Armored Saint - Crown Lands - Master Massive - Voivod

Four albums you might like to check out for an even better summer.

Armored Saint - Emotion Factory Reset

Underdogs, but that was Raising Fear almost 40 years ago. Still I never got why Armored Saiint are not huge in metal land. Like on Alcatraz where they play again before shitbands like Body Count and Slaughter to Prevail. Well not my problem, as they released another winner for me with Emotion Factory Reset. Heavy metal with lots of groove gives us with Hit a Moonshot and Buckeye new highlights in their discography. They almost make you dance here. The rest of the album is also very fine and rather heavy for their standards. 8 August Boerderij, if  you are not at Alcatraz, I guess you have to be there.

Crown Lands - Apocalypse

Fearless was my first introduction to Crown Lands and it almost became my album of the year. Who does release albums nowadays that sound a lot like 70's Rush? well Crown Lands did. Than their double Ritual albums scared me off with their ambient soundscapes.Now they are back in good form and Apocalypse should please fans of Fearless again. The closing song is the 19 minute epic title track (just like ...). My favousire song is the Fall, what an earwiurm is that, almost as danceable as Armored Saint it should be a live highlight. That is if they ever come to Europe. Progpower booked lots of bands at the border of progmetal this year, so maybe these 70's Rush soundalikes deserve a place next year. 

Master Massive - White Shadows

Sometimes it is good to read magazines for dicsovering bands I missed online. Master Massive formed in Sweden in 1993, but released their debut full lenght in 2015. I discovered them in Aardschok who reviewed album #3 White Shadows. Namedropping old Queensryche and Fates Warning made me interested at least and yes it is a good album. The different bit about Master Massive is that they have three lead vocalists. All three good, but my favourite is Masken, whose rawer edge gives the sound more of an eighties US metal feel. 7 songs over 49 minutes brings you mainly back to the eighties and that is always a good thing when done this well. Curious if they do tour as well.

Voivod - Symphonique

Metal bands with full orchestra has been done before and shall be done again no doubt. It does not necessarily mean an enhancement of the sound and results might differ. The music of Voivod has always been different and it turns out that these versions do work well. The show is an overview of mainly eighties Voicvod with some songs from more recent albums blended in. The highlight to me is Tribal Convictions when tribal drums are enhanced by a threatening soundtrack of the orchestra. The voice of Snake is always a matter of taste, but he fits very well with this orchestra backing. So overall a very nice album, that might not be for every moment.

Riot City & Aquilla - Little Devil Tilburg, 22 July 2026

"Hey mr DJ play this one for me, you now the one with the crashing and the screams" Manowar sung to us on their majestic debut album Battle Hymns. Well anyone who was into just that kind of metal in the eightes and still is now, should have been at Little Devil this Wednesday night..Riot City and Aquilla transferred us way back to the eighties for some top class speed and heavy metal. Since our national rail would work against culture again, I drove down to Tilburg with Hans and Ton. Holidays did not make highways emptier, but to compensate the feared Tilburg Kermis also did not result in busy traffic or parking garages. On time we were in and let the madness begin.

Aquilla are from Poland formed in 2014, but looked more like 1984. Tight leather pants in white sneakers and the hair of the era. I once checked their music out, when they played a festival I was planning to go, but did not in the end. I remember quite liking them at the time and now got this confirmed live on stage. Heavy metal in it's purest form, with lots of fiery guitars and a strong vocalist to match it all. As far as openers go, this was one of the better matches with the headliner I saw in recent times. They went down well with the audience and won over some new fans I guess. One detail the antfucker (dutch expression) in me found funny was the shouting along bit. We were asked to shout along with something and steel. Now I read that the song is called Steel & plunder. I guess they mean either Steel & plumber or Steal & plunder. But they are forgiven as the song was pretty good. They closed their set remembering one year since Ozzy's passing away and Barking at the Moon we did.

And then came Riot City for their first proper headline show in The Netherlands, I saw them in 2023 in Germany and was completely blown away by their power and energy on stage. Last year they played the Roadburn Pre-party and that was awesome too, even if not the whole Roadburn crowd was getting their metal brilliance. Now in Little Devil they got a venue filled with people loving their music and reactions were accordingly. As from the first notes and more important screams of Warrior of Time the place was set on fire and would not cool down for the next 75 minutes or so. Or as vocalist Jordan told us, this made it all worth the ten hour flight followed by a five hour ride. With more time on their hands we got some songs that I never saw played live before and that included 10 minute epic Severed Ties. I loved every second of thsi set and it flew by while Burning the Night with an Eye of the Jaguar and a Tyrant from Beyond the Stars. Riot City proved once again to me, that they are the future of speedmetal. Pitty that most people in were from my generation or about. Can it really be that young people prefer metalcore over this masterclass? Does not matter as long as I can attend shows this good. So when In the Dark closed the evening we could go home with a huge grin on our faces. Realizing we just witnessed one of the highlights of gig year 2026. Their European tour is short, but if you have the chance to catch them, don't miss out. Rest me to thank Mario and the crew at Little Devil for giving us this evening. For those continuing the metal today at HOA: enjoy and I should definitely look more seriously into HOA 2027.

Dutch Prog Matinee - Musicon The Hague, 19 July 2026

Dutch Prog Matinee was it called and three to me unknow bands came to Musicon. Now I was worried for it being a Sunday afternoon show during school holidays. Apart from that Musicon does not really program a lot of prog anyway. So there I went supporting the venue and the prog scene, being surprised that some 30-40 people showed up. No faces I recognized from Musicon, but opening new markets makes sense always. Today's beers came in plastic cups, as last night's national grunting championship had a fuller house. Opening band were Proxima Flare. Their prog was metal light and moody. At times making me think of A Liquid Landscape, especially on the moody parts. They were pleased with their T-shirts and stickers. Me not being a cat-man not so much impressed. Their presentation was comfortable, but they did not mention song titles. I liked the last two songs best, when the metal bit and guitar soloing increased somewhat.

Next band were called Hurryland. With a name like that I hoped for some speedmetal blended with their progmetal. Well I hoped in vain, as they mixed more jazz with progmetal. Actually instrumentally a very strong band, but with no bass on stage I heard loops and tapes I guess throughout their set. The keyboardist played his first gig with the band, so looking a bit uncomfortable with headphones on, should be forgivven. I actually liked the vocalist's voice and considered the three songs where she sang stronger than the three instrumentals. When she sang and the band played their technical bits I thought of District 97. Nice band, even if their presentation has space to evolve a bit.

Last band were Artemis from Delft. They played more hardrock, than anything prog really. The band was fine, but the voice did not click with me, being a bit over the top at times. At a certain moment did he also ask for a circle pit? well that did not happen. It was sounding fine, but after some songs I decided to go home to watch the tour de France. Turned out that when I was on my bicycle, Vingegaard fell off his. That ended the last bit of tension of this tour, but I can still enjoy the stages. Finally musically I should have gone to Breda today to see Ruthless and Mindwars in Sounddog. But I preferred staying close to home and see some sports in the afternoon and evening. Wednesday it is time for metal in Brabant. Next Prog must attend do in Musicon is in November when Changeling comes over bringing Obsidian Tide and Hyla along.

Werfpop (Textures) - Leidse Hout Leiden, 12 July 2026

Summer festivals are suffering. With the increased fees for bands, plus all additional costs the many free festivals in our region are falling one by one. Over the years (decades) cycling distance from The Hague lost Parkpop, Schollenpop, Vlietpop and Westerpop to name a few. Werfpop is still running and this year they included two metal bands to the bill. Now Werfpop is not at cycling distance on my city bike, but we have trains going to Leiden. Well that is until our national rail gets involved. So I had to make a mix, cycling 10 km to the nearest station with trains to Leiden and than train and walk. Why telling all this unnecessary travel information? Because it made me decide to go for the shorter version of Werfpop and only attend the evening. This resulted in me missing the second best band of the bill The Curse Made Flesh. I say this without even knowing them, but by seeing bits of Prins S en de Geit and Postmen, I guess it is not hard to know. Actually of the bands I did see before Textures, Arson were pretty nice. These Belgians play a sort of modern punk, post hardcore and dressed up nice they presented this in such a way, that the crowd had to move along. Not unlike Martyr they let a bottle of booze go rond, but kept control by holding the bottle themselves. Well they did get pits and even joined one at the end. plus a wall of death was made upon request by people whose dayjob obviously was not attending a wall of death.

The closing band, reason to head to Leiden and festival headliner for me were Textures. This year Textures came back after an eight year hiatus, with the very strong album Genotype. I followed Textures from the beginning and remember them playing Polars when OLS was still called OLS. Swandive! Later on I would see them several times and before their end they headlined a Saturday at Progpower too. The current line-up of six is very strong and live they always prove why they are Holland's biggest Progmetal band. Vocalist Daniel de Jongh was also playing Werfpop with Crown Compass last time I was at Werfpop, but for Textures it has been ten years to be back. Now I don't take notes and with Textures I cannot place all songs immediately with title and album it came from. So opener was a tape Void from Genotype and I think we did get A Seat for the Like-Minded too. Basically what we got was one hour of progmetal build on grooves and melody. with vocals going from clear to extreme and heads would bang. A very nice way to end a pleasant evening in the park, which justified taking poor train connections.

Masacre & Dauthuz - Musicon The Hague, 7 July 2026

Tuesday night and the worldcup is on with two matches. So I was in doubt, but in the end I preferreed Colombian Death Metal over Colombian football's first half. So after a long break back in Musicon I was. Two bands on the night means always a more relaxed time schedule, so at 20:30 Dauthuz kicked  of. This gave me time to read on whatsapp that once again Argentina won with opponents complaining about the referee.

Dauthuz opened and these Noord-hollanders play death metal. Quite a bit of variation through their set, so at times death doom moving to OSDM and what I maybe liked best were some guitar shredding parts as if an eighties schrapnel record was blended in. Their presentation was lively and the vocalist made sure you would not drift off in thoughts. They are over ten years around, but I don't remember seeing them before, nice band they are.

Headliners tonight were Masacre with one s from Colombia. Formed in the late eighties and  releasing their debut full lenght Reqviem in 1991. I never heard of them before and went mainly to support the underground, Musicon and Colombia. Checking their discography I noticed their last five releases since 2020 are all live albums. I saw noone recording tonight for a live in Musicon album. That would be a short album anyway, as it seems that they played a festival set only tonight lasting some 45 minutes. But what they played sounded very nice. Especially the duelling guitars were to my liking.  During the set we also got the chance to improve our Spanish when vocalist Alex asked us to shout along. I recall shouting along Hijos da Puta and Imperio Del Terror. At the end many times Death Metal Forever was shouted which gave the closing song more of a Power Metal feel really. When all was over Colombia were closing their first half against Switzerland, so I sort of rushed home. Next time Masacre come over I will get one of their albums in Spanish, as I need to upgrade my Spanish anyway for South American guests in Brazil. Now I left pleased that I decided to revisit Musicon after almost three months and getting confirmed music always beats football.

Dimhav - A Forest of Stars - Psyclops - The Scalar Process

While in Brazil my CD purchases always tend to lack behind. In that case I go more to bandcamp. So herewith 4 very diverse albums I bought the last two months.

Dimhav - Ondine

Dimhav are from Sweden and they play porgmetal with power metal traces, just like we know from Sweden over the decades. The band consists of two brothers Olle and Staffan Lindroth. They take care of all instrumenst and as vocalist they called in Daniel Heiman. Now that was a smart move as vocals are top on this album. The songs themselves are also great, even if not all are stuck in my head yet. That is not strange as seven songs lasting together over an hour, you  do the math. The power metal influences makes it sound more like 1996 than modern progmetal bands. I love this style of progmetal, but PPE seems to ignore it alltogether this year. Check Dimhav out, apparently this is album number two, so I might have to explore their past too.

A Forest of Stars - Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface

Now here is a challenging band: A Forest of AStars from Leeds. They play Black Metal, but of the avant-garde kind with folk influences. I discoverd them on their last album, which I ended not picking up in 2018. Now they are back with another long ride. six songs totalling 73 minutes, so do the math again. Their long songs mean they are not in a rush. The vocals are not singing, but more reciting. The music has an eary haunting atmosphere over it. An interesting album, which needs some time to consume. Especially those into a band like Dodheimsgard should check this out.

Psyclops - Bound to Burn: Melody of the Martyr

Is it an EP. or is it a full album? Who cares, this is my progmetal discovery of 2026 so far. It also is not an album, but a multimedia project where a comic book is added to the lyrics and I don't know what more. Now I don't care about comic books, but very good music makes me happy. We get modern progmetal here, with old-skool progmetal leanings at times. Both the clean and grunting vocals are pleasant to my ears. Musically there is enough power and speed in their prog to keep matters exciting. The 13 songs include three triple part anthems, so it is all a bit confusing on that front. I sneaky hope that PRR have to cancel their Progstorm appearance and Psyclops step in. I mean I am even interested in their 43 page comic book, that comes along with the album. If you like progmetal in any shape or form, you should listen to this album.

The Scalar Process - Agnomysticism

I think it has been proven that if you have to fight yourself through days speaking hte horrible French language, you seek solace in technical death metal. I can't explain otherwise why so many great tech-death bands are from France and the French speaking part of Canada. The Scalar Process released their second album, but were new to me. I actually first bought their sweatpants, as my old  Pagan's Mind one was worn out. This was when it was still cold around February. The album was released 29 May only and I bought it on bandcamp too. Their tech-death has more accessible parts woven in and should appeal to those into progmetal not afraid of grunts too. I now picked up my sweatpants with my neighbours and I can proudly wear them over winter, as The Scalar Process deliver for when I need to hear my metal fast, furious and technical.

Dream Theater - Vivo Rio, Rio de Janeiro 10 May 2026

Dream Theater in Rio that is a long time ago. Last time I saw the band in Rio was 1998 when they had their Falling into Infinity warm-up shows in Brazil. Now I have seen them since several times, but stopped going every tour since the nineties already.  Ocassionally I go and they are always good. But for me Dream Theater are among those bands whose first three albums are their best and never matched that level later (same for Metallica, Def Leppard or Leprous to name some varied bands).  So when tonight people around me started singing along with lyrics of more recent albums I tend to only recognize the chorusses, without knowing which album it is coming from. Somewhere between Six Degrees and Train of Thought I stopped knowing albums through and through. Tonight's show would hold three parts, so a big part of the surprise was gone regarding the setlist. To give the evening a bit of an old-skool feel, outside you could buy bootleg Tees for 80 Reais, while inside same would cost 220. Unfortunately the nice dark red one with the brazilian tourdates on the back, did not come in my size.

Inside at 19:30 a tape told us the house rules and to be ready as the show would start soon. Strange enough we then got 30 minutes of ambient elevator music without much action. At 20:00 the show properly started and the first part tonight was a full performance of Parasomnia. The comeback album with Mike Portnoy and back to the old style. I still do buy all new DT albums, but often I play them a few times before archiving. Replaying this one recently it actually is a fine album and seeing it being performed live made it even better for me. One question with each DT show is, how is James LaBrie's voice tonight. When after an instrumental song and a long intro for Night Terror he came finally on, his voice could not be heard at all. Worried I was, but the soundman corrected it after some 30 seconds. Actually his voice was fine tonight and I was more confused by his constant disapperances (which is nothing new). I guess amongst all Dream Theater nerdy fans, there must be someone who actually timed his on stage time over a whole show. It is a bit like timing actual playing time at a Portuges Football match. But I am not in the anti-LaBrie camp and liked his performance tonight. Same can be said for the whole band really and Mike Portnoy is more of a natural leader watching over us form a height. Parasomnia was good, with to me most remarkale that the ballad was the highlight, since Bend the Clock closes with a beautifull guitar solo. At the same time the closing epic The Shadow Man Incident is least interesting to me, as it sounds like Dream Theater by numbers, with nothing really new.

After a 20 minute break with far too long queues at beerticket and bar service we got the last part of the 40th anniversary tour. The last part as this was the one but last show of their 19 month world tour. This is where I noticed a difference  between my taste as one of the oldest in and the general younger public. Singing all the lyrics along of The Enemy Inside and Rites of Passage is no option for me as I don't know all the words. I came most interested during Under Peruvian Skies and Take the Time. Talking about the  audiece a bit as I saw today on TV an artist telling that a live album was best shot in Brazil as all bands in the world consider it the best crowd. Ok the singing along and the hey hey hey shouts were loud, but there is a serious problem. Brazil has a mobile phone issue at shows. Not at underground shows I attended, but teh bigger ones. The number of phones going up filming full songs was absurd. And not standing at the side, but centre stage and spreading like a disease. When Mike Portnoy than also asked twice for people to light their cellphones the chaos was complete. A guy before me was at times making selfies of him siinging along with the music. Being a dwarfsize I bombed many of his videos with a bored face above him. Anyway the overview held surprises and Scenes From a Memoryis still not my favourite DT album.

The last part was bringing me back to Bospop in the mid nineties as A Change of Seasons was played in full. This epic is so much better than the one closing Parasomnia so a worthy closer of the evening. The full EP playing was announced on the poster so no surprise, but what a nice way to end an evening with Dream Theater. A three hour set including 20 minute break showing again why Dream Theater are the biggest Progmetal band. I loved the full night, but also realized it shall never be as good as the Images and Words  or Awake tour passing Vredenburg in the nineties. or staying in Rio neither as great as the Falling Into Infinity warm-up show of 1998. My next DT show shall probably be around 2030 and I shall like it again.