Demon & Steelover - Musicon The Hague, 18 September 2026

Demon coming to town. Not something we could say often, I guess never. Even The Netherlands are not all that often visited by the band., As support they brought along Steelover from Liege. A place they are playing both today at the great Golden Age of Rock Festival, which I unfortunately could not attend this year. So a mid road stop in Musicon it was for Demon and if upon entering I feared a very empty venue, it later filled up better. Many people in I knew not from Musicon, but from other  old skool metal parties. My post on our gig app group resulted in Peter and Rene showing up and Hans already confirmed before that Demon was a good excuse for some beers in Musicon.

So Steelover could open the evening for us. Thier first run was from 1982-1986when they released the LP Glove Me. I don't remember ever having heard their name in the eighties. Reformed in 2016 I saw their name appearing on festival posters, but I never saw them live before. Their music is strongly footed in the eighties and their straightforward Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal went down well. They just released a new album Devil's Highway and most songs came form that album. All new to me that did not impact. A nice enough opener that brought what I expected, but did not make me run to the merch stand really.

Demon opened with the expected Night of the Demon and closed with the equally expected (Guest?) One Helluva Night. Inbetween thsoe two classics we got a ride through their now 47 year career from first single Liar until a song from their last 2024 album Invincible. It soon became clear that Demon were in good shape and a very tight band was headed by vocalist and only original band member Dave Hill. He deserves a special mention as I don't see him being mentioned often on discussions of vocalists of respectable age who still did not loose any of their power. Apart from a great performer he also delivers the classics as if we are still in the eighties. Many highlights throughout the set, for me the best came when they reached my favourite album The Plague, which for this evening was turned into The Hague. Title track and Nowhere to Run both stood firm and who does not like shouting along with The Hague?. A very entertaining set by Demon it was and one fine evening in Musicon yet again. 

Raven & Vortex - Musicon The Hague, 8 September 2026

Tuesday night and it was raining cats and dogs. So I was worried about turnout for the great Raven tonight, turned out I was wrong again. A nicely packed Musicon was filled with even different generations all ready for some eighties metal by Raven and Vortex. 

Vortex opened the evening as Vortex, not Metal Bats even if teh merch said Metal Bats.Not sure how their loss of Martjo influences the name under which they perform, but for me Vortex means Open the Gate. They managed to produce one of the cult underground metal clips of the eigties and I believe we even got to see it at Sky TV Monsters of Rock at the time (the show with Amanda Reddington and Mick Wall). So in a way I was this evening waiting for Open the Gate, while knowing they would close their set with this hit. Eighties hard rock/metal we got before and the off the wall presentation made it a nice enough show. Pieter arrived as per his tradition way too late, but just in time to see Open the Gate.

Raven always deliver a good show, giving it their all. As they said today they have been coming to The Netherlands for 45(!) years now and shall keep on returning as long as we want that. Looking at tonight's audience and reactions that shall last a while as in my memory it was more busy now than eight years ago on a Friday night. The band keeps on releasing new albums too, so the set consisted of songs from many different albums. Of course we rocked until we dropped and did so all for onne, but some songs I did not know were nice surprises too (Pick Your Window). The band did give their usual energy with the attitude off what you hear is what is played. They also seemed genuinely pleased that in spite of the awful weather outside it seemed pretty packed on a Tuesday. Anyone watching them running across teh stage, must sympathize with the band and I have no problem seeing them return every few years to Musicon (or elsewhere). Tonight they play Little Devil, so anyone not depending on striking public transport enjoy.

Nefarious & Defazer - Musicon The Hague, 6 September 2026

Nefarious playing Musicon, meant metal royalty was coming to town. This because of the 18 Nefariouses on metal archives we got the one from the USA playing thrash/heavy metal. So introducing the band on drums we have Will Caroll (Death Angel), On bass Tom Gears who played with Blind Illusion. The guitar double means Rick Hunolt (Exodus throughout teh 80's) and Doug Piercy (Heathen among many others). What made the package complete is Sean Rivera on vocals, who adds the heavy metal touch and just released with Coffin Hunters one fine album in Cosmic Dawn. So Sunday afternoon meant Musicon and again it was a pity that the youth of today does not appreciate proper metal.

So it was 15:30 when Defazer hit the stage for an audience mostly off my generation. Defazer are The Hague's leading thrash metal band. I had not seen them for a while and again loved their energetic set, which did include some songs not released yet. It seems a new album is in the writing stages and what we heard so far did sound very promising. A good warm-up for Nefarious they were and yes originally Grindpad were supposed to open the evening, but circumstances forced them to cancel.

After a fairly long break, which was no problem with many usual suspects in this afternoon Nefarious hit the stage. It did not take long for me to realize we would be in for a treat. This is one fine band and their songs were easy on the ears at first hearing for me. Sean Rivera's voice makes them stand out from others, and their full debut album was played (whose new version I picked up with Sean's vocals). Given the band members we also got some covers and Goblin's Blade (Heathen) and Metal Command  from Bonded by Blood seemed good choices. Everyone I spoke with after the show agreed that we got one fine afternoon of prime metal delivered to us. To see a band of this level play Musicon always makeds me smile. Cheers to anyone putting this afternoon together for us.

Exist - Iconic - Karcius - Lex Legion

Some more CD tips from the last months.

Exist - Beyond Purpose

One of the albums I picked up at Progstorm is this EP by Exist, which was released the week before only. I discovered this progressive death metal band in 2017 when they released So True, So Bound. I loved next album Egoiista and missed Hijacking the Zeitgeist due to postage issues (also picked up at Progstrom). I can safely say that since returning from Canada, thsi is the band I played most. Also as I had two new releases. Still trying to figure out why Exist are not huge. Max Phelps is known from his work with Cynic and Death to All. Alex Weber is now also in Revocation and together they play in Wait. Anyway anyone into progressive death metal where both grunts and clean vocals are great try out Exist. Three songs only this time, with in the middle an epic track of almost 8 minutes, like they do so often. And now I know that live they are sensational too.

Iconic - II

Frontiers records love to put together super groups and Iconic is number 872 in that row. As the title states this is their second album. The members are Nathan James (Inglorious) on vocals with further Michael Sweet, Joel Hoekstra, Marco Mendoza and Tommy Alridge completing the band. If you don't know these names you are not into melodic hard rock and can stop reading. I bought this album as it was released at the right time for becoming an often played summer album. Musically you can guess the direction by reading the band member names and Whitesnake can be name-dropped. Is this world shocking original? Of course not. But both performance and songs are so fine, that you gotta love the album. No tours expected I guess, but to be revisited when uplifting moods are required.

Karcius - Black Soul Sickness

Karcius are a long running band from Canada, but I only discovered them with their previous album Grey White Silver Yellow & Gold. I was drawn to the band when reading that their vocalist is Sylvain Auclair from Heaven's Cry fame. Karcius are a bit less metal than that band and play music in the range of heavy prog rock or progmetal light. In heaviness Enchant comes to mind. With this album being more moody also a band like Wolverine pops up. Always a brave move to open with the epic track, but Wallow sets the right mood over 13:28 minutes. Just like the previous one, a very fine album by this band. Maybe time to explore a back catalogue?

Lex Legion - Lex Legion

Anyone into plain old Heavy Metal already owns this album and has read about it. The band is the King Diamond line-up of Them with not King Diamond, but Pagan's Mind's Nils on vocals. All songs very close to four minutes, there is no time wasted in showing off. Mosty fast and the voice of Nils surprised me, as when I saw him with Pagan's Miond a few times I never was this impressed. In the eighties it was the voice of King Diamond that kept me away from Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. Later my mind became more open and I do have the Abigail and Them double. This is must have material for heavy metal fans and I believe that they are talking about touring too. Tees can use the nice logo, but should stay away from the album cover really.