Musicon, The Hague, the NetherlandsJune 24th 2005
Trisomy, Ashen, Valkyre
While many metal heads are sweating their pants off at the Graspop Metal Meeting where temperatures reached 30+ we found ourselves at the Musicon in The Hague. The Musicon is just a small venue, more like a youth centre but with two rehearsal rooms in the back. It as set up by Barry Hay, singer of the Dutch rock band Golden Earring and features a rather small stage in the main room. This concert had to start some 45 mins later than planned because apparently the electricity wasn't really calculated on using all the equipment and the stage lights at the same time, the fuses were blown out. After this delay the few visitors saw 3 bands on stage, let's see who they are and how they did.
First of all a last minute replacement of the originally planned band Infinite Dawn who had to cancel their show leaving the headliner with the problem to find themselves another support act at short notice. This support turned out to be the band Ashen who have reached the finals of a regional contest in the past and claim to be playing Gothic/Black metal. The band consists of 6 members, Melanie on vocals, Danny doing the grunts and other male vocals while playing guitar. He's joined on guitar by Daniel, while Robert (keys), Arjen (bass) and Louis (drums) complete the band from Den Helder. A rather young band with mainly local performances playing some songs written by themselves and a few covers.
Music
Ashen is new, young and inexperienced and that's what you can surely hear from their musical capabilities. We shouldn't compare this band to the many great names we review here on the site, but see how this band does in its own right. After all no matter what we do we all have to start somewhere. And it seems like the band does have some potential and with some more experience could be a very nice band to have over and play at the smaller venues and festivals. But they are not ready for that yet if we have to consider the performance of tonight. The bass section of this band seems to be a bit off beat and makes the music sound rather sloppy and messy. The vocals of both Danny and Melanie however are quite promising, though Melanie's voice just wasn't nicely mixed during this show. I must assume this should and could be solved when they play at another venue with a decent sound check. Their own music sure needs to develop more into something of their own, there is nothing wrong with it yet it doesn't really distinguish them from the many other bands in the genre. Looking at the clear interest Danny has in bands like Cradle of Filth maybe they could further develop this with the sweet opera voice of Melanie. During the show the band played a few covers like After Forever's 'Monolyth of Doubt' which clearly shows this band trying hard, but shouldn't try to cover songs that are beyond their technical skills at the time. Maybe rearranging these songs would make them sound just that bit better. The sound, as said before was pretty poor during the show, problems with the PA system led to a bad balance between instruments leaving the sound engineer with an impossible task to compensate things further, all sliders on the mixing panel were already fully open and still it lacked power over the drums.
Performance
Here's where things get really nasty when performing at a small venue like this. To be honest it's not fair to judge any of tonight's bands on their performance because there just wasn't room enough to interact with each other. I would like to stress however that the band's appearance needs some work, they don't look like a metal band, just the two singers stand out of a crowd. Melanie does her best to move her body, show expressions, but they aren't convincing, probably a result of her young age, she misses the essence of especially the cover songs. Danny comes across a lot more convincing looking very angry doing his grunts, but I do understand this is probably easier to do. As for the lights, there were lights and that's about it. Due to the technical problems there was no chance to do any lightshow. As a result the lights were just there to make sure we could all see the band and will not be taken into consideration in the rating.
Setlist
00. Intro
01. Memories
02. Ashen
03. Monolith of Doubt (After Forever cover)
04. Over the Hills (Nightwish cover)
05. Reason to Pray
06. Darkness Decides
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 6
Sound: 4
Light: 4
Total: 6
Valkyre
As often in the music scene bands are formed and people either leave bands or are kindly asked to leave. People who get kicked out can find new energy and fight back hard like we've seen in the past. Just after they played their support shows with Epica in November 2004 Sengir told co-founder Kris Scheerlinck he had to leave the band. But Kris didn't sit down and cry, he almost immediately started to build a new band around him, somehow he had too much to offer the music fans, he had to get it out with a new band: Valkyre. Coming all the way from Belgium the band did their first show outside Belgium though not fully complete because both the male singer and back-up singer were unavailable for various reasons, yet they did their best to make this first non-Belgian concert a success.
Music
Valkyre has done only 3 shows before they kicked off for tonight's show and the band is rather nervous at the beginning. The sound on stage was horrible with the monitors lagging behind on the guitar speakers making it not only annoying for the band but also almost impossible to make really tight music. Mieke has a good voice and sounds rather solid, though at times the nerves can be heard; nothing disturbing however. Looking at the band's own songs they basically play melodic bombastic music that sure needs a much better PA system than the one present at the Musicon. The individual musicians sure know how to play their instruments. Kris and Gert handle their guitars well, the small Fred Stiends seems to be well able to control his seemingly big bass. With Matijs on drums and the beautiful Gaelle Pruvost on keys the band makes sure the music is right for the voice of Mieke Diependaele. Valkyre doesn't only treat us with their own music with or without vocals, but they do have a cover of Lacuna Coil's 'Daylight Dancer' for us in store as well. I guess this would sound really well if the mix would have been good but now the male vocals, done by Kris in the absence of the two real male singers, were hardly in the mix. It was a good thing the band did try to perform this song with Kris on vocals but of course we can only appreciate the effort, more because most of the audience never heard him sing anyway because of the bad sound in the venue.
Performance
Mieke is quite a stunning appearance, contrary to most female vocalists in the metal scene she has short hair and it most certainly suits her well. She has a presence on stage and her moves and expressions look convincing and are very nice to look at. The rest of the band is basically wearing a plain black outfit with the exception of the lady all the way in the back who was wearing a nice outfit that unfortunately was hidden from sight during most of the show, this stage was just that bit too small for bands this big. As with Ashen, there was light, though directed a bit more on the band, but it sure couldn't be called more than sufficient light. Too bad, but that's the way things are in small venues.
Setlist
01. Heresy
02. Save Me
03. Daylight Dancer (Lacuna Coil cover)
04. Acceptance
05. Procession to the Darkest Hole on the Face of the Earth
06. Arlésienne
07. Béziers
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 6
Sound: 4
Light: 4
Total: 7
Trisomy
This band has been around quite a while and has done over 40 shows so far. Trisomy has done a few support shows for Epica in the past and did show headline shows in smaller venues as well, but after having won the Hollands Glory band contest in 2004 and having played in the semi finals of the Dutch National Band contest this band is ready to hit the future. After some changes in the line-up, having the lovely Martine Thijs on vocals, the band is ready to kick some butt at the smaller clubs around the Netherlands. With Michiel van Veen and Eric Hazebroek on guitar, Maarten Siem on keys Pieter van Berkmortel on bass and Frans Kraak on drums this band shows it has both potential and experience.
Music
Let's start with the vocals, Martine just has a good voice, all her singing seems to come naturally. Though a bit loud in the mix this is no punishment to the ears. The rest of the band just provides a solid platform for the vocals, even a broken string on Eric's guitar can't really disturb the band's show. Trisomy has enough material to fill a full show and the quality of the songs is promising for the future. These songs could well compete with many of the other Dutch bands like Morning. Of course the band played songs from their album and their demo 'V' which can be downloaded at their website for free. Slightly different melody lines compared to the studio versions but with well placed intonations and emotion. Trisomy has to start somewhere to build up their own name, but this venue sure made it hard for them to show their full potential. The PA sound was actually a little better than with both support acts but still below standard. The balance between the various instruments and vocals just wasn't right for reasons mentioned before.
Performance
Trisomy has made sure they are dressed for the stage, something that clearly shows their intentions and future plans; they take their music very seriously. Again the stage is packed with equipment hidden amongst which are the band members. The only one how doesn't seem to be bothered by this is of course Martine who just moves around on stage making sure the rest of the band has even less place to stand on. However this bold moving around does have its effect and the band sure shows some interaction with each other making the best of the situation. With her great looks Martine of course seems to draw all the attention to herself. Her moves are vivid and teasing a true seductress on stage, though her moves are not your every day gothic metal moves, more like a rock band. She might want to get herself a bit more gothic appearance or just stay herself, she moves good, looks good, just a bit unexpected to see this with a metal band. As for the lights, the band tried to stay in the lights as much as possible thus trying to create a good opportunity for the audience to see the band and for the many photographers to make some photos. No lightshow however we think we should consider in the final score.
Setlist
00. Intro
01. Freaked Mind
02. Imprisoned
03. Despair
04. Lost
05. Cold Feet
06. Brainteasers
07. All Alone
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 5
Light: 4
Total: 7
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