It’s quite arguable that there is one man responsible for spawning absolute legions of symphonic metal – and we popped over to Paris to see him perform a rare live show.
[date]24th April 2016[/date]
[venue]Palais des Congres[/venue]
[city]Paris, France[/city]
That man of course is Hans Zimmer. A man who has written countless numbers of award winning scores to films of epic proportions. Why is this man relevant to metal you ask? Well symphonic metal giants have cited Zimmer as a major influence into their works, most notably Nightwish mainman Tuomas Holopainen has directly spoken out as the Gladiator film score being one of his favourite albums of all time. To see such a decorated musician perform this influential music live was simply a must for us.
Playing a 5,000 strong venue on a rainy Sunday afternoon in Paris. Zimmer casually strolls on stage and donned in white, and begins playing the piano to kick off a showcase medley to demonstrate the phenomenal talent of the musicians he had brought with him, talent that included the likes of guitar virtuoso Guthrie Goven and Michael Eisinger of Incubus. Straight away the audience knows that they were in for something special.
Zimmer intermittently speaks to introduce each soundtrack medley before playing it, with the set being decided on the most popular film scores he had produced in a relatively chronological order. Beginning with the massive opus of ‘Crimson Tide‘, the back curtain raises to reveal a full orchestra and choir to lace the complex music with every natural element possible. The sounds that the whole unit were producing throughout were progressively more jaw-dropping, as the mastery of every instrumentalist ensured a flawless touch to each bombastic note.
Of course Zimmer brought out the fan-favourites in the set, including that of the brutal sounding ‘Dark Knight‘ medley that allowed Guthrie Goven to crack out the low distorted notes of his 8-string Steinberg, and the epic hooks of the ‘Pirates of the Carribean‘ medley. Others included a moving performance of ‘The Lion King‘, the eclectic ‘Thin Red Line‘, and the deep, dark ‘Interstellar‘.
Throughout the performance, from our point of view it was near impossible not to make the symphonic metal connection, and the live execution of the soundtracks made it more obvious just how much influence these tracks have had on forging the giants such as Nightwish and Epica. What was huge about this performance though was that the orchestrations were not fitted into a backing track like your standard symphonic metal show, everything was live, and it’s an obvious feat but worth noting – the live instruments make all the difference.
It was a special thing to see. A man that has had a special place in metal humbly perform his soundtracks that have been heard by 100’s of millions across the world, and after 30 years in the industry, his facial expressions tell it all. Hans Zimmer loves what he does, and doesn’t even take any notice of what a phenomenal talent he truly is.
Horns up Hans!
