Rivers of Nihil, Cynic, Beyond Creation & Daath - Patronaat Haarlem, 12 March 2025

When the Aggressive Progressive tour was announced I was a happy man. Several of my favourite tech-death bands joining forces to destroy stages all over Europe. This must be the best tech-death package of the year (unless later this year Atheist brings Revocation and Obsidious along for a tour). Rarely did I buy a ticket that fast as nowadays audiences are unpredictable and sold out before me was a fear I did want to eliminate. Turned out that I was wrong as when entering the large hall of Patronaat it was pretty empty at 18:45. Probably the early start was not helping here as later on it seemed pretty well filled up. This early start meant that I preferred a train as  rush hour makesdriving times hard to predict. Well that was a shot in own foot. but more on that at the end. Traveling alone I did combine with Ton in the entrance bar and we arrived almost at the same time. Inside we further met with Alex, Jonathan and Marcel a.k.a. the Huarggh squad. When later on Remco appeared a fair Progpower delegation was present and we made an important decision this evening. Also more on that later.

I don't know who was in control of the background music tonight, but it was a weird mix. I mean who gets excited by Edith Paff's Non je ne regrette rien, when Daath are about to come on. Anyway Daath did come on and I can be short, they ruled. I do not know their older music, but last year I picked up The Deceivers and that was a blast. This also helped as guitarist extraordinair Rafael Trujillo joined the band and he brings that extra touch of class. Not saying the rest of the band were anonymous, least alone Sean Z a great frontman. Daath would be the only band tonight I never saw before and what a nice impression they left.  With death metal or tech-death I usually do not get the songtitles and lyrics, but recognise bits and pieces. Daath just took me into their set and watching this band on stage was a daathfest. A great start, pity that many seemed to have missed it by arriving late.

Next on were Beyond Creation. Possibly my favourite band in this style of music. The first time I saw them was also in Patronaat. They then also were second band on the bill with interesting enough Rivers of Nihil opening that day (which had Revocation and Obscura playing too) I don't know how popularity compares between these bands, but maybe Beyond Creation have been too silent lately with their last album being seven years old already. Last two times I saw them they played a headline set in DB's and de Groene Engel. Tonight they only had 30 minutes or so and just gave us four songs. This because they extend their songs when playing live. These masters of fingerpicking are always a joy to watch and they went down very well with the audience. When they finished the progpower delegation unanimously decided that Beyond Creation belong at Progpower. Enough to love for those afraid of grunts too. My sympathy support the band money after the show went to Beyond Creation again ass I could use another white/grey T-shirt for Brazilian beaches. Should combine nicely with my Algorythm shorts.

Cynic are among the founding fathers of technical death metal, but tonight were the outliers in the package. Thsi because their sound long moved away from the extreme to the more ethereal prog rock. Last year I saw them at Prognosis and that was a bit messy in presentation and much shorter than allowed too. Earlier this tour they had played instrumental sets and after the first song it became clear why as Paul Masdival stated he started the tour sick as a dog. Now here's a small sidestep on closing circles. Sick as a dog is the best song by Skintrade a band who played Dynamo Open Air 1994. Now while I was watching that I did not even know Cynic in 1994 yet. So I missed out on the original show, according to Alex their best show ever in Holland. Well I saw a pretty impressive gig in P60 too in 2009.That was supposed to be my faerwell to metal show, before operating, but doctors were wrong and I'm still here 16 years later. Drifting off again what I wanted to say that in spite of Paul only singing a few songs, this set was a good revenge for last year.  A bit of a career overview build around Traced in Air, with only Textures coming of Focus. Cynic were never a band of much interaction with the audience, but when Paul spoke he said we won't be seeing them again for a while. If this was my last Cynic gig ever I am glad that we ended this well. Different on the night, but very good they were.

Rivers of Nihil had to justify their headline status tonight. According to Jonathan they were bad with lots of background tapes the last four times he saw them. Well I'm a man who likes to decide for himself and the first positive was that the saxophone was played live tonight. Half of the songs had the metalhead with sax appearing on the stage. Talking about the stage, theirs was bigger and the lightshow more impressive too. The band seemed comfortabe at the stage and I could see that tonight we got four very good bands playing Patronaat. I will get their new self titled album, which shall be released 30 May only two months after their tour ends. If they deserved to be headliner is anyone's preference. I saw a very good set with at times calm and moody breaks to give us some air. The audience reaction was biggest here, as they even got a wall of death going. No encores they said, so after roughly an hour it was over and done.

So I left for home satisfied after seeing four great bands. I do not play Tech-death at home every day, but live it always works for me. At the station I met with Pier and Remco so on the train we spoke the show and latest updates on Melting Eyes.This until they got off in Leiden and the machinist did too. Slowly we were informed there was no machinist found and the train was cancelled. If informing faster I could have take a detour via Centraal, but now I had to wait for a next train which arrived with a 25 minute delay. So 55 minutes in Leiden I could have better spent in a bar with Tiago. National Rail trying to kill my mood they did not succeed as Josie still saw a grin on my face when finally reaching home at 01:30. Great tour, go see them if they are around.