Leaves' Eyes

Live at The City National Grove

Anaheim, CA

May 11th, 2017

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Leaves' Eyes are a symphonic metal band that hosts band members from all over Europe and Scandinavia. The sum of its parts come together as an amazingly powerful music force that recalls the time of Vikings and the tribes and clans of the North.

I have been a fan and follower of this band since their inception in 2003 and it has been a path of drama to say the least. Originally formed from the lead singer of Theater of Tragedy and the German Gothic/death metal band Atrocity, it was a tale of love surrounded by gossip and mystery.

Many years later, that drama arose again with the exodus of Liv Kristine under he-said/she-said circumstances and her immediate replacement with a fresh new face and voice.

All of this said, I came into this show with a bit of apprehension as to what the hell happened and why. Within about two minutes all of that was forgotten however, as simply put, these guys put on one hell of a show and the new singer, Elina Siirala not only has an amazing voice but she also has a great stage presence and is extremely easy on the eyes.

Surrounding their new leading lady, old-timers Alexander Krull giving his growled vocal delivery and Thorsten Bauer on guitars round out the original team of Atrocity/Leaves' Eyes veterans. They are joined by Joris Nijenhuis on drums and Pete Streit on additional guitar. They also had a session bass player for the tour as Thorsten handles that duty on the albums.

They opened the set with "Halvdan the Black" from their latest album "King of Kings". Their songs are epic in nature, both from a musical delivery standpoint and from a lyrical story-telling side.

Sticking with material from their newest release they performed "Swords in Rock" followed by "Edge of Steel" which is also featured on their latest EP with newer versions of a number of songs with Elina singing.

They hit upon one of my favorite songs of theirs with "Hell to the Heavens". This song comes from the "Symphonies Of The Night" album and has a really intense chorus that had the audience singing along with Alex and Elina.

They gave us "Fires of the North" which is the title song from their latest EP, as well as two more songs from "King of Kings" with "Sacred Vow" and "Blazing Waters".

At one point in the set Alex addressed the audience and spoke of how the band was truly an international group. Pete on guitar was from Sweden. The bassist and drummer were Dutch. Elina is of Finish decent but came way of London. Thorsten is from Germany. And he said, "Me, the tall guy with long hair, I am from Germany as well".

He said that speaking of home, his son Eric was back in Germany and was not doing too well but did not elaborate on that. He asked that everyone in the audience give a shout out to Eric while one of the band took out their cell phone so his son could see on the other side of the globe.

All in all, it was a great performance and I really love their sound. Driving aggressive guitars mixed with huge symphonic orchestrations combine seamlessly with a combination of beautiful, almost operatic female vocals and sinister Viking growls. Their stage show was filled with fun moments as well such as when Alex donned a Viking helm and sword and charged from one side of the stage to the other brandishing the blade in the air.

I highly recommend checking these guys out live and on recording and just forgetting about all that drama of the past. Hopefully their future has a bit less of it even if it did add fuel to the fire of their musical creation at points.

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