Plan Nine - de Boerderij Zoetermeer, 7 June 2024

My last show before holidays was the first ever by Plan Nine in de Boerderij. This is the long lost band build by Arjen Lucassen and Robert Soeterboek. They released their debut album written in the early nineties this year. Arjen Lucassen involved means a few things nowadays. Even if he did not play half the hall was filled with people in Ayreon shirts. Second when Arjen is near a stage Lida gets involved in the hair and make-up of bands. Now that Lida part-time lives with us filling our empty nest syndrome I had to check out Plan Nine too. Well not as in being forced since I saw Robert Soeterbeek sing before and what I checked online Plan Nine would sound way more up my alley than Ayreon itself.

The evening was off with a wrong start for me. First a guy announced the support band in English. A bit pointless as later on the inbetween song banter would be in pure Rotterdams. Second he announced Nouked a band who would play a Led Zep set. What I don't like about current Boerderij is that every second band playing is a cover band. Nouked was one and maybe I like Led Zep less than I thought, but after a few songs to me a La Trappe dubbel sounded much more interesting than the band itself, so off to the bar I went.

During the break I met Lida who was done painting faces and way more excited than you would guess at our age. The stage was nice with huge screen shots switching by songs, but a bar and saloon entrance made it look a proper production. The band started and it did not take long before it would be a return to my roots musically. Robert came on in a fancy light three piece suit and when opening his voice I thought I heard traces of David Coverdale. The music was also bluesy hardrock, so I did go back to 1980 when I listened to Whitesnake a lot as one of my first loves in hardrock music. Most of the songs sounded damn fine and the band was good. Talking about the band, some known names in Dutch rock scene were part of Plan Nine. In my case mainly Ed Warby, Marcel Singor and Irene Jansen.  The first loud applaus was for the second guitarist at the end of the second song when he finally managed to join the band after lots of walking around with guitars and amps cables. The show was good and to some the highlight was when Arjen came upon the stage. I could not help wondering why all these people walking in Ayreon shirts were in. This was something very different indeed. Anyway good for the band this almost sold out Boerderij. After the set they would move to the cafe stage to sign merch. Well that queue this resulted in was for me a sign to move home. Let's face it there is a sort of religious cult sauce hanging around Ayreon and I am atheist. Still one fine evening it was and next option to see Plan Nine is at Baroeg Open Air 14 September. Those loving metal shall be in Little Devil that day, or like me at Pyrenean Warriors Open Air, with the best line-up of that date. 

Eternal Storm - Marty Friedman - Riot V - Warlord

CD's I received over the last weeks that you should hear too.

Eternal Storm - A Giant Bound to Fail

Before you start, yes this album was released in February already. Point is that after ordering swiftly thereafter I only received my copy now. This with Eternal Storm were so friendly to send a new copy. Last year Transcending Obscurity set my PR in a 4 month wait for Ashen Horde, this time they came close. Point is that they do release my favourite extreme metal albums, as again I think Eternal Storm shall rank very high at the end of the year. The progressive melodeath metal that this band presents here is nothing short from sensational. What a great band they are and what great songs they give us here. Be it long epic tracks like opener An Abyss of Unreason, shorter instrumentals or there 5-7 minute songs all hit the bull here. The voice you might recognize from recent Persefone gigs. I can't recommend this band enough, as it should also open doors to those not all that open to grunts. Check it out and be amazed too.

Marty Friedman - Drama

I first heard of Marty Friedman with Hawai, but bought his first album when he formed Cacophony with Jason Becker. Speed Metal Symphony an all time classic. Than I saw him a few times with Megadeath through the nineties. His solo work started in 1988 with Dragon's Kiss and runs until today. I have many, but not all of these mostly instrumental albums. So yes I am a fanboy and when I read this would be a more ballad like album I knew I would get it again. Marty Friedman is one of my favourite guitarists, mainly caused by his great sense for melody while going heavy as easy. This album is filled again with lots of beautiful emotional guitar work and as he said fine ballad like work. Triumph is now called official version, as I had it on two previous releases already. Maybe one day I should rank what I own by him, but that shall be hard. This album is good on a Sunday morning, while some harder rocking releases fit better at a Monday night. No matter the day of week, Marty Froiedman always is a party.

Riot V - Mean Streets

Riot released their first album Rock City in 1977 already. Their classic is Fire Down Under from 1981 and I have a soft spot for Restless Breed (82) due to youth sentiment. The band faced lots of losses over time and what we have now is a continuation with no original members around. The last I saw of Riot was Riot Act, another spin-off with almost original guitarist Rick Ventura. This Mean Streets band even changed their name to Riot V some years ago. Long story short, if you like good old Heavy Metal you should get this album. Last month  they toured The Netherlands, but with both shows far from home I missed them. Pity as I would love to see and hear if  Todd Michael Hall's voice is as awesome live on stage as on this album. I shall be able to check that out at KIT next year. For now if you like Heavy Metal you can buy this in the blind. Songs, performances and sound all perfect even the seal man biker is a funny continuation of one of metal's weirdest mascottes around.

Warlord - Free Spirit Soar

Fourty years ago I bought the album And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun.... This live album, performed without an audience holds some of Warlords classic songs. Due to little success I guess the band broke up in the late eighties and only came back at the begin of this century. I have several of their CD's, but matters became confusing when often older songs would reappear. In 2021 William (Bill) J. Tsamis passed away and as he started the band with Mark Zonder and wrote most of the songs I thought that was the last we heard of Warlord. Sad I was as I never saw them live and they were high on my list of bands I really wanted to see once. Than came the news of this new album were old songs by Bill were used as basis. No surpise that this album sounds still very typical Warlord. Metal Archives calls them Heavy Power Metal, but I would add folky influences. Warlord never were extremely heavy or fast, but always building songs around melodies. New vocalist Giles Lavery fits well to the style of the band and the guitars also remain that typical Warlord sound. While name dropping Jimmy Waldo (Alcatrazz) plays keyboards here. And the best is yet to come. Never seeing them before I now shall see them twioce this summer. 25 August in Breda (!!) and 14 September at Pyrenean Warriors Open Air. Already heavily looking forward to both.

The Hague DeathFest - Musicon The Hague, 1 June 2024

Corona killed The Hague Metal  Fest, which was mainly a Death affair, so starting a new festival called The Hague Death Fest made sense. When the line-up became known with lots of big names it was no surprise that on the day some people who bought no ticket in advance had to be sent home upon arrival. Well we were better prepared and got our ticket in time, so a long day of Death Metal lay ahead of us.

When Marko passed by my house to pick me up, Josie asked if he first wanted a coffee. I said no we can't as the first band are from The Hague and we have to support our locals. Luckily we were not the only ones, so that even at 15:00 hours Mancuerda kicked of in a decently packed Musicon. Their Death Metal is of the doomy kind and more heavy than fast. A nice opener of the day they were, with their sinister soundclips introducing songs on death and violence. 

Next band were Funeral Whore. Unknown to me in advance. The stage was dark and the songs heavy. I thought the inbetween song banter could be more than thank you The Hague and then silence. On bass I recognized Maxime with her third or fourth different band on stage in Musicon. The last song was dedicated to Arian, but I did not know why that was. 

Melting Eyes are a monster and The Hague's leading OSDM band at the moment I guess. A long stage swap meant they lost a song, but what they brought to us sounded damn fine again. Pier has a mighty grunt and if you than add a strong rhythm section and good guitars it always is a joy to see Melting Eyes on stage. Expectations were high based upon past performances and they did not disappoint indeed.Next logical steps seems to me national and international death fests.

Wound Collector from Belgium came on next, but they had a false start. Swapping the whole drum set resulted in a shot in the foot. When the band were ready to kick off, the drums were not half ready yet. So they had to cut their set and now played some 25 minutes only. Wound Collector first came to Musicon during the all seated corona sessions. I missed that, but saw them later on giving a full set picking up CD and Tee at the time. Their main difference is the very prominent saxophone from Peter. This is an audience divider, but I like the differnce during the day. What I also liked is that their music came closest to Tech Death, which on a death fest was a bit under represented (if not absent). Pity they lost time as I did like what they gave us again.

Next on were The Monolith DeathCult. Marko and Ton saw them seated during Corona and were enthusiastic about their set.My frieed Andrew wrote a raving review on Ave Noctum on their latest album. This because he is British and not German, but that is a long story. It did not take long to get what they all meant as TMDC gave us one hell of a show. Strange soundbytes and clips blended through their set it was one great show. This band has no boundaries, but are having fun on stage while presenting their hectic music. I don't know how much came of tape next to the obvious bits, but I know I did enjoy their full set. The last song started liek Van Halen's Why Can't This be Love and included an Eddie like solo. Variation enough anyone?The sound was suddenly very good too. So I picked up the CD that was recommended to me and playing it now I hear it needs some more time to digest all of it.

When Rectal Smegma started their set we were in the snackbar nearby enjoying dinner. I saw the band before and their grind is just a bit too much to me. What I did see at the end is high energy they always bring and a Musicon jumping along. So definitely a success on the day, just musically too far from my comfort zone to really enjoy.

Bodyfarm are among the very top of The Netherlands Death Metal scene. The story of the band and the sad setbacks are known. Even more amazing how strong they are nowadays. What I like most about them is that their Death Metal is accesible. Lots of plain Heavy Metal is blended in their sound and the grunt is understandable too. 40 minutes for a top act like this means they have no time for bullshitting around and definitely among the highlights of the day again.

Stillbirth are from Germany and these brutal detah metallers brought a lot of merch. Anyone knowing my story understands that I won't be wearing a cap, bermuda or T-shirt with Stillbirt printed on it. When they hit the stage with surfboards and in colourfull bermudas, they first all took of their shirts. What followed was slam detah core or something, but not something that kept my attention spanned. Marko and I agreed that they suffered from the Ancient Rites syndrome. Meaning that band earlier this year closed a festival after Bodyfarm and could not follow them up. To us Stillbirth could neither and we decided to call it a long death metal day and cycle home. Great to see Musicon packed today with all generations in too. Hoping for a repeat next year ( TechDeath included pls) and so happy that this festival replaced Kaderock when I won't be around.