Sabaton / Eluveitie / Wisdom

The clocks have gone back and the evenings are cold and dark. So what better way to cure the winter blues then to head to the Waterfront in Norwich for an evening of metal? Performing onstage tonight will be three metal bands from across Europe, none of which I have listened to before. So it's a venture into the unknown as I leave the chilly outdoors and enter the warm surroundings of Norwich Waterfront.



The first of these three bands hail from Hungary and are called Wisdom. Wisdom provide a great start to the evening with an enjoyable set packed with their brand of power metal. Both singer Gabor Nagy and the band as a whole remind me heavily of Iron Maiden, which is far from being a bad thing. Nagy delivers his best Bruce Dickinson impression as he leads the group through top songs such as 'Heaven And Hell' and 'Judas'.

Following Wisdom onstage tonight are Swiss folk metal group Eluveitie. Anticipation for their performance appears high, emphasized by the amount of Eluveitie T-shirts in amongst the growing crowd. For me, the concept of folk metal is a promising one, however in this case it just doesn't work. The Waterfront's stage isn't the largest, especially for support acts performing in front of a headline bands gear and with an excessive eight members Eluveitie barely have room to move.



The eight members don't just cause the stage to appear overcrowded but also their music to sound overcrowded. In my opinion there is simply too much going on at once and tonight that translates into eight individuals performing onstage instead of a cohesive unit. With this being said the Eluveitie T-shirt wearing crowd members appear overjoyed with the group's performance.

Completing our trio of European visitors tonight are headliners Sabaton. The power metal group come to us tonight from their home country of Sweden for the first UK stop on their appropriately name 'Swedish Empire' tour. As the lights go down and Europe's classic anthem 'The Final Countdown' is piped through the speakers I'm intrigued to see what will great us onstage.



What we get is a fun set from a professional outfit. Leading the group through their entertaining set is vocalist Joakim Broden. Broden is in talkative mood tonight and informs us that the Swedish invasion has begun, led by Abba and Ikea. When not talking however, he is leading his band mates through some great songs such as 'Ghost Division', 'Carolus Rex' and 'Primo Victoria'.

Tonight Sabaton show that they are an impressive live act, keeping their fans interactive throughout. Broden even allows the audience to choose a couple of songs in their set, with 'Uprising' and 'White Death' winning the crowd votes. What makes Sabaton's performance even more impressive is that the band have recently changed no fewer than three of its members, and not knowing the band I was unable to tell until Broden introduced these new members to the crowd.

Sabaton finish their decent set with a rendition of 'Metal Crüe and send me back out into the cold happy that I ventured into the unknown. Wisdom and Sabaton certainly won't remain unknown for long; well two out of three isn't bad!

FUTURE GIGS