January 2013 was the last time Karnataka played on a Dutch stage. They managed to do two excellent concerts. I witnessed the one they did at the Pul in Uden (see review). After those concerts, which were part of the Forbidden Dreams tour, the band took some time off to record and release another studio album. This album, Secrets Of Angels (see review), finally saw the light of day in 2015. The album eventually became an award winning album because they won the Classic Rock Society Awards 2016 for 'Best Album' and 'Best Song' for Secrets of Angels! Furthermore the band and lead singer Hayley Griffiths were also nominated in the 'Best Band' and 'Best Female Vocalist' categories. This is something to be very proud of and therefore congratulations to them. To promote the album, another European tour was organised, just like three years ago. And just like three years ago two shows were booked in the Netherlands. I got the chance to see them perform at the Pul in Uden again however this time around a support act was arranged by the venue to warm up the audience. The Dutch Gothic act End Of The Dream.
 

End Of The Dream

Micky Huijsmans

End Of The Dream didn't have to travel as far as the headliners. The band comes from a place which is rather nearby Uden, namely Den Bosch. In 2015 they released their debut All I Am (see review). The music of this female fronted band was rather well received by our reviewer and are comparable to other Dutch bands like Within Temptation, Epica and Delain. Therefore, I was rather curious how they would present themselves in front of an audience. The eye-catcher of the band is singer Micky Huijsmans. She's singer with a good voice who also knows how to interact with her audience. She was accompanied by bassist Tim van den Hooven, drummer Pim Geraets and the two guitar players Armen Shamelian and Robin van Ekeren. The band performed

From L to R: Armen Shamelian, Tim van den Hooven and Robin van Ekeren

six songs rather well from their debut, an album on which occasional keyboards were used and played by Armen. However, during the band's 45 minute long set, nobody in the band could be seen behind this instrument. Instead a tape was playing along with the band on which keyboards and the backing vocals could be heard. I always regret it when a band decides not to play all their instruments in real time. Why not hire an extra keyboard player or let Mr. Shamelian play his studio keyboard parts on a keyboard next to him? This way you really can't label yourself as a real live outfit. Hopefully they will do this when I see them next time on a stage. They certainly can grow to an even higher level than they are at the moment and become a live act that can easily compete with all the other female fronted (Gothic) bands.
 

Karnataka

Hayley Griffiths

Karnataka have (since I saw them the last time) become a real international outfit with members coming from different parts in Europe. The only real citizen from England is lead singer Hayley Griffiths. Founding member and bassist Ian Jones originally comes from Wales but has lived already ten years in London. Just like the Italian guitarist Enrico Pinna, the Turkish keyboard player Cagri Tozluoglu and the French drummer Jimmy Pallagrosi. However all those different nationalities didn't prevent the band from becoming a real strong live outfit as it turned out. Music is a universal language after all. The band's almost two hour long set was this time not divided into two different sets. The first time during the Secrets Of Angels Tour they played without a break between the sets. The reason for that was the extra support act, which is not very common when they do concerts. Nevertheless the band performed the same time as if they were doing two separate sets. This way the band almost spent two hours on stage.
During this period they managed to do the whole award winning album mentioned earlier. This album moved them music wise more towards bands such as Within Temptation and Nightwish. Not so strange if you do know that Hayley

Jimmy Pallagrosi

is a classically trained soprano, just like most singers that are in so called 'Gothic' acts. The band's new kind of style strangely enough works very well during live performances. The music of the band has suddenly more power than heard on the album which the band suits very well. Most of all, if you do know that the band has a real power house behind the drum kit. Pallagrosi and Griffiths are certainly the ones on stage who keep the action going on during the entire set. Pallagrosi, sometimes standing behind his drums, hardly gave himself a moment of rest and made arm gestures to keep everybody awake. Well no time to fall asleep when you have somebody like Hayley moving around the stage. Always interacting with her fellow musicians on stage and the audience in front of her. This never led to making mistakes in singing her own written lyrics-lyrics which were sung by her fans as well, much to the delight of Hayley. When you see this lady sing, it isn't so strange that she was nominated for 'Best Female Vocalist' by the Classic Rock Society. You only might wonder why she didn't win!

But back to the music that the audience could enjoy. As mentioned earlier, every track of Secrets Of Angels was performed. As far as I could hear it was done in the best possible way, adding some extra energy compared to the studio versions. The title track, the 20 minutes long epic, was saved for the ending of their excellent regular set. This time around the Uillean pipes and low whistle, played by Troy Donockley on the studio version, came out of the keyboards of Cagri Tozluoglu which he imitates rather well. Of course more songs could be enjoyed in addition to the songs taken from the band's latest album. From the bands first line up two songs

Ian Jones

were done: Talk To Me from the bands first live album and Strange Behaviour (2004) and Dreamer (with a short kind of drum solo) from The Storm (2000). Both were different versions compared to the original studio versions which I guess is not so strange when you do know that an almost completely new line up performs them but it didn't mean they were less enjoyable and neither were two pieces taken from The Gathering Light (2010, see review). For me personally, Serpent And The Sea and Forsaken were the highlights of the set mainly because during those compositions the two instrumentalists, guitarist Enrico Pinna and keyboard player Cagri Tozluoglu showed their talents on their instruments by playing strong solo parts. Forsaken even gave me goosebumps thanks to the excellent climax in which drummer Pallagrosi could go loose behind his drum kit. The same song gave Griffiths a chance to change her outfit, something which apparently wasn't noticed by bassist Ian Jones, as he told me after the show. Besides the songs that you can find on Karnataka's back catalogue I also got to enjoy a brand new piece. Haley mentioned that Twist Of Fate was still under construction. I suppose I didn't hear the final version of a composition that might appear on a new album to be expected in 2017. For those who didn't hear it I can tell you it moves much into the musical direction of the songs that you can find on the band's latest effort.

One encore was planned to say goodbye to their fans. It was the last song that wasn't performed from Secrets Of Angels. The title of this track, Feels Like Home, probably couldn't be more appropriate for the band because I guess the fans and venue crew made them feel like they were playing a home game. In return they gave them an amazing show which will remain a great memory until they return to this venue the next time they visit the Netherlands!

Henri Strik (edited by Robert James Pashman)