Japanese Power Metal

A promise made some years ago made me travel to Baroeg (Rotterdam). When I met Sophia Aslanides in Belgium, I promised to show up when her band Season of Ghosts would play in the Netherlands. And now they played with 3 other bands at the “Zeus Tour”. And this was the only Dutch show.

The opening act was Lightning, a French rock singer-songwriter and guitarist inspired by Visual Kei (Japanese musical movement). It explains most likely why he’s part of the tour. With 2 albums and a bunch of EP’s Lightning is quite productive. The music was interesting and for sure not  bad. However, just a singing guy with an electric guitar on stage and a ‘full band’ on tape is not really what you’re looking for.

Second up were German symphonic metallers Aeternitas. Their “Tales Of The Grotesque” Tour was included in the “Zeus” Tour in which they supported.  The name of their tour refers to the new album “Tales Of The Grotesque” with 12 songs based on short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The music of this female fronted symphonic metal band meets the expectations most people do have in this case. Within this ‘frame’ the songs are quite powerful, nice orchestral parts and catchy melodies. Presentation was good and very relevant in this genre, the vocals were good too.  

Time for Season of Ghosts, who present themselves as a spiritual intergalactic music project inspired by Sci-Fi and horror movies (link with Aerternitas?). The project was born in the heart of Tokyo (link to headliner?). The music combines riffs and electronics with fitting vocals. You might consider Season of Ghosts also as a female fronted band. However, they are not fitting in the earlier mentioned frame. What makes it more interesting. The performance was strong and singer Sophia Aslanides was intriguing. Most songs were from the second, a little dated, album “A Leap Of Faith”.

Headliner of tonight was Japanese Jupiter. The name of the tour refers to their just released album “Zeus ~Legends Never Die~”. They added ‘gorgeous’ to their description of melodic metal. That’s most likely a hint to their outfits on stage, Gothic dress, SM suit, … It inspired some people in the audience to join them. This stage appearance and my experience with Japanese bands made me a bit reluctant towards the show. However, this time with Jupiter, no reason to worry. The indicated melodic metal was pure power metal of high quality; fast, great riffs, powerful bombastic symphonic elements and great vocals. The musicians were not caught on faults, definitely a very strong performance on stage. Of course songs of the album “Zeus ~Legends Never Die~” filled main of the setlist.

All in all an interesting and nice music evening.
Set different photos: Jupiter, Season of Ghosts, Aeternitas and Lightning.