Kamelot, Dream Evil, Amberian Dawn
London Islington Academy
29th March, 2009

Having impressed with their brand of gothic symphonic metal the night before in Camden, the Finnish sextet led by the luscious Heidi Parviainen stepped in at the last minute for Serenity and pulled of another powerhouse performance, rattling through a handful of cuts from their River Of Tuoni set, along with new material from Lionheart. The operatic vocals were as immaculate as the instrumentation, as on their debut title track, which closed proceedings in uptempo, exhilarating and all too swift fashion. Still, Sweden’s Niklas Isfeldt-led quintet, Dream Evil, blasted us with nine numbers over 45 minutes, their brand of power-metal nodding to old school acts like Judas Priest on the likes of Blind Evil and the muscular Heavy Metal In The Night (bonus points for ludicrous lyrics!) Kingdom Of The Damned raged before the acoustic intro of In Flames You Burn and Scorpions-like Crusader’s Anthem and closing The Chosen Ones. Kamelot then upped the ante with a 95- minute set in which Norse wailer Khan rallied the masses, and his five colleagues, storming on with Rule The World and When The Lights Are Down, and pulling out the power-metal stops on Soul Society. Female backing vocals added lustre to the likes of Center Of The Universe, solo spots followed, notably on The Human Stain, and Eden Echo hit all the right Nightwish-style buttons. Forever saw a call and response before encores taking in Ghost Opera, the machine-gun percussion of Karma and the closing March Of Mephisto.