Tygers of Pan Tang & Fearwell - Musicon The Hague, 14 July 2024

Tygers of Pan Tang playing Musicon nice. At the time of booking this show I am pretty sure noone relaized that Holland might be playing a Euro 2024 final. So timing moved from evening to potential afternoon back to evening. This as one German referee decided Holland should not play the finals. Just kidding, Holland played poor most of the games and Spain were the only country deserving to win this title.But with the final becoming not of my interest I was glad to be back in Musicon for some good old NWOBHM. Luckily I was not the only one as turnout for a Sunday night was good. Unfortunately Razorbalde Messiah had to pull out on the day due to illness. Expecting to see them anytime soon again.

Now it was up to Fearwell to open up the night. Fearwell are from Leiden and they play a heavy kind of power metal. Actually they play fairly nice. I saw them before in Musicon presenting their only album Well of Fear. They played most of it, but skipped the long epic Battle in the Bay of Matanzas. Maybe good as that song holds the Dutch National amthem and pictures of bored Dutch football players would come to mind. Their stage outfits are somewhat strange as black capes are worn over army trousers and bermudas. The chains on stage apparently come from a game, but not being a gamer myself I did not get that link. Good band from the region and bringing fans along too.

Tygers of Pan Tang played Musicon before corona and they released a new album plus live one since. Willing to pick up the Live CD it was sold out after the show. Being originally an English band they did not need to see the Euro finals themselves. I thought that an English flag was hanging over one amp, but closer look made me realize it was Sardinia flagging caused by guitarist Francesco. With the vocalist Jack Meille being Italian too it is now a mixed band. Robb Weir is the only original band member, but I do like the current line-up. I thought the band playing very tight. Like other shows by them I saw the past decade they do not only focus on their old albums, but blend in songs from later albums too. Yet of course the favorites to many are those from the early eighties. Opening with Euthanasia and Gangland early in the set got us rolling and the atmosphere stayed up throughout. Those who saw Tygers of Pan Tang before know that the encore is always a weird mix for Dutch fans. First their best song Hellbound gives a total party, after which Love Potion No. 9 is a total downer. When Tygers released that song Lee Towers had a hit with the same song in Holland. It was probably the reason why their career was heading for the ground in Holland (see what I did there?). Actually hearing the song and the solo it is not as horrible as we always thought, but after Hellbound nothing stands up really. All in all one fine evening in Musicon again. I told a friend who invited me to watch the football, that I woudl pass for extra time after the match. When I was on my way to him  Oyarzabal decided differently. So Music it was, beating foootball as it is supposed to be.

Amerikan Kaos - Ghost on Mars - The Monolith Deathcult

It turns out to be one of those years, where keeping up with new releases just does not work for me. Herewith three more albums released a while ago, you might want to check out.

Amerikan Kaos - Armageddon Boogie

It was quiet in the Annihilator camp for a while. Now we know what Jeff Waters has been doing over the past years. He wrote three albums a bit different from his usual Annihilator stuff. Armageddon Boogie is the first one released and his ode to melodic hard rock from the eighties. So suddenly we received the perfect summer album in a year with no summer. The Pasadena Four is his ode to Van Halen and possibly the best song on the album. Than agin I like all songs and especially those who can apreciate The Nightflight Orchestra should check this out. Very nice flowing album with great vocals by Chandler Mogel. Next album has Stu Block on vocals. All That Jive follows March 2025, so I will get that one too. Apparently there is a game attached to the albums, but I am not the most fanatic gamer, so did not look that up really. Great fun sunny album.

Ghost on Mars - Out of Time and Space

Italy in metal mostly goes into the direction of  powermetal at first thought. Those in the know also appreciate prog bands like Kingcrow, DGM, Pentesilea Road and Eldritch. Now there is a band from Rome formed in 2019 amd releasing their first full lenght this year. From the first clips I heard I thought these guys can go far. That is far in our tiny progressive metal niche. The songs all speak and the performances are great. This is progmetal with some djenty touches, but all very good. At times a grunt heavies up the songs, but that is hardly needed. This band offers a great debut album and I guess it won't be long before we see them on a certain stage in Baarlo. One of the better progmetal discoveries of the year so far.

The Monolith Deathcult - The Demon Who Makes Tropihies of Men

This Dutch band is around since the start of this century and yet I missed them so far. It was their fantastic set  at the first edition of The Hague Death Fest that made me pick up this album. I heard of them and read about controversial quotes, but missed their music. Well glad that this a thing of teh past, since what I saw on stage was one rollercoatser of symphonic Death Metal with electronics blended through. On album at home you can never repeat the impact of a live show, but they come close. Apparently two songs were released before, but the flow of the album is great. The Monolith Deatcult bring the term bombastic to new heights here. What a pounding machine they are and what an overwhelming sound. This is not for every moment every day to me, but when in the mood an absolute winner of original Death Metal. For a full on great review check out Andrew's words on Ave Noctem. Live show in the area by them I won't skip any longer.

Alkaloid: Bach out of Bounds XL - Paard The Hague, 4 July 2024

Alkaloid are one of those tech death bands who are somehow linked with Obscura. Even if I learned only yesterday that Christian Münzner left the band this year. Alkaloid were approached by Dordrecht's Bach Festival if they could work on a show mixing Bach with Metal. While stating later they went out of ther comfort zone, they picked up the challenge. Last weekend their debut was played in Dordrecht. Next to the band as a five piece two female vocalists joined in and also two violin players one accordeonist and a cello player. I did not really know what to expect, but as I liked Alkaloid's debut album pretty much, curiousity brouht me to het Paard. The show was being played in the small hall and (tiny) chairs were put in place for an all seated event. The audience was also a blend of styles. A small majority were metalheads coming for Alkaloid. Another part seemed to be Bach interetsed and I guessed some conservatorium students wanted to see what this blend of styles resulted in. Luckily I did bump into some known faces, so not going alone trouh the motions tonight.

At 20:25 everyonne was asked to move up and pick a chair in the hall. When all members hit the stage it did not take long to realize I would like this. The show started with an Alkaloid song (don't ask me for titles) and the blend of all instruments within the music sounded fine. Next was a Bach suite in full and the mix of guitars soloing along the chamber orchestra setup was good again. Now I can admit, that I am not overly familiar with everything Bach, but as always with classical music for me, you do recognize the odd bits and pieces. Hereafter the evening would meander through songs without the vocalists a smaller setup for some parts and full stage performances. After some 45 minutes we got a break, needed to strech backs and legs. After the break a new song written by Alkaloid in the spirit of Bach was presented telling a long story, that I could not follow on the lyrics anyway. A same mix as before the break was presented. It was funny to see in the audience, how the metal part automatically nodded their heads along with the metal, while others kept necks and heads remarkably still all the time. While being a string of highs Alkaloid saved the best for last. The regular set ended with I believe The Funghi From Yuggoth. Here we went all out tech death until an instrumental part at the end was transfered to cello violin and drums. For me the highlight of the evening. It was great to see how the band watched smiling along too and the other way around the orchestral players also had huge smiles at times observing the metal around them. When all were standing up applauding we did get one more song and were asked to stay on foot (hurrah). One fine closer followed and I believe all agreed that this show was something special. I know many people from the Progpower camp who would have loved to see this. The good news is you have one more chance when 10 November a same show is played in Den Bosch (even if without XL behind the event name). I myself just checked teh German dates Akaloid are going to play with Obsidious later this year. Unfortunately I am not around those Decemer days, as I would consider a roadtrip. Once again it was proven that open minded going outside comfort zones does pay off. Also again it was shown that if the world would live by metal rules, we would all be better off. Different worlds met tonight on stage and in the audience and it just turned into one big happy place. A great initiative coming from Dordrecht resulting in an even better outcome.