Lordi / Shiraz Lane / Silver Dust – La Belle Angele, Edinburgh (14 Nov 2016)

Declan took a trip over to the wilds of Edinburgh last week to witness the apocalypse that is otherwise known as a Lordi show. After his interview was wrapped up (online soon!), he wandered into the venue proper to sit back, relax and… Yeah, as if. The rock was about to begin!

Silver Dust

So whilst waiting in the crowd, the first band Silver Dust walk onto the stage. Aesthetically they had the whole Avatar or Fleshgod Apocalypse vibe to them. You can imagine the top hats and the fact like they look like travelling merchants. Now at this point, alarm bells are ringing in my head, I try not to judge a bands look prior to them playing because it’s only the music that matters. However, when it looks like a band are trying to hide their music behind a gimmick then too right there should be some kind of clanging sound going off (funny that as Lordi are like my favourite band).

Anyway, I’m trying to be open minded at this point whilst waiting on their set to begin. Once the first song began I knew I was completely wrong.  Heavy, chunky guitar riffs straight out of Korn’s back pocket with some interesting electronic backing tracks. They are a cool band and played a really good set and I really enjoyed how much the drummer was into it. He hit his kit with serious force. The band looked like they were having a great time on stage and got some decent crowd interaction. What I don’t need however is a drum and guitar solo for the opening act. It felt forced and I personally thought they would have gotten more out of the gig if they binned those ideas and filled the space with another song or two. Cool band and a good set overall. (6.5/10)

Shiraz Lane

Skid Row! Skid Row! Skid Row! I can’t believe it’s not Skid Row. Shiraz Lane, what a band! I was totally taken aback by how good this band are live. Now I’m not usually into 80’s heavy metal/hard rock (funny that, as Lordi are like my favourite band (x2)) but honestly, this band have real attitude when playing and it totally puts across some serious punk vibes on that basis. They play with such confidence and were able to get great crowd interaction despite not many people knowing who they were.

It was probably more surprising to me as Lordi have a history of bringing a poor ing cast to their shows, so having two bands that are actually good playing before them floored me. The songs were great, powerful and aggressive rock songs with memorable melody lines, massive gang vocals and tasteful guitar leads.

I think the MVP from this band has got to be their vocalist. He is a mixture between the vocalist from Sons of Icarus (soulful, powerhouse) and Becca from Marmozets. He had a total punk attitude as nothing is staged or pre-rehearsed, and seemed to live for the moment – what you see is what you get. Great set! They are playing Heavy Scotland this year so do check them out if you are going to that. (7.5/10)

Lordi

Lock your doors and shut your curtains because the monster maniacs are back in town! I’ve seen Lordi a number of times now in various countries and venues. It’s got to the point for me that I know exactly what to expect from a Lordi gig. Last night was no different, nothing more nothing less. They are the type of band that you could show to your friend who has no idea who they are and they would still leave wide eyed.

They started their set with “Let’s Go Slaughter He-Man” which is the first track and one of the few bangers from their latest album Monstereophonic. It’s an album that is still growing on me but I do believe it’s rather standard for a Lordi album, especially if you compare it to their last release Scare Force One. This song came across rather well live and was a good opener as it has a killer keyboard melody whilst the rest of the band climb the chord progression behind it. It’s also an incredibly fun chorus to sing along with as the song title would suggest. The band then kicked into “Babez for Breakfast” which is a song I haven’t heard them play in years. Like Shiraz Lane, these 80’s heavy metal/hard rock songs have serious bite and attitude to them which for me makes it stand out more.

Despite the music being excellent and the performance being on point, Lordi gigs are more of a spectacle. You will always be in for some sort of stage act treat which on this tour consisted of Mr OX ripping the chest out of one rather unfortunate man, a woman being mauled by some mutated creature, confetti canons and my personal favourite, the dry ice cannon which is used during “Who’s Your Daddy”.

Lordi throughout the set the played a lot of old classics like “Icon of Dominance” and “Hellbender Turbulence”, songs that haven’t been played in over ten years as well as the fan favourites. Even though I could do without ever hearing “Hard Rock Hallelujah” being performed again, it always gets the crowd jumping and will have you singing from the top of your lungs. This isn’t close to the best gig I’ve ever seen but if you’ve ever had a ing interest in Lordi but have never checked them out then I would advise that you get off this review and do that. Great gig! (8/10)

All photos by Lowrey Photography.