KOR Live Report

HearJapan was lucky enough to catch an interview and watch the rehearsal and live show of KNIGHTS OF ROUND yesterday. The interview will be coming later in the week so check back often! The rehearsal was very well done. The members each individually played their instruments and adjusting the sound etc. Once the band had finished fine tuning everything, they played their newest song ribbon which had some nice progressive solos and showed a new direction for the band. For their rehearsal they would play a few minutes from each song while making a few modifications in between.

After getting a taste for the band during the closed doors rehearsal, the band came out as the first act of the evening’s event which was hosted by VRAIN. As the band emerged onto the stage, each member was wielding a sword which were all held together towards the middle of the stage. Once the band started with prologue from ETERNITY. The awesome thing about KNIGHTS OF ROUND concerts is that before the show, miniature swords are passed out to the audience so everyone in the audience is wielding shiny swords (don’t worry they are only plastic). The vocalist also held his Excalibur sword throughout the performance and would sing while shaking his sword wielding fist in the air. Here is a pic of the sword from their most recent band pic:

For the solos the band’s two guitarists would come out on side extensions of the stage and play precise dual solos opposite from each other. This was a nice touch for a metal concert because the audience could really get up close and see these crazy fingers at work. In fact the entire performance was very well choreographed with the entire band doing similar motions while still hitting each not on time and in tune. Overall their performance was very heroic and epic and characteristic of the concept of KNIGHTS OF ROUND.

Despite being the first band, the entire concert hall was packed with people. So many people that all the swords were gone, so the lead singer handed out extra swords to the “warriors” who didn’t have one. The 2nd song was a brand new song that will go on sale on November 28th in the metal compilation, “Samurai Metal Vol 4”. The song opened right with a solo and the chorus was fantastic because all members of the band can sing really well. Recently the band got 3 new members and supposedly besides a strong instrumental skills, a good voice was required. The songs went all over the musical specturm with plenty of speedups and slowdowns. The end was even more climatic with three of the members doing a scream that branched over three octaves! The next song was Forest Of The Fortress which is also from ETERNITY. This was definitely the crowd pleaser of the night with everyone singing the chorus in unison while swinging their swords like crazy. NOTE: If you value your eyes, you might want to bring some form of goggles the next time you see KOR.

By the 4th song, Diabolic Noble, from the album that you should buy ETERNITY featured many alternating solos. However at this point in the show it became apparent that the vocalist was losing some of his luster and was having a little trouble pounding out all the notes with the same strength as before but he still held his ground like a true knight would. The fifth song was a brand new song called “Reborn” which will be released on the band’s upcoming 2009 album. This was the third time that they played the song live and was by far the fastest song that have written to date. The band members and audience were all banging their heads and wouldn’t cease to slow down until the brief 3 second slow down. This song just never let up. It was fast, furious and heavily melodic. The bassist appeared to be soloing throughout the entire song. Whether all future KOR songs will sound like this remains to be seen, but this new direction is without a doubt a great one.

The last song was track 5 from which is also from ETERNITY SPIRIT FOR FREEDOM. This was a feel good, olympic-esque anthem. The audience waqved their hands in the air back and forth and held their swords high in the air as a form of salute at the end. Excalibur LIVES!