Vandenberg & Tiffany Kills - de Boerderij Zoetermeer, 25 August 2023

Vandenberg released a new album Sin and this weekend celebrate the fact with two shows in de Boerderij and Metropool. That sounds like an easy one to attend, but I was in doubt. Little Devil had Marquis de Sade and Lovell's Blade. Now I did not know the Marquis, but what I heard was right up my alley with melodic NWOBHM reminding me a bit of White Spirit. Than came last Sunday and a sunny day at the beach, where Lida, Eggie and Sandra told they would go to Vandenberg as well. So Boerderij it was. Shortly before I left home the evening got a sad and emotional cargo added, when FB flooded with messages on the sad loss of Bernie Marsden. He was a hero of my early hardrocking days as original Whitesnake Moody/Marsden. Since Adje was Whitesnake as well, we were promised some of their songs in advance.  Before the support kicked of I met Mr and Mrs. Thrasher at the bar. Nice catching up until I moved to our regular Boerderij spot on the left after the bar. Well no sight of the others I stayed and watched the support alone.

I never heard of Tiffany Kills until I got my ticket for this evening. Before searching internet for more inforation I just write down how I underwent this show. Most famous band member is Jaycee Cuijpers. I saw him with Praying Mantis and a Dio cover band, but most people might know him from his Ayreon contributions. He is one of Holland's best voices in hardrock at the moment, if not the best. So that promised a lot, even if the rest of the band looked rather casual. I did not know them, but one of the guitarists apparently played with U.D.O. in the past. We first got some songs of their album, which were easy going hardrock songs. The band played good and JC sings great, so a nice enough opener. Later we got a U.D.O. song and the set ended with Balls to the Wall. Now that song is the ultimate Progpower Afterparty anthem, There it comes with the typical dance of slamming your balls to walls, bars or luggage boxes whatever is nearest. Now by lack of walls it became more some balls in the air, but it did put a smile on my face and ended a good set by Tiffany Kills.

Finding Eggie at the break I moved and was ready for some Vandenberg. Somehow I have the feeling that Vandenberg does not get the recognition they deserve. They did write Holland's biggest hit in rock/metal of the eighties with Burning Heart. Not a song you hear often nowadays and next time Tiago comes home I will ask him if he even knows it. I mean both huge Dutch hits from a decade before Radar Love and Venus (both from The Hague) the whole world still knows  Anyway in 2020 Vandenberg reformed and released an album 2020. I don't own that one, also as Ronnie Romero took care of vocals like his 2769 other bands and projects. He has now been replaced by Mats Leven and that fit worked much better. Mats also sung with many bands and I especially loved his album with Abstract Algebra. Vandenberg started with some new songs and that sounded fine. With the audience all being around my age plus/minus ten years we also came for a trip down memory lane. This came in the form Your Love is in Vain, Hereafter Whitesnake was revisited with Fool For Your Loving and I was surprised that Bernie Marsden was not mentioned as he co-wrote the song. The set would hereafter continue through new and old Vandenberg and some Whitesnake. The title track of the new album even reminded me of 80's Sabbath with Tony Martin. A good mix it was, but I have one tip for making it even better. With Sailing Ships and Burning Heart we got the ballads covered Different Worlds always was a Burning Heart 2.0, before we even knew what 2.0 meant. Instead of that ballad, add a faster rocker like Pedal to the Metal, This is War or Welcome to the Club. Finally Bernie marsden was remembered, when Here I Go Again was dedicated to him. Here Matts made a brutal mistake when the audience was asked to sing along. The best version of this song obviously was on Saints & Sinners. So the line is like a Hobo I was born to walk alone. This was only after Bernie's years changed into Like a Drifter to please American markets. Maybe not a brutal mistake for all, but Saints & Sinners was the first major show I attended and I like to stay truthful to Whitesnake's best years. The encore of the evening came with teh obligatory Burning Heart and the apt titled rocker Friday Night. After the show Koen Herfst was also invited on stage. He was injutred and could not drum. I don't recall the name of his replacement, but believe it was the guy from Moonkings who did a fine job. After the show most people seemed to be pleased with this nostalgic evening. When moving from hall to bar there was a queue at the merch stand, so I thought of picking up Sin later. Only to find out that when heading for my last Ranstad Rail the merch stand had packed and gone already. Too bad for me, but a good evening it was. 

The Anchoret - Jag Panzer

Two CD's you might want to consider (or must check out)

The Anchoret - It All Begins With Loneliness

This year might be modest on big bands releasing new albums, it is huge on new disocveries for me. Might it be either new albums by bands I missed so far, or like The Anchoret new bands. The main man behind The Anchoret is Eduard Levitsky. a very talented Canadian it turned out. The vocals on this album are by someone Progpower regulars know: Sylvain Auclair (Heaven's Cry). This album presents us moody progmetal of the slightly dark kind. It is not overly heavy and those who dislike their windinstruments have to swallow quite a few. Still if you take your time, sit back and listen through headphones we do get an album that will appear on many end of year lists. I have not even decided yet if I do have a favorite track on the album, as diversity is great. Conclusion extremely recommended for those into progmetal and those into innovative progrock as well.

Jag Panzer - The Hallowed

Balancing my collection so next to some new progmetal Jag Panzer brings us some traditional US metal.Their history is different. Ample Destruction a 1984 classic in the genre. Disappearing and returning with many albums around the turn of the century. Nowadays they seem to prefer six year hiatus between albums as this one follows up on The Deviant Chord from 2017. I saw them early this year touring a classic set and last week touring this album, where I picked up my copy. Another strong album this is. A concept album even, but I never looked into the story so far. What I do like is the strong and fast songs, leading up to a ten minute closing epic Last Rites. Both live and on album two people stand out. Harry The Tyrant Conklin still has an amazing voice and scream. Further new lead guitarist Ken Rodarte already impressed live, he now repeats same on CD. Jag Panzer is not reinventing the wheel, but presents a classy album which is welcome anytime. 

Evildead & Powerstroke - Musicon The Hague, 4 August 2023

Summer means festival season. It also means summer holidays and when a tour is scheduled inbetween festivals you never know what to expect. Tonight Evildead played their first of three Dutch gigs inbetween Wacken (the mud edition) and Alcatraz next weekend. In the end the outturn was OK, but with Evildead being not all that often in The Netherlands relatively lots of faces I never saw before in Musicon and lots of absentees from the regular crowd. For me Evildead was only known by name and their iconic album cover. In 1989 when they released their debut album internet was not around,  unless you bought the LP/CD or had someone around you doing so you would not know the music. By 1989 in Holland all metal shows on national radio had stopped as well. So I entered the evening openminded withoiut much musical knowledge of both bands.

Powerstroke opened the evening and this Belgian band already released six full lenghts between 2010 and 2020. Thei rmetal is of the groove kind and at times when vocals went clean I was reminded of Faith No More. The band played tight and went more extreme at times, but the audience clearly came to see Evildead tonight, so reactions were between far and few. I liked their playing, but their style is not necessary what I play at home a lot. Nice caps though.

Evildead came on and played. This souds logical, but what I mean is that their sound, performance and songs brought the evening to another level. Suddenly those who stayed near the bar during Powerstroke appeared in front of the stage and Musicon  liked the thrash metal that Evildead gave us. As I do not know their albums I only recognized the title track of their debut,which closed the set. During the evening the bigger sizes of their Annihilation of Civilization T-shirt was already sold out. With one more week to go through Europe I hope they can re-stock as this will cover part of their costs. If they play near you this week, do like me, let them surprise you and I bet you like their show too.