Europe - FM - Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock - Trespass

Earlier this week I shortly reviewed 4 new Progmetal bands worth a try. Now I go somewhat further back in time with 4 bands I liked in the eighties and had on either LP or even cassette. As they all four proved recently their total relevance until today, herewith some pointing into the right direction:

Europe - War of Kings.
I turned a great fan of Europe as from their debut LP. Being Swedish, but very much aligned to the British Classic Hard Rock bands I loved their first two albums. And then came The Final Countdown, which made it less cool to like Europe. It took them some time, but they came back stronger than ever some ten years ago and new album War of Kings is a total Classic Rock album. With Joey, John and John from the original line up still there they play this  Bluesy hardrock that goes down easy, while displaying the class act they are. Europe touring all over Europe this summer and I might catch them first time ever.

FM - Heroes & Villains
FM was Britain's answer to the hundreds of AOR bands coming out of the USA in the eighties. I have their LP Indiscreet and opener That Girl still stands strong as a must have AOR song. They also returned years ago, or never fully disappeared, but I lost track of them. Now they released Heroes & Villains and basically nothing changed from 30 years ago. Top level AOR that is what we get. Opener Digging up the Dirt still reminds me strongly of Def Leppard, but than we get FM as we know it with mid tempo rocksongs and some ballads all thriving on Steve Overland's remarkable voice. Of course Frontiers is behind this release as this label is keeping the eighties alive.

Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock - Spirit on a Mission
Michael Schenker is god on guitar. His UFO and early MSG years even made me pick up a guitar (to very little succes I must admit) and lately his live shows are better than they have been the past 30 years. Now with a stable Temple of Rock line up he even manages to release an album as good as their recent live work. Doogie White is the perfect vocalist for the current band and with a Scorpions rhythm section and Wayne Findlay on Guitars and keyboards we get 12 hard rock songs at highest level. Not really found a favorite yet, I feel the end is even better than the begining with some more uptempo Findlay cowritten work. Schenker has a long and bright future ahead it seems, who would have thought that not so very long ago.

Trespass - Trespass
I never owned a Trespass LP, since as far as I know they never released one in the eighties. When some years ago I got a collection (The Works) I did recognize some songs and found I had these on cassette form Metal for Muthas II. One being their "hit" One of These Days, while Stormchild also sounded familiar. Bright Lights I knew from taping Stampij a hard rock show from the radio, when Hard rock still got some exposure in Holland. Learning their other work I found that all to be among the best released in the NWOBHM days. Now they reformed, played Brofest and received a review from John Tucker pretty similar to my last year's Stampede experience. Releasing this CD with new versions of old songs shows how good and timeless their songs are. As they are going to commemorate their return in a small theater in their hometown Sudbury early July, I decided I want to see history happening and booked ticket and flight already. Very good Melodic Heavy Metal, tragically ignored by the labels and thus masses.

Codex - Vola - Native Construct - Iris Divine

In another attempt to rush through 4 CD's that I believe people should check out, I this time stay within Progmetal territories. Still spanning a range of tastes though, I do recommend the following albums that all show progmetal has new bands breaking through at very high level all the time:

Codex - The Peace Paradox
Great to find a Dutch band playing metal without female vocalists destroying the fun. Codex even play one of my favorite types of Progmetal being technical and heavy. Stylewise Spiral Architect or Scariot come to mind and even at times the mighty Psychotic Waltz. While not yet as good as the above mentioned bands I would love to see them live and see them perform these songs on stage.

Vola - Inmazes
Danish band Vola released ths album originally as a download only. Liking it on bandcamp I was pleased to learn that they sold enough downloads to publish a CD as well. Great band playing djenty progmetal, with also very accesible melodies combined. Therefore I think of Voyager at times. Great variation and another example that djent and progmetal are basically drinking from the same source.

Native Construct - Quiet World
This is by far the most difficult CD to get into of this list. Three Berklee School musicians (the one that gave the world Dream Theater) showing (off?) that there are no boundaries in music. Mostly alike Queen they pass the nervous bits of Haken, some Beardfish and extreme metal with occasional grunting into a really different mix. Getting better every time I hear this, uncertain how it stands over time. Not for the traditionalists, very uncomfortable and attention required.

Iris Divine - Karma Sown
Saving the best for last. This album is a strong contender for album of the year in my view. For positive and detailed descriptions I can recommend DPRP or John Tucker online both getting and appreciating this album like me. Strangely Aardschok was not on board the new fanclub of this American trio. For me Iris Divine walk the perfect line between Heavy Metal and progressive breaks and solo's. All songs stand firm and both instruments and vocals are very strong. I noticed that on bandcamp they have another album out of 2011. Convergence only available as a free download. Guess I have to break my rule of not downloading and get that as well, since a new favorite might have arrived.

GY!BE - Paard Den Haag, 1 May 2015

Weird, Strange, slightly abnormal. An evening with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and nothing was as I expected it to be. Some 15 years ago I bought their double album Lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven. This showed an interesting build up of many instruments from slow to very heavy and than some rollercoasters along the way. Never seeing them playing live I was pleasantly surprised to see some weeks ago a poster in town for Rewire Festival (?) announcing them playing het Paard on 1 May. An evening of Post rock also sounded attracting to Roberto who had the same album and was curious as well.

And then it was yesterday. First we got treated on a support act which was easily the worst show I have ever seen. A box on a stage with some arms sticking out behind it and an ever louder getting zoom buzz or whatever. Looking to Robert in total amazement noting that some people actually watched the stage as if this was a normal show. Well way above our heads we decided like many others to hide in the bar downstars and get a beer. The soundman first walked the hall checking the sound and when I complimented him that he nailed it just fine a blank stare came back as seriousness ruled over humor this first of May.

Then came the band and to state a storming entrance would be exagerated. Actually one by one the 8 GY!BE members came to the stage and started tuning their instruments which continued into the first song. A song takes normally some 20 minutes or more so we had a lot of time to get into the mood. Some blurred screen shots passed by later turning into construction sites and fast moving numbers. This all participated in getting you into a state of floating around. I was at times floating in space indeed, while at other times I got bored and thoughts drifted away. The next five songs would basically continue the same, which meant a full two hours of show. With two drums, two basses three guitars and one violin there was space to create a lot of noise and so they did. When the  groove took over it actually was pretty great and people started sort of dancing. Mentioning the people, I got nothing of the evening as such and also failed to understand the crowd. All ages and types were present, but reacting to an act like this seemed kind of hard. A Band who manages to have no microphone on stage and not say one word to their audience creates some distance which for me was too hard to bridge. Maybe the fact that the band was mainly sitting on chairs and two guitarists were showing their backs to the audience did help little either. Also the pictures on the background got me confused. There must be so much they want to tell us with the images, but most of the time I had no clue what it was that I should pick up. The scrap yard reminded me of the beautiful Brazilian documentary Wasteland while at other moments the trainride bored me as daily train commuter.

So I have seen Godspeed You! Black Emperor now. Was it impressive? Definitely, was it entertaining? not really, would I go and see them again? probably not. Most striking to me was that suddenly halfway I though about The Dirt, the famous Motley Crue Biography. Being probably 100% their opposites I felt that straight forward Metal is more me than this too hard to grap outfits. Strange!  

I remember Psychotic Waltz Live

Psychotic Waltz was probably the best touring band in the nineties who kept on coming back to Holland and never stopped amazing us with their great shows. As this year we comemorate 25 years of a Social Grace and 24 years of their Dutch debut at Dynamo Open Air I went through my collection and played all their 4 albums again this week. It struck to me how good all these CD's still are and what a pity it is their new album still is not there. Regarding "A Social Grace" their debut I can be short. Anyone into progmetal simply can not afford not to have this genre defining album. The next three albums also are in my view must-haves with their until today last album Bleeding out of 1996 showing shorter songs, but including my possibly favorite Psychotic Waltz song "Morbid". Psychotic Waltz always stood for heavy double guitars, technical metal, great vocals, intelligent lyrics and emotion.

How good their CD's might have been Psychotic Waltz really was a band to see live. I Remember (pun intended) their first appearance in Holland. Dynamo Open Air 1991 being the opening band. The guy walking on stage with his backstage pass over a T-shirt turned out to be Buddy Lackey when he suddenly grapped the microphone and joined the band. The far to short set was received glorious and the band asking/begging to play one more song at the end which was brutally denied by the organization.  Luckily only few months later they came back and we saw them in Scum in Katwijk (a place they would return to many times) Given their time they just kept on playing and even with only one album they managed to go on for almost two hours. Covers would in the early days come from Black Sabbath in Disturbing the Priest or Ozzy's Diary of a Madman. From then one I believe they toured Europe twice or more after each album release, so loosing count I saw them many times between 1991-1997. Even my interrail holidays made me make a detour to a rockbar in a village near Heidelberg and some years later Vienna to see them abroad as well. They definitely were the live band of the nineties to me.

And the they were on the road again some 4 years ago. Touring with Sympony X and Nevermore I saw them in Amsterdam and their again too short set did show us that they still have it. A year later they played German festivals and Greek shows which I missed and then it got quiet. Following their webpages sometimes news on recording a new album comes up, but I do not know where and what they are at at the moment. So as I 'm laying Down I 'm wondering, Where are all the people now. Just come back for One Night of Calm through The Netherlands.

Thunder - Wonder Days

Thunder are back! This just puts a smile on any melodic rock fan's face, as Thunder always guarantee quality. Their Bluesy hardrock with the remarkable voice of Daniel Bowes stands for having a good time. Thunder don't have pretentions and just make music to enjoy themselves and their audience. This new album after their surprising come-back is basically the same we came to know from them, which is a good thing.

Wonder Days kicks off with the title track, where they look back with a smile to their youth with a nice melody doing so. Nostalgia hangs a bit around this album. The cover shows them in their youth in early seventies clothing, Vinyl days are celebrated in When the Music Played and overall this CD brings us 25 years back in time when Thunder came upon the scene and made quite an impact. My first live Thundering came at Donnington 92, when I saw them playing a thunderous set during their Laughing On Judgement Day tour. Thunder also is known for their quality ballads and in The Rain and Broken we get two for adding to the long list of the same. My favorite of the album comes in The Prophet, questioning religious TV programs packed in a nice galloping riff.

So Thunder are back at their usual high level on CD. Good news I just saw is that I will be able to see if live to also remain top of the pops as they do a double in Holland when they play Bospop in July and entertain de Boerderij the evening before. At least the last one I shall attend. Welcome back boys!

Saxon - Gebr. de Nobel Leiden, 5 April 2015

Gebr. de Nobel is to me a new Live place in nearby Leiden, where they had the brilliant idea of presenting us Saxon over Easter. Looking at the forthcoming months programming The Answer, Hell Vicious Rumours and Y&T, chances are I shall be back some times. Hidden in a small alley the building after entering seems surpisingly high. Actually the big hall is that high that it becomes higher than large or wide. Confusing? think two rows of balconies on top of each other under an even higher ceiling. After approving the place, going through support act Blackbone and having some warm-up drinks we were ready for Saxon.

Saxon: Warriors of the Road a tour commemorating 36 years of Saxon was a treat to any fan of good old Heavy Metal. At the same time making you realize how old we get as Saxon was one of the first NWOBHM bands I seriously got into in 1980. Having returned to Holland quite frequently over the years the setlist contains a number of obvious classics. However the change old, newer and some some surprising oldies, made this apart from a good show also one that changed between shouting along to oh yes that one. Biggest surprises from the past were Frozen Rainbow from their debut and Suzie Hold On from Wheels of Steel. Apart from these surprises some of my all time Saxon favorites like Princess of the Night, 747, Strong Arm of the Law and Crusader came by and rocked Leiden.

Actually the band seemed to enjoy themselves, the crowd was happy and the sound was very clear and good, with Biff on great vocal performance. Downer on the evening came when one drunken bastard decided to throw a glass towards the stage during extra Wheels of Steel, hitting Biff. This pissed of Saxon enough to let go of Denim & Leather all together (which was on the many setlists passing after the show). Beats me why anyone would do such a thing, but understand Saxon being too old to take shit like that. So missing out on shouting along one of NWOBHM classic lines "Where were you in '79 when the dam began to burst?" we still had a great evening of almost two hours Classic Heavy Metal. Nothing to complain on all performances and welcoming Nigel Glocker back on drums, this turned out to be a very good way to spend Easter. 

Absolva, Rebelstar, Air Raid - Musicon Den Haag, 3 April 2015

As Musicon is probably the closest place to home where I can see live shows,I managed to miss Air Raid only seeing their last one and a half song, which sounded promising and metal. Rebelstar are locals so bringing some friends and relatives to the not overly packed Musicon. While the other two bands play music aligned to eighties heavy metal, Rebelstar comes closer to eighties hair metal bands. Sounding pretty good doing so a welcome band to see on forthcoming summer festivals in the area.

I came to see Absolva though. Last year they came with Savage Messiah to Tilburg and I intended to see them, but railway works and long delays made me stay home. Now playing around the corner a show I could and should not miss. And was I pleased to be there as Absolva turned out to be an extremely good live band. With the right attitude they managed to get the audience involved and just played on in a no-nonsense style that was much appreciated. On guitars they have Luke Appleton of Iced Earth fame, but the two covers came from other bands in "Fear of the Dark" and "Heaven and Hell". It is nice to have songs that everyone knows inbetween, but their own work stood strong enough by itself. We are Absolva and we play Heavy Metal, was the clear opning line and so they did. When seeing bands this good in such a small ambience makes you realize what the meaning of live shows is all about. You stand in front of the stage, seeing a great band working their asses off, have a beer, shout and jump along (without loosing my voice this time), get the CD bundle after the show and thank the band personally for their great entertainment. Thanks to The Hague Metal Alliance for bringing these shows to Den Haag, that many may follow. And as Absolva promised to be back touring in October November I recommend the home stayers to get of their lazy chairs and Rock and Roll. Cheers!