Face Of Cheam

Been a long time since I visited the Electric Ballroom in Camden which I did on Monday for a double bill of Euro Metal. For two fairly obscure bands I was surprised to see the gig sell out and it was heaving. The lay out of the venue made it impossible for me to get my usual space down the front on the left so I had to settle for a view halfway back on the right. There were several rock and goth chicks about, and an incredible tattooed barmaid who looked fantastic, even with three studs pierced through her bottom lip!
Epica are a dutch band with the lovely Simone Simons on vocals. They fuse female operatic vocals with a heavy music a male gravel growl voice. It works well too! They played for forty five minutes with a set based around their latest album the Divine Conspiracy. Lots of synchronised head banging and hair flying around they were very enjoyable.
Sonata Artica are a Finnish band playing their first ever British show. Again lots of headbanging, but also stuff the audience could singalong to, the highlight being a song called Full Moon. They opened the encore by covering We Will Rock You, which was good and kept the crowd ‘up’ before they ended with a song called The Cage. A really entertaining rock evening had, despite not being familiar with the material played!

SA Set - In Black And White / Paid In Full / Victoria's Secret / Broken / 8th Commandment / Tallulah / FullMoon / Caleb / Black Sheep / It Won't Fade / Graven image / San Sebastian //// We Will Rock You / My Land / Dont Say A Word / The Cage