Concert: Sonata Arctica Unia 2007 Tour with Epica (or the curious power-gothic cocktail)

Well, it's time for returning to metal chronicles because of the Epica and Sonata Arctica joined tour; I will try to write the review in a smaller lack of time with the concert, but for now, I must write about two concerts before the following will begin :D


Chronologically, the Epica & Sonata Arctica tour is the first; in a few days I will write about the awesome Gamma Ray & Helloween's Hellish Rock 07-08 world tour. But now, let's begin with theis strange, but also well-sounded (and also high awaited!!!) metal performance, courtesy of Nuclear Blast (really, the three involved bands have bind their compositions with this producer... curious thing, knowing overcoats that Nuclear Blast was in 2007 its 20-year existence celebration :P).


* Part I: Ride the Sky; a correct metal band, but not fully compatible with my preferences...

I've always thought that, when a first-role band is in tour, its supporting bands are in a seeming musical mood (e.g.: Visions of Atlantis for Epica); even for joined tours, it seems to be reasonable that the metal styles of the bands will be similar (e.g.: Stratovarius and HammerFall)... but since I'm fan of metal concerts, I've been able to see that it's not true... it's not the first time I've seen this rare stuyle mixings (I'm remembering now the Saratoga ---hard rock with power metal--- tour with Ebony Ark ---gothic metal with progressive feelings---), but it will never stop giving me a nice surprise :)

But before these two great metal bands, Ride the Sky made their appearance in a unusual correct timeline on the scenario for preparing us for the night. The performance of the new band of Uli Kusch (ex-Helloween and ex-Masterplan well-known drummer) was correct, and offered us some songs of their first opera prima called New Protection for half an hour, where songs like Silent War or Prince of Darkness (my favourite ones from the album) sounded very well in my ears.

I must admit that I don't like its symphonic-rock style very much, much closer to hard rock than to metal at its own, but the show was plenty of action and all the audience enjoyed it a lot :)

Ride the Sky setlist (about 1:00:00):

• Not available (so sorry...)
  

• Pros: The connection of the band with the audience; people enjoyed very much with Uli and the rest of the members of the band.
• Cons: This is not deffinitively my favourite metal style :P
• Best Track: The Prince of Darkness.

* Part II: Ladies and gentlemen... Epica in its splendor!!!!

Only a few months before, I could enjoy a free 2-hour Epica concert in Cambrils, at the Hora Dels Peluts 15-year celebration Festival, with Stravaganzza and Epica as primal guests. There Epica gave us three exclusive performances of their upcoming album, The Divine Conspiracy, with the songs Indigo, The Obsessive Devotion and Fools of Damnation (in my opinion, the best tracks in the album, sharing this category with Death of a Dream and Living a Lie).

But in the concert I'm trying to review, Epica had already released The Divine Conspiracy; hence, the concert had to focus the songs on this album (the best one of the three metal albums of the band by far).

And it occurred. Without forgotting their high-acclaimed songs of their previous albums, a real festival of last album songs was passing through my ears. Obviously, the concert began with the precious intro Indigo, joined with the potent The Obsessive Devotion. Simone and Mark were specially inspired during all the concert, although at the beginning the Mark's micro didn't work well and it was difficult to hear his grunts and screams :( what a pity, because The Obsessive Devotion sustains its agressivity in Mark's voice... But in the middle of the song (that means, after 3 minutes and a half XD) the micro worked well :P weeeeeee!!



Subsequently, Sensorium entered the scene, their first classical song with Cry for the Moon, also performed in this tour :) The crowd became crazy, specially a strange geek with long orange hair that was headbanging and jumping and screaming like a silly boy... oops, it was me!!!! XD I'm a big fan of Epica, I've been present in all concerts they have made in Catalonia (6 in 3 years, if I'm not wrong... :S). During the concert, a classic song sounded: the most Rhapsody-esque Epica song: Quietus!!



I've mentioned the great performance of the singers, Mark and Simone, but I can't forget the impressive new drummer of the band, Ariën van Weesenbeek (yes, I've done a copy&paste from the official Epica website :P), initially as a last-album-recording-member while the band was finding for a full-time member. I'm very happy for the Ariën's decision of joining Epica!!!! He's a drummer crack!!!! You only have to listen his incredible capabilities in Menace of Vanity and Fools of Damnation, the two both performed in this concert too... I have no words for describing this... simply incredible!!


The final song of the concert, as previsible, was their awesome ten-minute-long Consign to Oblivion from their second album, called as the song. A splendid gothic end for an entire-hour concert, too much short for me, but I was glad for the well-chosen setlist. As you will notice within the next part (the Sonata Arctica one), this was, with no doubt, the best part of the concert.

Epica setlist (about 1:00:00):

1. Intro: Indigo
   
2. The Obsessive Devotion
   
3. Sensorium
4. Menace of Vanity
   
5. Quietus
   
6. Cry for the Moon
   
7. Sancta terra
8. Fools of Damnation
   
9. Consign to Oblivion
   

• Pros: everything!!Cons: only one hour!!! I want a Epica tour!! A pitiful illness for Simone provoqued that the Barcelona concert of February the 15th was postposed :S Health for Simone, please!! Metal needs this beautiful girl... :P
• Best Track: Indigo + Obsessive Devotion, because I can't imagine a better Epica concert beginning for now :) Violins, cellos, choir, operatic melodic lines, dark grunts, fast drum double bass... wooooooooooooooooooooooow oh my gooooooooood!!!
  

* Part III: Sonata Arctica and its irregular setlist :S

With the Razzmatazz 1 room in an exploding grade, the generally most awaited band finally appeared: the finnish Sonata Arctica!! After my poor experience with this band (in 2004, with Nightwish with aboutother 10.000 persons and with Tony in loss of voice), I was very expecting for this concert, but I couldn't enjoy it very much 'cause of its irregular setlist. Obviosuly, this tour was about its last album, Unia, and this is really not their best album (it's my opinion).

Because of this, the first two songs weren't very impressive for me. However, the audience enjoyed so much the entire concert, so I think I'm the strange one... but well, I'm used to feel in this way XD Being sincere... I only like four songs of Unia album, and only two were performed in the concert, so, in my opinion, the concert grows its quality only when the old classic songs sounded, like Victoria's Secret or 8th Commandment or San Sebastian.

Well, le'ts go now with two curious things in this concert :)

1. the intro song was the piano opening of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride o_O simply amazing!!!! Danny Elfman is really a great musician and score composer!!! And the vision of Tony Kakko playing an imaginary piano full of emotion was a good chance XD
2. during the concert, the showman Tony (always the singer... the rest of the band members were too much shy :S) builded a virtual drum with us, the audience: he divided the crowd in three instruments, the bass, the snare and cymbal (I was a snare!! XD), and following his indications, all together performed an incredible version of Queen's We Will Rock You. Amazing, with no comments XD

As I said previously, the concert was very irregular, but the final part was as good as I expected!! Before the already classic Vodka Song, they performed powerfully their two most acclaimed songs the last recent years: the hymn-like Don't say a Word and the stratovaric song, The Cage!!!! With the double bass beyond the sound barrier XD



Globally, Sonata Arctica offered me a strange concert, but considering the poor quality of their last album, the concert could be worse :) I hope the next album will be at least as good as Reckoning Night!!! Go on, guys!! You are able to be the fastest finnish band again!!! :)

Sonata Arctica setlist (about 1:30:00):

1. Intro: Corpse Bride OST
   
2. In Black and White
   
3. Paid in Full
   
4. Victoria's Secret
   
5. Broken
   
6. 8th Commandment
   
7. Tallulah
   
8. Full Moon
   
9. Caleb
   
10. Black Sheep
11. It won't fade
12. Gravenimage
13. San Sebastian
14. My Land
15. Don't Say a Word
16. The Cage
17. Outro: Vodka Song
    

• Pros: the showman Tony Kakko, and the major sound quality of all the concert
  
• Cons: it's normal 'cause a tour is the visit card for a new releasing, but the songs of Unia were so poor in my opinion. And there were so much songs people wanted and they didn't perform, like Letter to Danna or Wolf and Raven.
• Best Track: With no doubt, Don't say a Word; I adore this song!!!!!

Well, poor mortals, that's all for now!! In the following days I will write about the Hellish Rock tour by Helloween with Gamma Ray as very very very very very special guest :) Pay attention to this blog, and remember... cruelty moves the world, love is only the gear pedal...
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The Newtonian Destiny of a Quantum Cat

A few time ago, I read in L'Oasi, the satirist press of my Faculty in Computer Science (FIB, Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona -UPC-) a hilarious comic strip by the always great Dr.Palindrom by El Pitiflí about the well-known paradox of Schrödinger's Cat.


For those who don't know this paradox, a simple basis for understanding the quantum mechanics, it is a thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger with the aim of attempting to one of the most strange properties of the quantum mechanics.

So, as a little brief of the Schrödinger's Cat paradox, let be a closed and opaque box as the system, containing inside it:

• an initially alive cat;
• a poison gas within a closed bottle;
• a radiactive particle with desintegration probability of 50%;
• a device that is being enabled foro breaking the bottle if the radiactive particle explodes;

Hence, if the device is enabled (that means, the desintegration probability converges to the desintegration), the cat dies. As you can notice, the entire system is single-atom-depending, and at the same time, this particle is quantum-mechanics-depending; therefore, all the system is quantum-mechanics-depending.

Because of that, and following the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics for applications beyond just atomic or subatomic systems, as long as we don't open the box, the cat will be in a quantum state: it's alive and dead at the same time. When the box is open, the only cat visualization action will modify its quantum state and it will converge to one of the two possible: alive or dead. This is possible by the physic propertie called quantum superposition.

Well, then, after this explanation, this is the amazing and hilarious gag by Dr.Palindrom; just enjoy it!!! XD (for a better visualization, click on the image):


I'm a fanatic of quantum physics, but this comic strip is, in my opinion, absolutely great.


So stay tuned, poor mortals!! Your quantum states will be maintained as long as Ignis Lacrima will be in your lives (or not, but I have to make use of an agressive marketing for incrementing the disciples of the Ancient Flames of Greek God of Metal and Fire, Hefestus :P Oh my god, I'm turning a little bit of crazy XD).
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Le PC est mort: vive le MAC!!!

Oh, yes, I deserve to be tortured inside the deep flames of Hefestus for did no updates this month of february, where I have been in holidays!!! From 2007 (and january of 2008), I must admit that there are 4 posts with a little time lag: the last chapter of Sitges 2007 chronicles, the photo report of my new computer (besides the MacBookPro laptop), and the memorandums of two great metal concerts ---Epica + Sonata Arctica and Gamma Ray + Helloween---.

So, let's go with the second one for beginning the updates: my new computer, another Apple Computer: an incredible iMac with 20-inch monitor display!!! After doing a photo report for the MacBookPro on November 2007, my new iMac also will be now object of a photo report and a technical review whether possible :P

I really adquired it on past month of december, but because of the terrible siege of Graphics and Visualization Master puntuable tasks, I had no time until the first of february; btu then, i was too much tired for writing something in english (indeed, all the master documents I delivered were written in english... ouch...)


* Chapter 1. iMac technical specs

What was the reason for buying an iMac? I think it's clear... having a MacBookPro already, the strange environment of Mac for laptops and PC for office computer was very strange for me; hence, knowing that my adquisitive capabilities can allow to buy an iMac, I thought this couldn't be a bad idea. And I wasn't wrong... mwaaaahahahahahaaaa


And that's the splendind computer!! It's really beautiful, isn't it? So thin, so bright, so... so everything!! XD Let's go with the specs of my concrete iMac model:

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB 667(Mhz) DDR2 SDRAM
• 800MHz frontside bus
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• Built-in 20-inch (viewable) widescreen TFT active-matrix liquid crystal display
• Apple Keyboard and Apple Mighty Mouse
  
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory
• Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11b/g/n
• Built-in iSight camera, DVI, VGA (DVI to VGA adapter included)
• Weight: 9.10 kg
• Measure: 48.50 cm x 46.90 cm x 18.9 cm (support included)
  

* Chapter 2. The photo report :P

The mounting process can be "seen" now. First, the two sides (front and back) of the iMac box are shown; it's a 20-inch entire computer, so the box is heavier and bigger than the MacBookPro one :P but the inexistence of the box tower is an interesting factor, so the box is really as big as a typical PC monitor box XD


So, the final step: the table positioning of the creature!!! If you are viewing the MacBookPro post, you can see the a photo with my office PC behind the two laptops; well... from now, this PC has been moved onto a more rejected position, and its old position in front of the desk chair is now for the iMac.

As i've said in the above lines, there is no box tower, so the entire iMac is presented in this photo!!!! Isn't it awesome? :) There is only the monitor display, the keyboard and the mouse, in front of the typical PC architecture (monitor, box tower, keyboard and mouse). So, an entire computer in a TFT display!!!

Since the first iMac appeared (a CRT-monitor entire computer container), Apple has worked in its evolution, and now, the 2nd generation of the thin iMacs are so splendid as you can see in the photo :)

So, at last, and with the unique intention of giving you, poor mortals, a nice vision of my actual desk, there is the actual computer disposition of my workstation:

1. the iMac in front of me for working and for my personal projects;
2. the MacBookPro in the left side (opional), for a support tasks (e.g: parallel tasks or implementation testings for different computers);
3. and the old and rejected PC in the extreme left table corner, with discotheque functions only :P (that means, in Gilgamesh ---the PC's name--- there is my almost complete music collection, consisting in metal discographies, film scores, videogame soundtracks, classical music, operas, new age and celtic music; 400GB of music, more or less... :D). However, I don't discard the idea of transforming the PC into a complete ludical plataform with videogames and emulators like MAME or ZSNES... and of course, movies :) From the bed, the PC monitor is easily viewable hehehehehehehe

* Chapter 3. The name of the creature

I mentioned in the MacBookPro post that, although I named my computers in a demigod mithology based name system, I decided to change this system with the Apple computers: now the Mac computers will receive names of fallen angels, like Behemoth for MacBookPro, because of Mac is the dark side in the war against the God of Computers, the IBM-original PC; and now, it's the turn for my iMac.

Therefore, it receives the name of Asmodeus!!!! A fallen angel too, Asmodeus (or Asmodai, and so more derivation names) is a demon mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit. The demon is also mentioned in some Talmudic legends, for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. Its origin has been found in the zoroastrian religion of the persians, and was transformed in the judaism while the persian authority over the judaic reign. Later, the christian mythology adapted its creature. However, Although there are also functional parallels between Zoroastrianism's Aēšma and Judaism's Asmodai/Asmodeus, the linguistic relationship does not denote conceptual continuity. The two are mythologically and culturally distinct.


The name Asmodai (or Asmodeus) is believed to derive from Avestan language aēšma-daēva, where aēšma means "wrath", and daēva signifies "demon". Hence, Asmodeus means "the Demon of Wrath". On the other hand, Asmodeus and Samael ---the poison of god--- are names that Lucifer received after tenting Eva by the Unholy Fruit of the Forgiven Tree. When Lucifer fell, it got married with Lilith (the first woman for the judeochristian mythology origins, and reject by christianism when New Testament replaced Old Testament). Beyond this union, thounsands of demons were born.



Well, as long as the MacBookPro post was pompous, the iMac one couldn't be different XD I apologize for the gorgeous environment of Apple-related posts; I promise the next posts about Apple or Mac technology will be more normal :P

So, please be patient, poor mortals, and expect more posts in this following days: Ignis Lacrima has been reborn form its own ashes!!! I am alive again!!! mwaaaaaahahahahahaha
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