Fresh off their tour with fellow legends Symphony X, Sonata Arctica stopped in Montreal at the end of September with PowerGlove to promote their newest album, Clear Cold Beyond. Their 5-stop finish to this tour included a stop at Theatre Beanfield, with the locals in Blackguard taking to the stage in Montreal for their only local show this year.
This show seemed to be a reunion of friends, old and new, and it was a party on stage. Paul Ablaze (Blackguard’s singer) kicked it off from their third album, Firefight, with “The Fear of All Flesh,” and got the crowd moving almost right away before launching into songs from their newest release, Storm. Between songs, Paul detailed cherished memories of the two bands that would later be on stage.
PowerGlove were often Blackguard’s touring mates, while Sonata Arctica were an inspiration for Paul to write music and take the stage. They threw it back for the audience, going back to the once self-titled album of Profugus Mortis with “Allegiance,” and showed more of their folk metal roots. Right as they were ending the song, I guessed blindly that they were going into “Firefight” next, but at the same time I got a text from Bassil of PowerGlove to go get my photo pass to shoot the rest of the show. I was a little remorseful that I didn’t get to shoot Blackguard at the time, but as they’re local, I have plenty of time to catch them in future shows.
One thing about this show was I caught Gabriel nerding out during Blackguard and eating up their set from side stage. It was good to see them follow their former touring partners and let their version of nerdiness out and firing on all cylinders right out of the gate with their cover of the Tetris theme song. Gabriel’s antics are part of the energy of the show, and being the second show of the tour, he still had plenty of energy to run around the stage between chasing the bassist and playing dual instruments à la the great Alexei Laiho. His customized guitar from Kiesel beautifully blends what is unique about their music, with the body resembling the gamepad from the classic Nintendo NES system, and up the neck of the guitar his frets are styled like the keyboards he plays.
New to the keyboard that I noticed this time is that the PowerGlove logo is inset now to the keys on the angled keyboard. The longtime bandmate behind the drum kit, Bassil Silver, always is able to match Gabriel’s energy from behind the kit, often standing to get the crowd revved up. By the time we were leaving the photo pit, we were neck deep in nostalgia with the X-Men Theme taking over Theatre Corona.
Gabriel later voiced his confusion about why we left after the three songs, but for us photographers we were told first 3 songs with no flash, as is our usual in our trade as concert photographers. Needless to say, I was in the crowd when Gabriel was introducing the newer Sailor Moon track that they’ve been working on. I don’t remember them having that one before, but sadly my personal favourite of “Under the Sea” was missing from the setlist this time. The Pokemon theme brought out a beach ball that was designed to look like a Pokeball, and that floated around the room for a good little while. As I believe is their normal, because I don’t remember any other way, they finished their set with the Power Rangers theme, and their “family photo” with the crowd.
This show for me was really more about the openers than the headliner of the night.
Review & photos – Ryan Rumpel
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