Chapter 4: No Way! This is the Farewell! – Day 4 & Post Event
By Gilberto Morais
Good Morning pals!
It’s hard to say goodbye! By the time you finally got used to the life on the 70.000 Tons of Metal ship, you’ve just realized how fast time passed and you are meant to pack your stuff and come back to your ordinary life. You know it’s sad but true!
First off, this is your last chance to purchase the artist related merchandise, because the Merchandise Store is supposed to be closed sooner, precisely at 1 PM! Lastly, if you want to check your luggage, you must leave it in front of the cabin’s door from 7 PM to 12 AM. The crew will collect it and you’ll pick it up later after customs‘checking.
Nevertheless, chill out, there’s one more day left to enjoy the end of your vacation and the concerts. Let’s go straight to the schedule for Day 4.
ANACRUSIS (1:00 –1:45 PM) – POOL DECK
I was aware there was a huge chance to enjoy this concert and fortunately, it didn’t let me down! What great surprise!
Being sort of a Prog Thrash Metal Band, Anacrusis has something to do with the terrific swiss power trio Coroner. Despite the similarity of style, sure they are not as technical and good as the EU counterparts. Their songs sound even rawer and straighter than what we are used to notice on Coroner’s camp, anyway, they are actually pretty good and plenty of energy left. Great material, indeed!
Whenever I don’t know a band well enough, it gets tough to point some highlight out, however, I might take the risk to indicate you the amazing cover off „I Love the World“ from „New Model Army“ and „Afraid to Feel“ , one of their own songs. As far as I‘m concerned, this set was way too different than the first show, which is great on their part, offering their fans the most possible number of songs during the two concerts.
Definitely, I tell you it is worth to check this band out, despite the fact that they stated they are supossed tob e inactive for an undetermined period of time.
LIZZY BORDEN (4:15 – 5:00 PM) – POOL DECK
Coming up next at the Pool Deck after the surprisingly good concert of Anacrusis, which was worth attending: Lizzy Borden with an entire 45 minute long set. Thankfully I could watch his whole concert. In fact, the sun was shining bright in this time in particular and so was the californian band.
Lizzy Borden plays such contagious Hard/Heavy Metal and there’s no way not to enjoy what these guys do best. Counting on great musicianship, beyond those theatrical performance of his leader Lizzy Borden, highly influenced by Alice Cooper and his shockrock, regarding his appearance on stage, but needles to say, providing a lower budget stage production compared to the myth, due to financial target restrictions for sure, be sure Lizzy Borden don’t let people down!
There are bunch of horror stuff during the show: full of masks, black clothes with hoods obscuring his face, simulating a grave digger and still such a cute chick who dances and shakes her cute body, willing to be sodomized and killed by the vocalist. Right after this performance, she lays on the floor and is found dead, whose corpse is covered with blood, especially behind her neck.The assistants dragged her out of the stage. Cool! Having said that, it’s exactly everything you expect from a concert like this, however, don’t be silly, this is such an amazing ingredient to be added up which don’t surpass the quality of their songs at all! On the contrary, the songs are by far better than Lizzy Borden‘s stage performances. Furthermore, the rest of the band members get focused on their instruments and to tell you the truth, the theatrical stuff brings just an extra taste to the crowd. What it is really worth and aggregate is definitely the outstanding show of this legendary 80’s band, already stellar and an example par excellence.
To sum up, I had the impression there was much more people attending this show at the Pool Deck than the first indoor concert, mainly due the fact that it took place almost simultaneously than Helloween’s, which did let me lose more than ¾ of the previous short set. For that reason, I couldn’t notice whether there was a significant change of the setlist, in that the last theree tracks they have played at the Spectrum Lounge were part of this concert too, however, they were placed in different slots, which makes me wonder they could have changed it substantially during this appearance. This corroborates my suspicion mainly because the fact that I had attended several of his gigs back then and it was normal to enclose the set with the cover of „Born to be Wild“, which was actually performed this time. Another highlight was the marvelous „There will be Blood Tonight“.
EVERGREY (5:00 – 6:00 PM) – CHORUS LINE THEATER
Being on the run on my way to check the next performance out, I had just got to the Chorus Line Theater and Evergrey started playing at the same time. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to make my mind not missing the end of the last show and could watch the complete set of the Swedes as well. Wise choice!
Having played such an amazing show at Pool Deck, much better than my previous experience with this Prog Metal band, I’d assumed huge expectations for this appearance, which is likely the reason that made me feel pretty disappointed during this opportunity.
Once more I took into account how charismatic is the character of their band leader, the guitarrist and vocalist Tom Englund as frontman, so is his empathy with the crowd. Besides this highlight, I enjoyed the song „As I Lie here Bleeding“. Anyway, I must state the performance of the band as a unit was correct, but also a little bit cold and emotionless, IMHO. Having said that, the show was OK, not beyond this point!
GOTTHARD (7:00 – 8:00 PM) – CHORUS LINE THEATER
After the warm show from Evergrey, someone must heat it up and there’s nothing better than Gotthard to bring us some energy. Bring it on: pure and traditional EU Hard Rock!
The band got on stage at the same Chorus Line where I watched the last show and rocking and kicked asses! The set list was different, because the first song was already the powerful „Master of Illusion“. Generally speaking, there were 3 different songs compared to the previous show, in between another highlight: the track „Mountain Mama“ featuring the interaction between Leo Leoni and the crowd, where he uses his tailbox to chat with the people and play.
It would be too unfair not to congratulate the whole band on this brilliant show, which proved us there’s life beyond Steve Lee’s loss and by the time arrives, they are getting better and better live, demonstrating us even more integration between them as musicians. In fact, Nic Maeder fits like a glove and in case they come up with a new album even better than the terrific Firebirth, the band will drive the fans really crazy and shine bright for such long time.
RAGE WITH LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA (9:00 – 10:15 PM) – CHORUS LINE THEATER
According to my review about the debut of Rage with Lingua Mortis Orchestra, the second apperance took place exactly at the same Chorus Line Theater too, which was such wise choice! In fact, it was more than appropriate and nothing could go wrong. It is like a soccer match from a top club which has been winning everything, especially the main championships, you know in advance it is going to win and have only doubt how much it will score. In fact, you could even wait for your clube to award you a bunch of goals. This describes well what a concert from Rage and Lingua Mortis Orchestra taking place at a nice theater is all about!
Once more both Rage and the orchestra members ruled, although the first concert was better, taking into account the high expectations and anxiety. Anyway, the Lingua Mortis members have made such a great job (precise as a surgery) as well as the German power trio led by maestro Victor Smolski who smoked and rocked.
As far as I’m concerned, the setlist was the same as the first performance, with no changes! The highlights are again the opening track „From the Cradle to the Grave“ and the last one „Empty Hollow“, as well as the interludes performed exclusively by Lingua Mortis. To sum up, it’s a show if you had a chance to attend it, I suggest you not to miss it for anything!
KREATOR (11:30 PM – 12:30 AM) – CHORUS LINE THEATER
Up to that point, the behavior of the crowd during the event, except for some mosh and circlepits, had been really calm! Would Kreator be the responsible to break the rules for now?
The answer is: Yes, indeed! For the very first time during the whole event and exactly on the last day of the cruise ship, I could eyewitness crowd surfing and wilder mosh and circlepits than the most brutal moments of the aformentioned Kreator’s first set and the two Onslaught concerts. By far this concert has succeeded all the expectations in terms of participation of a typical psyched legion of motherfucker headbangers, willing to burn the venue to the ground.
It wasn‘t for nothing, Kreator has brought us a relevant different set compared to the outdoor show, whose highlights were: „Under the Guilhotine“, „Riot of Violence, obviously sung by the Master Ventor, „Betrayer“ and the long awaited final and classic medley composed of „Flag of Hate/Tormentor“ .
It is worth mentioning that this fact occured before the medley during the encore: Mille didn’t raise the „Flag of Hate“ as usual and told us the reason: there would be a guest who was celebrating his birthday at that date to do it. In fact, I ran into this guy a couple of minutes before showtime, while taking the elevator and it came to my attention – what the fuck a guy wearing bizarre rose skirt was supposed to do? – Neverthless, because it was his birthday it was cool of Mille to honor him.
As I told you before, make no mistake, a Kreator show even if something goes wrong is a guarantee of somehing outstanding to come, they rock. What can you expect if they are really into it? Outstanding concert, nothing more to report!!!
SABATON (12:30 – 1:30 AM) – POOL DECK
Getting late due to the schedule with no pause between shows, it came immediately my attention the fact that there was not such crowd as the packed first performance of the Swedes at Chorus Line. It’s a clear sign how much Kreator is still relevant and was disputing and sharing the preference and presence of the attendees and that’s why it was not packed as I was supposed to expect. Still, they have counted on a huge legion of fans and we must take it all for granted as this show was booked late, when the bands tend to play for fewer people compared to the previous nights.
For this appearance, I felt the band was little bit more relaxed, having fun, feeling confortable and confident in relation to the first one, which provided us a better show than the first occasion.
The band leader and singer Joakin Broden looked a little bit more communicative and the sound quality was impeccable and accurate (amazing limpid and cristal clear sound), diverging and deviating from the not so precise past performance concerning this audio matter.
Aside two of the most known and celebrated songs such as „Uprising“ and „Metal crue“, they performed two tracks sung in swedish: „Gott mit Uns“ (weird that the title of this song is in German) and „Carolus Rex“. A great show, better than the debut, however, I would say it was not as good as their best shows I attended before. Despite the next show, I must leave 5 minutes before the end of this set.
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM (1:30 – 2:30 AM) – CHORUS LINE THEATER
At least for me, this would be the last show of 70.000 Tons of Metal. What would come next is not what I am interested in. Anyhow, this is also the last show which took place at the Chorus Line Theater of the whole event and for that reason, I supposed the granted slot was flexibel and instead of playing a 45 minutes long set, the band performed for an entire hour!
Like Fatal Smile and Rage, Flotsam and Jetsam was another example of a band which would only perform indoor concerts. This time round, a larger capacity thater instead oft he club show, differing from Fatal Smile which played only at the Spectrum Lounge.
It was not surprising how empty the theater ended up being at that time. The attendance was pretty poor, even lesser than 15% of the crowd which followed the past show performed by Kreator for sure. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, crowd attendance doesn’t mean necessarily quality, even in the Metal world. Fortunately, the quintet from Phoenix, Arizona proved us this theory!
This appearance, which lasted 15 minutes longer than the previous one, cointained different and extra tracks, not performed on thepreliminary set. Besides, the order of the songs was also changed First off, they opened the set with the title track of their brand new album „Ugly Noise“, released two months ago and available for purchasing at the merchandise store. Fortunately, I could buy it as I haven’t enrolled the crowdfunding campaign they submitted their fans in order to put this album out.
Once more this set was based on their first 6 studio albuns and I point these highlights out: „Hard on you“, „Master sleeps“, the classics „Hammerhead“ and „No Place for disgrace“ which enclosed this brilliant concert!
Honestly, I look forward to their success, while going on tour with Testament and Overkill. May the north american thrashers rediscover how much they are pretty good and have chance to get similar gigs in Europe included on a Thrash Metal package like this as well as in South America. That goes without saying, they keep on going strong and there’s still much energy left! It lacks only the due recognition on the crowd’s part.
CONCLUSIONS:
1) Value for Money (Price x Performance):
I would say, what it was offered, that was certainly well payed back. The food, the treatment and service was first class, there’s absolutely nothing to complain about. Nevertheless, I think it would be fairer if the soft drinks were included on the package. I see how tough it is, in case beers would be already inclusive. Taking into account how much an ordinary cruise ship usually costs, the extra value for the expenses concerning the making of theconcerts and the riders of the artists makes the ship be still affordable and realistic. You’ve got the feeling you have spent your cash properly and not wasted your money and hard working. According to the number of shows offered us by the promoters of this event, although some of them take place simultaneously, the cost of attending several of them apart makes me feel the finance to keep on being well balanced.
Anyhow, let me give an advice for non American visitors: in order to redeem the value of your money, I recommend you to combine this cruise ship with tourism in the nearby areas. Please do not miss the fact that there are expenses to get there, including expensive intercontinental flights, so it’s important to remain in the US or in the Caribbean for awhile. This way, it is worth the whole cost of your trip!
2) Comparison between Metal oriented Cruise Ships and EU Inland Festivals:
Despite the fact that the purpose is just the same, it is clear they are different worlds! In case you are interested only in attending concerts, it is worth getting focused to EU regular inland festivals. Cruise Ships are not only concerts, but also fun! From now on, I got addicted to cruise ship world too! Once you taste a Metal oriented cruise ship, you look forward to more experience like this! Please avoid it at any cost, if you are meant to turn into an addicted to that experience!
Would I do it all again? Yes, indeed! Actually, I can’t wait to attend another cruise ship. See you in 2014!
POST EVENT:
We were back to the Port of Miami about 7:30 AM on February 1st. If you believe the disembarkment is the end of the trip, you’re a fool!
First of all, there’s the possibility to choose the express lane, in case you didn’t leave your luggage in the corridor to be collected by the crew members. As far as I could notice, this is for sure way more dynamic and faster than the other option, whose disembarkment is booked from time to time. Bear in mind whether you have chosen to pay cash your bill that you receive it during the last night and must proceed to the guest center in order to checkout just before disembarking in Miami. For the ones who has chosen credit card payment method, no worries! Just check it out whether the expenses are right, and if so, „hasta la vista“, otherwise, go to t he guest center and point the corrections to be made out.
During your disembarkment, you are supposed to present the American customs the same form you filled it out and handed it in while entering the US at the airport, however, relax, the procedure is faster now!
Thus, you are going through the same area whereas you previsouly used to wait for the embarkment 4 days ago. You’ll notice there are several of passengers who will board one of the ships, including the Majesty oft he Seas which is supposed to sail again and will be clean for the next guests. In this area, there are taxis and the shared vans which will lead us at the aiport or hotels, depending on your schedule.
Stand in line and wait for your turn and feel the atmosphere of the festival, because most of them are headbangers like you and we’re still gathered. From now on, people starting splitting up, little by little, the airports will be filled by legions of headbangers with their black t-shirts coming in small groups, but suddenly several of them are being added up! It seems a metal event is taking place at the airport.
In my case, I chose to fly back in the same day right after the arrival of the ship and selected the airport in Miami, whereas several people from the ship were gathered again in transit to their countries. At the restaurant where I had lunch and a bunch of beers , there was a point when it was completely packed, no room left, no more available tables, wait line and still more people, especially headbangers coming up at this moment. Diverging from my arrival at the airport in Fort Lauderale 4 days before, the metal flame kept on burning and you may feel that spirit and atmosphere oft he event up to that point.
Lastly, I passed through the security control as the other passengers and whenever I remained seated at the boarding gate, I had such amazing surprise and this might have happened to several people who attended the 70.000 Tons of Metal. While I was waiting for the call to the start of the boarding procedures, Dani Löble, Sascha Gerstner and Markus Grosskopf from Helloween have taken a seat exactly beside me. We’re regular passengers of the same flight. Finally, While I was aboard, I realized I was getting back to the ordinary world!
THE END!
SPECIAL THANKS: Allison Painchaud (The Ultimate Metal Cruises)
Jan Rosenberg & Björn von Oettingen (CMM Marketing)
