Within Temptation - Hydra

I'm a little late in posting this, but a couple of months ago I was given the album 'Hydra' by Within Temptation. I really enjoyed their album 'The Unforgiving' so I was interested to see what this would be like.

First off there are a few guest vocalists, some more unexpected than others:
Howard Jones (formerly of Killswitch Engage) Tarja Turunen (formerly of Nightwish) Dave Pirner (of Soul Asylum) and.... Xzbit... which is actually a surprisingly successful combination!
There are some really good tracks on the album, some of my favourites are Dangerous, And We Run, Paradise (What About Us?), Covered By Roses.
There are also some quite tedious tracks, The Whole World is Watching is an odd choice to end the album in my opinion because it really kills the energy.
Overall a very good album though, I would definitely recommend it, and by the looks of it it has been pretty successful. Within Temptation are playing Download this year.

Doro

This month I bought the album 'Raise Your Fist' by Doro, and was blown away!

Dorothee Pesch was previously the singer of the band Warlock, where she became one of the first female metal singers, and because of this she is a major inspiration for many female singers today, she is so gutsy and strong too - so a great role model in my opinion.
Approaching 50 years old, her voice still sounds great, and I cant wait to see her when the band tours this year.

Lamb of God - Guildhall, Southampton

In January I went to see Lamb of God at Southampton Guildhall.

(not my video - I predicted it might be violent so didn't take my phone in!)

They played really well, I got right to the front and really enjoyed the interaction with the crowd. They were extremely high energy and positive.
Mark Morton was unable to play some of the tour because of a family emergency of some kind, so they had Paul Waggoner standing in for him. He did really well and looked comfortable with the band.

Supporting were Decapitated and Huntress. I didn't enjoy Decapitated that much, the singer seemed overly agressive towards the crowd, and I'm not a big fan of his style of vocals - I like to be able to hear the lyrics.
I enjoyed Huntress, vocalist Jill Janus was incredibly energetic, some of her actions were a pretty eccentric, but she seemed to be having a great time, and so did I!

Shiny Hair

OK so this isn't a serious post, but I wanted to say something because I can't count the amount of times I've stood behind someone at a gig with lovely, long, soft, smelling of shampoo, hair, only to have them turn around and see that its a bearded man! So here's to all the beautiful man hair. Merry Christmas!

Marco of Nightwish

Jocke of Hardcore Superstar

Pär of Sabaton

Alex of Leaves Eyes/Atrocity

Danzig

Those shiny locks put me to shame!

Hardcore Superstar at Koko

On Friday I went to see Hardcore Superstar at Koko in Camden.

They were supporting Buckcherry, but they just blow them out of the water, I'm really not a fan at all of Buckcherry.

(Again apologies for the sound, my phone doesn't cope well with loudness!)

They played so well, they were super energetic and got everyone singing and shouting and jumping all through their set. It was probably the best performance I've ever experienced, it was really special.

The singer, Jocke, has an amazing voice and he delivered it very well live.

There was a lot of enthusiasm for them in the crowd and this added to the atmosphere.

I can't wait for them to do a headliner tour - I'm itching to see them play again!

During the song "Last Call for Alcohol" They got about 6 girls up on stage and gave them all a shot of jaegermeister, which was something a bit different!

They played a fairly long set for a support band, and came back on stage twice. I'm very glad they did as Buckcherry were just awful by comparison.

Here are a couple of videos by someone who didn't have camera issues!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guLOYRA9BLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FBNKRIhGs

Children of Bodom

I plan to go to Bloodstock festival again this summer and after looking up which bands they had announced so far I saw that Children of Bodom were on the lineup and I decided to check them out.

I've not listened to a lot of their songs yet, but I've fallen in love with this one straight away!

Lacuna Coil at The Roundhouse

Last  night I saw Lacuna Coil play at The Roundhouse. They were supporting Paradise Lost who I wasn't particularly interested in after I saw them at Bloodstock festival last year and the singer pretty much whinged the whole set.
Lacuna Coil are one of my favourite bands and I was really excited to see them. Again I arrived a little late and the first support (Katatonia) were about half way through. They sounded good and I definitely plan to check them out.
I managed to wiggle my way to close to the front for the start of Lacuna Coil, but unfortunately had a very tall and very active guy standing in front of me so for the first couple of songs I was constantly trying to avoid an elbow to the face. However I managed to move away from him and I could see much better after that.
They played really well and the sound was close to perfect. They were very friendly and energetic and Cristina and Andrea shared the interaction with the crowd well, which I had wondered how they would do.
I was a little disappointed with the crowd's enthusiasm. Other than the nuts guy in front of me nobody was really moving around much and I heard a few people shouting for Paradise Lost to come on and that they were bored with Lacuna Coil, which upset me a bit. It would be nice if people who weren't interested wouldn't spoil it for the people who are.
That said I had a great time and I'm definitely going to try and get tickets next time they tour as headliners.