Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It’s not every day you find a cobra on stage entertaining a crowd so completely but the difference is that this particular Kobra has got bite. A tempting creature who, had she been placed somewhere on hand in the Garden of Eden wouldn’t have had any trouble in tempting the guardians of the Tree of Knowledge into sacrificing their cushy life and no doubt which ever deity happened to be wandering past at the time, then this Kobra would have happily taken them down the path to true Metal redemption also.
The evening was set up perfectly for Kobra and the Lotus as the two local support acts gave such powerfully charged displays that any disposable battery company would surely have signed them up as endorsers had they been there.
This though was Kobra and the Lotus’ night and if their album has the supremacy in making Kobra sound in like a delighted nun coming across her Mother Superior’s secret stash of 40 year old Malt Whisky and the voice of a temptress cajoling all to join in the party, then live on stage she is more like Boudicca addressing her faithful troops. Those troops, the ancient Britons who lived to hear the command given to war may have shaken where they stood at the authority of the Queen of the Iceni, that though was nothing to the overall effect in which Kobra influenced those infront of her at the 02 Academy. Boudicca with extra guts, with more command and with that voice that makes honey seem like a second rate option when doling out the words nectar of the Gods.
To have Kobra and the Lotus come to Liverpool on the first night of the tour must have felt like finding that Father Christmas didn’t take early retirement when you were seven and instead he has been saving up all those times you were good for one very special treat in the form of this tremendous Canadian group.
With the band playing a selection of tracks from the blistering High Priestess album and a cacophony of others, this was one time in which, whilst Liverpool isn’t noted for its love of Heavy Metal, those who made their way to the Academy would have felt the stirrings of something that in years to come they will be able to crow and boast that they were there to hear tracks such as High Priestess, Battle Of Wrath, Soldier, Welcome, Forever One, Lost In The Shadows and the sensational I Am, I Am played in such outstanding fashion that for those who take stock of such things, it was like being treated to the early days of the great days of North American Metal in its absolute days of pomp and dominance.
Dominance is exactly that, for Kobra and the Lotus are going to be huge and with a statement of intent firmly laid down, they let all who made it to Hotham Street a Wednesday evening in Liverpool a night of Metal beauty and tantalising exuberance.
Ian D. Hall