Pallas crowdfunding Wearewhoweare

Some months ago I bought the last The Tangent album to find that I missed out on their crowdfunding campaign. As I do sympathize with these actions from bands I like, herewith a short link and recommendation to visit the Pallas campaign.

Pallas are a band that always delivers quality albums and shows with a progrock with hardrocking edges, so what is there to go wrong. I ordered the CD and tried to get the calendar along, but that did not really work through their site.

Have a look at the options, which run from GBP 2 for a download track to GBP 1000 for recording a song with the band (How great is that?)
The target is GBP 5000, so come on that should be easy. I just got a confirmation after my CD purchase that they are almost halfway.

A review of the album shall follow in April / May, now go and spend some pounds supporting great bands.
www.igg.me/at/pallas

Traumhaus - Das Geheimnis

German lyrics in music, not my everyday need really. Then I went through my collection and found a pattern. Usually in November I find one album in German that fits the time of year pretty well. Autumn, wind, rain and cold do seem the perfect background for my albums from Janus, Dornenreich, Goethes Erben, Lacrimosa or The Scorpions (no that is not English Mr. Meine) Usually the before mentioned bands (apart from The Scorpions who don't know they sing in German) make a dark rock with Gothic traces. This year I found a new German Band which adds a new dimension to my collection. A beautiful progressive rock concept album sung in German: Das Geheimnis by Traumhaus.

After the relative short opener Das Geheimnis Teil 1 we get one of the best epics of 2013 in Das Vermächtnis. 27 minutes full of solo's on guitar and keyboard passing in a wave. It actually makes you think, what if they would sing in English, they might be "big" in Progland. Well the booklet translates the German lyrics, but like Scandinavian prog that makes little sense to me since reading along doesn't work on a translated version (apart from my arrogance to believe I actually do understand German reasonably well, hallo Mr. Carell) After the Epic follows a ballad and the only band written song Frei, which is more uptempo. Closer is Das Geheimnis Teil 2, which is an extended version finishing the CD in style filled up again by great solo's.

Traumhaus seem to exist many years, but only released 3 CD's so far. I heard their album first through Progstreaming after reading good reviews and it shows Progstreaming works. I followed their slogan: Hear it, Like it, Buy it. Anyone not bothered by the German lyrics and rather flat vocals, while appreciating symphonic rock with some progmetal leanings, should surf now to Progstreaming it is still available for free listening.

The Room - Open Fire

Sometimes you buy a CD. like it and don't play it that often. Than later you pick it up again, give it a spin with headphones on and start realizing it is a great album. This happened to me with the debut CD of The Room: Open Fire. Somewhere blending Prog, AOR, classic and pomp rock I love the style on display and the songs are really easy on the ear, while also showing new dephts with new listenings.

Highlights are all around, but the threatening slow built up of 16 tonnes is one of my personal faves, as well as a Multitude of Angels, which is a great melodic rock song. Actually all nine songs have their moments and going from ballad to more uptempo work there is enough variety to enjoy the 56 minutes in one go.

The members all have different backgrounds in music and to me only vocalist Martin Wilson and gitarist Steve Anderson were known from their previous (or paralel?) band Grey Lady Down. So here we have yet another British band that sounds very convincing and as I am heading for HRH Prog/AOR festival next year in Wales they might to me appear on either stage. Highly recommended for anyone liking either, prog, pomp, aor or classic rock (speaking about huge potentials)

Queensryche - Effenaar Eindhoven 1 November 2013

The story is known, Queensryche were in the eighties one of the best bands around and one of the founders of Progmetal as we know today. The first three albums can be considered Classics in the genre and ironically enough their best selling album Empire was their first hint of loosing "it". Promised Land raised our hopes again, but hereafter some very disappointing and some reasonable albums were released. Geoff Tate also showed through the years that he could not reach his old form anymore, which even started impacting live setlists and styles on new albums. So yesterday the Effenaar was packed with people hoping to see that new vocalist Todd la Torre would make the eighties come back to live. And wishes can come true, since we saw a very convincing Todd on vocals and easily the best Queensryche show since the early nineties.

The band opened smart with Queen of the Reich. Their hit from the debut EP long disappeared from live shows and did set the pace, the vocals and the atmosphere. Standing fairly far to the back I could notice the whole place was more than a bit pleased noticing old Queensryche are back. Hereafter we got Speak and Walk in the Shadows and basically nothing could go wrong anymore. We were taken on a trip along the first 4 albums and some of my favorites like The Needle Lies or Roads to Madness passed by. It was also nice to see and hear that the three songs from their last album blended in easily, without any remarkable drop in quality. Actually it was nice to see that the ballad Silent Lucidity was dropped and replaced by the new slowsong A World Without. Definitely hope for the future. If I have to make one small complaint it should be that one of their lesser songs Jet City Woman still made it to list even as an encore (I thought this a Geoff Tate fave, due to easy vocal lines) The fact that hereafter they ended the show like any Queensryche show should end with Take Hold of The Flame, made all ending on the same high as they started. Apart from all fans present I even got the impression that the band were enjoying the evening a lot.

So Queensryche are back and we can only hope that they find inspiration for releasing many more new albums. For their live shows in the future they still have many oldies to surprise us with, so variation should not be a problem. I did see Todd La Torre two years ago already putting the Glory back into Crimson Glory. Now he managed to do the same with Queensryche. Concluding I can only state that the American judges never saw such an easy case, when (if) they ever shall decide who should keep the name. Just ask any fan. Queensryche over the past twenty years had this habit of auto-destruction. With the new CD and now this tour they regained all goodwill build up in the eighties.