a perfect fit for the band and the singer. The band has had amazing success despite having been through two female singers who were awesome at singing, but unfortunately they both were obsessed with getting the most attention even though it is a group project started by Marco Hielata. Floor Jenson had been in two bands that just disbanded despite the amazing talent she brought to it. They all are used to changing out of people from time to time.

I have to say, this is amazing for the world of symphonic rock!

How is it that there are a whole bunch of really awesome female singers for metal bands from all over the world, and they look amazingly hot as well?

Check out their newest album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The name speaks for itself, it is beautiful to listen to! For all of those who like rock, get it, get it now! I'm serious, there's no reason to only download a few songs. The whole album is awesome! There are few albums I can say that about!

Delain at Worcester's Palladium

I went to the Sonata Arctica concert at the Palladium last Saturday. The guest bands that were included were Chronologist, Xandria, and Delain. Delain has been a special guest at the Palladium before, and at the time I didn't think it would be worth going to see unless if they were the headline band. At the time I didn't think a band would give much of a performance as a guest band compared to a headline band. Thankfully when I went to the show, I was wrong in my assumption.

I found Xandria very enjoyable, quite so much that I bought two of their CD's. Their band's vocalist, Diana van Giersbergen, has quite the voice, and the rest of the band members were awesome too. Chronologist was enjoyable even though they have no lyrics and vocals whatsoever. I had to war up to Sonata Arctica, for they played their instruments with awesome talent, but I was a bit hazy on the lead singer's voice, Tony Kakko, though that maybe because I usually prefer female singers in symphonic metal bands. Maybe I was just expecting more of a deeper voice from him or something, but at least he doesn't growl like certain vocals in certain bands. Some shouting/growling is all right in music sometimes, but not all the time.

Honestly Delain really took control of the show the best. They were the only band to set up anything in the background before they performed, and they were the only band that used fog machines. Sure, Sonata Arctica used the technicolor lights, but I found Delain more visually entertaining. Their vocalist, Johanna Charlotte Wessels, sang beautifully, and she had this remarkable energy to her despite the fact that the room was hot! With that rare energy and that intoxicating smile, she got the crowd pumped up and even jumping at times! The other band members also played their instruments awesomely. They also performed some of their best songs including Get the Devil Out of Me, We are the Others, April Rain, Breathe on Me, and Stardust. This was a show worth seeing, and there were even people outside who tried to buy people's spare tickets or tried to sneak in!

I am really looking forward to seeing Within Temptation and Ameranthe at the Palladium next month!

Rock Music

I recently ordered 3 CD's online because I can't get them on ITunes. All three of them are Japanese bands that I had heard from specific Anime shows and online. It has just gotten me to think about my taste in music.

My earliest exposure to music was very weird. Since I have autism, my mother and my speech pathologist helped me speak through many methods, including "Hooked on Phonics". One method my mom took was having me listen to two CD's from my dad's and her's music collection. Mostly she played "The Beach Boys" and "Meatloaf: Bat out of Hell 2" to me on noise canceling headphones. I am not entirely sure if I liked the two bands equally or not, but I can say that the CD cover for Meatloaf has always been awesome to me. Few covers have such dark, epic illustrations.

(This image is from http://spazio.libero.it/geniolibero/.)

My taste in music did eventually expand, though I was still very sheltered when it came to these sorts of things. I recall really liking "I'll be There for You" by the Rembrandts just because it was played at the beginning sequence of "Friends," but that was back when "Friends" was worth watching. I also recall liking Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" since they played that song on the radio often. I never tried to get a CD of either one of those groups though.

My first CD, besides a few burned CD's from my brother, was System of a Down's "Steal This Album." I began to like them after seeing their music video for "Chop Suey!" on MTV back when they actually showed music videos. Mostly System of a Down was my favorite band of all time. Of coarse my taste in music has been expanding since then.

I also like Slipknot, Disturbed, Static X, Gorillaz, Evanescence, Rammstein, Enya, Dido, Unsun, Within Temptation, Damone, Delain, Maximum the Hormone, Girugimeshi, High and Mighty Color, Curve, MDMFK, Godsmack, Blueman Group, and Kidneytheives. Yeah, my taste in music ranges from Metal to New Age.

Artists require all sorts of things for inspiration, especially music. My taste in music generally has to make me imagine fantastic fight scenes, explosions, magic, machines, and spectacular adventures when I feel pumped full of energy. I have my relaxing moments when I want to hear some music that calms me, but it still has to sound good to my ears.