Tuesday evening. 67,000 people gather in a field in The Hague in the Netherlands. The size of a festival crowd, these people have all come for one thing: Bruce Springsteen’s 2016 The River Tour. And we were there.
[Live Review] Iron Maiden – Book of Souls Tour 2016, Gelredome, Arnhem
Mayan temples, voodoo rituals, redcoats, monsters, a Boeing 747 piloted by a vocalist and a bassist trying to shoot the audience with his bass guitar. Yep, Iron Maiden‘s back in town, and we were there. Because of course we were.
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The Heliocentrics – From The Deep
Following the spacy film score to The Last Transmission (2014) The Heliocentrics decided to pick up where they left us in 2013 with 13 Degrees of Reality and with that I mean releasing work solely under their own name. Although the jazz-funk collective usually collaborates with others they are also very capable to push the musical boundaries forward themselves. If you take out all collaborations, From The Deep their third album and as you’ve might have guessed, again is of a sun swallowing nature.
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[Live review] – Jeff Lynne’s ELO – Ziggo Dome
If you’d told people three years ago that Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra would return to the stage, you’d probably be scoffed at, and rightly so. Sometimes, though, Strange Magic happens (ha!), and ELO is touring throughout 2016. Sounds from the Dark Side attended the gig in Amsterdam. Continue reading
PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
Five years ago Polly Jean Harvey shattered England’s rural idyllic image with a grim picture of it’s disastrous long-lasting military involvement in the world. Although stirring up controversy is part of her rationale (e.g. not opposing to the English tradition of fox hunting), some critics labeled her previous work as her most brutal to this date. Nevertheless Harvey continues her politically charged crusade on a new LP titled: The Hope Six Demolition Project.
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Avantasia – Ghostlights
Sometimes I get the feeling that Tobias Sammet just doesn’t care much for Edguy anymore. Whilst the last few albums were okay at best, he seems to save his best material for Avantasia these days. And again, Edguy’s last album pales to 2016’s Ghostlights. Continue reading
Funeral Whore – Phantasm
Funeral Whore is a Dutch death metal band, releasing its second album after several line-up changes and a four year break. But was it worth the long wait? Continue reading
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – A Man Alive
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down have roamed my playlists for a long time. I started out binge-listening the song ‘Geography’ but got acquainted with the rest of their work in the weeks that followed. Hereafter it eventually took me about 5 years to completely wear out their first two records, ignoring the band’s 2013’s follow up, We The Common, in the proces. Earlier this month Thao Nguyen and friends released a brand new record called A Man Alive, so let me simply pick it up from there. Continue reading
Rotting Christ – Rituals
A neat three years after Κατά Τον Δαίμονα Εαυτού, Rotting Christ return to the fray with a new collection of not-really-black-metal-anymore. It’s a collection of ten great songs, but it’s not for everyone. Continue reading
Matt Eliott – The Calm Before
One of England’s most tormented singers returns yet again after leaving us with a heart-breaking myocardial infarction in 2013. I mean this in a figurative way of course because in real life Matt Elliott is healthy as a horse. How else could The Calm Before be his seventeenth (!) album to date. Now let’s hear what this veteran of agony brings us this time, shall we? Continue reading
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