Anubis - Hypnotic Nausea - Novena

Some more music for quarantaine days

Anubis - Homeless
I follow Anubis since their debut album 230503 from 2009. This australian band plays neo prog with some 80's pop music seemingly blended in mainly due to the vocals. They managed to come to Europe twice and I am pleased to have witnessed two sensational 2.5 hour plus shows first in de Boerderij cafe stage and a few years later in 't Blok. In the past I called them already a hope for the future of progrock So yes I am a fanboy and slightly biased. Now they are back with their fifth studo album Homeless. When you thought that Anubis repeats the same trick, you are wrong. While all albums had something different to them, this definitely is their to the point straight forward album. Gone are the epics over 15 or even ten minutes. We now get 9 songs which apart from opener Reflective all last around four to five minutes. And do I like this compacter style? yes you bet. Because even in shorter songs, Anubis remain challenging and interesting. I can not really mention one favorite song, but suggest you give them a try and I meanwhile hope that 2021 can bring them back to Europe.

Hypnotic Nausea - The Death Of All Religions
It is interesting how I visited Greece, finding a cancelled festival and suddenly interesting Greek Progmetal bands find me. Hypnotic Nausea passed by me without me knowing and it turns out this was my bad. On their bandcamp page someone called them a blend of Queensryche and Tool. Well I can hear the latter mainly in the heavy bass being present. Queensryche not so much, also because that band did not release many long instrumentals. This album contains quite a few and even 11 minute opener Holy City almost hits the 8 minute mark before a voice kicks in. So is this mainly instrumental music interesting enough to keep your attention close? Yes it is, although it might not be for the impatient. When we arrive at The Priest this album shows it might also atract stoner fans. Actually that is also the case for some shorter instrumentals. The title track is where matters calm down, before final long song Inquietum Cor closes the album in style. This is a 2019 release, but the title of the album was predicting 2020. The Death of all Religions, seems to be right now that even in these days of world crisis all churches and mosques appear to be pretty empty.

Novena - Eleventh Hour
I was drawn towards Novena as their vocalist is Ross Jennings of Haken fame. Well that is one of the vocals, as next to his clean voice Gareth Mason (Slice the Cake) gives us some grunts through the album. Apparently this band released an EP four years ago, but I missed that one completely. Further in spite of  members having a past in progmetal or even tech death this album is released on Frontiers Records, known for their melodic hard rock albums and keeping the eighties alive. I saw two clips posted by Frontiers for Disconnected and Sundance and thought lets try this out and I ordered the CD. Now hear comes the shock: Frontiers made some sort of inverse marketing campaign. The two songs  mentioned are by far the least interesting ones on the album. The last five songs are amazing and make this album a candidate for ending very high on my end of year list. Corazon, manages to  mix flamenco handclapping with a Spanish female vocalist next to very strong progmetal. Closing song Prison Walls is an epic, which might even have been stronger as it would have ended after the wild and heavy eruption atround the 11-12 minute mark. This album was a very positive surprise especially after the clips posted. Only comment might be the lyrics are at times impossible to follow with so many paralel singing and tiny letters over pictures, but that might just be old man me. Must hear album of the month.    . 

Waiting For Monday - Parthian Shot - God Dethroned

Some tips for the Lockdown Days.

Waiting For Monday - Waiting For Monday
Some people might categorize WFM as guilty pleasure as not being metal enough. I have no feel of guilt whatsoever, as I also openly admit that 40 years ago I did like bands like Kansas, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Suvivor and mostly Journey as well. Now this Frontiers release just fits that category. A melodic hard rock - AOR album with a great vocals and strong hooks and solo's on guitar. This new band definitely touched a nostalgic factor within me and ever since receiving this album I played it a lot. At times it brings back Journey at their peak rocking maybe a notch harder. Music that makes me happy in dark days so what's not to like.I did add a clip on my FB page for you all to get a feeling. Maybe not musically album of the year, but definitelty among those I shall play most.

Parthian Slot - Promises
Sometimes music finds me and when Panos of this Greek progmetal outfit contacted me I was interested in hearing their album. He offered to send me the album by dropbox, but I thought bandcamp would do. So I had a listen and recall liking the blend were progrock met with the heavier end of progmetal at times. Some long epic songs bookending the album and the rough edge of the voice giving it something own and not overly smooth. So now trying bandcamp again it seems I passed the limit of free listening sessions. As digital releases disappear into nothingness with me, I know from experience and no CD is available I guess I wait for Youtube to hear all again. So some hectic days have passed since I last heard the album, but I do remember I would recommend a listen really.

God Dethroned - Illuminati
I am not deeply rooted in the Dutch extreme metal scene. I knew of God Dethroned, but don't recall ever seeing them live. When even people like Matt the man of much metal started hyping this release I wanted to give it a try for sure, both live and on album. Then that February weekend came, when they had release parties and Baroeg was included. In those days we still thought heavy storms and rains were our main problem of the start of the year and I was afraid trains would not bring me home. So I skipped the trip to Baroeg, but did order the album. Well after many spins I can safely say it might well be my favorite Dutch extreme metal album of the year, although I have yet to hear the new Graceless album. What a party of welll crafted blackened death metal with melody always playing a main role. Their April Musicon appearance was postponed in the meantime, but one day I will make up for 20 lost years. Highly recommended   

Diamond Head & Savage - Ragnarok Bree, 6 March 2020

Diamond Head coming to Holland and Belgium, so I knew I needed to catch them on tour. Their last year's album The Coffin Train made it amongst my favorites of the year and their self titled predecessor of 2016 was also that strong. It seems Diamond Head is one of those NWOBHM bands that manages to release a series of albums the last years, that are as strong as their past diamonds. I guess maybe Satan is the only other NWOBHM band managing to do the same. So going to see Diamond Head was not the issue, the question was where. They do support some Saxon these days and I saw Willem opted for Nijmegen and Ron & Astrid travel to Düsseldorf today. Yet I wanted a headline set so the choice became between Bree and Helmond, Belgium and  Holland. Tiago staying away the Friday night was one point for Bree and when I learned that Bree would bring Savage as support the choice fell for Bree.

I never was in Ragnarok before, so a new club to visit which often appears in metal gig calenders. With google maps on the computer and navigation in my car not much could go wrong. Well it turned out Friday evening roads are busy. Then arriving in Bree 1 km from the venue the road was blocked. It took many turns including unpaved roads ending in gates Before I followed advice to go against traffic a bit, before I arrived at Ragnarok. A nice little venue which holds a fairly large stage. It was nice catching up with Gerrie as well. We both agreed the new Psychotic Waltz is sensational and the last Diamond Head albums are as well.

Now we would be warmed up. Savage managed (just) to arrive at Ragnarok. Later on they told us it took them 12 hours to drive down today, so suddenly my 3.5 hours did not look all that bad. Somehow when I see Savage live lately things go wrong. On R-Mine festival a few years ago in Belgium Chris Bradley tore out of his pants halfway. When they closed Westland Metal Meeting I knew all few fans who stayed till the end watching them by name. But the show tonight was fine. The only album I have by them is their classic album Loose 'n' Lethal.Ther setlist is build around this one, but actually newer songs did fit well into the set as they were in the same style. Almost the full album came by and we were working towards the end with that song. Metallica also once coverd Savage, so Letting Loose became their hit in hindsight. Well I pretty much enjoyed Ain't No Fit Place and On The Rocks as much. Good set by this band of fathers, sons and ex-uncles.

Then the wait was for Diamond Head. Somehow the name Metallica always drops when I write about them. Sorry for that, especially if you consider the strenght of all Diamond Head's albums through the years. This when Metallica only released two half-decent albums after Master of Puppets their last real classic. Yet the royalties on Am I Evil?, The Prince, Helpless and It's Electric are probably helping Diamond Head going on in a good way. Brian Tatler released an interesting book co-written by John Tucker where you can find all the facts about this and their full history. In that book I did read that the copy I own of Lightning to the Nations is a rare one as well as German label Woolfe Records never paid any royalties either and probably max 2000 were pressed at the time. Mentioning that album it is for years the core of their live shows. Luckiliy tonight we also get several more recent songs with 3 of the Coffin Train and two from their self titled album. All five great, but especially Bones and the Messenger sounded really fine. Bones was the second song after Borrowed time in two attempts kicked of proceedings. I did not know in advance that my space at the side of the hall would mean that Brian Tatler would solo away literally 1 meter away from me. He is one of metal's unsung guitar heroes, who has an own style and makes you recognize the Diamond Head sound instantly. With next to him a young bold and bearded vocalist showing there are great new voices in metal last year's show of Heir Apparent came to mind, when another unsung guitar hero stood right in front of me next to a similar looking vocal hope for metal. The set moved through the times initially when towards the end the focus came on Lightning to the Nations Only, One song that represented the evening for me best and was maybe less obvious was To Heaven From Hell. This song starts mid-tempo and straight forward, when halfway a typical Diamond Head increase in speed turns this song into a fast headbanger. When the songs covered by those Americans passed by it always is a party when Am I Evil arrives. What a killer song and what a wonderful solo close to the end. I never witnessed this from that close and Diamond Head ruled the evening for good, I should mention the whole band actually, as this definitely is not about Brian and Rasmus only, Karl Wilcox hits hard and heavy, while Dean Ashton was new to me on bass and solid. That other guitarist is Abbz and he gets his solo spots as well, which at times on and off with Brian culminating in some double solo work. This evening was so far the musical highlight of 2020 to me and the realization that the music business shalll never be fair. Why such a class act on such small venues. And when we thought it was all over after their biggest hit, they did come back. Interesting enough with the only song I do not have on LP or CD by them. Play It Loud appeared on singles, which I never bought and on the CD version of LttN. Good end of an entertaining night and the drive back home was so much smoother. Those living in Brabant and not staying home this weekend due to Coronavirus go to Helmond on Sunday. You simply can't afford to miss this.

Winterfest - Popradar The Hague, 29 February 2020

Winterfest holds an interesting setup. The building of Popradar is full of smaller and bigger venues,where many genres can be heard. The program did also hold some metal and hardrock bands, so after a reminder by Frank I decided to check this festival out. In the afternoon workshops started and as from 17:00 first bands would hit the stage.I wanted to have early dinner with Tiago first so I missed first interesting band to me Rise of the Wood. Saw them before and will no doubt see them again, so this did not hurt. Upon entering I walked a bit lost through the building until spotting a group of black T-shirts outside room 6 with several known wearers among them. So Ditch playing stoner would be the first songs of the evening for me. Unfortunately the sound was not very clear with vocals somewhat soft in the mix. Sound issues would be a reoccuring theme through the evening. After finding in the Popradar Labyrinth the Radar Zaal I found a bar and could wait for some old skool metal as the program indicated. Black Silence were announced as blending Melodic metal with Slayer, well I could not hear either. The female voclaist luckily enough did not go operatic, but sung rather raw over a fast playing metal band. A poor man's Leather was what came to mind. Pretty OK 45 minutes of metal to me.

At general music gatherings I always like to let out the amateur antropologist in me. So during Black Silence many people walked in who usually don't hear any metal music. It did not take long before I could see two main reactions. First cover your ears and look horrified. The second reaction came back even more, strike a macho pose headbang and laugh looking back at your friends. My point is if you don't get it, don't bother. There was somewhere in the building an Urban & hip-hop stage. I am pretty sure I would not appreciate the artistic level of bands and any comment for sure would insult some of nowadays easily insulted youth. So I stay away from the dump. Whatever, the Radar zaal turned out to be the place to stay for me.

Next band were Drunktank who play some sort of skatepunk mixed with at times pretty metallic guitars. Now this is not music I need to hear at home, but this band did bring an atmosphere to the stage and can create a party. Nice surprise and they even had a crowdsurfing french fan. My last band of the evening would be Rosie. I think it must have been over 35 years ago when I saw Rosie first playing. At the time they were a pure AC/DC coverband. Nowadays they have some own music released which sounds exactly like AC/DC. This resulted in a party set which towards the end even confetti and passing through the hall of drop-shots we used to drink in the nineties in places like de Paap or de Bieb. I already stopped drinking as recent health drop made me smart and limit the alcohol tonight in order not to fall back. One interesting fact about the bar was that they would reuse our glasses if you did not ask for clean ones. This at times when TV is even teaching us how to wash hands to prevent Coronavirus from spreading. But back to Rosie who ended their set with 4 AC/DC covers anyway and Whole Lotta Rosie was a nice ending for me of an interesting festival. It even stopped raining in the evening for cyclist to get home dry.

Psychotic Waltz - Pendragon - Pyramid

This year started fairly slow for me on the CD purchasing front. This mainly because I was spending some weeks abroad and I was waiting for the first album reviewed here. Now two months in the year my first tips of 2020 starting with te letter P.

Psychotic Waltz - The God-Shaped Void
Warning I am a total PW fanboy. They were after all the best live band in the nineties when we saw them play so often. Then in 2010 there was the tour with Nevermore and Symphony X. Silence followed with the announcement of a new album. In 2016 they played in Amersfoort, were amazng and already gave us While the Spiders Spin. Last year's performance at PPE was overruled by vocal and sound issues, while I still loved to see the Waltz back on stage. There is something mystical, magical dark about their music and now there is a new album. I was very curious after a long absence what they would bring on CD. At the same time Heir Apparent and Fifth Angel to name a few showed recently that long absences can result in very strong albums. I only needed one spin (of the spiders) to realize that we have a winner in our hands. It is all there again The moody heavy progmetal that sets its own standard. Favorite song? the whole album. Some more catchy chorusses, some faster bangers, some emotional intro's, some flute. Everything that made me love their music is back, which includes the nice artwork and interesting lyrics. A must buy album and now we wait for their revenge on European stages.

Pendragon - Love Over Fear
Progrock started for me with Marillion and thereafter bands like Pendragon and Pallas, before I would discover prog history. Pendragon first came to us as opener on Marillion's Misplaced Childhood tour. That is when I started to like them a lot and always did. For me Pendragon is build around the guitar and voice of Nick Barrett. Breaking te Spell does hold possibly progrock's most beautiful guitar solo. So again I am a fanboy. Yet I drift a bit away from Progrock and their last album Men Who Climb Mountains was not their best. Maybe because they said goodbye to drummer Scott Higham (also ex Angel Witch) then, who helped making the albums Pure and Passion heavier and in my ears thus better. So what to expect now, with again a new drummer? Calmness it turned out to be. This album is also released as triple with an acoustic and instrumental version. At first hearing I thought I received the acoustic album by mistake as there is no rocking going on. At times the beautiful guitar still weeps around the corner, but I was underwhelmed. Now slowly the album grew on me, but I guess I keep it for Sunday mornings and won't go to de Boerderij next week to see them live again.

Pyramid - Amnesty 
Pyramid is a band that unfortunately manages to stay under many radars. I read about them on Forgotten Scroll, but it was not untill Rune played a song of previous album Gold Tooth on his Progfiles show that I got really into them. Gold Tooth did not come out on CD, so I don't own a copy. Yet when succesor Amnesty was announced on CD I did pre-order through Bandcamp immediately. Why? because this band might be one of the best discoveries over the past years. They play Progmetal of the heavy kind, where somehow amazing technical display is packed in accessible songs that at times remind me of Zero Hour. With two members of Arch Echo and on drums Chris Quirarte (Redemption) the technical mastercraft is explained. This week I got an email stating the album is on bandcamp and before even receiving the CD I am completely sold. Nine songs all around six minutes with closer Instill passing eight minutes this band takes you on a trip that impresses. Are you listening PPE? It is bands like these that make me extremely happy to see one day. Actually they would fit technical as they are on any mainstream Heavy Metal party as well. Go check them out and you might be as blown away is I was after first hearing.

Noctem & Spectrum of Delusion - Musicon The Hague, 18 February 2020

Noctem coming all the way from Spain to play for us on a Tuesday night in Musicon. Looking at recent weekday shows this holds a risk, but as the alternative is not playing at all I guess for the band this is always the best option. Competition this night mainly by the Thrash Alliance tour hitting 013 Tilburg. I guess the restart of the Champions League did not count that much as after last week's discovery of Manchester City's cheating scheme we by now all should realize that modern football is shite. (BTW mark my words, City will not be punished for two years) But I am drifting away this Tuesday was a night for breakneck speed so on we moved.

Tonight's opener were Spectrum of Delusion from Katwijk. I did not have the pleasure of seeing them before. I say pleasure here as this Technical Death Metal band from Katwijk played very good. Maybe the songs did not stick as such in my head after first hearing, but you could tell this band could play. The many strings on stage were used well and this band turned out to be a good warmup for tonight's headliners.

Noctem played The Hague Metal Fest last year. I recalled a lot of energy coming off the big stage in the mainhall plus some locally coloured light effects. As a club is always more on top of the band I was curious what tonight would bring. An instrumental opening with attention for the heavy hitting on the floor toms until vocalist Beleth ran to the stage and we got blasted. I can say that the Technical Death Metal we heard before is more my thing than the Black Metal Noctem presented. Yet you could tell the difference in experience tonight. Noctem gave us one hell of a show, with at the right moments times to catch your breath during calmer bass or guitar parts. When during a second instrumental part Beleth went off stage in order to come back shirtless covered in blood (or a substitute to be more precise) my first thought was that this would paint my shower red later that night. Nevertheless we could see another good second half of their set. I don't really know song titles, but this band was about creating an atmosphere on stage and they did so very well. As I was receiving them in my HM B&B this evening I could get an idea on band dynamics later on. A great evening in Musicon yet again and go see Noctem on tour later this week nearby among others in Essen and Bree. In the end the shower did not turn red and some people had a long drive to Hildesheim today. Cheers!!

Complexity Fest (afternoon) - Patronaat Haarlem, 15 February, 2020

Complexity Fest 2020 became for me some sort of race against the clock. After Monday's tour of Diabolical hitting town I managed to catch a cold. This cold culminated on Thursday in a day of weakness, heavy coughing followed by a lousy night. So on Friday there was no way I could stand three hours for Arkhangelsk'CD release party in Musicon and Saturday became doubtful. Now Complexity Fest is this musical event for those liking their music heavy but most of alll challenging. On previous editions I attended I saw many bands I knew in advance and liked a lot: Disillusion, Gorod, Zeal & Ardor, Ihsahn, the Ocean to mention but a few. Further I always discovered new bands I liked, so I had my ticket bought some time ago already. Now at the same time I feel my musical preference is a constantly moving animal. This year in Q1 my musical high definitely shall be Up the Hammers in Athens next month, so pretty far from the technical instrumental masturbation we had on offer in Haarlem. Further this year's line-up was so that I only knew the opening band in advance and had on CD already. So long story short on Saturday morning I decided to go to Haarlem, by car staying far from alcoholic temptations and I would see how long I would last fit. This meant an early departure. Upon arrival at Haarlem I ran into a large group of PPE regulars who were just saying goodbye to PPE partners who were not bothered for this trip of musical madness. I guess that sums up Complexity Fest pretty well. Where Progpower is about bands who play songs Complexity is not. From my last year's 12 friends joining to PPE, I guess maximum two or three would enjoy Complexity Fest.

But I do enjoy the festival and in I went just in time to take a good place for openers Our Oceans, the band that made me drive down to Haarlem in the end. Our Oceans is a band build around Dutch ex members of Cynic and Exivious. With the recent sad passing away of Sean Reinert (Cynic's drummer) I was silently hoping to see a tribute by a song from Traced in Air. After all Tymon played on that album and Robin toured this album wth Cynic. Unfortunately this was not to be and I guess these guys were rather modest to do such thing. When after a few songs Tymon asked if he should speak English or Dutch as he thought it prententious to speak English to a Dutch audience he won sympathy points with me. But let the music do the talking. They started with some songs from the self titled debut album. Now those reading Cynic expecting technical Death Metal could not be further away really. Our Oceans plays calm music to start with, guided by high angelic humming and as a reference that other Cynic offspring Aeon Spoke at times comes close. Now Tymon's vocals were not for everyone, but did not disturb me at all. One new song was clearly heavier than the rest of the set, did hold a beautiful guitar solo at the end and made me sure I shalll pick up the second album as well. Overall the now trio met my expectations and made me already pleased I decided to go to Patronaat today. Tangled from the debut album closed the 45 minute set and now the discovery of new bands could begin for me.

Well the first discovery was for me one to forget. Goat from Japan in the mainhal were drumming minimalistically yet fast through their set, but I was still recovering from something I liked. Later on Marcel explained they played without in-ears and it was amazing what they did. Can be, but not my thing really so I was out roaming through Patronaat pretty fast. Another nice thing about Complexity is the large amount of known people from PPE walking around. Say the more open minded experimental dutch part of PPE would be here and even some foreigners normally walking Baarlo roads begin October were present. From now on during breaks in the main hall there would be paralel sets in the small hall and at the bar stage. My first choice fell on the small hall where Danish Cold Night For Alligators would play. This technical metalcore band were the first nice surprise of the day. For starters they were one of the few bands today with actually a good strong vocalist. Second their presentation was enthusiastic with bandmembers waving at us constantly. This contagious set of metal did create an atmosphere and had enough variation between the screaming bits and well sung cleaner parts. Good band that I will keep an eye on for when they return .Moving back to the main hall meant Herod from Switzerland. I saw them last year opening a tour with The Ocean. What I remembered was the highlight being latter band's vocalist joining during one song. Now he was not there and we got mainly heaviness. Nice for a few songs, but not enough happening to keep me interested for 45 minutes. So time for a Vegan Chilli burger. Yes Complexity Fest's best food stand is vegan and I would almost say obviously as it fits the atmosphere of the whole event really, so do beards by the way so I did not shave in the morning.

Next choice was to be made between Ni and Pijn. I started with Ni, but where I liked Pliniol last year I had issues getting into Ni fast and went to other instrumental option Pijn. This was much more to my liking. This UK post metal outfit played songs based upon a heavy groove which made things way more accessible. Centre stage a violin was played, although many people confirmed same could be a bit louder in the mix. This was another nice surprise for me. Stilll feeling more or less fit I decided to hang on and see one of the bigger names Thank You Scientist.  Unknown to me apart from internet bits I let myself be surprised. First song was dixieland with Sax, trumpet and violin turning out to be in the band. Yet it did hold some interesting vibe and obviously this band could play. Before the set started the vocalist made an insider joke that his butt still did hurt. When he opened his mouth I guessed his balls also suffered some heavy kicking as this was one that required a specific taste. Coheed and Cambria blended with cartoons came to mind. Pity as the band played obvously well, but it was hard to overcome. So in a final attempt I moved up to the balcony seeing if that would help by any means, but I never really managed to get into this band. Don't blame the vocalist alone, the trumpet buzzed unpleasant in my ears at times as well. Still I could see they were a good band, but probably not for me. Slowly my lack of condition was picking up, but I would try to stay and see Night Verses for a bit, as they sounded good on clips. This first meant an intermezzo with two of the weirdest bands of the day. In the bar I saw the start of Zalm. The festivalsite called this noisy one man grind punk. In reality this meant dutch samples (often funny) followed by loud screaming. Average song time some 15-20 seconds. After some hilarious laughing around it became rather quick enough to most. Then in the other hall Stuff did their thing. Well at least they played instruments, but this was also not for me.

So I did manage to see a bit of Night Verses in the end, but also did listen to my body and enough was enough. So after a while I went back to the car and home. Passing a day of not easy listening music is never easy. When you then start half fit only you tend to become more conservative. Yet I was pleased to have come over to Haarlem. Our Oceans. Cold Night for Alligators and Pijn were great and catching up with many friends you hardly see is always nice. On the program I had the impression some changes were made this year. Normally there would be technical death metal bands as well, a big name in the main hall and a smaller band on anothet stage. If you like great vocalists you were this year definitely at the wrong festival with the huge amount of instrumental acts and dubious voices. Yet it is not up to me to criticize a festival setup that obviously serves their own niche. And yes I will be back in 2021 (health allowing).