Keep of Kalessin Live at The Key Club in Los Angeles, CA 11/09/2010

Keep of Kalessin are epic metal masters hailing from Norway. I first encountered them two years ago as the opening act for Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir. Not having heard them before seeing them live, they took me by surprise with their musical abilities and response from the crowd. Now two years later, with two more albums under their belt, I was extremely excited to see them again.

Their newest album, "Reptilian" came out May of this year and is by far their strongest album to date. While "Armada" and "Kolossus" are both epic masterpieces in their combining of extreme metal, keyboards, choirs, and maybe most importantly epic storytelling, it is the new album that takes all of those awesome qualities and elevates the entire spectrum up a notch by adding the power and majesty of Dragons.

"Reptilian" says it all in the name of the album but the artwork reinforces it with the sinister face of a dragon staring you eye to eye.

On this tour they were one of the opening acts for the Egyptian themed brutality kings, Nile. Ex Deo, the Roman themed side project of Kataklysm, were also on the bill. Overall, it was a night of mythos inspired bands including the Dragon Worship of Keep of Kalessin.

The only downside to having such an epic line up is the opening bands get relegated to short sets and such was the case with Keep of Kalessin. They opened the set with "Kolossus" off of their previous release, which is a great song with lots of power to it.

This got the audience excited from the get go and despite there being quite a few people in the crowd that came for Nile and were not familiar with Keep of Kalessin, they were easily swayed into the fold with just the first song. For the next portion of their set they went into the new album for some of my favorites.

"The Awakening" was next and this is such a good song. It has a really cool signature guitar intro that is quite staccato in nature so I knew what was coming immediately. The song then blasts in at full speed. My favorite part though is definitely the vocals and lyrics.

On the new album there is a lot of variation in the vocal delivery, the chorus seeing dramatic differences from the verse and I think it really makes these songs stand out from both their previous albums but also other bands in their genre.

When the entire band starts singing together "Hail! Dragon! Majesty! Grant us Power!" goose bumps go across your body. On the album they use keyboards and choirs to build the epic qualities and live they utilize a backing track for the keys but the band makes up the male choir, not to mention the audience joining in, and it is exactly what I was hoping it would be. This song is an epic eight and half minute beauty and I loved every second of it.

This lead into "Judgement" which follows on the album as well. This starts off with a chugging guitar riff that brings to mind bands like Rammstein but it is interlaid with more intricate metal-style articulation, then the frenzy takes off. They do not utilize blast beats as much as just insane fast drumming which is pretty intense. On this song the vocals are somewhat different than the others and I think it was a good choice live as it showed their variation in such a short set. Really good lyrics too; "We pray for war to justify our sins..."

For their fourth song they did what is definitely up for my favorite song of all bands currently which is, "The Dragontower". As with "The Awakening" this song is so powerful, it sends chills down my spine, especially in a live setting. I am afraid I got so carried away singing along I was not able to take pictures for a bit. The chorus on this song is freaking awesome: "Help me to uncover our power, Save me from your uncovered lies. Grant me the power of the Dragontower, give me the might to set us free".

They finished up with "Ascendant" off of "Kolossus" book ending the new material with their previous release. I wish so bad they could have done three or four more. Off of the new album "Divine Land", "Reptilian Majesty" and the awesome "Dragon Iconography" would all have been so great live, but I was really happy with what they did. "The Awakening" and "The Dragontower" are definitely my favorite songs of theirs yet, it was a great show.

The entire band was downstairs at the merchandise table afterwards and were all really friendly and talkative. They enjoyed meeting fans new and old and signed copies of their CD's for anyone who asked. I really loved seeing them for this album and meeting them was an added bonus to the night.




					Keep of Kalessin Live at The Key Club in Los Angeles, CA November 16th, 2010 Keep of Kalessin are epic metal masters hailing from Norway. I first encountered them two years ago as the opening act for Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir. Not having heard them before seeing them live, they took me by surprise with their musical abilities and response from the crowd. Now two years later, with two more albums under their belt, I was extremely excited to see them again. Their newest album, "Reptilian" came out May of this year and is by far their strongest album to date. While "Armada" and "Kolossus" are both epic masterpieces in their combining of extreme metal, keyboards, choirs, and maybe most importantly epic storytelling, it is the new album that takes all of those awesome qualities and elevates the entire spectrum up a notch by adding the power and majesty of Dragons. "Reptilian" says it all in the name of the album but the artwork reinforces it with the sinister face of a dragon staring you eye to eye. On this tour they were one of the opening acts for the Egyptian themed brutality kings, Nile. Ex Deo, the Roman themed side project of Kataklysm, were also on the bill. Overall, it was a night of mythos inspired bands including the Dragon Worship of Keep of Kalessin. The only downside to having such an epic line up is the opening bands get relegated to short sets and such was the case with Keep of Kalessin. They opened the set with "Kolossus" off of their previous release, which is a great song with lots of power to it. This got the audience excited from the get go and despite there being quite a few people in the crowd that came for Nile and were not familiar with Keep of Kalessin, they were easily swayed into the fold with just the first song. For the next portion of their set they went into the new album for some of my favorites. "The Awakening" was next and this is such a good song. It has a really cool signature guitar intro that is quite staccato in nature so I knew what was coming immediately. The song then blasts in at full speed. My favorite part though is definitely the vocals and lyrics. On the new album there is a lot of variation in the vocal delivery, the chorus seeing dramatic differences from the verse and I think it really makes these songs stand out from both their previous albums but also other bands in their genre. When the entire band starts singing together "Hail! Dragon! Majesty! Grant us Power!" goose bumps go across your body. On the album they use keyboards and choirs to build the epic qualities and live they utilize a backing track for the keys but the band makes up the male choir, not to mention the audience joining in, and it is exactly what I was hoping it would be. This song is an epic eight and half minute beauty and I loved every second of it. This lead into "Judgement" which follows on the album as well. This starts off with a chugging guitar riff that brings to mind bands like Rammstein but it is interlaid with more intricate metal-style articulation, then the frenzy takes off. They do not utilize blast beats as much as just insane fast drumming which is pretty intense. On this song the vocals are somewhat different than the others and I think it was a good choice live as it showed their variation in such a short set. Really good lyrics too; "We pray for war to justify our sins..." For their fourth song they did what is definitely up for my favorite song of all bands currently which is, "The Dragontower". As with "The Awakening" this song is so powerful, it sends chills down my spine, especially in a live setting. I am afraid I got so carried away singing along I was not able to take pictures for a bit. The chorus on this song is freaking awesome: "Help me to uncover our power, Save me from your uncovered lies. Grant me the power of the Dragontower, give me the might to set us free". They finished up with "Ascendant" off of "Kolossus" book ending the new material with their previous release. I wish so bad they could have done three or four more. Off of the new album "Divine Land", "Reptilian Majesty" and the awesome "Dragon Iconography" would all have been so great live, but I was really happy with what they did. "The Awakening" and "The Dragontower" are definitely my favorite songs of theirs yet, it was a great show. The entire band was downstairs at the merchandise table afterwards and were all really friendly and talkative. They enjoyed meeting fans new and old and signed copies of their CD's for anyone who asked. I really loved seeing them for this album and meeting them was an added bonus to the night.

















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