Summer is here! And that means a new edition of North Sea Jazz is also here once more to pump up the quality of the Dutch festival landscape. Like always the festival lineup is packed with some great names. What to think of Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams, Sun Ra Arkestra, Dave Holland, Outkast and Pharoah Sanders, just to name a few. No wonder the festival was sold-out well in advance. Yesterday, around five o’clock, spectators began to pour into thirteen areas of the Ahoy venue, eagerly awaiting an evening filled with jazz, blues, R&B, soul and funk. So, enough chit chat now, let’s kick-off this live review of North Sea Jazz’s friday the 11th of July.
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[Live Review] Ghost, Melkweg Amsterdam
The last time I saw ghoul rockers Ghost live was in 2011, when they supported Paradise Lost on their Draconian Times anniversary tour. Opus Eponymous had just been released and the band were already creating a buzz in the metal scene. At the time, Ghost was seen as not much more than a joke band that would last one, maybe two albums before the curtain would fall. A lot has happened since then. Continue reading
Sounds from the Dark Side top albums of 2014 (until now)
Hey y’all, summer solstice lies behind us so it’s time to saw the year in half. These are our top albums of 2014 until now and in no apparent order. Metal, Latin, Hip Hop-Jazz, Western funeral march music… we’ve got it all! Continue reading
Freedom Call – Beyond
Freedom Call are the purveyors of the cheesiest German power metal you have ever heard. The moniker “happy metal,” originally deigned to designate Helloween’s brand of metal, never was more appropriate than it is for each and every album this particular band puts out. Here’s our review. Continue reading
Meridian Brothers – Salvadora Robot
Here’s some good news: Eblis Álvarez and his gamely fellows are back! Not that we’ve haven’t heard from Bogotá’s finest for a while though… Only a few months ago Meridian Brothers reintroduced themselves with the compilation album Devoción which was a follow up to their most recent work Desesperanza (2012). Salvadora Robot is the latest addition to their lively and dense catalogue and saw the light of day earlier this month. And yes, just for a tease, a whole new carnivalesque hallucination awaits us. Continue reading
Sabaton – Heroes
To be completely honest, the longevity of Swedish war-themed metallers Sabaton continues to amaze me. I first learnt of the band through their sophomore album Primo Victoria and I clearly remember my younger self thinking, “Well, this is neat, I wonder how long they’ll last.” That was nine years and five albums ago, and the band’s popularity has sky-rocketed since then, and it doesn’t seem like Sabaton’s popularity is going to wane any time soon. Continue reading
Edguy – Space Police: Defenders of the Crown
These days, Tobias Sammet is probably better known worldwide for his Avantasia metal and/or opera’s than his main band Edguy, but that doesn’t mean the band does not release albums on a tidy schedule. And whilst the albums since Hellfire Club (2004) have been a bit hit and miss, eschewing the rollicking power metal of yore for a more hard rocking approach, there’s always a certain amount of quality and fun on offer. Space Police: Defenders of the Crown is no different in that aspect. Continue reading
BADBADNOTGOOD – III
Please bear with me for a moment: this review is about a young Canadian jazz trio that calls itself BadBadNotGood, which is written as BADBADNOTGOOD and abbreviated as BBNG. Seems simple right? Alas, it isn’t, especially when learning that BADBADNOTGOOD also is known under the confusing names of GoodGoodNotBad and The Odd Trio. Solely judging on the many band names one could say they’re struggling to find a comfort zone within the unruly landscape of the contemporary jazz scene. Or are they just here for the fun of it? Earlier this month BBNG dropped their third studio album since they started out in 2011 and remarkably carries the convenient name… III. Continue reading
Gamma Ray – Empire of the Undead
On and on rolls the power metal train, with just about every German power metal band firing shots one after another. And what’s more: all those bands are releasing unexpectedly strong and heavy albums. It’s as if some Holy Spirit of metal has touched these bands, showing them where their roots lie and that there’s no shame in writing fast songs with double bass drumming (I’m looking at you, Edguy and Sonata Arctica). German metal institution Gamma Ray is the next in line. Continue reading
Mac DeMarco – Salad Days
24-year-old Canadian, Mac DeMarco doesn’t mind to stir things up a bit. His onstage behavior is memorable to many. Heavy drinking, smoking, nudity, obscenity and indecent jokes are a regular part of his sloppy looking performances. At home things are not very tidy as well. The Guardian describes his house to be a dump and quotes him saying “I live like a scumbag, but it’s cheap”. Continue reading
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