Last weekend we had in
The next day, and after the nice visit of Michael and Marit for 2 crazy days, we arrived there with a good sunny weather and skirts included (quite good for hot temperatures :P).
The first band we saw it was Shroud of Tears, gothic doom from A Coruña Moonspell-inspired.. it is said.. Well, we arrived just for watching the last part and the Moonspell feeling was maybe just in the voice of the singer and the style, but the portuguese band is still far, very far. I have to say that I didn’t like at all what I saw and listened, so let’s skip this band. They have to improve many things under my sight and under the sight of all my friends either
The second one was Fallen Sentinel, progressive black gothic from Vigo
3 Inches of Blood made the masses start to move and making mosh. It was a nice surprise, I didn’t expect too much about that band because I listened one album of them and it was pretty boring. In live they win much more, and for some strange reason public went completely crazy from the first song. Sound wasn’t really good and it made me to think that songs were not very different, and it helped that the “hair-thrash metal" voice guy sang in the same tone in almost everyone of them. The other voice was the typical melodeath–melodic hardcore one. After some days of reconsidering and thinking about this festival, I can say that the show of “3 Inches of Blood” was quite entertaining, but helped by the public who started moshing and shouting almost from the first minute.
Cynic are a strange band. If you ask me, their concert was absolutly dull and boring. So much that I prefered to rest a bit on the ground far from them after listening 2 or 3 songs and eating something. Anyway I was looking at them from the distance, and my opinion doesn’t change at all. They are very good musicians, that’s something clear, but they still have to make songs that say: “we are not only good musicians / we also know how to compose something who hits on the minds of the listeners”. Moreover they were almost sticked to the ground and with almost no movement at all. Most of the people just were staring looking at them without any movement, even in the distance I couldn’t see any minimal headbanging.
"Cynic faces" XD
I didn’t like them in live, they were too far from the audience, moreover those interludes with voices were sometimes too too long. Anyway I know some people who told they liked them a lot… I just waited they finished for going back to the pit.
Exodus did a great, really good show. The new singer cannot modulate too much his voice but he has charisma and knows how to make people to move. Old songs are not the same with him, they lost power, but new ones sounded very good. Again people moshing and having fun like I’ve never seen in Galicia (I guess most of them were not from here… XD ). So, Exodus, one of the biggest hits for me in the Alternavigo.
My legs started to ask me for some rest after the intense moment of Exodus, but I stayed there cause I was interested in watching the next band, Primal Fear. The interlude was not very long and the band of the ex-Gamma Ray, Ralph Scheepers started like a bit apathetic. Ralph is a great vocalist, but the show was rather boring. People didn’t move that much either. I didn’t like the setlist, but I still had fun with some songs.
My impression about Primal Fear was that they were thinking “let’s do this show and let’s go to bed afterwards…”
If my legs started to break, my neck, my hair, my feet started to join the legs. But there was a good festival here and I wanted to be in everyone of the concerts. And I couldn’t avoid watching Gamma Ray. The germans, and I couldn’t expect to say this before the festival, did the best show for me. It’s true that they played in safe waters, with their classics and also “I want out” and “Ride the sky”, but on the other hand I didn’t like the inclusion of 2 songs of their last stuff, wich is in a rather lower level than the first material. Anyway, I guess if they compose new things they should include something new in their live appereances, even being not very inspired stuff. I didn’t like as well the long way of making “Somewhere out in Space” and “Heavy Metal Universe”, they could play at least 2 or 3 more songs if they didn’t do those long breaks in the middle.
Anyway, Kai Hansen seemed to have fun and he spread it to the public who were massively shouting and singing their catchy hymns.
After Gamma Ray, I needed to have a rest, really. And I lost most of the show of Overkill. It’s a pity because people there said it was the best show in the Alternavigo. I just saw a bit in the beginning but it didn’t surprise me too much. Being in the distance I cannot make an objective opinion about Overkill, so I will skip them.
Cradle of Filth jumped over the scenary almost 2 hours late. At that moment I didn’t enjoyed them too much, though their sound was becoming a bit better song after song. I was pleased with the old songs, but their new stuff…
People were really tired, I could see it in their faces and they didn’t support too much Cradle. There were also lots of people that after Overkill started leaving the Arena, maybe because they consider Cradle are posers, or they don’t like them.
I consider them as commercial posers, a kind of Marylin Manson of the blackgothic metal, starting with their small singer, but I wanted to see the band I used to like 10 years ago. So, their show wasn’t really good, orchestral parts were hidden somewhere, and we could listen mostly the dying-cat voice of Dani Filth and guitars, wich were doing not very complicated riffs, now that we could listen to them without the disguising of the orchestral and keyboard melodies. It made Cradle to sound a bit empty. The worst part of Cradle was when they finished quickly for going home, without doing any bis (it was supposed they would play “The Forest Whispers my Name”). People there were quite bothered with that, and I was too, but now, thinking it calmly, it was not so strange: people didn’t ask at all for a new one (usual in Vigo
Anyway, I think they should be more proffesionals, and after 9 hours of concerts, we were also at 4:00 AM waiting for them, lots of us tired as hell, but still moving our neck. One more song wouldn’t kill them (maybe yes my neck XD) and they would finish with a not so bad impression for the public of Alternavigo, who started throwing plastic glasses to the scenary and later massively called them posers, fraud, shitband, and so on…
So, summing up, it was an interesting festival, lots of hours making headbanging, dancing some humppa and having fun, though the average of the concerts were not very good under my sight. Organization was also good for being the first time in general terms. On the bad side, I expected much more people there, I don’t know where they are when we have events like this, because the bands and price of the festival, as the prices of food and drinks were not too expensive if we compare with other festivals. I hope there will be another Alternavigo next year, with bands that I really like, not like this time (yes, one of the most important reasons for me was to have another Alternavigo though I didn’t like too much the bands of this year).
I met lots of friends from every part of Galicia and even Spain, and... lots of fun and a lot of sweating and headbanging :)
Let’s keep hope we will have an Alternavigo 2, though I expected more people coming...
