March 21, 2025
Montreal was privileged to a wonderful night of symphonic metal
Dutch symphonic metal band Delain pulled into Montreal, alongside Germany’s Xandria and American’s Edge Of Paradise, where a capacity crowd awaited, lining the streets outside the Fairmont Theatre eager to be entertained by an international troupe of talent.
With the early signs of spring in the air, and some brave enough to have dragged out their shorts from storage already, the energy in the city was bright and eager for a heavy dose of female-fronted metal, as tonight featured three great female-fronted groups.
See Also: Dream Theater at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal
I could go on a rant here, again, about how much I despise the Fairmount Theatre, ..again, but it won’t change anything. So I’ll keep it short. I honestly don’t get why anybody still books this venue, where the majority of the audience is to the left and behind the stage and can’t see what’s going on. Why is the stage sideways to begin with? Why wouldn’t they turn the stage so that the whole room can see what’s going on – and if they do that, the rear of the stage when then face the door that leads to the backstage area.
That’s all I’ll say on it this time… but believe me, I have a days worth of rants about this place. It could be an awesome spot. It’s not. It could be though, with a little tinkering.
Edge Of Paradise
As Edge Of Paradise walked out onto the stage, they seemed almost surprised at the turn out in front of them. A full room awaited them, which is something of a novelty since that whole pandemic thing. Prior to that, concert attendees in this part of the world would normally skip over the opening acts and show up for the headliners only – but I suppose being caged up in our homes on two separate occasions during the pandemic has changed the ideologies of everyone. We collectively now don’t want to miss out on a single moment, and as such, venues are packed from the moment the doors open now.
Luckily, vocalist Margarita Monet had brought a platform on tour that she used to stand on and sing from, or else most people wouldn’t have been able to see her. Especially amid the already difficult lighting, where all three bands played with a backlit screen and no accent lighting, which meant that all other musicians on stage besides Monet appeared as shadows holding instruments. A trend that continued the whole night.
Edge OF Paradise are on tour for their new record, their sixth, titled Prophecy – so naturally their set was heavily influenced in that direction. Five of their seven pieces came from the Prophecy record, with only Hologram and Digital Paradise coming from their back catalog. While it’s normally a risk to play a large portion of new music on tour, the crowd tonight seemed to lap it up, and judging by their applause and cheering between songs, were happy to hear the newer stuff.
Visually, the band were rather appeasing to the eye – with a interesting barrage of visuals displayed proudly on the screen behind them, to the onstage costumes worn as well. Monet began the night clad to leather and fetish wear before stripping down to a volcanic print catsuit similar (…or probably the same one, actually) to the one she wore for the Rogue (Aim For The Kill) music video. A song they didn’t actually play. While bassist Kenny Lockwood wore a get-up that reminded me of the Tron Legacy movie. I don’t know why.
At one point, during Give It To Me (Mind Assassin), Ben V, vocalist of Ludovico Technique, came out to sing a duet with Edge Of Paradise’ Margarita Monet. Unfortunately, Ben V’s vocals were so low in the mix that they couldn’t really be heard. I’m not even sure his microphone was actually working, which is a shame. Like Monet, V had put a lot of thought and effort into his appearance and while I am not at all familiar with Ludovico Technique, his Games Of Thrones-esque get-up was enough to make me want to check them out.
Also on the special guest front, was Montreal-native Justin Piedimonte of Immortal Guardian filling on the drums. While, I’m not sure if that was just for tonight of it he participated in the entire tour or not – I can attest to his presence here in the 514.
As an opening band, Edge Of Paradise had done their duty and successfully warmed up the room. Probably turned a few new heads their way as well.
Xandria
If there’s one common denominator that unifies all three of these bands playing tonight, besides the obvious fact that all three are female fronted groups, its that they’ve all undergone many line-up changes in their day. Xandria’s current line-up has been intact since a massive overhaul in 2022 where everyone but guitarist and founding member Marco Heubaum was substituted for a fresh face.
Ambre Vourvahis was announced as the new vocalist. Furthermore, Tim Schwarz was announced as the new bassist, and drummer Dimitrios Gatsios and guitarist Rob Klawonn replacing departing longtime members Gerit Lamm and Philip Restemeier, respectively.
This revamped roster was introduced later that year with several new tracks, one of which the band opening their set with tonight – You Will Never Be Our God. Prior to the show, I sat down and watched a few video clips from the bands appear tonight, and this track was an instant stand out. Perhaps the video itself is more relevant today than it was when released, which is a terrifying thing to come to terms with. (watch it and judge for yourselves!)
Having firmly set the scene for their set with just one song, Xandria basked briefly in the warm reception of the Montreal faithful, before ripping into Reborn, also from the The Wonders Still Awaiting EP, as like Edge Of Paradise, Xandria had chosen to perform a set largely made up of newer material. Still – the fans erupted with applause between and during each song, joined in throughout the majority of their set – and like was the case with Edge Of Paradise, had left Xandria speechless and gobsmacked with how appreciative they were of the entire set.
All the applause was for good reason too, as Xandria were brilliant on the night. While their music sounds great on physical media from studio recordings, live is a whole other beast. Songs such as 200 Years and Universal are so powerful live, so grandiose. Ambre Vourvahis has such an immense vocal range, and from what I could see, serious stage presence to boot.
Live, the positivity that Xandria expels is magnified so much more than on those studio records. Uplifting earworm choruses and sing-a-long bits are so much better with the band in front of you. Scanning the room, I saw many sets of lips singing along. Heads bobbing back and fourth. People dancing and everyone having a good time.
Of course – Xandria saved Nightfall for their final piece of the night, and somehow the crowd too found an extra gear in showing appreciation to the band before them; and they still had Delain left to play. (Spoiler! They kept riding on that gear for Delain too.)
There’s a reason bands love playing in Montreal. And this is it.
Delain
Delain have come a hell of a long way, since former Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt began the band as a side project, which the intention to perhaps play the odd show here and there. Fast-forward twenty-three years, and Delain now have seven studio albums and are a touring band. How things change.
This is a band that has undergone a complete overhaul, when Westerholt completely revamped Delain’s roster four years ago, almost to the day. Two former members were brought back into the fold, guitarist Ronald Landa and drummer Sander Zoer, as well as new members Diana Leah on lead vocals and bassist Ludovico Cioffi. The line-up currently known as Delain.
Still, I was curious to see how the crowd would react to Delain, having already given out so much energy to Edge OF Paradise and Xandria. Also, it needs saying that I see a lot of shows, in Montreal and elsewhere too, and this isn’t a flex or anything like that – its to point out that while, in my experience, Montreal’s crowds are always wild (and the best crowds anywhere and I’d put money on that statement) but not always on the level that was on display here. I, myself, was also astonished by their reaction tonight.
Considering that Delain, like Xandria, are coming to town with a new face and voice belting out their tunes, makes everything that much more enchanting. So often, replacing a singer hinders a groups appear. Not here.
Opening with The Cold, then into Suckerpunch and The Reaping, Delain laid the foundation for a solid set to come. Seventeen tracks in total, with space inbetween for crowd interactions that went in both directions. While is try not to use words such as epic, for its morbid overuse in modern times, there simply isn’t a better word in the English language that can be used to describe the renditions of tunes like The Gathering, Queen Of Shadow and Moth To A Flame.
There was a moment where Roland Landa mentioned his love for Canada over the role out nation played in the liberation of Holland during the second world war. While none of us in this room had anything to do with that, it is still incredibly touching that the actions of our ancestors played such a huge roll abroad that it was on Landa’s mind while on stage here, at a metal show. With all that is going on here currently, with yet more more political uncertainty and all – it is good to know that Canada is still seen as good overseas.
And of course, there was an encore but not before Montreal returned the service they had received, with a heart-felt rendition of Ole Ole which again seemed to stun the musicians in Delain. In response, Delain churned out a well orchestrated and thought medley of tunes from their classic Lucidity album, and topped that off with rollicking versions of Not Enough and We Are The Others.
Throughout their set, the audience clapped and cheered along, and at one point sang the Ole ole song that we’re known for now. That started out as a hockey thing, where the crowd would sing it to celebrate a win, but with the years it has also become a thing the people of Montreal do to show appreciation in any situation.
Delain genuinely seemed shocked at the response from the Montreal gathering, and couldn’t stop thanking the crowd for being so great. At one point, guitarist Ronald Landa said he was going to have to call his Mum and tell her he was moving to Montreal, which, of course, was met with a roar from the crowd. It’s no secret that every band tells whatever audience they’re playing to on any given night that they were the best, have the been the best on whichever tour the artist happens to be on at that time – but Delain seemed genuine when they told Montreal those very words tonight.
Read More:
>> Kerry King at L’Olympia, Montreal
>> Voivod and the OSM at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal
>> Soul Asylum at Bronson Centre, Ottawa
However, I hold on to my theory that this is more like thinking the bartender or waitress is into you or that you have a chance bringing the stripper home. It’s just pillow talk, baby!
Following this set of tour dates which runs through until October of this year, Delain will take a year off from touring to focus on songwriting for their upcoming eighth studio album. So, anyone that is on the fence about catching them when they visit your city; it’ll be a while before you get a chance to see them next!
