Showreport: Van Canto, Grailknights and End of the Dream

25/03/16
013 Tilburg, (NL)

By Michael
Van Canto has just released their concept album “Voices of Fire”. To bring the album to the attention, they came to Tilburg for a show, bringing Grailknights and our own End of the Dream along.

Opening act of the day was the Dutch band End of the Dream. They were invited by Van Canto themselves to join them on tour. This came to quite a surprise to the small band, but they tried their best to make sure they left a lasting impression. Their sound can be best compared to bands like Evanescence and We are the Fallen. According to lead singer Micky Huijsmans, Amy Lee is an inspiration to her. During their short performance, they played some songs of their debut album “All I Am”. Sound overall was good and it seemed like they had fun on stage. I’m sure we’ll have to keep an eye out for this band.

Last time I saw Grailknights, it was at Heidenfest here in the same venue. I didn’t know it was possible, but they made sure to add some extra elements to the show. What do you think about a “drinking stallion” and a battle of good versus evil, fought on stage in slow motion. Even if you do not like their cheesy power metal songs in which they sing of the struggles of a superhero and more, the show is always fun to look at. When I looked around me, I saw nearly everyone standing around with a grin on their faces. With songs like Nameless Grave (during which the horse came, bringing beer on stage), Superhero Medley (which is a medley of all kinds of cartoons) and Grailquest Gladiators, they made sure to keep the quite full venue entertained. The people in the crowd were transformed into the “Battle Choir” and this added just a little bit of dimension and interaction into the show.

As said in the beginning of the report, Van Canto has released their latest concept album, Voices of Fire, quite recently. To celebrate that and to get people known to the story, the band performed half of the album during the first half of the show. I could tell that most people don’t know the album all that well yet, becuase when the band switched to their older songs, the audience responded much better. The “Rakkatakka Motherf*cker” chant was going round the venue again and the band seemed to enjoy their time a lot. It did seem to me as if Jan, the most recent band member, was more to the background.

Van Canto did a very good job to select a mixture of old and new songs. It was great to hear “Stora Rövardansen”, “Speed of Light” , “To Sing a Metal Song” and more again. Naturally thir biggest covers were played like “Wishmaster”, “Fear of the Dark”, “The Bard Song” and “Rebellion”. During the latter, I was used to that Ross would do the main vocals, but not this time. The set could have easily lasted longer with the big titles that were not played. No “Primo Victoria”, “Badaboom” , “Lost Forever” and “If I Die in Battle”. Quite strange when you think about it, because most songs for which they made a video were not added. To be honest, I did like the setlist a lot, because often the other songs on an album are not paid that much attention to. After the show we got to chat a bit with the bandmembers, who all are very friendly and open to the fans. That’s always a great way to get more people linked to your band. We hope to see Van Canto back in The Netherlands soon!

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