This was a late decision indeed. Sold out to my surprise I only found the day before that I could maybe make it after all. But than how to get a ticket? Henriette came to the rescue, but get well soon Harry. This trio was interesting as two headliners play a progressive kind of death metal, with the opener being unknown to me. When entering de Nobel apart from Henriette, Ramona and Jeffrey Bday were inside already. It was good to see that Stephan made it as well, since I was afraid I knicked his last minute ticket option. So this PPE crowd were all very aware of Persefone, but also Ne Obliviscaris was known and seen before by us, so let the fun begin.
The Omnific
11 days ago I saw Ross the Boss and commented how good it was to see Manowar songs without Joey de Maio's bassturbations. So when to me blind spot The Omnific came on I saw drums and two bassists. Well that meant a lot of bass and explained Stephan's comment on the dominating bass in this band. I had to get into them slowly, but found it hard to keep the attention spanned. There was a difference in styles between the songs, but I can't see this working at home on CD. Live it was better also due to the sympathetic presentation. However, talking into the mic should be trained as now half their banter went missing.
Persefone
Persefone are one of those bands who made waves recently, while being known to Progpower attendees for years. Apart from Baarlo I also saw them in Duycker where they played for a not so filled hall. So seeing them now at a sold out Nobel, with a prog death crowd was a party. Loud reactions, circle pits and as a highlight a guitar solo in the audience, made this a very energetic and lively performance from both band and audience. What was more important the sound and band were possibly better than I ever saw before with Persefone, A very tight show, with excellent mix between clean and grunted vocals. After the show I commented to Jeffery that I never saw the vocalist this relatively calm. Turned out that Marc Pia was not singing (mind you I thought he grew his hair during Covid, which is not all that strange) There also was no bass on stage, which was acceptable after the Omnific just before them. A setlist with many songs from their best album Spiritual Migration and Paul Masvidal participated from tape as well with Living Waves. An absolute highlight and I don't know if substitute vocalist Dani tells this every night, but their best show of the tour so far sounded like he meant it and I can understand why.
Ne Obliviscaris
Headliner this tour are Ne Obliviscaris. I thought in advance it was a double headline tour with equally popular bands, but where Persefone got some 45 minutes,Ne Obliviscaris played double the time. Headliner or not, for me Ne Obliviscaris struggled a bit to follow up on the Persefone high, but that could have been me. When you say Ne Obliviscaris, which many say different by the way, you can not avoid mentioning the violin or as it turned out for me the bloody violin. I saw Ne Obliviscaris before seven years ago when they played with Enslaved. At the time they supported their Citadel album. Now I have that one and there is a violin, but not all the damn time. This evening it seemed to me that all songs had many changes in tempo with the violin being dominant and it broke the flow at times. The audience also needed time before the first pits returned. On top of that the split between clean and grunting vocals was a bit messy in the mix, with at times grunts being seen, but not heard. This is especially a pity as also Ne Obliviscaris had a substitute vocalist, who in ten days managed to absorb the full setlist. Now I start pretty negative, but the band themselves were great. Instrumentally top notch and also the songs being long and travelling. Maybe to no surprise my highlight came in Devour Me, when the revisited Citadel and the violin stayed where it should be on a standard. The crowd loved them as well and the maidenlike whoooohoooohooo went loud through the hall at one point. For me maybe not as good as Persefone, but definitely very enjoyable. When they wanted to take a picture with me (and the rest of te crowd) at the end I had to rush off catching my train, but a fine evening was had, even without the total PPE hoooooaargh squad due to other shows and obligations.
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