Stepping out of your comfortzone can - from time to time - give you a nice view on other parts of the world, other views on the world, or just open your mind to new things. For me, as a longtime fan of the heavier stuff in the rock and metalscene, the whole progressive rock world is a pretty much unexplored territory.
Since Didier Goossens reviewed the new BLIND EGO album LIQUID last month - he described the effort as the hardest CD he ever reviewed - I felt this was a great opportunity for me to go out there, and see for myself what's what.
Place to be for the show, was "DE BOERDERIJ" in the Dutch town of Zoetermeer. Almost smack dead in the middle between The Hague and Gouda, this venue was also uneplored territory for myself.
On enetering the venue, the first thing that I noticed, was the way the bands were announced. i can't really judge the size or popularity of both bands, but iff two bands tour together, just the two of them, I don't really see why you would call it a co-headliner tour. Maybe, that's just a way for both bands, to not have to make a choice. Or maybe, both bands just want to be polite to eachoter.
Anyway, as a local band, it seemed natural to me, for SUBSIGNAL to open the battles. First on stage, but the level is pretty high from the get go. Their sound is rather accessible, and that was the first surprise of the night for me. When I know a band calls themselves progressive, I tend to expect an experimental sound, that requires higer levels of musical education to understand. Or at least a passionate fandom, that hides the fact you don't understand the music but gives you enough passion to simply repeat what others say. Much like with some experimental jazz music. But then, maybe progressive rock, is the jazz music of the rock scene.
Nothing of that all with SUBSIGNAL. To me, the band sounds rather poppy, and definately accesible to an all round rock crowd. Now I know the terminology "poppy" has a slightly denoting tone to it in some music scene's. But if you would have heard the band, you would know I don't mean anything demeaning with that word. One of the aspects of the bands' sound that really impressed me for example, were the blastbeats on the drums. Hard, fast and pounding. Resonating in my head for a while. The drums took a prominent place in the next song as well. THE SEA opens with a drumsolo, to turn in to a peacefull moment in the set. A moment where the complementarity of both lead and backing vocals is displayed very well. However it seemed lead vocalist ARNO MENSES missed a few keys during the show - I believe this was because of his intense moving around on stage, and not controlling his airflow to it's full extend - the combination of both vocals worked perfectly.
Another aspect of progressive rock, seems to be the extensive use of solo's. More then in other subgenres, each musician is given plenty of chances to display his skills. Those solo's bring me seamlessly to the second band of the night.
BLIND EGO was the band that challenged DIDIER's skills as a reviewer to it's limits. What I noticed imediately, whas the feeling this band sounds even more rock to me, compared to SUBSIGNAL. Despite bringing a mix of old and new songs, BLIND EGO manages to sound modern and vibrant, all night long. The harmonies in their songs, sound really strong, and they understand the skill to bring difficult music, in a way everybody can enjoy it. At least on a live stage that is. For me, this is music that works better, if you can actually see what happens. The sounds are kept pretty much clear, what makes the band sound pure, but you often seem to hear more instruments then there are o, stage. I'm pretty sure the band uses technical devices that add to the sound, but who doesn't today.
Getting all the virtuously played instruments to sound good together, is no easy task. But BLIND EGO manage to make it all sound as one unity. The melodical guitar, has a prominent role in the band, playing very long solo's. But unlike often, they don't ever sound boring. You never have the feeling it may be best for the rest of the band, to start playing again. I even have the feeling at least some of the solo's are the result of an improv-session. Here and now, it seems music is written and re-written.