LOVE METAL made in London Astoria (Winter 2007)

Hello to everybody who's reading this review. I ve never done this type of work since the day Thanatopsis Zine was defunct. Even back at that time, I was damn too lazy (still am) to contribute even Noorwan Warlock was fed up .. Still, the Thanatopsis days were quite sweet for both us as budak2 nak kenal dunia musik underground and we were once called by Wan Warlock's mom as 'The Underground Publisher' ..Seriously? Yes, of course...Enough about those sweet memories, I would like to present you guys with my backdated review as the event was actually in December 2007. So, enjoy or if u just found it sucks just read it halfway okay..?
What come across your mind upon the word Love Metal.? I bet, the Finnish band fronted by a skinny 'Mat Fit' guy called His Infernal Majesty or H.I.M. Im not an avid fan of them, though i find some of their songs great. The reason I went to see them was due to the fact that my wife is (maybe was) an avid fan of Vallo and HIM of course and the way we managed to get into the concert was quite funny as well. I got the ticket from the 'Ulat Tiket' (..he he he bukan kt sini saja ada especially time raya, dekat konsert HIM di tengah-tengah London pun ada.). Before anything, I went to London with my wife, around 2 years ago. It was our dream to visit the first world country..and UK to be specific is the best place. Sebelum ni dok tengok gambar-gambar Wan Warlock saja kat London plus tons of fantastic pictures of mighty Emperor, Morbid Angel, Nile, Immortal shows. To be honest Napalm Death first show in KL around year 2001 if Im not mistaken was the last gig I attended. I almost forgot all the details pertaining to this event but Ill try my best though.

We went to the venue the day before and we saw the fans already lined up to enter venue even at 11 a.m. (The show starts at 6 p.m. and there were two shows on the 12th and 13th of December 2007 and we went to the 13th show). We were quite nervous upon entering the venue (The Famous 'Astoria London'). My friend Fathi who was working in London that time laughed me off as he told me that Astoria is the place for gays. Who cares anyway as long as I can see the band. In fact many legendary bands had performed here. We had some security check right at the door and were cleared despite of the tasty orange juice being seized..yes Orange Juice kat sana adalah Orange Juice dgn kata sebenar (takdak tipu2 tmbh perisa mcm kita kat sini).

So when we were inside it's already full house and this Emo band or anything 'yang swaktu dengannya ' called Kill Hannah were performing. One thing I noticed there were only 15 to 20 % males and the the rest were females. They were kind of suck n I felt quite gelii to watch them, so we just wait for HIM.


When the time finally came, HIM delivered it the way they do. Vallo's voice was remarkably stunning (sebijik sejibik) and gals love him (due to the fact that lingeries n teddy bears were thrown at him). Most of the numbers performed that night was from Venus Doom and I was not familiar with any of those songs since Im into old HIM. I enjoyed the show though when they performed Wicked Game (their version of course), Funeral of heart, plus many songs from their first three albums. My wife did sing along to the songs (she's into early HIM as well) and to be honest I really enjoyed it when I saw her enjoying the show.

It was quite a good performance by them and their musicianship seemed flawless n knowing that 40 pounds we forked out for the show really worth for the money spent as well once in a life time experience. We would never come to London again as we would never afford to come again..he he

The shows ended around 10 at night and just by the road they were selling Merchandise (official HIM's merchandise) we were just windowing (which we regretted later because we shud have at least buy the poster or tour tshirt) as we needed to catch up the train to Malaysia Hall hostel plus it was too cold to stay outside since it was only our second day there and we were still coping with such cold winter. We rushed to the Tottenham Court Road tube station and headed to Queensway tube station n walked to Bayswater with our telinga still bengang but yet with sheer satisfaction.

Next review would be Therion's 20th Anniversary live in London 4 days after. Behold