After the festival is before the concert. Never has this been truer for me than this week. Only a few days after my 15 days festival marathon with Rock & Metal Day’z and Rockharz Festival in a row, I’m ready for none less than Infected Rain from Moldova at Colos-Saal/Aschaffenburg during their headliner Summer Tour 2024.
Fulminant
I saw them a few months ago as support act for DragonForce and Amaranthe during their European double headliner tour. What should I say, Lena/vocals, Alice/bass, Vidick/guitar, and Eugene/drums blew the audience away with their fulminant and energetic show. Thus I took the chance to experience their full show now.
Infected Rain at Colos-Saal
Third Wave
As I have already mentioned, today Infected Rain are the headliner with a full set of songs and are supported by local heroes Third Wave from Frankfurt. Their sound can best be described as a mixture between Metalcore and Modern Progcore with some quite catchy hooks and melodies.
What a potential
Third Wave are allowed to play a set of 45 minutes and they take their chance right from the beginning. There is no denying, Third Wave have the potential to become bigger and better known in the upcoming years. It is just a question of time.
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Infected Rain
Less than half an hour later it is time for Infected Rain to enter the stage. After the intro they open their show with a song of “Ecdysis”, their release from 2022. By the way, the tour is still going on, so I publish no set-list to avoid spoiling your expectations. But I can guarantee, you will not be disappointed.
A balanced Journey
Songs of the actual album “Time” are intermixed with older songs which makes the set a balanced journey through Infected Rain’s evolution since they saw light in 2008. You are reading right; they have been around for 16 years now.
Changes
Of course, Infected Rain faced some changes in the line-up, most prominent is the departure of Vladimir and Sergey Babich. There is no replacement for Sergey, but Vladimir was replaced by Italian bass beast Alice Lane. And she fits in perfectly, the interaction and connection between her and vocalist Lena is simply amazing.
Metal Medusa
Being the only guitarist now, Vidick is let lose even more than before. His trademark are his long dreadlocks which make him look a bit like a modern-day Metal Medusa. I wonder, how this guy manages to jump around like crazy and still hit the notes! Simply amazing.
Tiger and cuddly kitten
I am not really sure. Do we really need to lose a word or more about vocalist Lena? She is one of the most powerful voices of the genre. Her live performance is outstanding, wild like a tiger, gentle like a cuddly kitten from one second to the other and backwards like there is no tomorrow.
A perfect evolution
Her technical evolution as a singer over the years amazes me. Lena grows and becomes stronger with each new song and album, there is no limit for her, and she switches from clean to growls to screams with ease. There must be a lot of training and discipline behind it!
Honest emotions
Only one thing amazes me even more. Can you guess what it is? You should know it if you have ever visited one of Infected Rain’s shows. If not, please do so to experience it. It is her fan affinity and honesty of course. She wears her heart in the right place. When it is time for emotions, it is time for emotions without restraint.
Signing and talking
Lena loves her audience, even if she can’t know everybody by name of course. She seldom misses out on meeting the audience after the show. There must be a good and serious reason if she doesn’t turn up at the merch shortly after the show. Lena is happy to talk to each one for a couple of minutes, sign everything and take a pic herself with everybody regardless how long the queue is.
A magic night
Tonight, I have seen a wild concert with Infected Rain in perfect mood and shape. The Colos-Saal was very well filled although a German Industrial Metal band called Rammstein played nearby at Commerzbank-Arena. I believe, everybody who watched Infected Rain went home satisfied having a smile on the face. Even the guy with the In Flames t-shirt who was told by someone to be aware that “tonight is time for some real metal”… At least I enjoyed this magic night. The tour is still going on, so save the dates. It is worth it.
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Save the dates:
Online:
Please buy merch and physical music or downloads from the bands’ official sources and don’t stream music for free because it steals your artists’ income
Proof reading by DerminBoad
All photos by Friend.X aka Mr. Deep at Colos-Saal Aschaffenburg