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.   

Plan Nine - de Boerderij Zoetermeer, 7 June 2024

My last show before holidays was the first ever by Plan Nine in de Boerderij. This is the long lost band build by Arjen Lucassen and Robert Soeterboek. They released their debut album written in the early nineties this year. Arjen Lucassen involved means a few things nowadays. Even if he did not play half the hall was filled with people in Ayreon shirts. Second when Arjen is near a stage Lida gets involved in the hair and make-up of bands. Now that Lida part-time lives with us filling our empty nest syndrome I had to check out Plan Nine too. Well not as in being forced since I saw Robert Soeterbeek sing before and what I checked online Plan Nine would sound way more up my alley than Ayreon itself.

The evening was off with a wrong start for me. First a guy announced the support band in English. A bit pointless as later on the inbetween song banter would be in pure Rotterdams. Second he announced Nouked a band who would play a Led Zep set. What I don't like about current Boerderij is that every second band playing is a cover band. Nouked was one and maybe I like Led Zep less than I thought, but after a few songs to me a La Trappe dubbel sounded much more interesting than the band itself, so off to the bar I went.

During the break I met Lida who was done painting faces and way more excited than you would guess at our age. The stage was nice with huge screen shots switching by songs, but a bar and saloon entrance made it look a proper production. The band started and it did not take long before it would be a return to my roots musically. Robert came on in a fancy light three piece suit and when opening his voice I thought I heard traces of David Coverdale. The music was also bluesy hardrock, so I did go back to 1980 when I listened to Whitesnake a lot as one of my first loves in hardrock music. Most of the songs sounded damn fine and the band was good. Talking about the band, some known names in Dutch rock scene were part of Plan Nine. In my case mainly Ed Warby, Marcel Singor and Irene Jansen.  The first loud applaus was for the second guitarist at the end of the second song when he finally managed to join the band after lots of walking around with guitars and amps cables. The show was good and to some the highlight was when Arjen came upon the stage. I could not help wondering why all these people walking in Ayreon shirts were in. This was something very different indeed. Anyway good for the band this almost sold out Boerderij. After the set they would move to the cafe stage to sign merch. Well that queue this resulted in was for me a sign to move home. Let's face it there is a sort of religious cult sauce hanging around Ayreon and I am atheist. Still one fine evening it was and next option to see Plan Nine is at Baroeg Open Air 14 September. Those loving metal shall be in Little Devil that day, or like me at Pyrenean Warriors Open Air, with the best line-up of that date. 

Eternal Storm - Marty Friedman - Riot V - Warlord

CD's I received over the last weeks that you should hear too.

Eternal Storm - A Giant Bound to Fail

Before you start, yes this album was released in February already. Point is that after ordering swiftly thereafter I only received my copy now. This with Eternal Storm were so friendly to send a new copy. Last year Transcending Obscurity set my PR in a 4 month wait for Ashen Horde, this time they came close. Point is that they do release my favourite extreme metal albums, as again I think Eternal Storm shall rank very high at the end of the year. The progressive melodeath metal that this band presents here is nothing short from sensational. What a great band they are and what great songs they give us here. Be it long epic tracks like opener An Abyss of Unreason, shorter instrumentals or there 5-7 minute songs all hit the bull here. The voice you might recognize from recent Persefone gigs. I can't recommend this band enough, as it should also open doors to those not all that open to grunts. Check it out and be amazed too.

Marty Friedman - Drama

I first heard of Marty Friedman with Hawai, but bought his first album when he formed Cacophony with Jason Becker. Speed Metal Symphony an all time classic. Than I saw him a few times with Megadeath through the nineties. His solo work started in 1988 with Dragon's Kiss and runs until today. I have many, but not all of these mostly instrumental albums. So yes I am a fanboy and when I read this would be a more ballad like album I knew I would get it again. Marty Friedman is one of my favourite guitarists, mainly caused by his great sense for melody while going heavy as easy. This album is filled again with lots of beautiful emotional guitar work and as he said fine ballad like work. Triumph is now called official version, as I had it on two previous releases already. Maybe one day I should rank what I own by him, but that shall be hard. This album is good on a Sunday morning, while some harder rocking releases fit better at a Monday night. No matter the day of week, Marty Froiedman always is a party.

Riot V - Mean Streets

Riot released their first album Rock City in 1977 already. Their classic is Fire Down Under from 1981 and I have a soft spot for Restless Breed (82) due to youth sentiment. The band faced lots of losses over time and what we have now is a continuation with no original members around. The last I saw of Riot was Riot Act, another spin-off with almost original guitarist Rick Ventura. This Mean Streets band even changed their name to Riot V some years ago. Long story short, if you like good old Heavy Metal you should get this album. Last month  they toured The Netherlands, but with both shows far from home I missed them. Pity as I would love to see and hear if  Todd Michael Hall's voice is as awesome live on stage as on this album. I shall be able to check that out at KIT next year. For now if you like Heavy Metal you can buy this in the blind. Songs, performances and sound all perfect even the seal man biker is a funny continuation of one of metal's weirdest mascottes around.

Warlord - Free Spirit Soar

Fourty years ago I bought the album And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun.... This live album, performed without an audience holds some of Warlords classic songs. Due to little success I guess the band broke up in the late eighties and only came back at the begin of this century. I have several of their CD's, but matters became confusing when often older songs would reappear. In 2021 William (Bill) J. Tsamis passed away and as he started the band with Mark Zonder and wrote most of the songs I thought that was the last we heard of Warlord. Sad I was as I never saw them live and they were high on my list of bands I really wanted to see once. Than came the news of this new album were old songs by Bill were used as basis. No surpise that this album sounds still very typical Warlord. Metal Archives calls them Heavy Power Metal, but I would add folky influences. Warlord never were extremely heavy or fast, but always building songs around melodies. New vocalist Giles Lavery fits well to the style of the band and the guitars also remain that typical Warlord sound. While name dropping Jimmy Waldo (Alcatrazz) plays keyboards here. And the best is yet to come. Never seeing them before I now shall see them twioce this summer. 25 August in Breda (!!) and 14 September at Pyrenean Warriors Open Air. Already heavily looking forward to both.

The Hague DeathFest - Musicon The Hague, 1 June 2024

Corona killed The Hague Metal  Fest, which was mainly a Death affair, so starting a new festival called The Hague Death Fest made sense. When the line-up became known with lots of big names it was no surprise that on the day some people who bought no ticket in advance had to be sent home upon arrival. Well we were better prepared and got our ticket in time, so a long day of Death Metal lay ahead of us.

When Marko passed by my house to pick me up, Josie asked if he first wanted a coffee. I said no we can't as the first band are from The Hague and we have to support our locals. Luckily we were not the only ones, so that even at 15:00 hours Mancuerda kicked of in a decently packed Musicon. Their Death Metal is of the doomy kind and more heavy than fast. A nice opener of the day they were, with their sinister soundclips introducing songs on death and violence. 

Next band were Funeral Whore. Unknown to me in advance. The stage was dark and the songs heavy. I thought the inbetween song banter could be more than thank you The Hague and then silence. On bass I recognized Maxime with her third or fourth different band on stage in Musicon. The last song was dedicated to Arian, but I did not know why that was. 

Melting Eyes are a monster and The Hague's leading OSDM band at the moment I guess. A long stage swap meant they lost a song, but what they brought to us sounded damn fine again. Pier has a mighty grunt and if you than add a strong rhythm section and good guitars it always is a joy to see Melting Eyes on stage. Expectations were high based upon past performances and they did not disappoint indeed.Next logical steps seems to me national and international death fests.

Wound Collector from Belgium came on next, but they had a false start. Swapping the whole drum set resulted in a shot in the foot. When the band were ready to kick off, the drums were not half ready yet. So they had to cut their set and now played some 25 minutes only. Wound Collector first came to Musicon during the all seated corona sessions. I missed that, but saw them later on giving a full set picking up CD and Tee at the time. Their main difference is the very prominent saxophone from Peter. This is an audience divider, but I like the differnce during the day. What I also liked is that their music came closest to Tech Death, which on a death fest was a bit under represented (if not absent). Pity they lost time as I did like what they gave us again.

Next on were The Monolith DeathCult. Marko and Ton saw them seated during Corona and were enthusiastic about their set.My frieed Andrew wrote a raving review on Ave Noctum on their latest album. This because he is British and not German, but that is a long story. It did not take long to get what they all meant as TMDC gave us one hell of a show. Strange soundbytes and clips blended through their set it was one great show. This band has no boundaries, but are having fun on stage while presenting their hectic music. I don't know how much came of tape next to the obvious bits, but I know I did enjoy their full set. The last song started liek Van Halen's Why Can't This be Love and included an Eddie like solo. Variation enough anyone?The sound was suddenly very good too. So I picked up the CD that was recommended to me and playing it now I hear it needs some more time to digest all of it.

When Rectal Smegma started their set we were in the snackbar nearby enjoying dinner. I saw the band before and their grind is just a bit too much to me. What I did see at the end is high energy they always bring and a Musicon jumping along. So definitely a success on the day, just musically too far from my comfort zone to really enjoy.

Bodyfarm are among the very top of The Netherlands Death Metal scene. The story of the band and the sad setbacks are known. Even more amazing how strong they are nowadays. What I like most about them is that their Death Metal is accesible. Lots of plain Heavy Metal is blended in their sound and the grunt is understandable too. 40 minutes for a top act like this means they have no time for bullshitting around and definitely among the highlights of the day again.

Stillbirth are from Germany and these brutal detah metallers brought a lot of merch. Anyone knowing my story understands that I won't be wearing a cap, bermuda or T-shirt with Stillbirt printed on it. When they hit the stage with surfboards and in colourfull bermudas, they first all took of their shirts. What followed was slam detah core or something, but not something that kept my attention spanned. Marko and I agreed that they suffered from the Ancient Rites syndrome. Meaning that band earlier this year closed a festival after Bodyfarm and could not follow them up. To us Stillbirth could neither and we decided to call it a long death metal day and cycle home. Great to see Musicon packed today with all generations in too. Hoping for a repeat next year ( TechDeath included pls) and so happy that this festival replaced Kaderock when I won't be around.

Caligula's Horse, The Hirsch Effekt & Four Stroke Baron - Boerderij Zoetermeer, 24 May 2024

In a year when de Boerderij puts on more and more cover and tribute bands it seemed right to return when they program three bands playing different kinds of progmetal of their own. Caligula's Horse came all the way from Australia for a European tour and Four Stroke Baron I saw before too. So when my neighbour Rob asked a few weeks ago if I would attend too, I realized the only answer could be yes. Rain forced me to skip a bicycle ride and take a direct randstadrail to de Boerderij hopeful of a good evening. Given the line-up I knew many ProgPower regulars would be walking around too. I must admit that given their three shows in The Netherlands I was kind of worried about turn-out this evening. Well I worried for nothing as after a calm beginning in the end de Boerderij almost filled up completely.

First band on were Four Stroke Baron. I saw them at Complexity Fest before and liked their mix of heavy music and eighties new wave on vocals. What I remembered was a bassist with long hair and an even longer beard, well he had a haircut orr jumped ship. The vocalist to me seemed much older too, than from what I remembered. The music itself did not change all that much really. The vocals now sounded like The Cure and the basis was heavy bass and drums. Drummer was to me the highight of the set, as he was tight and with drums positioned sideways you had a good look at his feets working fast. Overall tonight the set missed variation for me. So while after seeing them last time I did pick up their album I now was not tempted to do so really. Nice enough opener still.

The Hirsch Effekt are from Germany and by what I saw going around on FB they did impress some friends before. I never saw them, nor heard any music by them so stepping in in the blind it was. Well they were an energetic trio to start with. While guitarist and bassist both ran around and sang, the drummer turned out to be another beast. Initially I liked their songs, but it sounded a bit samy to me. That changed over time and they became the surprise of the evening to me. Their songs are sung in German, so they thought we had no clue what they were singing about. This was true, but not because of the language I guess. I got their latest album and shall check it out with care today. After  a slow start I did understand the hype after all.

And then we waited for Caligula's Horse. They headlined Progpower 2018, which was when I saw them before. At the time I had only one CD by them and entering, they overwhelmed that evening.  Fast forward six years and I still have only one CD by them and wondering if they could convince live again. The answer was yes they could. Caligula's Horse are to me a great live band, while on CD I find them a bit lightweight especially on the vocal front. Live vocals do not turn harsh, but Jim Grey is a great frontman and brings the songs to live. Star of the evening was without a doubt Sam Vallen on guitar. Whether it was melodic soloing, or  boosting up the songs riffing away he was among the very best on six strings (or was it seven to be prog?). So basically the experience was pretty similar to me as in 2018. Caligula's Horse are a great live band. One final comment was on their set build up. They kept on talking about time travelling and took us all the way back to 2015 (?). That is not time-travelling in my musical world. in 2015 I was old and bold and in 2024 I still am. But this minor point should not stop anyone going to see them in Amsterdam or Masstricht this weekend.