Last wednesday, at Ferrailleur (Nantes), took place one of the most anticipated show of the year to me, maybe the most : IN VAIN + ORPHANED LAND. On this occasion, In Vain has been good enough to give me an interview that I’ll share after the live report. Let’s start to speak about the lives.

I didn’t really know the other bands, and I came espacially for In Vain show, so I’ll speak briefly about the other bands. 20:15 pm, the event begins with Aevum, a Symphonic Metal Band. The staging is a success, but the song’s quality leave me wondering. The singer has a great voice, like Tarja Turunen (Nightwish), but the melodies are too easy for me, it seems like a bad power metal band. Nevertheless, there was graced moments, like this dancer playing as different characters progressively in the show, and some top musical moments. A nice show, but not incredible.

After a short intermission, Subterranean Masquerade arrives on the scene. It’s a Progressive Metal band, and I recommend them. If the technical problems are regrettable, fortunately the singer is here to lead the show and keep public waiting with humor. Finally the live begins, with all musical wealth and scenic presence that a live needs. It all comes together linearly, it’s a pleasure ! The singer get the public attention, his way to move on stage is singular ! At last, maybe I would prefer David Bowie‘s cover of Space Oddity, but I not deny my pleasure, it was a great live.

For the next band, I’ll do a chronological gap and talk about Orphaned Land, the last band to play. Since last weeks, I listened to a lot of the last album, « Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs« , contrary to the other albums. Hence, I remember more easily the songs from the last album. The opening with « The Cave« , 1^st track of the last album, is perfect. It set the tone of the live : we’ll have some tragic and festive moments, as Kobi Fahri (singer) said.

Now it’s time to talk about In Vain. Why did I choose to speak about the band at last ? Because I would more like to be the last band on stage. In fact, this is an ideal running order to me. The show begins with Against the Grain, 1^st track of Ænigma, came out in 2013. I couldn’t dream of a better beginning ! Musically, the band like to flow the genres between them. It’s sometimes surprising, but it always work. On stage, the band transcribes this as best as possible !

After this song, here is a song from the last album, Origin. The musicians lives their music, we share this moment with them. This song is great in live, but would have been reversed with the next song, Seekers of the Truth. The opening track of the last album is a pleasure to see in live ! It’s catchy as possible, the musicians take a real pleasure to play this song, and we see it !

Now it’s time for an old song, October’s Monody, from the first album, The Latter Rain, came out in 2007. You’ll can read later, in the interview, that this song is one of the favourites of the band to play in live. And it’s true ! The mix of genres is here push to the limits, we go from a progressive intro to a black metal part extremely compelling ! The band flow the genres, the postures, never ever the pretense or to be a pale copy of bands, and maybe it’s here that we can see all the talent of this band.

The next song bring us to the 2^nd album, Mantra, with the opening song Captivating Solitude. Strangely, this song could be a perfect final song, so much this song is calm and melancolic, despite the accelerated riffs and the strenght of the song.

After this beautiful moment, it’s time to come back with some more brutal music apparently, with Blood We Shed, from the last album Currents. The beginning of the song is brutal, it’s a pure Death Metal, really efficient. I said more brutal apprently, but with In Vain, there’s no way to confine themselves in a genre. The next part is pretty joyful, like an old Dream Theater song, before a melancolic singing. We don’t know how to react to this different ambiences, but it doesn’t matter.

The final song arrives, with Image of Time, 2^nd track from the album Ænigma. In my opinion, it’s a surprising final song. My followers on my facebook page knows that my favourite song from the band is Floating on the Murmuring Tide, and it could be great to have this final. But the running time is short, and here, Image of Time is however a great final, the modulation at the end of the song is one of the main reason. Like the last album, this live is a concetrated of what In Vain does as best, with a short running time (no more than 50 minutes). Again, the end, melancolic as possible, act as a perfect final.

To conclude, it was an amazing night, maybe with a small downside for Aevum, but that the other bands overtaken. Some bands close to the public, some amzing songs with a perfect interpretation, we don’t hope better than this from a live ! And when In Vain send me a message to make an interview after reading my criticism, the night couldn’t be better. Here is the interview.

 Thank you for reading and listening, I hope that you like it ! Goodbye, see you soon.

Alan