Leaves’ Eyes/Firewind - Live in Paris Divan du Monde – 9/25/12

I may be getting better at this whole going-to-concerts-outside-the-US thing, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to understand why concerts in France start and end so much earlier than in the US, yet require missing dinner in the process (and yes, dinner at 11 pm is also a bizzare concept to me, yet I certainly saw people eating dinner after the show. Alas, to each their own…)

August 11 – August 12, 2012
Hildesheim, Germany

M'era Luna is one of the biggest goth festivals in Germany, with 21,000 to 24,000 people attending it each year. This time it happened on August 11 (Saturday) and August 12 (Sunday), with over 21,000 people. It also offers a great deal of metal, and almost all of the major names in the Femme Metal genre have played there: Epica, Leaves' Eyes, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, The Gathering, and the list goes on. This year, there were only few female fronted bands, but each of them had something quite special to it, which made the overall impression anything but disappointing. A classical string quartet, an Industrial Metal band, and a Pagan Folk band, the artists in this review could hardly be more diverse, and are yet equally appealing. But before getting into the details of their music and shows, there are some things worth saying about the festival.