Crimson Glory
Epic Fest - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Crimson Glory was another classic heavy/progressive/power metal outfit that visited Epic Fest, another one that was new to us here at Metalmoments.
Apparently they’ve been on and off and on again several times during their career, but now they were back again - since 2023, that is.
“This is our first time here! It’s so good to be here!”
- Travis Willis (vocals)
From the start, Crimson Glory impressed me by playing their intro music live instead of having it on tape. John Zahner was alone on stage, with a single spot on him and his keyboard. Highly atmospheric.
When the rest of the band entered, it was easy to see that guitar duo Ben Jackson and Mark Borgmeyer were the ones to keep your eyes on however, as they delivered the most energetic performances of the band. Jeff Lords and Travis Willis were good as well, but the latter was somewhat distracted by continued problems with his earpiece, which he kept putting in and pulling out again throughout the set.
If there was a special reason, I must have missed it, but Crimson Glory were only playing songs from their 80ies era, the self-titled debut and its follow-up, Transcendence. For a band that’s been around for such a long time, not counting various break-ups, they haven’t been all that productive, releasing only four full-length albums, which makes me wonder even more why they chose to skip half of their output. Not that it mattered much to me, as it was all new for one who’d never encountered them before.
An interesting side-note was, that at a few times during the gig, I thought I detected similarities to Queensrÿche, and later finding out that current Queensrÿche vocalist Todd La Torre was previously a vocalist of Crimson Glory, it kinda made sense.
A memorable moment was when Willis was alone on stage, singing, and a calm guitar was playing from somewhere off the stage. I want to say it was for Lost Reflections, but I’m not entirely sure now. The rest of the band didn’t return until the song kicked it up a notch further in.
Crimson Glory saw a lot of people show up, and they got a good response, where the crowd got to take over the vocals already in the second song, Dragon Lady. Personally, I had high hopes for Masque Of The Red Death, but couldn’t immediately find much of Poe’s doom-laden atmosphere in it, even though the lyrics clearly are inspired by the short story.
Despite the band delivering a lively show however, I couldn’t help but notice that the crowd thinned out throughout the show, and while there were many how stuck around for the end, even correctly guessing the final track of the setlist, it was clearly fewer than had been there to begin with.
Those who did stay however, were rewarded by a proper farewell from the band, including setlists folded into paper planes before being thrown to expectant hands.
Setlist:
Valhalla
Dragon Lady
Lady Of Winter
Where Dragons Rule
Painted Skies
Masque Of The Red Death
Queen Of The Masquerade
In Dark Places
Lost Reflection
Eternal World
Azrael
Lonely
Red Sharks
Apparently they’ve been on and off and on again several times during their career, but now they were back again - since 2023, that is.
“This is our first time here! It’s so good to be here!”
- Travis Willis (vocals)
From the start, Crimson Glory impressed me by playing their intro music live instead of having it on tape. John Zahner was alone on stage, with a single spot on him and his keyboard. Highly atmospheric.
When the rest of the band entered, it was easy to see that guitar duo Ben Jackson and Mark Borgmeyer were the ones to keep your eyes on however, as they delivered the most energetic performances of the band. Jeff Lords and Travis Willis were good as well, but the latter was somewhat distracted by continued problems with his earpiece, which he kept putting in and pulling out again throughout the set.
If there was a special reason, I must have missed it, but Crimson Glory were only playing songs from their 80ies era, the self-titled debut and its follow-up, Transcendence. For a band that’s been around for such a long time, not counting various break-ups, they haven’t been all that productive, releasing only four full-length albums, which makes me wonder even more why they chose to skip half of their output. Not that it mattered much to me, as it was all new for one who’d never encountered them before.
An interesting side-note was, that at a few times during the gig, I thought I detected similarities to Queensrÿche, and later finding out that current Queensrÿche vocalist Todd La Torre was previously a vocalist of Crimson Glory, it kinda made sense.
A memorable moment was when Willis was alone on stage, singing, and a calm guitar was playing from somewhere off the stage. I want to say it was for Lost Reflections, but I’m not entirely sure now. The rest of the band didn’t return until the song kicked it up a notch further in.
Crimson Glory saw a lot of people show up, and they got a good response, where the crowd got to take over the vocals already in the second song, Dragon Lady. Personally, I had high hopes for Masque Of The Red Death, but couldn’t immediately find much of Poe’s doom-laden atmosphere in it, even though the lyrics clearly are inspired by the short story.
Despite the band delivering a lively show however, I couldn’t help but notice that the crowd thinned out throughout the show, and while there were many how stuck around for the end, even correctly guessing the final track of the setlist, it was clearly fewer than had been there to begin with.
Those who did stay however, were rewarded by a proper farewell from the band, including setlists folded into paper planes before being thrown to expectant hands.
Setlist:
Valhalla
Dragon Lady
Lady Of Winter
Where Dragons Rule
Painted Skies
Masque Of The Red Death
Queen Of The Masquerade
In Dark Places
Lost Reflection
Eternal World
Azrael
Lonely
Red Sharks
Crimson Glory
