Leaves' Eyes

Metalcamp - 2010

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

Leaves’ Eyes was another one of those bands of which I was not familiar before this show, except for the name, but I knew this was the new band of Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull, whom I knew from her earlier days with the Norwegian gothic metal band Theatre Of Tragedy, and this was reason enough for me to go out and see their show in the warm midday sun.

As it turned out, Liv Kristine was not the only person we knew in the band after all; I was glad to see Alla Fedynitch on bass, a girl who we have previously seen playing live for Pain, and Lunah (Lauridsen, photographer) was quick to pick out the male vocalist as one Alexander Krull of Atrocity, and coincidentally Liv Kristine’s husband. Apparently they have a little trade-off going, where he is the second vocalist in her band, and she is the second vocalist in his. Very convenient.
But on the experience, shall we?
As I mentioned, the sun was high in the sky, and as it was pretty early music-ways, there wasn’t a whole lot of people gathered in front of the stage yet, at least compared to what I would have thought there to be. Still, the ones who had shown up were more than happy to show their appreciation of the band; it didn’t take much of an effort by the female frontman to get everyone’s arms raised, and some were happily trying to follow her high notes as they sang along to the songs.
Liv Kristine told us they were conducting a competition between all the festivals about which audience was the loudest one, and then we all had to scream at the top of our lungs, while being filmed for future evidence; nothing really surprising, but fun nonetheless.

The band themselves were also interesting enough on stage. Liv Kristine was dancing around in a flowing black and deep-red dress and looking good in general, while her husband was jumping when the music allowed it, and swinging his impressive mane (that hair must be at least 1.5 metres long!) when the time came for that. The rest of the band was also good without leaving a lasting impression as such...
A bit of fun was had in the band as they announced that the next song up was a completely new one, and Alexander asked if it wasn’t the first time they played it, and Liv Kristine answered that it was at least the first time they played it at an open air festival, in Slovenia that is... So, no world premiere exactly, but the crowd seemed to like what they heard anyway.

Leaves’ Eyes didn’t grip me in any long-lasting way, but they were good entertainers for as long as it lasted, and that was good enough for me at the time.

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