King Diamond / Secret Sphere / Loch Vostok
Venue: Train, Aarhus, Denmark
Date: April 17th 2006

Loch Vostok

First band on the stage this monday evening in Århus was the fairly unknow Swedish band Loch Vostok, and front man Teddy set the tone straight up: "We are Loch Vostok from Sweden and we suck!" (Primus quote). They put on a good show, and front man Teddy proved to be a good performer, but not a good singer.

Their style of music might have appealed to the death and black metal fans in the audience and I was left entertained but not amused... They were tight and very technical and put on a good show. But 2 minutes after the show I couldn’t remember a single note.

I think they've won over a few new fans this evening, just not me...

Rating: 50

Secret Sphere

Next up was this evening’s injection of happy Italian power metal, this time represented by Secret Sphere. Everything just went up at least a few divisions, sound wise, vocally and especially professionally.

Secret Sphere played a solid show, had a lot of fun on stage and proved to me that they are confident in their style and their own qualities. Vocalist Ramon Messina did his best to get the crowd going and made the show interesting.

Playing a set, which featured a lot of songs from their latest album: "Heart & Anger", my favourites were: "Loud & Raw" & ”Leonardo da Vinci" before finishing off with: "Lady of Silence".

I felt entertained, and think they did a splendid job in front of a rather hard crowd, it was a good show and I look forward to follow them and see what the future holds for these 6 Italians.

Rating: 70

King Diamond

But what we were about to witness for the next 1½ hours surpassed my wildest dreams. I have seen "the King" a few times before, and he adds something to the word show every time, but this evening he and his band outdid themselves many times...

Kicking the show off with a nice selection of Abigail songs - from both Abigail albums, and the pace for the show was set. Focal point was off course King himself, the dancer and the monster on bass Hal Patino. Mike Wead and Andy La Roque delivered their riff attacks with ease and style, and Matt Thomson was like always very good, he is actually very underrated IMHO.

The set, which was not much different from the "Deadly Lullabies" live album, except they finished with the old Mercyful Fate classic "Evil", was packed with classic King Diamond songs, nicely combined with some new stuff. The audience didn't care and sang and screamed their lungs out to all the songs, and it took King Diamond 2 seconds to get the crowd going.

An outstanding trip down nostalgia lane, and I am sure everybody went home with a smile on their face, I know I did.

Rating: 92