Mondo Bizarre Magazine

words: Raquel Pinheiro
photos: Adriano Santos/Caminhos Metálicos; Raquel Pinheiro & Rui Moura/Mondo Bizarre Magazine

I week ago I was sitting in the front row, right in the middle of the stage, when Heavenwood began their 30th anniversary concert at the Coliseu Box in Porto.

And what a place to see them.

The stage was framed by beautiful sculptures by Helder Cabral, creating something that felt entirely at home with Heavenwood. It was theatrical, completed by the backing vocals and elegant movements of Beatriz Mariano and Sandra Oliveira, without ever taking away from the songs and music. It gave the concert another, ethereal, fairies-and-deities dimension.

I have known Heavenwood since the very beginning, when they were still Disgorged, and have watched them travel a very long way from those early days. Thirty years is a considerable stretch of time for any band. Standing there watching them, the number itself became less important than what was happening in the room.

Heavenwood are often described as melodic heavy metal, and there is certainly a great deal of melody in their music. But there is groove too. A strong physical movement underneath the songs that makes them work not only as something to listen to, but as something to inhabit.

From the beginning, the set moved through different periods of their history, with Death, Moonlight Girl and Morning Glory Clouds giving way to The Empress, The Moon and Since The First Smile, beautifully sung by Beatriz Mariano.

And then there was the Tarot.

This was particularly amusing for me because Tarot had already been appearing repeatedly in my own life in the days leading up to the concert. I pull a card every day, by hand, from my Giger Tarot, and The Star has been the card that has appeared more than any other over the past four years.

Then, there I was, at a Heavenwood concert celebrating 30 years and found myself surrounded by The Empress, The Moon, The High Priestess, The Sun, The Hanged Man and The Stars, as the band moved through the music of The Tarot of the Bohemians cycle.Sometimes life does have a sense of humour.

The Hanged Man brought Sandra Oliveira to the stage for lead vocals, adding another change of texture to the evening, while Ricardo Dias dos Santos, Eduardo Sinatra and Walter Teixeira carried the band through a set that had both weight and atmosphere.

And the sound. Oh! The sound! By the latter part of the concert it was so powerful that I could feel the floorboards moving with it, and the vibes and frequencies emanating from the stage wrapping me.

I was also having a rather wonderful time air-drumming.

My the eldest of my brothers, who is an actual drummer, was beside me tapping his legs to the music, while the drummer on the other side of the aisle was air-drumming too, even more enthusiastically than him. So there I was, sitting in the middle, flanked by two drummers and joining in.

On the encore there was a great singalong to the magistral and catchy Suicidal Letters, and by the time the curtain was about to fall, Heartquake arrived, and the room had changed completely.

Everyone was standing up and dancing.The seated concert had become a moving room.

That is one of the best things about seeing a band that has been around for thirty years. The history is there, certainly, but it is not a museum piece. It is alive when the songs still move people, when old songs are sung back at the stage, when a room full of people gets up and dances.

Heavenwood’s music has always carried a particular atmosphere, gothic, dark, melodic, poetic, sometimes symphonic, sometimes heavy as hell without ever losing itself.

At the Coliseu, with Helder Cabral’s sculptures surrounding the stage, it had the space to become something else again.

This was not simply a band’s concert marking thirty years.It was Heavenwood inhabiting three decades of music in one of Porto’s most special concert venues.

For those of us who have been there for part of Heavenwood’s history, there was the pleasure of looking around and seeing how far they have travelled.

From Disgorged to Heavenwood. From the beginning to the Coliseu.

Thirty years later, still playing, blasting it, making people sing and dance.And that, really, is quite something.

Heavenwood: Ricardo Dias dos Santos – founder/guitarist/composer/vocals
Band Members: Eduardo Sinatra – drums
Walter Teixeira – guitar
Special Guests: Beatriz Mariano and Sandra Oliveira – backing vocals and lead vocals on Since The First Smile (Beatriz Mariano), The Hanged Man (Sandra Oliveira)
Sculptures: Helder Cabral

Setlist:
Death
Moonlight Girl
Morning Glory Clouds
The Empress
The Moon
Since The First Smile – lead vocals Beatriz Mariano
13th Moon
The Lightning-Struck Tower
Shadowflower
The High Priestess
The Sun
The Hanged Man – Lead vocals Sandra Oliveira
Rain Of July
The Stars
Frozen Images

Encore:
Suicidal Letters
Heartquake