And here we are with the last report of Artmania Festival. Keep in mind this is not a festival that presents so many bands like Wacken, Ozzfest or Hellfest, it's a small, rather new one but even so, a very organized one.
In day 1 we had Lacrimas Profundere, Helloween and Tarja Turunen as headliners however on day 2 we had Republica, an alternative rock band that uses electronic sounds (I felt like I went to disco with this one, clearly a very poor choice made by the organizers), Sonata Arctica, a symphonic power metal band from Finland and one of the most anticipated bands, Lacuna Coil, an Italian gothic alternative metal band.
Like I said, Republica was a big let-down. The biggest disappointment this concert. Not like they were bad in what they were doing but for a rock/metal festival, their presence was sort of uncommon and not too fitting. Their music is for pubs, clubs and stuff like that or maybe parties, it fits more in the disco genre rather than rock and metal. Nevertheless, they only stood on scene for 40 minutes.
Sonata Arctica came after. Though this band became more and more popular with every album release, I never could come to like them. First of all, in several songs, Tony Kakko's voice is rather annoying or unfitting. His voice can be varied, he can sing very high, he can scream, he can even growl though the main focus is on his clean vocals and afterwards comes scream voice. The song that I enjoyed the most was Paid in Full, the rest were rather similar, monotone and simply, not the kind of music that makes you go all wild, it is good to listen only but not to act.
The most anticipated band came after Sonata Arctica. Lacuna Coil is probably the most known metal band from Italy and the most popular in foreign countries as well. Since their 2002 release of Comalies, this band met with an incredible success. Since then they released two more albums that became even more popular than the previous ones. Heaven's a Lie, Our Truth, Closer, Enjoy The Silence, The Edge and Spellbound are just some of their well known hits that could not miss from this concert.
Why I claim that this band was the most anticipated out of all? Clearly, the public reacted the most during their stage performance. Even though I went to all Artmania festivals since 2006, I've never seen such a wild crowd and so many people jumping and screaming like mad. Lacuna Coil might not be as good as Helloween and Tarja when it comes to musical skills (though we talk about slightly different genres) but one thing they have and the other didn't is that they managed to make the crowd react exactly the way the wanted, which in my opinion is a very good thing for a band. I also enjoyed Christina's escapade with the motorcycle on the stage, it was just fucking awesome.
Conclusion:
Best Band (1st Day): Helloween
Best Band (2nd Day): Lacuna Coil
Best Band (Overall): Lacuna Coil
Best Singer: Rob Vitacca (Lacrimas Profundere) and Andrea Fero (Lacuna Coil)
Best Song: Over The Hills And Far Away (Tarja Turunen, ex-Nightwish)
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