Category: Reviews

On Friday 26th, the Cave had their last live bands before their summer break. Myth of Origin, Thoughtless and Pandora’s Key joined forces to bring Amsterdam a night of symphonic and melodic metal. Having hear both Myth of Origins and Pandora’s Keys latest album, we wanted to see how these bands would perform these tracks live. The night was supposed to start at 21.00, but knowing the Cave, we weren’t surprised to have that time delayed by 30 minutes.

For more info about the bands, and pictures of the night, scroll down!

Myth of Origin

Myth of Origin released their album Sane Asylum in January last year. Since then, they have been playing live at various venues while working on new music. The breakdowns in Myth of Origins music hit a lot harder live than on the album. The band also plays one of their newer tracks, which hasn’t been released yet. It’s clearly a track they haven’t been playing for that long, because they can’t perform it flawlessly yet.

Thoughtless

Time for Thoughtless. They label themselves thrash, but because they don’t have a thrash vocalist, and have quite a lot of vocal harmonies in the tracks they do play, I’d probably label them melodic metal as well. Thoughtless is having a lot of issues during their performance. They were probably feeling the stress because Myth of Origin had to cut their performance short. The guitarist doesn’t seem to be able to get his guitar to work at the start of the gig, and this proved to be the beginning of the end. Even though there are some technical issues, the band still tries to power through with a smile. At least it looks like they have good energy on stage.

Pandora’s Key

If you’ve ever been to The Cave, you know the stage is very tiny. It’s a bit of a complicated Tetris game to get all the members of Pandora’s Key on stage, so they are probably lucky to have that extra build-up time. This band plays symphonic metal, and in their case, that means they play with a backing track and in-ear monitors. They have a great wall of sound coming our way because of that. However, I don’t really like having backing vocals on a track, and there is A LOT on the backing track. At some point, I even heard some guitarwork on the track, and I’m not sure that was necessary. But that is my personal preference. 

They manage to get the crowd going as well with their headbanging and jumping on stage. It’s hard to stand still with happy music like theirs. They end their set right before The Cave’s curfew, so I’m sure they were glad with the extra time they got from Thoughtless. Next time, maybe two bands instead of three at the Cave! But it’s always a fun place to hang out, so I’m sure I’ll be seeing you there at some point!

Where to find the bands?

Myth of Origin can be found on Facebook or in our database

Thoughtless can be found on Facebook

Pandora’s Key can be found on their website.

Releasedate: 23.07.2024

Eenling (Dutch for Loner) is a new name in the Dutch black metal scene. And, befitting of the name, Eenling is mainly a one-man project. Abdelhakim Boutachkourt, better known as Eenling, has been the webmaster and promotor for Cradle of Filth in the Netherlands. He has worked with the band for 23 years. Because of that long relationship, Eenling is the first and so far only band to be promoted through the official Cradle of Filth and Dani Filth channels. About the first single of this EP ‘I Am Here’, Dani Filth wrote:

“The song itself is awesome, very old skool catchy thrash/black metal in the vein of  Venom/Bulldozer/Bathory/Sodom with some strong melodious guitar work. I highly recommend this if you’re a bit partial to the old command!”,

naming Hakim as a good friend. If that doesn’t spark your interest, I don’t know what will. 

The End Of The Beginning

The End of The Beginning has been produced by Devi Hisgen. We know him from The Color Of Rain, Chutuluminati, and Teitan. Hakim is the core member of Eenling. For The End of the beginning, he had the help of Devi, Matthijs Snoek and his wife. Next year, a full album is expected. Eenlings debut EP was released exactly one year after the release of the track ‘I Am Here’. A remastered version has been included on this EP. The End Of The Beginning consists of five tracks, spanning just under 13 minutes long. While that’s quite short for an EP, that isn’t unheard of in the Black Metal scene. 

About the tracks

The EP opens with the haunting instrumental intro track Preludium. If these scratchy violins and haunting piano tunes are a prelude to what’s to come, we’re in for a very interesting release indeed.  I Am Here is the first actual track on the EP. It’s an old-school song, with a modern sound. Hakim’s vocals are easy to follow, which is probably deliberate as the EP tells a very personal story. The dissonant tunes from Preludium lead us into the intro for I Am Here. After a short intro, the track is mainly fast-paced thrashy riffs. The I Am Here vocals on the chorus are layered to give it more of an impact. Hakim’s vocals have an interesting sound. Unique enough to stand out, gritty and again, old school, and strong enough to convey the message. 

Those vocals are even more interesting in the spoken word parts. We first hear those on the next track, Murder is OK. I’m not sure you can actually call it a track with just 30 seconds, but the message is loud and clear. If you want to know why (or when) murder is okay, listen to the lyrics. 

Climate Change

Climate Change is the gem of this EP. It’s a chaotic track, with lots of layers to make it even more complex. The orchestrations from the intro return for a few seconds, before we get thrown into the absolute chaos that is the verse of Climate Change. The track balances itself with the clean vocals in the chorus. It’s a really interesting track, which gets even more interesting after a break with samples. 

The final track on the EP with the fitting title ‘A Final Word’ is actually a spoken word track, again with a very personal message and beautiful lines such as ‘A spirit forged in fire and steel, a testament to wounds that heal’. If you ever needed a redemption track, this sure is one. After the spoken word intro, the orchestrations from the intro return, accompanied by acoustic guitar to bid us farewell. This track could have easily been the intro to the EP as well, leading us into the story of abuse and trauma. 

Final Thoughts

The End of the Beginning is an interesting debut EP, and it makes us want more from Eenling. While the EP has just two actual tracks, the filler tracks around it make for a complete story. My personal favorite is Climate Change, because of the complexity and chaos it brings. The balance between the heavy chaos and clean vocals makes it an interesting track. 

You can find Eenling on his website or Facebook. 

See more pictures below the post

Day 4 of Jera is a weird surprise. In the past few years, Jear On Air only had three days. And when this year’s edition was announced, it only had three days. However, since it was the festival’s 30th anniversary, and the ticket sale had already started, the organization announced the 4th day. Some people were happy; it was another day of festival! Other people not so much, because they had been planning for three days. 

Judging from the number of people that are still left on the festival grounds today, I’m not so sure the 4th day was a success. I think at least half, if not more, of the people was gone today. In a way that was nice – very easy to navigate the festival and no lines at the toilets at all. But it felt a little empty for the bands on the main stage. 

Bongloard was actually a Dutch band, but since it really isn’t metal, we didn’t do a full review of their performance. However, they had a lot of energy on stage and it was a fun break in the day. The Hawk stage never disappoints in that regard. One point of feedback though. The bass player was headbanging so much, that I really don’t know what he looks like, ‘cause all we saw was hair. Talking about dedication lol. 

I’ll say it again: I love good vocals. Make Them Suffer has those, and a female keyboard player to add not just a layer of synths and vocals, but a layer of badasserie on stage as well. While the guitarist likes to show his perfectly carved body, she is just banging her head and being a total badass on stage.

Another band that’s bringing the energy is Death Before Dishonor. Again, lots of energy, and a really cool band to watch. It helps that their music is energetic and fun as well. It’s mainly the bass player and the vocalist bringing the energy though. 

The band I was most excited for today was obviously Distant. I saw them at Jera last year, and since then, I’ve been following their releases closely. These guys are growing so fast. With a number of awesome gigs under their belt, touring with Born of Osiris and Whitechapel this year, this band has really grown out of the small stage on Jera. Just listening to one of their releases will show you why.

Their show at Jera is a perfectly produced piece as well. So well, that at the moment both the guitarist and the bass player switch out on stage, no one really notices at first. Why would they switch? Well, if you’re on the small stage, there is no pyro. So of course, you bring your own!

After the kickass Distant show, we manage to see a small part of the Caskets set. I didn’t know this band, and when you don’t know the music and the vocals are off-key, there’s not much reason to stay. The vocalist has a really nasal tone of voice, and it’s turning me off. Maybe more people thought the same, ‘cause there aren’t many people in the tent at this point. 

After seeing Zulu at Graspop, we went to check them on Jera as well. In my memory, Zulu was pretty hard and pretty fun. However, I might have had a beer or two too much at Graspop, ‘cause seeing them at Jera was a totally different experience. The crowd seems to love it though. Lots of stagediving and moshing again, and the energy on stage is good. It might be because I’m tired, but it just doesn’t really grasp me. It’s a bit boring, too much of the same. 

Decking to go watch Atreyu was the best decision today. We entered while they played Euphoria, probably one of the few tracks I know from this band, and it couldn’t be better. My mood changed in an instant. Artreyu is very fun to watch. This band obviously has a very good time on stage. All of them were continuously smiling, and there was great interaction between the band members on stage. They were shaking butts, doing weird stuff, and just having fun.

I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to see Lionheart. However, after hearing the great stories of their performance yesterday, and not much else to see really, we went for Lionheart. That was a good choice; their music is as straightforward as their name, and the happy vibes from Artreyu continued for a bit during their set. 

Tesseract maybe shouldn’t have been in the line-up, and the main stage probably wasn’t the place for them, either. Even less so on this last day, the 4th day that was added later on as a surprise. As most people already went home that morning, and Tesseract didn’t really fit the ‘core’ vibe, that showed in the number of people in the tent. While it was somewhat crowded when they started their set, at the end, there were probably just 4 rows of people left in front of the stage. Maybe 50 people at most. While there were still groups of people scattered, I actually felt sorry for the band. 

It didn’t help that the band started out with pretty technical and challenging music. Not the groovy, head-banging tunes we’ve been hearing all weekend. It’s technically really good, but it might be a bit to intellectual for this festival. Tesseract is listening music, not party music. 

And with the tunes of Enter Shikari in our ears, we sadly have to miss them this time, ‘cause it’s a long drive back home. We were lucky enough to get our car out without the help of the tractor (of course the parking turned into one, big mud pit). See you next time, Jera!

Distant

Other bands

(see all pictures (and more) fullsize below)

At 11 o’clock, we were standing neatly in front of the gate waiting to be let in, along with, to be fair, not many other metalheads. Understandable, since the first band wouldn’t start until 12 o’clock.

The first band of the day was Holding Absence. I wasn’t familiar with the band, but there wasn’t another band I was particularly interested in seeing. Plenty of people were already awake, as the tent was quite full. The guitarist made some mistakes in his enthusiasm to headbang, but nobody cared.

It was already packed for Thrown long before it started. Thrown is just awesome. All the guitars are tuned super low, and the bass tones resonate through your chest. It’s hard and intense, with headbanging all the way. The crowd loved it, and it was a party from the start.

Unfortunately, I had to leave Thrown early to be on time for Nephylim’s performance. During the soundcheck, the deep grunts of vocalist Tijn were already audible as more people streamed in. It’s a bit puzzling why this melodic death metal band was on this stage, but the Hawk stage had the most unique programming of the weekend, so in that sense, they fit right in.

Bleed From Within (say that again in your head, but with a Scottish accent) we had also seen at Graspop. But since this band is regularly on repeat, we couldn’t pass up the chance to see Bleed From Within again. The setlist was almost the same, maybe even entirely, but I listen to too much music to remember. “The End of All We Know,” “Levitate,” and “I Am Damnation” are naturally great sing-alongs, and the audience eagerly joined in. Where there was a small pit at Graspop, it quickly expanded here.

Ice Nine Kills isn’t entirely my thing. I’ve avoided them a bit so far, mainly because of the considerable hype around them. But, to be fair, it’s quite cool. If you like singer/songwriter music but with metal, then it’s great. Each song is a whole story, and everything is meticulously crafted. Even if the music doesn’t appeal to you as much, the whole show around it makes it definitely worth seeing live at least once.

Of Mice & Men were also at Graspop, but they are high on my list of most-played songs in the past year. As you probably know by now, I’m a sucker for good vocalists. And Of Mice & Men fit that description. They played all the expected hits again; “Obsolete,” “Would You Still Be There,” “Castaway” … all great sing-alongs. And the audience loved it.

Sum 41 is one of those bands you can’t avoid at a festival like this. As a teenager, I liked them but wasn’t a huge fan. And that feeling still prevails. These kinds of bands naturally appeal a lot to nostalgia. Sum 41 does this by playing their hits. They also play a lot of music I’m not directly familiar with, but because it’s all very cheerful sing-along music, it doesn’t matter. It’s a big party during Sum 41. It’s easy to score points by playing “We Will Rock You,” but it works.

There was also a surprise band on the schedule today. The hope was for a cool Dutch hardcore band, but instead, Lionheart played an extra set. Lionheart is scheduled for their own set tomorrow, but today they prepared a special set of covers. Mostly Limp Bizkit, but also Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, and KORN. Speaking of nostalgia.

Thrasher We ended the evening in the party tent with Thrasher, partying until we couldn’t walk anymore. How we will survive tomorrow is still a bit unclear, but luckily the first band doesn’t start until 12 o’clock 🙂

(See all the photos larger at the end of the post)

After a not too long journey, in better weather than expected, MetalFromNL arrived at the Jera campsite on Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, the weather forecasts were good, and it looked like we were in for a beautiful weekend. As you would expect on the first day, there was still plenty of space both at the campsite and on the grounds. After having a few beers at the tent, we slowly made our way to our second home for this weekend: the festival grounds.

The nice thing about Jera On Air is that the festival is very easy to navigate. A second advantage, whether in good or bad weather, is that all stages are covered. In the sun, you have shade, and if it starts to rain, you can still see your favorite band while staying dry (well, mostly). 

On to Shadow of Intent. We had unfortunately missed this band at Graspop, so it was time for a second chance. The sound for Shadow of Intent was a bit better than it was for Knosis, which is necessary with so many orchestral parts in their tracks. In that regard, Shadow of Intent’s music is also more sing-along friendly, and the crowd was really giving it their all.

The audience doesn’t care at all; during “Heretic,” everyone goes wild, and they even manage to organize the first Wall of Death of the festival.

After Shadow of Intent, we took a break to get something to eat. The weather was supposed to stay nice all weekend (except for Sunday), but you never know with weather forecasts in the Netherlands. At least, it had been very warm and pleasant all day. However, during this break, there was some cooling off as the rain poured down (for a short while). Fortunately, it didn’t last long, and after some much-needed cooling off and some food, we were ready to continue.

Time for Hot Mulligan. I wasn’t familiar with the band, but several people recommended them to me. Hot Mulligan is popular—the venue was genuinely packed this time. And rightly so, Hot Mulligan plays cheerful pop-punk and enjoyable indie music. The crowd had really arrived by now, as we saw plenty of stage divers and crowd surfers. Jera is a festival where all of this is allowed, and people definitely took advantage of it. The emotional lyrics resonated well with the audience, who sang along to almost everything.

We also saw Bodycount at Graspop—and today, they did not disappoint either. Just like at Graspop, they started off today with their intro track (“Bodycount in the house!”) followed by “Raining Blood.” It’s one thing to start with that main riff, but Bodycount plays the entire track. It’s impressive when a thrash band does that, but to see a rap metal band nail this track so intensely is on a whole other level of awesome. Kudos again to the guitarist, who can outplay many guitarists at the festival this weekend.

Bodycount is tough and grim; their new track “Purge” proves that. That’s also a bit of the band’s caveat; it’s all very angry men’s music. Except for Ice-T’s son, who takes over the stage with a big smile and a lot of energy, often mimicking the lyrics on stage. He even goes as far as taking blood pills during “Psychopath” and pretending to die.

Eskimo Callboy not only plays their latest album “TEKKNO,” but because they have so much time (an hour and a half, hooray!), they also include old hits like “The Scene.” Of course, in such a long set, we’re treated to musical interludes as well. Like the epic drum version of Darude’s “Sandstorm.” And the vocalists (and the audience) get into it with “Let it Go” and The Backstreet Boys. Ultimately, we’re here for all the hits, and they play them all. Naturally, with plenty of fire and fireworks elements. It’s a wonder the tent hasn’t burned down yet, but we’re used to these displays at Jera by now.

After this epic show, everyone heads towards the campsite or the parking lot. At the campsite, the party continues with a silent disco. No disco for us anymore; tomorrow is another long day 🙂

The Color Of Rain was last years’ surprise to me, and probably also the EP that I listened to the most last year. For people who’ve read my reviews before, you know I love progressive metal. I also like black metal a lot, so their unique blend of music is a perfect fit. Meslamtaea falls somewhat in the same boat, so it would only make sense for me to like them, too. Let’s dive into this split.