Although it was quite early in the morning on Sunday, the hall was already quite crowded when To-Mera opened the second festval day that would nearly be as long as the one before. After I warmed up a little with a nice hot cup of coffee (Luckily the first night frost of the autumn with temperatures down to -3°C appeared. God, was it cold inside my tent!) I was ready to follow the show of the English.
The best was saved for last. The Dutch band Epica entered the stage under loud applause of the audience to present their new album „Design Your Universe“ that had been released that day and to record the concert for a possible DVD.
The first headliner of this evening was Delain. I saw this band already once and have both CDs at home. But during their last live concert they were not able to persuade me of them. On CD they are a lot better. And also this show was not able to change anything on that.
Already last year Midnattsol should perform on the Metal Female Voices Fest, but they got stuck in a traffic jam and had to cancel. This year, the Norwegian/German band arrived at time at the festival but lead singer Carmen Elise Espenaes (the sister of Leaves‘ Eyes lead singer Liv Kristine) had a virus infection and was due to that not in full possession of her voice (it was clearly audible when she was talking to the audience).
Before the festival it has been uncertain if the German/Korean band Krypteria would perform at all because the whole tour had been canceled. The reason for this was guitarist Chris Siemons having heavy issues with his back. But thank god (and some painkilling syringes) they were able to go onto the stage at Metal Female Voices Fest VII.
Also with Flowing Tears coming from Germany a more dark and quiet atmosphere onto the stage. Especially the powerful voice of lead singer Helen Vogt stood out of their performance.
The Dutch around lead singer Marjan Welman took it more easy after the very lively performance of Amberian Dawn. No pyros, no stunning lights, dances or costumes.
Directly after Kivimetsan Druidi it was time for the second Finnish band of the festival: Amberian Dawn. The band plays symphonic metal and offered all your heart can desire.
With the Finns Kivimetsän Druidi it finally got more lively. The folk-metal band around Leeni-Maria Hovilla showed loudly that they had much to go for. By songs like "Blacksmith" or "The Tyrant" the style of music got much harder than anything that had been shown that day. In addition, Joni Koskinens growls contributed a lot to it.
The only local heroes (if you could call it like this), at least the only Belgian band of this festival was not able to raise the weak vibes after Unsun’s performance either.
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