First up were a trio of classic heavy metalheads from France, Spirit War (8). With obvious joy and enthusiasm to be here in England on tour with the guitar maestro, they take to the stage and blast out a fun half hour of heavy metal that the crowd really took to. Playing tracks from their 2023 album Between Dusk And Dawn with stand out tracks being Never Give Up and Fight To Survive which embodied their Gallic style and added a bit of a power metal slant to their overall sound
In keeping with the continental mood for tonight, next up were Andry (6) from Greece. Taking their name from vocalist Andry Lagiou, this band were visually eye catching. Andry herself walked on stage in a Basque seemingly made out of mirrors, matching knee high boots, black pvc leggings and a horned face mask, also bedecked with mirrors. In one had she had a whip which came rather close to the photographers in the pit at times! The rest of the band looked very glam, and the choreography on stage was well rehearsed and in sync!
The music was a tale of two halves though, the guitars were excellent, very technical power metal style, fast drumming and we even had a keytar on show, all adding to the mix. But, the vocals were off for me. It came over as very screechy, almost painfully so at times. Now I will add that Andry seemed to be having issues with her IEMs so that could have been an issue, a vocalist, especially one attempting to hit very high notes, needs good feed back and for me it was not on a par with the rest of the music, which is a shame, because the do seem like they have a lot to offer.
Someone who is synonymous with perfection is of course Swedish guitar maestro Yngwie Malmsteen (10) and tonight sees him celebrating 40 years of being a solo artist. Over that time he has produced something in the region of 22 studio albums and inspired a whole generation of string pluckers, particularly in the more technical genres.
Tonight sees him take a symphonic journey with us through the years, opening up with 1984s Rising Force from the album of the same name and taking us full circle through the years to end on 1985s I’ll See The Light Tonight. For two hours we’re mesmerised by the skill and virtuosity of the man, the track list covers every aspect of his long career, showing his adaptability from playing rock through to classical.
At one point he began having technical issues with the pedals, and you could feel the tension build in the room as the techs struggled to fix it, but Yngwie was in good spirits and laughed it off, saying he’d borrowed it from KK Downing! Technical hitch aside, it was a consummate display, a masterclass on what you can achieve with a humble Strat. It was a privilege to see him tonight and one I’ll remember for a long time, I’m still trying to figure out how he can move those fingers so fast.
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