The Paradox Twin - Dream Theater - Cassius King - Rivers of Nihil

As poor as 2021 might be on teh live music front, we have again a rather brilliant year on new CD releases. Herewith again four contenders for my top 21 of 2021.

The Paradox Twin - Silence From Signals

For several years I subsribed PROG magazine. I stopped doing so because of poor mail delivery between UK and Holland and the fact that their main articles were always about the same 25 bands. Last arrival in Portugal I picked up a copy again with Fugazi on the cover (5 Euro cheaper than in Holland as Portugal is much closer to the UK than Holland, oh no it's not) . Driving from the airport to the Alentejo coast I put the bonus CD sampler in. That's when number two made me ask Josie, can you check which band this is? Turned out to be The Paradox Twin with possibly their best song Wake Vortex. Well that blew me away and the logical steps of checking the full album out on bandcamp or Youtube followed with an order made after first listening. Those missing split-up later day Anathema , this is similar but better. Also because the female voice reminds me of Cammie Gilbert. One wonderful surprise of sad and dark progrock. Now I saw they come to Holland next year September, but that is on the same day that Sanctuary headlines MEF 4, so no chance for me attending unfortunately. Check this band out!

Dream Theater - A View From the Top of the World

Dream Theater are never going to release an album as good as their first three which are their best no discussion possible. That is no problem since this happened with most biggest bands of the eighties (Queensryche first three, Metallica first three, Marillion first four, Maiden first seven) So I don't put on a new DT album for comparison reasons. Listening to this view from the top of the world I can only say it so far seems to be one of their better ones of the later years (as good as their selftitled album maybe) Seven songs over seventy minutes does not scare off any DT fan. The closing 20 minute epic is nice, but my favorite is probably heavier Awaken the Master. Just another top album by them and bring on that tour with Devin Townsend, where I hope to see the Lisbon show.

 

Cassius King - Field Trip

When former Hades members Dan Lorenzo, Jimmy Schulman and Ron Lipnicki join forces with Jason McMaster (Watchtower, Howling Sycamore) my attention is more than a little triggered. Turns out that the Hades members also released some recent doom albums under the name Vessel of Light. Therefore this album reminds more of Non Fiction than of technical thrash heroes Hades. As I liked Non Fiction as well, no problem whatsoever for me. Ten great slow heavy bangers, which by the names of the members all guaranteed musically of the highest level in performance. Two covers close the CD and Big Eyes sounds so good that I now seriously start considering seeing Cheap Trick the day after Complexity. This album is not very recent with a July release. Unfortunately the bandcamp album charged crazy amounts for postage again, so a no go. For Dutch friends Bookspot.nl has it for 13,99 (still waiting for Stone Healer to appear like that somewhere in Europe).

Rivers of Nihil - The Work

Wow, I did not see that one coming. A few years ago I saw Rivers of Nihil opening one of those Obscura tour packagaes. To be honest that day I came to see Beyond Creation and Revocation, both I already had on CD and loved. So maybe not paying enough attention I thought them sounding nice, but no rush to the merch stand for a CD. In comes the Work and after first listening I knew I will spend many a happy hour with this album in years to come. Rivers of Nihil go everywhere and while mentioning Pink Floyd I also am reminded of career defining albums for bands like NIN (The Fragile) or Smashing Pumpkins (Mellon Collie) Of course their tech death side has not been buried either and the album so far keeps on giving and discovering. They were supposed to come and tour Europe later this month. That has been postponed, but in the interview with Rune (The Progspace) we learned, that they will come back next year even better prepared. If you like music in general, just give this one a chance as it has something for everyone and might make you a late at the party fan just like me. Now where can I get Where Owls Know My Name?

The Laws Kill Destroy & Satan Worship - Musicon The Hague, 12 November 2021

In dark times when our government decided in all their limited wisdom to again close restaurants, bars and venues after 20:00 hrs these two Brazilian/International outfits passed Holland just in time. As I hosted Satan Worshippers Fabiano and Max before when playing with Sodomizer I was more than a bit pleased to reopen my HM B&B again after a forced closure of 21 months. So late in the morning I could confirm that three Brazilians, three Germans and one Italian made it safely to The Hague. The afternoon program held split programs of walking to the beach and to the city centre, fixing the broken van, or just crash on a bed catching up on sleep. All gathered in time to leave for Musicon on what probably shall be the last unseated live show for some time.

At 21:00 sharp Satan Worship kicked of affairs. Their music is oldschool blackish thrash. Short songs with some nice guitar intro's brought us along  uplifting topics like mass murder and La Catedral to the Sepultura cover Antichrist which also appears on their last album Teufelssprache. Playing a song more people know helped to up the atmosphere and a strong ending followed.

Headliner this tour is The Laws Kill Destroy who are playing songs by Brazilian Blackend thrash/death band Sarcófago. I understood it was a whole job to get this tour and band together in the end, but the final result was one kick-ass show. Even if living in Brazil the late nineties I never got in contact with anything Sarcófago. This for two reasons: first Rio is the capitol of progressive rock, while Sao Paulo (plus Belo Horizonte and the south) is same for metal. So I did get to see several underground progressive rockbands (at three editiosn of Rio Art Rock Festival), but for metal stayed more with the big international names coming to town. So I cannot mention specific highlights of the show in songtitles, but I can state I saw a surprisingly good show. Pieter normally shying away from the heavier end of metal, also had enough to like next to his delicious plate of food from the new inhouse catering. The tour only just got started and tonight you can see this double package in Bree Belgium. My tip? If around head for Ragnarok this evening.