FortaRock Festival 2018 (Nightwish, Opeth, Avatar, …)

First weekend of June, time to start into the festival season! For me the place to be was in the Netherlands, more precisely Goffertpark in Nijmegen, for an incredible line-up at the sweet little FortaRock festival, although time and money restrictions only allowed me to go on the second day of the festival. Starting out …

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Kamelot (+Delain, Battle Beast) – The Shadow Tour North America (Silver Spring, New York City, Clifton Park)

I've been following various bands across Europe for many years now and have visited many different countries this way, most of them more than once. By doing so, I was never able to bring up the financial means to travel to another continent, since I spent every cent on European roads. At some point, I …

Avatar – Avatar Country World Tour (Sint-Niklaas, Cologne, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Gothenburg)

"In the name of the king, bang your heads!" When Avatar announced their tour in support of the new album Avatar Country, it was out of question for me that I would try to go to as many shows as possible. Too vivid were the memories of the last tour in late 2016, when Avatar …

Bloodbath – Dark Easter Metal Meeting 2018

Bloodbath, supergroup of Swedish death metal. Bloodbath, currently consisting of the founding members of Katatonia along with the drummer of Opeth and the singer of Paradise Lost. Not a band you'll catch live very often. Bloodbath playing a black/death metal festival in Munich, just one day before I was going to be in town for …

Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending (Mehr! Theater Hamburg, De Oosterpoort Groningen)

I don't like listening to the same kind of music over and over again. Especially I don't need tons of bands that all sound more or less the same. On the contrary, I'm always searching for new sounds and things I haven't heard before, bands that surprise and impress me. Which gets difficult after a …

Muse – By Request (La Cigale, Paris)

If you had told me last summer that only six months after Muse's mindblowing gig at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London I would see them at another intimate venue for another 'by request' gig, I would have had a hard time believing you. The announcement of this gig at La Cigale in Paris came …

Carach Angren, Rotting Christ – Rituals Amongst The Rotten (Kulturpalast Hamburg, Musik & Frieden Berlin)

I never got around to write down something like my 'top albums of 2017'... but if I had, Carach Angren's Dance And Laugh Amongst The Rotten would have made the first place without a doubt.* So when they announced this European tour, needless to say I had to go to more than one show. Certainly …

Myrkur, Sólstafir – Berdreyminn Tour (Grünspan Hamburg)

Sometimes you love a band immediately when you listen to them for the very first time. Sometimes you don't give a shit about a band until they suddenly hit you in the right spot with a live show. Sometimes you buy a concert ticket only to see the support act. Sometimes the value of a …

A weekend in London (Scar Symmetry, Vuur, Damnation Angels, Mastodon)

A diary for one of the better weekends of this year, concert venue hopping included! The planning London or Utrecht? That was the only question for me when Scar Symmetry (melodic death / modern / progressive metal from Sweden) announced their co-headliner shows with Vuur (progressive metal from the Netherlands). Because I hadn't seen them …

Enter Shikari – In Celebration Of The Spark (Mehr! Theater Hamburg)

"Warning! This escalates quickly!" I have to be honest: My expectations for this gig were really low. Because ever since I got into Enter Shikari around 2011/2012, I enjoyed their gigs a little less and less whenever I saw them, as they tended to get lost in remixes and long interludes instead of keeping the …