Live Review: Lordi - Academy 2, Manchester
1st April 2024
Support: All For Metal, Crimson Veil
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
It was just before Halloween 2006 when I last saw Lordi, next door in the Academy, and on the heels of their Eurovision triumph. They were great that night, but I’ll be honest I wasn’t even aware they were still going until the editor-in-chief sent through the brief. A look across the interwebs showed me that the band had been in the rudest of health since 2006 and released fifteen studio albums since our paths last crossed. It’s deathly quiet getting into town tonight – it being Easter Monday and all – and I wonder how kind time as been to these Finnish monsters.
Brighton’s Crimson Veil‘s opening slot is moved forward by fifteen-minutes and there’s still a long queue for the merchandise stall downstairs as the band take the stage. The first show of their first tour finds the band in front of a reasonably sized crowd and entrancing with their Gothic stylings. If CV’s set was a horror movie – in keeping with the headliner’s aesthetic, they would be Midsommar, as the multi-instrumental four-piece play a sort of Cradle of Filth-lite mixed with Gothic post punk sounds. With a cello. Painkiller goes for more aggressive moments, and Flinch hides its choppy riffs behind fragile notes. All leading to an epic climax with Hex, and Crimson Veil make an unusual but entertaining opening of proceedings.
Now, if you and your horde of the sort of raiders who arrive at Bloodstock in a longboat rowed up the Trent, it’s a fair shout that All For Metal is for you. It’s a quick turnaround for the European Power Metallers, for there’s marauding to be done and the time is short. Hitting the stage with all the bombastic overblown Manowar-ism you can think off, AFM are manna for the beardy horn quaffers and anyone who likes to sit around a fire of an evening to tell stories of yore.
Formed in 2022, it’s no mean feat to out-camp Lordi in their own show, but All For Metal stay just the right side of parody to know they have the chops and keep a tongue in cheek. Man-mountain, and all-round King of Metal, Tim Schmit pops his Warhammer out for the track, Raise Your Hammer, proudly swinging it over the heads of the crowd. We’re four songs in before Valhalla is mentioned, but it’s horns up from front to back and side to side when it is. Mountain of Power finds Tim fawned over by the band’s dancers, like Conan (the Barbarian, rather than the band), he’s the size of a house and probably doesn’t skip leg-day.
Hear the Drum, Gods of Metal and Goddess of War will give you a fair idea of what we’re dealing with here and the reaction from Lordi’s crowd is fantastic.
A couple of well received support slots over, it’s time for the main attraction and, eighteen year old Eurovision wins aside, Lordi have attracted a more sizable crowd that I would have given them credit for. The stage is simple yet effectively creepy and when the lights dim and Kiss’ God of Thunder blasts over the PA, there’s a sense of anticipation in the air.
Undying Picture Show kicks things off and the first thing that impresses me is the dedication to the craft. Performing under those lights with that amount of prosthetics cannot be an easy task, but credit to the band, what looks like a gimmick is quickly forgotten as the music does the talking.
After the second song, and second newbie, Mr Lordi explains the show will be split between latest record, Screem Writers Guild and the twentieth anniversary of The Monsterican Dream. With a selected few thrown in for good measure. My Heaven Is Your Hell and Blood Red Sandman are the first visits to the older album, and it strikes me that Lordi might have been off my radar for a couple of decades, but they are still a hugely popular and massively entertaining group of musicians.
The obvious comparison to be made is with GWAR, though Lordi is a more PG friendly version of masked monsters than Antarctica’s most fearsome sons. Drummer, Mana is the first to bust out a solo, accompanied by the Imperial Death March, the Cantina Band’s tune and even a little snippet of Mars – Bringer of War.
Scarecrow rocks and Thing in a Cage is introduced as an ass-shaker. Hella’s keyboard solo is preceded by some theatrics; Kone unleashes the night’s rawest guitar tone for Wake the Snake, which sees Mr Lordi emerge from the back of the stage wafting his serpent at all and sundry.
Who’s Your Daddy is the first song of the night not to feature on either Screem or Monsterican Dream, and goes down like the long lost friend it is. Hiisi’s bass solo brings with it the first simulated – one hopes – kill of the night and John Carpenter’s Halloween theme segues into Devil is a Loser, which also sees Mr Lordi (literally) spreading his wings.
Only the one-two of Would You Love a Monsterman? and, obviously, Hard Rock Hallelujah could close the show, with the excitement levels reaching fever pitch; or certainly as high as I’ve ever felt them to be in this venue.
The band leave the stage and we punters file out to the strains of another Kiss song, this time God Gave Rock & Roll to You, knowing that we’d just seen something that was a whole load of fun and some top-quality entertainment. Sandman, Monsterman and Hard Rock Hallelujah aside, there was nothing remotely familiar to me tonight but, just like back in 2006, Lordi were perfect hosts.
Photo Credits: Tim Finch Photography
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