Borknagar - North Sea Echoes - Sgàile

 

Three absolute must haves in their genres, even if the genre can be hard to define at times.

Borknagar - Fall

Borknagar celebrate 30 years of existence this year. I am not that long on board as only in 2016 I bought Winter Thrice and saw their tour. Other bands by members like Arcturus and Cronian I do follow over two decades already. Strange as Borknagar is my favorite of them all Metal Archives states they play Progressive Viking Folk Black Metal and I guess that is the only way to describe them.You do get a bit of all those styles and often in one song already. Just listen to opener Summits if you want to get an idea of it all. Over the last albums the band has become more accessible and I like that. For me Fall perfectly follows on Winter Thrice and True North. Beautiful atmospheric moody with lyrics I can relate to as Northerner "We won't bend our necks to any god". That's the spirit end of year list material yet again.

North Sea Echoes - Really Good Terrible Things

When Jim Matheos and Ray Alder announced thii new project I got more than a bit excited. Fates Warning is over on the releasing front, but the range of newand very good music since by both gentlemen is endless. The first songs that were released gave a good indication on what to expect. The music not all that far from Jim Matheos' other project Tuesday the Sky with Ray Alder singing dark and low over the music. So anyone expecting an album in the vein of Fates Warning shall be disappointed. I do own both Tuesday the Sky albums and play them occassionally when times ask for calm moody music. Here we get the best voice in current metal over this calm music and yes we get a winner. This won't be the album of the year, for being too calm and lacking power and variation. Yet it might be the album I shall play most this year as Josie already twice commented "this is nice" when I played it without headphones, so when waking up slowly it shall be played again. Pity the CD does not have lyrics, which I consider added value for diving into an album.

Sgàile - Traverse the Bealach

Sgàile is a solo project by Tony Dunn. This album is according to bandcamp about teh following: The story of Traverse the Bealach is that of a nomadic traveller in post-apocalyptic Scotland, trying to figure out his fate and facing the elements while travelling north, battling inner demons along the way. That is a handful, but believe me it does result in already for sure one of the most beautiful albums of 2024. The songs are all long (around 10 minutes) apart from short instrumental Introspect. You really do get the felling of long hikes passed over and post metal lurks around the corner. With progmetal also in the blend what I do like a lot is that at times other bands would have used harsh vocals, where Sgàile sticks to (good) clean vocals throughout the full journey. The album opens with five minutes instrumental until psalms to Shroud at the Void opens with the lines "I'm not a storyteller, but I'll tell you this tale." What a story follows. The album has a theme of interesting opening lines for all songs, but my favorite is Lamentations of the Lochan:"I'm spitting curses at the Sky, It might well make matters worse". Sheer poetry. Well the music is as beautiful and I can't scream loud enough go and check this album out. Apparently his second one, so I must chase for the debut album still. Tony Dunn also played bass on Cnoc an Tursa's The Forty Five. Never heard of, but sounding interesting too.

Hypnos, Bloodphemy & Deathmarch - Musicon The Hague, 15 March 2024

Friday night and the question was: Is it a risk to go to another Death Metal night in a week that gave already so much with Persefone, Cynic, Almost Dead and Atheist? The answer: no risk go ahead and enjoy yourself with beers, friends and bands.

Deathmarch opened the evening. This band promised skull crushing, beer drinking, headbanging old school death metal. Well that is basically what we got even if they saved the beer drinking for after their set. Nice opener of the evening.

When next band Bloodphemy went to the stage I recognized some faces. Luckily Patrick walked around who knows these things and yes the guitars were ex Neoceasar. Before Corona Neoceasar were the band I saw playing most live in one year and than they disappeared. I just read that Bloodphemy formed in 2000 already, left for over a decade and returned since 2015. Their set showed a tight and experienced band with for me the highlight in the guitar work soloing in duo or apart, but always adding spice and melody to the songs. A good band and bringing a T-shirt in the colours of The Hague and Brazil gave me a double reason to pick it up.

Hypnos came all the way from Czechia. They also played Musicon six years ago and that was on a Sunday afternoon, when the clock was tight due to another evening program. I was the only one in tonight who was there as well as now, apart from people linked to Musicon or Neoceasar. At the time I bought the CD and T-shirt of the White Crow. So I knew I liked them and tonight would not be much different. Hypnos play Death Metal too, but in a fairly accessible form by the melodies added throughout. Today they shall pass by de Baroeg on their way to Belgium in order to say goodbye to Holland's most important venue (in their eyes and ears). A good band closing one fine evening of DM in Musicon. And yes The Hague Death Fest is coming 1 June and promises to be good with a great line-up.

Cryptopsy, Atheist, Almost Dead & 72 Legions - Fluor Amersfoort, 14 March 2024

The Unquestionable Blasphemy tour hit Amersfoort and I had to be there as one of the two headliners were Atheist. Why this need? here is the long explanation. This summer fifteen years ago doctors told me I probably only had months to live left. Between the first surgery and the second I had some weeks in which I tried to recover strenght and fitness (well I walked and jogged a lot no gym's for me). During those weeks I also had a sort of farewell tour of shows. I attended Atheist, MSG and Cynic. For the MSG show I made it to de Boerderij but a freakattack of pain on the stomach made me leave before they even started. So basically my farewell tour consisted of two shows Atheist in de Kade and Cynic in P60. I always wanted to see both bands again, but work made me miss a return a few years later. During the corona years several tours were announced and cancelled and even rumours of a joined Cynic/Atheist tour passed by. In the end it turned out that both bands toured seperately but would play The Netherlands the same week. Last Sunday I saw Cynic in Dynamo and Atheist played Fluor and shall play Dynamo tonight. So in order to revisit both bands and show an imaginary finger to all those doctors who were wrong and messed me up for life. That is only physically as mentally I only came out these dark days as a more cynical atheist.

So Fluor it was, even if trains tried to stop me from going by cancelling direct connections. Upon arrival I immediately bumped into Jeffrey and we both shared how hard it was to find the entrance. The evening was not sold out (with not so far Dynamo on the Friday following) but maybe the city of Amersfoort was flooded with metalheads who could not find the entrance either. Unquestionable Blasphemy is an attractive name and the two headliners even sold combined T-shirts wit tour dates on the back. I stuck with the Unquestionable Presence Tee, had a beer and positioned well with Jeffrey to see what the evening would bring us.

72 Legions opened the night. This melodic death metal band did fine and I thought it interesting that an unsigned band managed to get on board of this tour. Musically they were fine, with the only miss that the guitars were a bit low in the mix. This was a pity as their guitar work sounded most interesting. A good warm-up they were.

Amersfoort, we're Almost Dead and so are you What a lovely sweet opening line and what a party would follow. These Americans gave us lots of groove and at one point their vocalist did sound like Phil Anselmo. This was one lively presentation and Almost Dead did impress. While musically they were tight, the vocalist stole the show with his jumping around, singing from the floor and in a song called Selfish Suicide fall of the stage and lay dead in the hall (Murder in the Front Row?).  I highly enjoyed both the show and the music. When I passed their merch later on I found CD's had sold out. Well obviously I was not the only one being introduced to Almost Dead this tour and liking them.

After a remarkable short break In The Flesh was played from tape a sign that Atheist were preparing themselves. And on they came (slay?) showing Kelly Schaeffer with a fairly young band. I do not mind much when older bands are no longer complete and younger band members pop up. Actually I believe that most of Atheist today was the band that gave us Till The Dirt last year and interesting return of Kelly Schaeffer on CD. Today it would be Atheist all the way and than only the early nineties so Jupiter was ignored. At least I think so as I must admit I recognize the songs, but can not immediately give title and album for each. The band was of the very high energy kind. Running around all the time with the bassist asking for circle pits throughout their set. Most important was that the playing was more than a bit impressive. Kelly Schaeffer did not like his microphone, but sounded fine to me and what a performer he is too. So adding the positive and the good we got a highlight of gig year 2024 this 14 March. Where Cynic earler this week underwhelmed us, Atheist definitely surpassed high expectations. There was no specific highlight in their set, but Water did please the Brazilian in me, with a samba that showed how Dutch can't samba. We can headbang though and with all generations present the younger ones did run in circles quite a lot. I already was an atheist, now only got more convinced. Maybe Fraudulent Cloth I missed now that the pope just showed again what a dick he is in recent times. 

After an absolute high I always find it hard to enjoy a next band. Cryptopsy from Montreal Canada were an unknown to me. Further the train troubles in, made me want to play safe and catch the not last train home. Still from what I saw Cryptopsy were a brutal death machine.  A vocalist who showed a range in his grunt and some nice guitar solos made this one solid OSDM band. Unfortunately I only attended the first 25 minutes or so, but would guess they closed the evening in style. So anyone in doubt still if going to Dynamo tonight makes sense do go as you won't regret it. Four bands bringing something for anyone mildly into any form of Death Metal. If you live near The Hague however, forget about Unquestionable Blasphemy and head for Musicon tonight for your dose of (Czech) Death Metal.

Prognosis - Dynamo Eindehoven, 10 March 2024

Prognosis was not a festival, but two tours clashing at Dynamo. So in advance I read many online comments on the short slots for the bands at a prog festival. I looked at it differently as I liked the idea of giving the first four bands (that I had not seen before) a 30 minute slot. Long enough for a good taster and short enough if not my thing. Probably on tour these bands also played around 30 minutes each. In the end only one band lost out by these crammed sets with me screaming for more. The two tours were headlined by Cynic and Persefone, both of which I would go and see individually as well. So down to Eindhoven it was. With no trains training to The Hague Central I was lucky that Ton felt like some Prognosis too and we drove up arriving just in time for the first band.
 

The opener of the day were Lampr3a from Spain. Complicated bandname suiting their complicated music. An intsrumental trio playing a sort of tech metal. What I liked was their domination of instruments and shreddiness. What I liked not so much were the tapes sometimes playing when all three band members were silent. Also a perfect example why the 30 minute slots were great, as this was interesting now. If headlining for 90 minutes keeping attention spanned will be a challenge to most I guess. Still a good opener.

Next on were Stellar Circuist from the USA. Outstanding most was the big(ish) vocalist who looked angry and shouted Open Up throughout the show to us. Later he took of his shirt (not very prog) and jumped into the audience to look angry at innocent bystanders. I could not really decide how much I liked this band. At times I really got drawn into their set to find later thoughts and attention drifting away. A decent set in the end, which did not make me run to their merch stand even if Ton said their last album is really good.

Next on were Cryptosis from The Netherlands. They are opener on the Cynic/Obscura tour this month and I hope they win over some fans this trip. I saw them a few times when still called Distillator pre corona. After the name change they are supposed to add some prog to their thrash metal. Well no worries as they mainly thrashed on still. And actually doing so very well. I missed them live until yesterday as I was not around when they came close to home last year. Their set turned out to become the first true highlight of the day, Finally I picked up Bionic Swarm and hope for a return to Musicon with an international band one day.

Hypno5e from France followed. I read some mixed reviews on past shows by them. Did not know one note by them, only the fact that they are described as cinematic. This was actually another positive surprise. Not to play daily at home maybe, but live I liked the synchronized slow banging of the audience over the postrockish sounds. I believe that with a screen and nice images they would justify the cinematic, but now just another fine band with beards (A beardless progband would be so refreshing after this day of facial hairfest again, but that is not to the point maybe).

Next on the first headliner of the day with Persefone. This is an older favorite from the heavier end of progmetal. They once headlined Porgpower and last year gave Ne Obliviscaris a run for their money in Nobel. Expectations were high on my side and luckily they managed to surpass them. I must admit not playing lots of Persefoen at home, but live they always deliver. Biggest difference to old fans is that Marc left and Daniel became their new vocalist. Well he has a great grunt scream and clean range which works very fine with the clean vocals coming from behind the keyboards. Small side note on Daniel. He also sings in Eternal Storm who released possibly the extreme prog album of the year, but that CD is still somewhere en route from India to me. The big question in advance was of course if Persefone and Paul Masvidal would perform together the song they recorded for Aathma. This seemed obvious, but how often do bands let the opportunity pass by to have a guest vocalist when playing together at the same festival. Luckily both agreed on a great encore and the highlight of the day was Living Waves with the intro sung by Paul. He remained at the corner of the stage watching the band close the song with a smile on his face. Probably reminding him on Cynic's heavines some 30 years ago. With all the reduced time slots Persefone turned out the loser of the day getting only 40 minutes, while headlining their tour. For me the winners of the day and not to me alone from what I heard.

With Obscura I have a difficult relation really. I have two or three of their albums and saw them live a few times before. First time was when they supported Atheist 15 years ago and they toured my favorite album Cosmogenesis. Later on I saw them headlining, but every time with supports that were just better on stage. Gorod, Spawn of Possession, Exivious, Beyound Creation, Revocation and Rivers of Niil all made it hard for them to convince after their slots. Last tour with Persefone and Disillusion in support would be the same story, but I was not there. To make matters worse for them Obsidious an Obscura offspin released one of the best progressive death metal albums of the last years. If than we add a by now full dynamo and the wish to rest before Cynic and small talk alike I never gave them a fair chance. Watching some three songs from the back was enough for me this time. And yes they can play very well, but I miss some soul in their live shows.

The day would be closed by Cynic the main reason for us to drive down to Eindhoven. Unfortunately it turned out not to be the epic high I hoped for in adbvance. Some technical issues seemed to bother their delayed start. I read in advance that this tour the full Focus album would be played and that is a genre defining highlight justifying alone the (fair) ticketpirce of the day. Paul Masvidal is nowadays Cynic after the sad loss of both Seans in 2020. His new band showed they can play too, but somehow it did not flow. When the set started with Veil of Maya it sounded a bit messy at times. The Focus songs never really blasted out the boxes and when the fourth song was How Could I we realized we would not get a full Focus today. I just checked and the night before they played 14 songs in Germany including full Focus. I don'know what it was technical issues, a mild response from a confused audience or just a bad day, but given one hour and only playing 8 songs in some 45 minutes did leave many wondering if they really finished when it was over. So a confusing end to a nice day in Dynamo. Hopefully next year gives us a true festival again with two halls in use. It was nice seeing many music friends this day, where some surprised coming from Musicon and Little Devil, while the Progpower contingent was much smaller than what I expected in advance. In the end a good day even if Cynic got many cynical in the end, they did show some pure class when sound was fine at their last two songs Adam's Murmur and Evolutionary Sleeper.