Sniester Festival - The Hague, 27 May 2023

Sniester festival exists for some years, but this Saturday evening was the first time I joined the party. The setup is nice with several stages in venues and bars holding guitar based music. No pure metal bands, but lots of heavy work. I visited soem places I had never been before and wondered if these places (Koorenhuis hall, The Grey Space) hold live events more often. I made a route of potential interesting bands, but forgot my print at home. Together with Niels, Ingrid, Hans, Mary, Peter and Marga a nice trip was ha. Being with seven we found that not being allowed to bring drinks to teh street at times messed up plans a bit. It was busy all over resulting in Koorenhuis even running out of beer.

The music was nice with some surprises along the way. I based my going on two bands I saw at Complexity earlier this year. Iron Jinn were good again, a bot mor espacey than I remembered, but perfectly played with lots of smoke again, which seems to be one of their trademarks. 

Hereafter I saw parts or full sets by Headskinner (nice sludge,doomy groove metal) The Monsters ending their set with some all over the place songs. Captain Kaiser, Belgian punk with a great presentation and teh best performance by a vocalist today, mainly during his inbetween song banter filled with dry humor. Irish acoustic band The Scratch showing that acoustic sets can be a party and hold a wall of death. 

The best I saved for last, or the Sniester programming did. Tuskar: I saw them in Patronaat in February, this time they were even better. Pity we arrived late, as this doom duo from England  ruled. The Grey Space reacted accordingly and a warm evening ended in style in steaming hot Grey Space basement.

A nice festival, which I might revisit if competition on the gig calendar allows.

Exciter, Artillery & Blood Star - Musicon The Hague, 23 May 2023

Metal Monday rarely has been this true for me. What a great day when this package came to Musicon and I had a warming up and cooling down chance with stories of touring lifes. 

The day got metal in the afternoon, when Solitary passed by. They went for a small German tour starting ascension day and on their way to the ferry home they passed by to say hallo, have a lunch and visit the beach, which they had not seen so far. When Solitary hits The Hague the sun always comes out, so I even got sunburned, They loved the package that would play Musicon, but at the last minute work and ferry obligations made it impossible for them to stay overnight. So up to Musicon after a quick dinner with Josie it was.

Arriving in Musicon I heard live music coming of the stage. So I realized I made a foolish mistake by not checking facts. When I read that Blood Star could not make it to Little Devil the day before, I was under the impression that yet another American band had to cancel their tour due to fast rising costs. Not such a crazy thought as it is in fashion nowadays. So when I walked in Blood Star were playing Wild Child, with vocals being actually sung. The last two own songs sounded nice, but three songs were too little for fair judgement. Next time they play The Netherlands I hope to be there in time. Luckily I could make up for my late arrival later that evening.

Next band on the bill were Artillery. These Danish thrashers go down a long way as their first demo was released 40 years ago already. I must admit that I never had any LP or CD by them, but that did not matter much for their show. The lively presentation by the vocalist and tight playing band, made this a set to enjoy. Halfway their Set René asked if he could have a word with me. It turned out that Blood Star had so far a van as best option for sleeping, which he did not like as in advance all was confirmed to be arranged. A quick call to Josie and luckily she supports me supporting bands and they could come home with me, after they would be finished. Back to the hall, Atillery thrashed on with 10.000 Devils. They closed their set with apparently their biggest hit Terror Squad and I liked what I saw on stage by this band.

Headlining the evening were Exciter. They celebrate 40 years of Heavy Metal Maniac on this tour. Last year they also played Musicon and most people I heard agreed that this evening they were even better. This mainly because Dan Beehler was in great vocal shape and you almost feel sorry for the drums, the way he hits them. A setlist build around their classic album, with the remainder also coming out of the eighties was a party to the in general older audience. Well those under 40 did create a pit upon request and I have seen worse Mondays on the atmosphere front. When they were done playing Exciter songs the encore gave us Iron Fist which also turned 40 this year. A great set, by a band on fire and a good mood overall, what's not to like? 

And than I got a small encore, when my bicyle went into Blood Star's van afterwards and we drove home. Closing the evening with some beers and much appreciated borrel nootjes I learned more about Visigoth, Screamer and Madeline's Bday. A nice band they are, who I hope to see for a full set soon again. Meanwhile I shall be proudly wearing my Blood Star T-shirt in a venue near you. 

Ne Obliviscaris, Persefone & The Omnific - Gebr. de Nobel Leiden, 20 May 2023

This was a late decision indeed. Sold out to my surprise I only found the day before that I could maybe make it after all. But than how to get a ticket? Henriette came to the rescue, but get well soon Harry. This trio was interesting as two headliners play a progressive kind of death metal, with the opener being unknown to me. When entering de Nobel apart from Henriette, Ramona and Jeffrey Bday were inside already. It was good to see that Stephan made it as well, since I was afraid I knicked his last minute ticket option. So this PPE crowd were all very aware of Persefone, but also Ne Obliviscaris was known and seen before by us, so let the fun begin.

The Omnific

11 days ago I saw Ross the Boss and commented how good it was to see Manowar songs without Joey de Maio's bassturbations. So when to me blind spot The Omnific came on I saw drums and two bassists. Well that meant a lot of bass and explained Stephan's comment on the dominating bass in this band. I had to get into them slowly, but found it hard to keep the attention spanned. There was a difference in styles between the songs, but I can't see this working at home on CD. Live it was better also due to the sympathetic presentation. However, talking into the mic should be trained as now half their banter went missing. 

Persefone

Persefone are one of those bands who made waves recently, while being known to Progpower attendees for years. Apart from Baarlo I also saw them in Duycker where they played for a not so filled hall. So seeing them now at a sold out Nobel, with a prog death crowd was a party. Loud reactions, circle pits and as a highlight a guitar solo in the audience, made this a very energetic and lively performance from both band and audience. What was more important the sound and band were possibly better than I ever saw before with Persefone, A very tight show, with excellent mix between clean and grunted vocals. After the show I commented to Jeffery that I never saw the vocalist this relatively calm. Turned out that Marc Pia was not singing (mind you I thought he grew his hair during Covid, which is not all that strange) There also was no bass on stage, which was acceptable after the Omnific just before them. A setlist with many songs from their best album Spiritual Migration and Paul Masvidal  participated  from tape as well with Living Waves. An absolute highlight and I don't know if substitute vocalist Dani tells this every night, but their best show of the tour so far sounded like he meant it and I can understand why.

Ne Obliviscaris

Headliner this tour are Ne Obliviscaris. I thought in advance it was a double headline tour with equally popular bands, but where Persefone got some 45 minutes,Ne Obliviscaris played double the time. Headliner or not, for me  Ne Obliviscaris struggled a bit to follow up on the Persefone high, but that could have been me. When you say Ne Obliviscaris, which many say different by the way, you can not avoid mentioning the violin or as it turned out for me the bloody violin. I saw Ne Obliviscaris before seven years ago when they played with Enslaved. At the time they supported their Citadel album. Now I have that one and there is a violin, but not all the damn time. This evening it seemed to me that all songs had many changes in tempo with the violin being dominant and it broke the flow at times. The audience also needed time before the first pits returned. On top of that the split between clean and grunting vocals was a bit messy in the mix, with at times grunts being seen, but not heard. This is especially a pity as also Ne Obliviscaris had a substitute vocalist, who in ten days managed to absorb the full setlist. Now I start pretty negative, but the band themselves were great. Instrumentally top notch and also the songs being long and travelling. Maybe to no surprise my highlight came in Devour Me, when the revisited Citadel and the violin stayed where it should be on a standard. The crowd loved them as well and the maidenlike whoooohoooohooo went loud through the hall at one point.  For me maybe not as good as Persefone, but definitely very enjoyable. When they wanted to take a picture with me (and the rest of te crowd) at the end I had to rush off catching my train, but a fine evening was had, even without the total PPE hoooooaargh squad due to other shows and obligations. 

Crown Lands - 66 Crusher - DHG

Three different angles of looking at progmetal.

Crown Lands - Fearless

The orgins of Progmetal? well you better read Jef Wagner's Mean Deviation to have extended input on that discussion. For me the first candidates I heard in the seventies are the first Uriah Heep albums and the Rush epic albums. Now Rush stayed always great but for many their peak was at the Caress/2112/Kings/Hemispheres era. For those fans the opening track Starlifter: Fearless Pt.II with 18:22 minutes holds everything you might have missed over the past 45 years. Is this a copycat or a very good band? For me the latter and what is more impressive they are a duo. The remainder of the album is also very much old Rush style, with in Right Way Back some Led Zep blended  in. This is the second full lenght by Cody Bowles and Kevin Comeau after also four EP's and one live album. I don't know how many times per year you can talk about a candidate for album of the year, but this late discovery made me very happy as it should put all 70's Rush fans a smile on their face. 

66Crusher - Limbo

These Norwegians play Progressive thrash metal according to Metal Archives. I do hear some traces of thrash, but in general it is progmetal of the heavier kind. Exactly up my alley so to say and with vocals being strong too this is another winner. This also is another band that exists over 20 years with Limbo being their 4th full lenght. Released in Feruary this year I only recently bumped into them while surfing the internet. Makes you wonder how many bands must be out there, you love or would love if only knowing of them. Not all is painted Black coming out of Bergen.

DHG - Black Medium Current

DHG or Dodheimsgard are also new in my CD collection, but I knew of them long time and saw them playing Musicon a few years ago. That was an interesting set and this new album is a great journey for the open minded music lover. They started of as a Black Metal band, while nowadays avant-garde prog is heavily blended in. This mix is leading to some beautiful atmospheric pieces, which can blast full out at times. Most songs have plenty of time to build up and calm down. An album to play many times, before grasping all and recommended for those who dare to appreciate the different..

 

Ross the Boss, Sanhedrin & Savage Existence - Baroeg Rotterdam, 9 May 2023

By moonlight we ride, ten thousand side by side. Well the cloudy day hid any moonlight and the ten thousand turned out to be a hundred, but you get the geste. Baroeg was having a party for a reduced army of the immortals to celebrate the music of Manowar in the eighties through Ross the Boss. I don't know why Baroeg was so empty, but the people I know from greater Rotterdam or those who always walk around when eighties metal is on the bill were amost all not there. Maybe WASP celebrating 40 years drifted some to Eindhoven. Anyway Magchiel and I were looking forward to this one. The last time we saw Manowar together was in 1989. This year in February we tried going to Manowar, but I was in Portugal and Magchiel had work blocking the fun, so this was an almost as good alternative for about 22% of the price.

The first band of the evening came from Costa Rica, which might have been the first band from that country I saw. Savage Existence played a thrashy kind of metal, which got me confused at times. I mean during the last song when they started singing I want to be a Rock Star they sounded like Kiss. At other times they went much heavier with vocal acrobatics touching slam death at times. A nice warm-up, but not a band that made me run to the merch stand.

Second band Sanhedrin I saw before in Little Devil. I remember how I liked them at Mario's birthday party and picked up a CD afterwards. This week was the first time I revisited their second album, but live this band stands firm. No bullshit, no constant request for cclapping, just straight forward rock and roll of the heavy kind. Erica Stolz is an example how I like to hear my female vocalists. plain heavy metal without anything fairytale or operatic voices. If you than add guitars and drums of the highest level, we got a top performance of a sympathetic band. I did not pick up there CD this time, but would love to see them returning fast.

And then it was up to Ross the Boss to make us lose our voices. Manowar in the eighties means battle epics of the shout along kind and shouting we did. Baroeg might have been far from packed, the noise after the show told it all. Thoseewho came to see Ross the Boss got what they wanted and more. Main point when playing Manowar songs is that the vocals must be ace. Marc Lopes proved he is no Eric Adams (as who is apart from Eric Adams), but he stood firm throughout the set. Helped by the many chorusses sung by the audience as well. The setlist was a feast of recognition, but one comment I need to make. Manowar ignored Into Glory Ride many times and now Ross the Boss did the same. It remains beyond me why you would skip your best album altogether. Highlight now was a pretty neat version of Battle Hymn, what an alltime classic that remains. Another plus compared to Manowar is that Joey de Maio does not play with Ross. Therefore we get no long bass-solo, nor endless speeches about true or false metal. This was one evening filled with heavy metal and no bullshit. If Ross himself can actually talk, we do not know, but his pointing and smiling were good to watch. Kill with power Die! Die!

O.R.K & LizZard - de Boerderij Zoetermeer, 6 May 2023

Noone understands the music world and how popularities function. Or why do some bands grow big and others remain under so many radars? O.R.K. is way up there on the list of criminally overlooked bands. I guess touring and appearing might help, but looking at tonight's attendance we are not fully there yet. The good thing is that I did go see O.R.K. with Hans and Jonathan, while Ton had to cancel last minute. All three normally have several forms of metal as their go to nusic, So O.R.K. do appeal to heavier fans. By my mistake I did not ask Peter to join me. He is more into alternative guitar rock bands Hardrock stopped for him with UFO and the likes. I am sure he would have loved O.R.K. and probably would appreciate LizZard as well. Long introduction short, why are O.R.K. not playing Pinkpop mainstage at peak hours? I am sure that if known they would appeal to a wide arrange of fans. For now they remian our little secret for those in the know. Their European tour kicked of some days before Prognosis a few weeks ago. That Sunday had for me with Voivod and O.R.K. two bands to look out for most. Unfortunately there was an overlap and I could not walk out of the spell Voivod put over us. So seeing only the last 70% from a busy balcony is hardly a full concert experience. Now in a Boerderij with plenty of space we could get close to the stage and see what was going on during their set. O.R.K. are masters in going from the beautiful to the full out blast, which blows you away. Amazing good vocal performance by LEF and also Carmelo as second voice. The instrumental domination can not be an issue when you have Colin Edwin on Bass and Pat Masteletto on drums. Announcing songs and words of thanks were divided over the band as well. If you than add good songs you understand we had a perfect set. Only point you can raise is that the first two albums were ignored and I would love a Funfair inbetween. With one hour only this was not that strange really. Hoping they keep on growing slowly as a full house would have made the night even  better,

This was a double headline tour and LizZard were going last tonight. I managed to miss this band three times over the past year, but tonight there was no escaping. At Comendatio they played the day I did not see as I opted for Haken, Kandia and Godsticks day. Then they supported Soen during ProgPower weekend, so another miss. At Prognosis I came close, but the packed small hall stopped me from entering while arriving late. So now I could see them and realized I might not have missed all that much after all. Main problem was that O.R.K. had just been brilliant with some very strong vocals. LizZard turned out to have vocals as their weakest link for me. While the main voice of the guitarist is average, the second voice I could hardly hear. The songs were all new to me and I heard some I liked better than others. The acoustic guitar ones made the mood lower as well, while the first song thereafter with the guitar loops was pretty nice. All in all decent music, but not really for me. So time to get our last beer and head home, when the barman charged me a few euros too many. In these bloody cashless days he could not return me the money, so offered two additional beers on the house (well I paid part of them). That meant one randstadrail later home, but pleased with a good evening of music in a far too empty casual Friday Boerderij (thanks for that one Jonathan). 

 

Raven, Vicious Rumors & Overruled - Musicon The Hague, 1 May 2023

A Monday night in weeks filled with gigs. You might think a risky affair, but with bands like Raven and Vicious Rumors on the bill, many found their way to Musicon. Turned out they all were right, as yet another highlight in gig year 2023 was celebrated. Originally I was also intending to open my HM B&B last night, but a last minute decision of a manager changed that plan. Raises the question if we need managers and as a result I now will eat the cake that Josie baked for Raven's breakfast alone.

A long evening, so an early start at 19:30 when Overruled kicked of. While Geoff Thorpe later in the evening called them local openers, they come from as far as you can drive in The Netherlands. They did present us another fine opening slot of 30 minutes, with their thrash sounding good and necks could slowly warm up.

With a double headliner, the question is who goes first and is that bad? Did not matter much as with early finish all could catch their transport home. Vicious Rumors  came, saw and conquered. Ronnie Munroe now on vocals was top and the band  stayed in their early years only. When they played songs like Abandoned and Digital Dictator I realized that maybe this style of metal is the one closest to my heart. Still I never attended Keep It True or Headbangers Open Air, while those line-ups are usually filled with bands playing NWOBHM and US Metal. The setlist was great, the band in form and the atmosphere even better. Ton later wondered if a trip to Little Devil coming Friday is an option. I already am in doubt between Musicon BloodofJupiter or de Helling Mol/Countless Skies, so let's not add more options and doubts. This does not mean that anyone being in the area should not visit Vicious Rumors Friday. I can promise they will be better than all bands playing our national liberation day festivals that day combined. So March to Little Devil or Die.

After a real high Raven had to close the night. Can they follow this up? Yes of course they can as their athletic rock is always a party. Their new (since 5 years) drummer Mike Heller bringing the power and the brothers Gallagher running like it is 1983 still. Talking about 1983 it is 40 years ago that Raven toured the USA with a certain Metallica opening their Kill 'em All For One Tour. This weekend Metallica played two nights in the Arena, while Raven played Musicon, Little Devil and Hedon. At the same time I think most agree that the last three Raven albums are much more relevant than Metallica's latest output (since Master of Puppets I know). While on stage Raven still give it all and their energy is contagious. Tonight's set held the full All For One album. So we had two great headliners on a Monday night. Even Aardschok came by with a large delegation, so Musicon will make their debut in their live review section. In three weeks time another Metal Monday awaits when Exciter and Artillery come by. Already looking forward to that one.