New Jersey isn’t as bad as they say: sure there’s the pollution and unfriendly people, but once you get past the north-eastern part of the state you tend to find a bit of everything. Despite being cramped and filled with a ton of people, New Jersey doesn’t get a lot of the lower-to-mid tier touring bands because of a lack of a suitable venue for their shows. So technically, that’s why see plenty of bands from overseas playing venues in the Manhattan and Brooklyn area. Every now and then, however, you’ll find the brave band from Scandinavia make a venture into New Jersey, in this case Finland’s power metal titans Sonata Arctica, and you just feel inclined to venture there yourself to bear witness to this novelty.
From the get-go, I was excited for this show, hugely because Omnium Gatherum was slated to open up with Leaves’ Eyes. Omnium has been a frequent band in my listening habits for a good while now, (Probably around 2013) with Leaves’ Eyes and Sonata Arctica both serving as ties to my introduction to power and folk metal years ago. Fortunately, all of these bands have put out new material in recent years, which allowed them to not resort to being a nostalgia act but acts that continued to evolve and improve with each album from my initial discovery of them.
Starting off the touring acts after some of the locals took to the stage (Possibly to be explored in the future) Omnium Gatherum had their stage set and ready to go, allowing the six piece band just enough room to freely move around on the somewhat cramped stage. Wasting little time in the 30 minutes they were given, the brief intro the band provided was quickly cut off as the band jumped right into “The Pit” from their newest album, Grey Heavens. Given by the fans yelling “OMNIUM!” in my ears and the rockstar aesthetic the bands put on while on stage, you could have easily been fooled that they were headlining.
The thing about Starland Ballroom is that its sound system can be incredibly hit or miss. For example, when I saw Between the Buried and Me and August Burns Red earlier this year, the bass was entirely non-existent. The same went for Devil You Know, DevilDriver, and Hatebreed, but in that case the entire audio for the night had too much bass in the wrong areas. This night, however, starting with Omnium, the mix was on point. The distinction between guitarists Markus Vanhala and Joonas Koto was clear as day, as well as allowing Aapo Koivisto’s keyboard parts to sit nicely in the background and in the forefront when necessary. So often keyboard players and background vocalists get left behind in the live sound, it’s a relief and a great change of pace to hear the band as they’re meant to be hear.
Speaking of vocalists, the highlight of the band’s set came at the end of their closer, “New World Shadows,” in which both vocalist Jukka Pelkonen and Koto started to switch to clean vocals. While the cleans were used throughout the set as the songs dictated, it was great to see the unsuspecting fans being caught off guard over such a triumphant closing moment, let alone after being adjusted to the idea that Pelkonen’s delivery through the night was mostly (but not exclusively) growl-centric. What was evident at the song’s conclusion, however, was the mass exodus of people quickly moving to the merch area to collect from the band.
What I notice with many European bands that come overseas is that they put effort into delivering an actual show and not just a collection of songs to perform. I started noticing this with Shining back in August, and with Leaves’ Eyes it became more obvious that my notion was true. The six piece band took to the stage quickly after Omnium, changing the musical dynamic entirely, but acting as a middle-ground between the headliner and band before them. “Halvdan the Black” opened their set up, coupling the dynamic and upbeat tempo with Alexander Krull’s hype-man aesthetic, while contributing low gutterals behind the opposing, soaring vocals of their newest vocalist, Elina Siirala.
While musically Leaves’ Eyes is certainly enjoyable and their most recent release, King of Kings, is helping sustain my love for symphonic metal, it would be a crime to hide how enjoyable the band is to watch. Even without stage props or a dynamic light show were absent, the show felt dynamic with Krull taking to viking armor for songs later in their set, evoking surprise and changing the set up just enough to make the 45 minutes they were given to go by without a second thought.
With Sonata Arctica being already set up, the wait for the headliner felt shorter than normal. As the band quickly started with “Closer to an Animal” from their most recent release, the stage was draped in an arctic blue and purple light, capturing that “arctic” feel easily while still keeping a dreamy, purely power metal environment on stage. Interestingly enough, Sonata Arctica’s set functioned much like a crescendo: while they started on a high note, the band managed to keep the momentum going upward. In particular, it was around “Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited,” that I realized just how exciting the show kept getting.
While guitarist Elias Viljanen surely had his moments of excellence with sweeping and over the top guitar solos accompanied by appropriately placed strobe lights, it was vocalist Tony Kakko who really captured the excitement of the set and kept it going with the fans. Often times he would be talking to fans in the crowd in a personal way, often thanking the crowd for keeping them going and staying faithful to them, new or old. It would have been nice to see some of the other and members move around on stage more, but Kakko surely made up for it with his powerful presence.
At the night’s conclusion, you could see a general amount of happiness in the attendees as they made their way to the exit. And I would be lying, too, if I said the night hadn’t made me feel some sort of levity. With the election and the massive amounts of hysteria all over the place, it was fortunate to have some uplifting, inspiring music that didn’t require a massive amount of knowledge to enjoy. With an evening of anthemic songs and soaring melodies, Sonata Arctica’s headlining tour may be the feel-good show that everyone needs this time of the year.
