Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Angels & Agony

Details: Written by: Sebastian Huhn; Published: 18 April 2008

Zwischenfall, Bochum, Germany
17th April 2008
Angels & Agony, Legacy of Music

I’ve never been on a concert with so few people attending it. The show was announced to start at 8:00 PM but fact it was past 9 until the show finally began. The number of people didn’t increase much during that time and so, all two bands did their best to make this a funny and great show anyway…

Legacy of Music

Since 2002, the two protagonists Nick and J.P are working together. Initially more a happy everything developed to a passionate collaboration. The EP ‘Follow me’ was created and sold-out very soon, even though limited to an insider’s circle and regardless of a rather bad production. The first self-produced album ‘Not Ordinary’ preceded by the single ‘Not Strong enough’ also contained some of the songs of the before mentioned EP but with vocals and was swiftly sold-out as well. Two more albums followed in 2004 ‘Beyond all Boundaries’ and 2006 ‘[uni]form’. The latest album is called ‘[ex]pedition’ and was released in November 2007. LEGACY OF MUSIC is Nick (Vocals, Lyrics, Music) and J.P (Keys, Music, Arrangements). http://www.legacyofmusic.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/nextgenerationofelectropop

Music & Performance
There’s a special term to describe this music “electro future dance” meaning a combination of catchy melodies, elements from EBM, synth and future pop and melodic chant. On stage the band was supported by the live drummer of ABSURD MINDS, who gave the mostly danceable compositions a bit more punch and a slight organic touch. As soon as LEGACY OF MUSIC entered the room, there was a constant energy flow on stage. Despite the really limited space between the drum kit and the keys, Nick did his best to move as much as possible, dressed in a black & white lacquer suit. You can’t say the same about the few people gathering in front of the stage and I mean few. About 30 people I suppose and you have to abstract the people from the crew from that number. The incredible amount of people was commented by Nick with “Wow, this is very familiar. We also could have played the show in our bedrooms”.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.5

Angels & Agony

The band was founded in autumn 1995 by Reinier Kahle. From there on, new members gradually grew into the line-up and ANGELS & AGONY became more a band than a mere project. The first musical result was the single ‘Unity’ released in 1999 on Aragon Records and produced by Axel Ermes (GIRLS UNDER GLASS). It received rave reviews from various countries. In 2000, the band signed a label contract with Out of Line. Being preceded by the single ‘Darkness’ the first full-length ‘Eternity’ was released in 2001 produced by no one less then Ronan Harris. Two EPs followed, ‘Forever’ in 2002 and ‘Salvation’ in 2003. The second album ‘Avatar’ was a journey into self-reflection, a journey to evaluate thoughts, feelings and emotions. The most recent release ‘Unison’ is like the counterpart. It goes straight forward with a more rhythmical and danceable approach, the extroverted brother so to say. ANGWELS AND AGONY are Reinier Kahle - (electronics, lyrics & vocals), Erik Wierenga - (electronics & guitars), Marco van Belle - (management, live synths & vocals) and Fried Bruggink - (live drums). http://www.angelsandagony.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/angelsandagony

Music & Performance
Let’s be honest it’s, Future Pop and that genre is overloaded with bands from almost every country of the world I guess. Luckily ANGELS & AGONY are one of the better representatives of this genre and though I don’t like everything they’ve released so far, they’ve a big bunch of songs making them rise above many of their genre colleagues. Most of them were included on that evening’s setlist starting with ‘Stronghold’ and ‘Division’ from the second album ‘Avatar’. Though the staged was packed with some more stuff and more people, there was more space to move than before and Reinier gave everything. ‘Wreckage’ from the current album ‘Unison’ was the next one and at least some people actually started to dance… finally.

A classic from the first album ‘Eternity’ followed with ‘Salvation’, a quite dark song, which is culminating up in a hymnal and melodic chorus. To the sounds of the mystic ‘Karma’, Reinier changed positions with Fried, but not to maltreat the drums by himself. He looked almost like a priest like he was standing there on his “podium”. Fried took his guitar to support Erik, but I was wondering all the time why I couldn’t hear the guitars in the songs. Maybe they’ve been just too low, but this changed on the spot with ‘Inner Light’ where the rocking attitude finally came out. Guitars don’t always work with electronic music, but in this case I must say that it sounded pretty well.

After another club smasher, namely ‘Forward’, the guys had a surprise in their bags for the audience. An entirely new track called ‘Lifelight’ and it was well rewarded by many people with dancing and I also liked it. ‘Forward’ and ‘Darkness’ were the last songs. This wasn’t the end of course and the people loudly demanded an encore, so the band returned a few seconds later. Seemingly happy - that was obvious - Reinier said “We’re so happy and surprised. We never expected you would want to hear more”. The two songs of the encore were ‘Traveller’ and ‘Unison’ before it was time to say goodbye. Something that was plain to see during the show was, that those guys weren’t just band colleagues but grown together as friends.

The chemistry matched and they were joking and laughing or just happy, that the few attendees liked their songs and danced to it. Reinier even took a bath in the “crowd”. Despite so few people attending the show, the band did their best to entertain them and everyone could leave the venue with a smile on his face.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Stronghold
03. Division
04. Wreckage
05. Salvation
06. Surrender
07. Karma
08. Inner Light
09. Forever
10. Lifelight
11. Forward
12. Darkness
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13. Traveller
14. Unison

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.3