Are you ready to join the life of the pirates or stay as a lousy sailor? Well you better make your mind up before you go to one of these shows, get your best pirate hats and bandanas and prepare to go from sailor to pirate by the end of the night.

First up on the ship of Manchester Rebellion is, Ye Banished Privateers. All eight band members taking the stage, you are in for a night of amazing live music. Everyone is dressed in traditional pirate gear, with their faces covered in soot from the old days aboard the ship. They jump straight into the traditional pirate music, they’re not like your regular modern pirate band, in fact it’s as if they have been grabbed by a time traveler and brought to the present to teach young sailors training to be pirates the reality of pirate life.

Every single song of theirs is based on the reality of life back in the 17th century, you have a pirate drunk on stage wanting to take over the attention from the crowd. And you even get a true reality of being a woman in the 17th century with their song Annabel, a tale of a woman named Annabel whose name was forcibly changed, and she tells her story loud and proud of who she really is and the life she was forced to be a part of. They give the crowd a reality check by mentioning that pirate life comes with disease, dying of a young age and death by hanging if caught. It’s not the rum loving, life of freedom like Pirates of the Caribbean may have lead you to believe.

Up next is Xandria! If you’re in the front row for one of their shows get ready for the smoke! No, seriously, get ready for the smoke because there is a lot of it. The vocalist Ambre is insanely talented and versatile, that woman can change from soft vocals, to metalcore deep growls to Opera singer in a matter of seconds, its honestly a next level talent that you don’t get to see often. The women in the bands tonight channel Amy Lee as a pirate.

With smoke shooting up into the faces of the guitarists, it’s like the entrance into a battle, with a somber melody leading you into the battle. This being their first tour since 2017, with a whole new lineup, you honestly wouldn’t think this was a new lineup for the band, the chemistry they have on stage makes them seem like they have all known each other for decades.

They start their set with You Will Never Be Our God, which is the start to this 10 song set.

Marco who plays rhythm guitar and has been in the band since 1994, slays it on guitar throughout the entire set, interacting with the crowd and helping spread the sound of Xandria.

The band leaves the stage after their performance of Ghosts, a melody that calms the crowd down as if the room was hearing a tale bringing them into a trance.

Ambre takes the stage again, introducing each member to the crowd. Rob Klawonn on lead guitar, showing the crowd a high solo as he makes his way to the front of the stage, Tim Schwartz on bass, Dimitros Gatsios on drums and finally Marco Heubaum on Rhythm guitar, who gets such an amazing cheer from the crowd. Like having a leader in front of them. Before Marco makes an amazing mention of Ambre Vourvahis on lead vocals, the newest vocalist for the band. The crowd cheers, before the band announce they’re on their final two songs of their set, with one very excited crowd member shouting “RAVENHEART” which leads Ambre to look at the said fan “okay, okay don’t spoil it for everyone” before saying “Right this one is called Ravenheart” bringing everyone right back to 2004.

The band finishes their set with Valentine another throwback to their 2012 single, but that doesn’t happen before another eager fan shouts “VALENTINE” before again Ambre tells them not to spoil the surprise.

If you love Evanescence and you love pirates then this is the metal band that you without a doubt need to check out.

And finally it’s time for Visions of Atlantis to take to the stage, in all of their pirate glory.

Just before the band made their way to the stage I got the chance to sit with the bands vocalist Michele Guaitoli.

“So this is the second day of the tour, so how has it been so far?”

So it’s the second tour of the UK, so we’re on around 18 or 19 shows so far. We’ve been on tour now since the 7th of September now, so it’s a five or six weeks tour but second day in the UK, yesterday we played London”

Is it getting a bit tiring now?

So the thing is that maybe the body is a bit but when you get on stage the adrenaline kicks in. So you kind of just aren’t tired

And seeing them perform you can see that clear as day, you wouldn’t think they have been on the road for over a month at all, they have so much energy and dedication to telling the story that they are portraying you forget how big this tour actually is.

So your new album “Pirates” came out earlier this year, for those who might read this and not know what this album is about how would you describe it?

Um so let’s say with this record, we really pushed forward our cinematic aspects, our cinematic style and the massive orchestras, because Visions of Atlantis have always been a symphonic metal band but in general we never dived into the cinematic aspects of the band, we were always pretty much in line with the symphonic metal bands before, and we tried our best and with pirates and the pirate concept surrounding and being fully embraced with this record. I feel like we made a step forward, that drives the listener into a story telling world, which was never presented in the same way before. And this is the biggest power of pirates, and i think this is why people are appreciating it so much, because when you press play it’s like its taking you into a movie or a tv series something like this. Of course it’s a pirate tale, that you’re being told during the record and the orchestration and the entire approach with the lyrics really brings the listener into a different realm, another touch of reality which is good in this case and i think this is how I would invite someone into listening to the new record.

I love that because it really encourages people to come to your shows to see that cinematic aspect in front of them.

That’s the thing the cinematic universe, that we are creating is also being brought onto the stage. You’re not only seeing a concert but also attending a real show, where there are things happening that I don’t want to spoil for you because I want you to witness it. But yeah there is a lot going on, on stage but there is a real action in this show. I’m sure you will like it.

I’m sure I will love it, I’m already loving everything that’s going on with the outfits and the makeup i’m loving all of it.

Well yeah because Visions of Atlantis somehow flirted with the pirate themed for ages, even since the rebirth of the band in 2016 and the first real record that we released with the new line ups, since that happened there were pirates in the video for Deep In The Dark but we never really tied into the pirate universe, we just reconned we needed to take that step. And I think that this is the best genuinely.

So one word to describe the album before we get off the topic?

Cinematic

And he wasn’t wrong the cinematic aspects really showed on stage, they acted out with every single song and the chemistry between Michele and Clementine as they both sang together on stage acting out a story with every single song it was electrifying. Every song had a story connected, and every single member acted it out perfectly, and not a single one of them broke character throughout the show, as sitting down with Michele i saw the most nicest and down to earth guy possible, but when he took to the stage his acting skills really came out and he really could make a character loved and seem dark and mysterious at the same time, but also have this romance in his performance for the both of them.

You could see how Clementine played with the audience, when she stood arms outstretched at the front of the stage. Without her saying it she was their leader, she was in control and she is the one in charge of ship Visions of Atlantis.

So you guys have been together for a very long time now, what is an embarrassing story that you could tell me from your times of being on the road together?

So let’s say we have a general issue coming up on tour all the time, some of us get injured when we play a show. There is no touring memory where everything went fine, and no one got injured I remember one show in Finland I was jumping on stage, and the riser was not perfectly attached to the ground and it moved when I was jumping and I fell off and I cut my leg and yeah that was painful. And on this tour, Tom went for a run and he’s a super sporty guy, hes super into sports and has been since he was a kid and of course on the 3rd or 4th show and he goes for a run and he ended up having stitches during the first four or five shows. So yeah there is something always happening when our band is on the road, and we have to cope with this, I think that’s funny enough for you to tell.

Someone is always getting injured, or Symphonic metal nights in 2018, Clemy is starting to get sick then it was Douscha then it was Thomas and within five or six days everyone was sick.

Thankfully I couldn’t see any injuries taking place on this stage, and Tom looked perfectly healthy and uninjured on the drums killing it like he felt no pain if he did. The only thing that did happen was Michele’s pirate hat being thrown into the crowd to a fan, to his shock horror the person throwing it was none other than Clementine. He did look to her in shock when it happened, which minutes later then got him to say to the crowd “To the person who has my hat could you hand it over to SAM FROM DRAGON FORCE WHO IS RIGHT OVER THERE” personally wasn’t expecting to hear a “Oh fuck” behind me and see a man duck his head right down, but in good spirits he joined his pirate buddies on stage for a moment sporting his pirate hat, before rushing off the stage to place his beanie back onto his head.

You guys have the whole pirate theme and everything, but what is something that your fans wouldn’t expect you to be a fan of?

Uh Classical Music I would say, of course in the symphonic world you might expect it. But for instance with Clementine she’s really into classical music, even modern classical music. Because when you say classical music you think Mozart and Beethoven and the old composers but we really like the modern classical musicians. And she’s extremely into this, I don’t know if it’s something that’s surprising but it’s something that would be good to tell.

And especially when you’re a metal head, and normally there is a thing with metal where people expect you to despise everything other than metal, but actually we are extremely open. Like Douscha and Thomas they’re extremely into Dance music for instance and Austrian Slaga they call it, which is pop music from Austria which is something they play on the back of the bus and we’ll be like “what are they playing in the playroom?” so we are extremely open minded, we are metalheads and we love metal but we really are into other things like Dance.

Before seeing Visions of Atlantis perform, I wouldn’t have expected Classical Music but hearing Clementine sing you could see the inspiration she has gathered from the many classical music artists that she listens to. Her voice is so soft and powerful like a melody, which merges well as the fan at the front of the stage blows her hair back, looking like a siren leading the pirates in. And for a second you think you can approach her, before she speaks to the crowd with an authoritative voice that makes it clear who’s in charge of this ship. She makes it known to the crowd that right now they are just Sailors and they have to prove themselves to be real pirates.

They bring back the classics with The Deep & The Dark showing the crowd that they have returned in full force!

Of course they may love their classical music, however the metal head side clearly is never hidden. With loud and aggressive breakdowns and dark satisfying riffs coming from Christian on guitars and Herbert on Bass they are on top of the world with every single break down! Can’t forget shouting “Arrrrr!!!” at the top of your lungs though, this is a pirates world.

So I want to know who is your favourite Pirate?

Okay I have a nice answer to this, it’s Guybrush Threepwood who is a character in Monkey Island a video game. And this is a historical video game they’re on four or five now and the first Monkey Island was in like 89, 88? It’s one of those games where you have to explore the rules and combine items that you have to pick up all around and it’s a complete pirate-ish game, you are this guy called Threepwood who is a guy who wants to become a pirate, and then he runs into several side stories and extremely cool adventures, its funny and it really makes your brain work because you have to solve the riddles during the game, he was not a pirate but he became a pirate throughout the game and he is my favourite pirate. Everyone would expect me to answer with Jack Sparrow or Black Beard, so he and his nemesis LeChuck.

What would be your dream band to sub-headline or tour with?

So this is an easy answer for us, because its NightWish it’s a really easy answer, because everyone who plays symphonic metal owes them something. Because they shaped this genre, back in the days they are those who founded this genre. So touring with them not only would be touring with the icons of this style, but it would be a way to say thanks for real, it would be an honor because we are grateful. If we do what we’re doing and we play the style that we are playing we are playing it because of them, because without them this genre wouldn’t even exist. We could go back to the future into an alternative timeline to see how things would be without them but Night Wish is the answer to this one. They finish their set with Pirates Will Return and Legion of the Seas while brandishing the one and only pirate flag with the skull and crossbones being flown above the heads of the new appointed pirates of ship Visions of Atlantis.

Words & images: Lauren Allard.

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