5 Metal Female Voice Fest is back!

A few weeks ago, more precisely on 19 and 20 October 2007, the little village of Wieze, located in the middle of nowhere (well...near Brussels in fact) welcomed the 5th edition of the Metal Female Voice Fest. This festival is becoming more and more important over the years, but the atmosphere remains as great as it was before. What can you do in a Metal festival? Well, first of all you can eat and drink (not only beer! People are used to drinking a lot of...soft!), which is quite important consider that the festival goes on the whole day (and we wouldn't miss a group for anything!). You can also do a lot of other things, like listening to great music, meeting artists and greeting them, taking pictures with them, even talking to them (and not just about the weather!) and, of course, talking with other people, either in Dutch, English or German (yes yes! This festival is very famous abroad, that is why a lot of people come from France, Germany, the Netherlands or even Britain).

At this point, it seems important to explain what symphonic metal is. Take wonderful melodies, often played with keyboards or by a symphonic orchestra (80 musicians at least!), add heavy riffs of electric guitar and powerful hard drums. Then, mix everything up with a marvellous female voice singing lyrics which often talk about philosophy or mythology. Yes, you’ve got it! The most famous symphonic band is Nightwish (a Finnish band, as you will see, a lot of great bands come from Scandinavia or the Netherlands). Nightwish can be seen as a pioneering band in symphonic metal. Their first album, "Angels Fall First", was released in 1991.



They were soon followed by Within Temptation, a Dutch band, lead by Sharon Den Adel.

Back to Wieze. The 5th MFVF line-up was as remarkable and unique as expected. Among other bands: Walkyre, Imperia, Sirenia, Battlelore, but also Epica, Leaves’ Eyes and Delain. First of all, let’s talk about the Dutch metal band Epica. They mixed their wonderful music together with fireworks and pyrotechnics, huge energy and enthusiasm. The result? Amazing atmosphere with people clapping their hands and singing along with Simone, the lead singer. Leaves’ Eyes did the same, even though technical problems darkened their show. But as it was recorded for the purpose of their new DVD “En Saga i Belgica”, we can easily imagine engineers will solve the problem easily!

Anyway, we can thank the people who organize this amazing festival, full of wonderful music. When one listens to this music, one is flying towards another world of magic, fantasy and emotions. That is one of the aims of music, and I think the organisers of the MFVF have understood it. Let's hope next year's line-up will be as great as this one, so that MFVF will see me back!