It’s been a long time since Nova hosted a metal event, but after the success of “Once Upon a Night”, it’s more likely that there will be more similar events to come.
The event was a tribute to Nightwish, one of the most influential and highly-recognized bands in symphonic metal. Although the event was scheduled to start at 8:30, it was delayed for an hour because of the sound check. The first band to play was called Crystal Sands. At first, the sound of the instruments was louder than the vocals, regardless of how long it took to finish the sound check, but the problem was quickly taken care of. The band played songs such as “Emerald”, and “Bye Bye Beautiful” and they played them fairly well. They were all synchronized and well-attuned with each other, however their performance was weak as they seemed nervous while playing and avoided eye-contact with the audience. Another downside was that the male vocalist’s grunts were weak and off-pitch. To sum it all up, their performance was fair, and it’ll definitely improve after they gain more experience.
After that, it was time for Romantic Sin, the main band of the event, to perform. They decided to cover the entire “Once” album, and thus the event was titled “Once Upon a Night”. The band put on an incredible show to begin with; they played the music with ease, and looked very comfortable playing on stage, a clear sign of experience. Their performance was quite impressive, especially when the guitarist and bassist face each other as if they were in a dual.
One of the highlights of their performance was when the bassist got off the stage to head-bang with he crowd. Concerning the sound, everything was clearly heard, except the guitar solos; they sounded a bit low, but this didn’t have a drastic effect on the overall sound. The keyboards were pretty good, the drumming was intense, and the female vocals were flawless.
Diva, the band’s vocalist, sounded very close to Tarja Turunen, and had the required stage presence and experience to live up to the standards of a vocalist in symphonic metal band. Although the band didn’t have a permanent male vocalist, Kamal from Element 26 filled in the spot on certain songs like “ Wish I had an Angel”, and did his part very well.
Overall the event was a successful one, and one of the few ones to have a decent sound. The theme was great, and so was the sound, and the audience clearly enjoyed the event.
