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Helloween, Gamma Ray & Shadowside - HMV Forum, London - 16/04/2013 | FESTIVALPHOTO
 

Helloween, Gamma Ray & Shadowside - HMV Forum, London - 16/04/2013

 Betyg

Review2600_Gamma_Ray

The night kicked off with Brazilian band Shadowside. Some truly awful sound meant the first part of their set sounded terrible but once the sound engineer got his act together things started to improve, although I think the mix was still pretty poor for the whole of their set. As a result of the poor sound then Shadowside didn't impress as much as they should have done, no matter how well the band did on stage. Their old-school heavy metal sound with female vocals combined with an energetic performance that included plenty of headbanging and windmilling certainly won them some new fans tonight (me included) and they looked to be selling enough CDs at the merch stand to call their show a success. 

Photos of Shadowside: http://www.festivalphoto.net/pictures&concertID=25347#.UXbTnsqxkv4

Next up came Gamma Ray. They had  much better sound once the problems with Kai's guitar were fixed in the first song. 
Gamma Ray were always going to be a popular choice to support Helloween - musically there are plenty of similarities even though Gamma Ray are heavier, and the fact that Gamma Ray's founder and frontman Kai Hansen is a former member of Helloween helps too. 
Gamma ray put in a great set tonight on one of their rare UK appearances, but the biggest crowd reaction was saved for when they played the Helloween song 'Future world' When most of the crowd sang along. After ending the set with 'To the metal', the band left the stage before returning to do 'Send me a sign' as an encore.

Photos of Gamma Ray: http://www.festivalphoto.net/pictures&concertID=25331#.UXbTn8qxkv4

Gamma Ray setlist

Welcome
Anywhere in the Galaxy
Men, Martians and Machines
The Spirit
Dethrone Tyranny
Master of Confusion
Empire of the Undead
Empathy
Rise
Guitar Solo
Future World
To the Metal
Encore:
Send Me a Sign

Next up was tonight's headliners - Helloween. The first song was performed with the band hidden behind a camouflage net at the back of the stage, before this dropped and the band came out onto the stage to play. Tonight's setlist was heavily based around the band's latest album, Straight out of Hell, with six songs being taken from the album tonight. It's a very strong album, so I was more than happy to hear plenty of the new material, but it's always a gamble to play a lot of material from a new album as fans don't tend to know it as well as they know the classics, and although some of the new material went down very well, I do think they'd have been better off dropping a couple of new songs in favour of classics - that would have turned the night from a great gig into a fantastic one.

After a great set, we got an encore consisting of 'Are you metal' and 'Dr Stein' - the fans were particularly happy with Dr Stein, with many singing along.

For their second encore, Helloween were joined by Kai Hansen for a medley of songs, before the rest of Gamma Ray joined them for the last song of the night - 'I want out'. A great night.

Photos of Helloween: http://www.festivalphoto.net/pictures&concertID=25315#.UXbToMqxkv4

Helloween setlist

Wanna be god
Nabatea
Eagle fly free
Straight out of hell
Where the sinners go
Waiting for the thunder
Steel tormentor
Drum solo
I'm alive
Live now
Hold me in your arms
If I could fly
Hell was made
Power

Encore:
Are you metal
Dr Stein

Encore 2:
Medley (Halloween / How Many Tears / Heavy Metal (Is the Law)
I want out

Review2600_Helloween

Writer: Anthony May
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