Trail Of Tears, Scenario II - Gothic metal in Apeldoorn
Friday the 4th of April was the first date of four concerts from Norwegian gothic metallers Trail Of Tears during their mini-tour through the Netherlands. Additional support came from Dutch act Scenario II.Scenario II, formerly known as Aura, is in business for quite a long time already. I had no experience with them in advance and I also didn’t know about the change of their moniker, so I had no idea about the band's age. I will not blame the band for the weak sound during their show, but I did have my doubts concerning their skills. On the one hand Scenario II played some tight death/thrash that occasionally attracted my attention due to its speedy parts with blast beats and such, but on the other hand it was also the drummer that interrupted the silence during the songs with some drum patterns that didn’t sound very precise. Their singer then had a tiptop presentation during the songs (appearing very genuine), but also seemed a bit amateuristic between the tracks, being not really self-confident about his band in his shouts. Therefore I’d say that this band has potential, but aren’t there yet. Problem is that if they’re active for so long already I might not expect them to become more than ‘just’ a national act, predestined to support the bigger bands.
The headliner of tonight’s metalnight was Trail Of Tears. Once again not a band I admire really, but since these are the only metal events in my hometown I’m often present. A disappointment was the number of fans that showed up. Most of the people among the small audience were pretty young and obviously not familiar with the band. I at least expected some older fans here, but that just wasn’t the case. About the show then. Sadly enough there were still problems with the sound. The softer parts were okay, but when the band accelerated, nothing than chaos remained. Fortunately the sound improved during the show, but then again it’s a pity that the keyboards came from tape. How is it possible that an element that is so influential for Trail Of Tears’ sound is not being played live? Nothing as fake as watching a band with music from a tape, although I’ve got to confess that some of it was really good and occasionally made it charming as well. All in all a little lack of ambiance and maybe a shortcoming regarding the band line-up, but I - and I think that the biggest part of the audience will agree with me - still had fun.
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