Metal Female Voices Festival X
October 19-21, 2012

Sonic Cathedral has been a sponsor and partner of the Metal Female Voices Fest since the beginning, but for the first time in SC history, more than two staff members (six, to be exact) found themselves in the same place at the same time, which just happened to be the festival’s tenth anniversary show! Not only did we have a good time meeting and getting to know each other, we also got to watch no less than twenty two bands and a ton of phenomenal women rock the Oktoberhallen in Wieze, Belgium over the course of three days!

It’d be nearly impossible to compile all of our thoughts and experiences of the festival, but two of our writers, John Thornburgh and Max Levites, have put together their impressions of the festival and of each band they saw to share with the masses.

Note:  not every one of us saw every band (to do so may have killed us), so if you only see one review of a band instead of two, it’s because one of us was taking a well-deserved break and/or was too busy being starstruck to notice that another band had started their set.

Nightwish – Live at the O2 Academy Brixton, London

Note: to avoid rabid fanboy ramblings, feel free to skip the first three paragraphs.

Admittedly, in the past few weeks, I’ve become a little disenchanted with Nightwish as a band. Never the music, of course; they remain my favorite band in that respect and probably always will, but after seemingly brutally giving the boot to yet another singer, I’ve begun to think that perhaps the boys’ egos are getting just a bit too big (if it’s even possible for them to get any bigger…). Anette had fought so hard for her spot in the band and was still thrown out after just one rather unfortunate public disagreement (note: this is pure speculation on my part. I have no idea what the full story really is).