Glory to the April Rain - A Delain / HammerFall Night

Hello again, and what another great night of metal music once again at the Opera House for the third time!

For this very night, I was going to be seeing Delain for the third time with HammerFall for the first time. The band 'HammerFall' from the country of Sweden has not set foot into North America for the longest time in seven whole years. I mean, take a look at Lordi; it took the Supermonstars nine years to come back to North America since their Deadache USA tour in 2008! Last time HammerFall was here went all the way back to 2010!

So I got all ready to be going, and my BFF Emily was coming with me yet again to see them in concert as it would be her second time seeing Delain. Last time she saw them with me was in 2015 when seeing Nightwish in Toronto, with Sabaton opening for them. By chance, we're seeing Sabaton next week on this day and we're both very excited for that night.

Emily wore her HammerFall shirt that she got online when she ordered 'Built to Last'. I was wearing my Epica shirt because I couldn't really make up my mind with whether to go for the Within Temptation shirt or just Epica from their North American Principle tour! (And by coincidence, they are coming back to North America with Lacuna Coil! Tour dates will be announced soon!)

We arrived at the venue after me and my dad picked up Emily from her place and we got in line when the doors opened up. I used my VIP ticket to enter, as I just decided to go regular.

For part with the show, we decided to stick by the sound booth and watch the show from there. We didn't feel it to be very much necessary to go onto the floor for this show. We managed to get our merch and the show began.

Atmora

The Windsor locals Atmora was the first band to come up on stage. This was my second time seeing the band open up, as when I saw them last time; they were opening for Epica. They played their very first EP from 2015, and began to play songs from their new album.

Bailey, the singer of Atmora immediately recognized me when I came up to the merch table to say hello to them again. I congratulated her for a great set after their set was over. My BFF goes over to their table with $5 that a concert-goer gave to her to spend on the new album. $5 for their new album is a really good deal.

I didn't have any other merch money left on me. If I did, I would have bought their new album. Hopefully I can when they come back and here's to hoping I get their first debut EP as well.

If you're reading this Bailey, thank you for another fantastic show! Come back to Toronto soon! :)

HammerFall

After waiting for half an hour, the Templars arrived on stage to perform in front of a Canadian audience for the first time in seven years!

They were quite a phenomenal band to experience! Oscar actually has a guitar that is shaped like a hammer, almost like the might hammer of Thor, and Joacim has some wicked vocals when he sings. It was almost like Valhalla had come and slapped all of us in the face. (In a good way of course!)

Songs they played were a few from their past few albums, and from their new album 'Built to Last'. Surprisingly they didn't play the first single off of the album called "The Sacred Vow", but they did play "Hammer High" which was quite well done live. They went into a medley of their first album "Glory to the Brave" as it has been 20 years since that album was released. It was mostly instrumental for the medley, but singer Joacim did come out to sing on the last bit of the medley.

After their set, I went to the merch table and bought a signed copy of their album "(r)Evolution" that included all of the band's autographs. I ended up giving it to Emily, and she really appreciated that I gave something to her. Especially when it's signed, so I'm sure she's going to treasure it! ^_^ I did get to tip the merch lady by putting the $10 bill into the tip jar.

Thank you once again Templars for coming to Toronto!

Hopefully next time, it won't take seven years for you all to come back here!

HammerFall setlist:

1. Hector's Hymn
2. Riders of the Storm
3. Blood Bound
4. Any Means Necessary
5. Renegade
6. Dethrone and Defy
7. Last Man Standing
8. Let the Hammer Fall
9. Built to Last
10. Glory to the Brave [Medley]
11. Hammer High
12. Bushido
13. Hearts on Fire

Delain

After some time waiting, Delain's set had finally begun.

They even brought out the light-up microphone that had been used when I last saw them opening for Nightwish in February 2016. Even Sonata Arctica had used it for their Fall tour to promote their new album 'The Ninth Hour'. (Will have to introduce Emily to them as their singer Tony Kakko was involved with both Nightwish and Epica.)

Charlotte's vocals as usual blew through the roof, and this time Otto was there as I didn't end up seeing him from what I recalled in 2016. It was good to see Merel once again, and there were so many whistling and cheers behind me, haha.

They went through a few of their songs on Moonbathers and even played some tracks from their first album "Lucidity" and even played "April Rain" was played. I recall when seeing them in 2015 that they were playing that in the setlist. I was sad though that they didn't have "Turn the Lights Out" for this show, but hopefully next time I see them, I can hear it again as they did play it when opening for Nightwish in London.

Martijn Westerholt did a really good job on the keyboards, as I recall him working with Within Temptation for the first two albums Enter and Mother Earth. Hopefully if I meet him, I'll get him to sign both of those copies.

The show ended on a good note, and they are aiming to get their fanbase over here a little more bigger, so if you can; check out Delain! They're really worth seeing!

Delain setlist:

1. Hands of Gold
2. Suckerpunch
3. The Glory and the Scum
4. Get the Devil Out of Me
5. Army of Dolls
6. The Hurricane
7. April Rain
8. Here Come the Vultures
9. Fire with Fire
10. Danse Macabre
11. Sleepwalkers Dream
12. Pristine
13. Mother Machine
14. Don't Let Go
15. We Are the Others

Another good show down on the list of bands I've seen!

Next week of today: Sabaton w/ Leaves Eyes & Battle Beast ❤ 😄

Can't wait to see them for the second time with Emily, so both of us can be "In The Army Now", haha. Anyhoo, will update soon!

\m/ Brayden \m/