Boys and girls, let me tell you a story about the Xandria concert in Bucharest. It was part of the Iubim 2 Roti festival. I learned about it somehow random on facebook, seeing it promoted for all the bikes and bikes but not really for Xandria. I was surprised to see them so I went ahead and checked on their website and it was true. Xandria was coming to town.

For those of you who haven’t heard of them, they are a German symphonic metal band [with a Dutch singer] and they are so so good. Not that the ones before were any less, but their last two albums are outstanding.

So, here I go, having listened to a playlist of Xandria for (more than) a few times, prepared to also interview them (perks of working for Teen Art Out). I was caught by surprise in a meet&great. That is such an amazing thing to do as a band. I know it can get tiring being on the road and you want to prepare for the show, but not them. They stayed for autographs, photos and jokes.

We wait our time and finally they come on stage. I was feeling a bit bad because the crowd was anything but numerous. But we were loud. And so was the band.

The setlist is amazing, having songs from their latest album, Sacrificium, from Neverworld’s End and some older fan-favourites like Now and Forever and Ravenheart. Funny I should mention Ravenheart, the biggest Xandria hit up to date. They have re-recorded it (it was originally recorded with Lisa Middelhauve as vocalist) and included it in their upcoming EP, „Fire & Ashes”, coming out on the 31st of July. It’s gonna be a neat compilation of new songs, old songs and covers.

Back to the show now. I knew Dianne can sing, but boy can she sing! More often than not I felt myself being in awe of what she does with her voice. I do listen to my fair share of sopranos in metal, but they are usually tame and not using their voice to the full potential. Not Dianne. She gives it all out and it makes you really appreciate them being there. [I know it’s quite unfair that the vocalist gets all the attention, love, interviews and talks, so here’s a shout out to Steven, Gerit, Marco and Philip, but we’ll keep talking a bit more about Dianne.] Another thing that (star)struck me about her was how truly emotional she was about each song, really feeling it, showing it out. Especially when the instrumental was pretty quiet and she had her moments to shine, there was so much emotion you could read on her face. But don’t think she was all work and no play. She has the best kind of chemistry on stage, both with the public and the band. [Please, pretty please stay with Xandria now and forever]

A honorary mention to Steven for how he can almost out-scream the crowd and how he jumps off stage to sing closer to the people. He’s really fun.

All in all, this was an amazing concert. It helped that I knew some songs, but I would have enjoyed it nevertheless. It would have been better had there been more of us in the audience, but the band definitely made us sing, shout, jump and move. Thank you, Xandria, for a great show and see you soon.