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Huntenpop, Varsselder, The Netherlands
September 3rd 2005
Neck, Paradise Lost, In Extremo, Epica, Mostly Autumn, Nemesea, Xystus, Concubine

On a wonderful sunny day the main day of Huntenpop had arrived again. 5 tents were set up in the fields near Varsselder. Stands with drinks, food and many cd’s, t-shirts, jewellery and whatever band merchandise you would like to purchase and clean toilets were all there. Even free sunglasses were handed out to the first 1000 visitors, and you could do a good deed by signing up for Project Aware or see a play from Amnesty International.


Concubine (by RG)

Concubine was founded in 1998 and has been changing and growing ever since. These days they call themselves ‘crossover metal’. In 2001 they have played at the Pinkpop festival and became second in the final of the ‘Grote Prijs van Nederland’. Their singer Remko was asked to sing along on a track from the album Tsumi by Dreadlock Pussy. He also sang the song live at Ozzfest and the Lowlands festival. When they released their first full-length album Laughter Days in 2002, critics had nothing but respect and they thought of Concubine as a band full of potential.

The band toured around the Netherlands and sold many albums at over a hundred live shows.
In 2005 they went into the studio to record Collapse of the Empire, a 4-track demo. This demo has been called a nice preview of the full-length album, that’s also going to be released in 2005.

Music
I had no idea what to expect when I went in to the tent to see Concubine. It turned out to be metal with a twist. When Remko announced the second song he told us this was for all people who like salsa. Only problem was there was no salsa in that song, it was more like a ska beat. But that didn’t matter, al that matters is that is brought a great summer atmosphere into the tent. Besides the ska beats there was some heavy metal going on, with grunts from Remko. But in contrary to that he could also sing softer and slower which sounded very intens. Singing together with Dennis (guitar/vocals) did not add as much to the songs as it could have. Their voices just did not seem to fit together.



Performance
The performance started out with an almost empty tent, but due to the music and their enthusiastic performance. They talked to the audience and invited them into the tent. Remko even had a proposition to start an action comity for free beer at festivals which got lots of cheers of course, the entire tent and the rest of the band joined in. Remko has a lot of stage energy, jumping around and throwing his lyrics at us. As is suitable for a bass player Joost was the quietest person on stage, in contrary to Niek who was drumming very intensive and concentrated. The lights were constantly changing to fit the music, which is not always the case on a festival.

Rating
Music 7
Performance 7
Light 7
Sound 7
Total 7




Xystus (by JC)

These young men are surely working hard on their career, performing all around the country and now even at festivals. You might here from them more and more… we’ll see.

Music
Besides songs of ‘receiving tomorrow’  they played a few songs from the new album; ‘My Chrysalis’ and ‘Whole in Pieces’. They are a lot more experimental, and did sound very well. The lights didn’t have that much effect. It was too light in the tent itself. They closed the show with their metal version of ‘Rainbow in the sky’ from Dj Paul Elstak (a Dutch dj). Even though this wasn’t the best show of them I’ve seen it was all right.



Performance

Xystus was the opener in the Ysselhunten tent. At this time it was not very busy yet, which is too bad, Xystus being a nice band. Today they started out pretty good. Only the singer, bas, did the vocals, his band mates didn’t join in. Usually Tim (bass) and Bob (guitars) have a role as background vocals. There was some trouble with the techniques. The band was very enthusiastic on stage, but the sound wasn’t too good. Still Bas and Tim interacted nicely with the audience. The audience that moved anyways, most of it was just standing. Still, it was good too see the tent fill up as the gig progressed. Halfway during the gig, Tim’s shoulder strap broke. He sure knows how to improvise, for he played on very well, showing he is a professional.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 6
Lights: daylight mostly
Sound: 5
Total: 6 (5,8)




Nemesea (by CB)

Nemesea founded in September 2002 in Groningen, The Netherlands. In April 2003 the band had their first performance as support act for After Forever, with whom they have been touring for over a year, as their steady support act. Now, Nemesea are touring The Netherlands on their own.

In November 2004 Nemesea released their debut album 'Mana' (meaning 'the magical power of things, given by the gods'). At this moment, as we speak, Nemesea is working on a promotional DVD, which is recorded at Huntenpop.

Music
Nemesea started off with a new intro with some jazzy influences followed by a relatively new song ‘Broken’. The audience welcomed the band with a warm applause and they started off very strong. Manda’s voice was very powerful and the sound was very good. My compliments to Klaas (sound engineer) who had some problems with the sound during the sound check and managed to get this powerful sound during the actual gig. Highlights like the Evanescence cover ‘Going Under’ and ‘Lucifer’ were played and the audience got wild and started headbanging, dancing en screaming.

Just like Manda, the band gave the audience their very best. Guitar parts were played powerful exchanged with emotional parts and the bass lines very strongly played.



Performance

Today is a big day for Nemesea for they are recording a promotional live DVD, from what some material will feature on the Nemesea website. During the gig camera were recording and so Nemesea had to give a very strong presentation. And they did. Hendrik-Jan (guitar), Sonny (bass) en Martijn (guitar) made lost of contact with the audience and made some funny face to each other on stage. Even Berto was to be seen for he was making ‘Metal Signs’ to the public. Manda used to whole stage and her performance was outrageous! You could really see that Nemesea was not only giving their best because of the camera, but they were really enjoying themselves. Same as the audience. Nice was to see that Nemesea had a new light engineer, who set up a great light show. Unfortunately it was not dark enough in the tent, because the lightshow would have looked better if it was.
This really was one of their best performances.

Setlist
01. Broken (new)
02. Empress
03. Going under
04. Angel in the Dark
05. Mortalitas
- The Taker
- Dies Irae
- Morendum Tibi Est
- From Beneath You It Devours
06. Violated Lady
07. Beyond Evil
08. Disclosure
09. Lucifer

Rating
Music 9
Performance 9
Sound 9
Light 9
Total 9





Mostly Autumn
(by JC)

Mostly Autumn is an English band, they play progressive rock/metal, with some folk’s influences. The band counts 8 members; they all have their own role in the whole musical journey.

Music
The sound in this tent was pretty good. The 8 band members were sorted in: lead and backgrounds singers, guitar, bass, 2 keys, and drums. The singer also picks up the guitar once and shows that she plays the flute quite well, too. The singer is dressed in a simple black corset; she has separate sleeves, also black. The thing I noticed immediately was her beautiful skirt. It was a wide orange like skirt, with some red shades in it and it was trimmed with spangles. She looks like a very sweet lady, but turns out pretty spicy, when you hear her sing and talk. A lot of the songs had more vocals, about 6 member of the band sing along. They are well tuned in to each other. A lot of the progressive songs have a bombastic feeling too it, but that will be because of the many instruments on stage. The music is not all that original most of the time, but the performance makes it sound really special, light folk influences in some songs, flutes en guitar alternate each other in the songs, which all of a sudden seems a great combination.



Performance

Like I said, the band works very well together, its noticeable they are having a lot of fun on stage. Sometimes the background singer will come up front and do a little duet with the lead singer. Even though is it not very busy in the tent, they keep showing their love for the audience. Most of the people really picked that up and became more cheerful. They really loosened up. Some parts of the show sound so nice that you feel almost honoured to watch them. Definitely two thumps up!

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Lights 7
Sound 7
Total 8 (7,7)



Epica (by RG)

By the time the sun was a bit less harsh on us it was time for Epica to rock the tent. In the front of the tent a group of loyal fans was already watching them build up their show, the backdrop was hung, instruments were checked and sometimes a glimpse of one of the band members could be caugt behind the stage. Besides the true fans some sceptics surrounded me as well and I was curious to see if the power this band has gathered would now convince them.

Music
As usual Epica brought us a mixture of their last two albums, but more and more songs from ‘Consign to Oblivion’ take over. And soon, new songs will be added to the set list. Today a new song was played which is called ‘Linger’. Simone and Coen were the only ones on stage and Simone dedicated this song to her grandfather who died the week before, giving the song an extra emotional impact. It was a very delicate and sad song but intense as well. Simone sung very well today, as for Mark he seemed a bit less in shape (vocally). In the beginning of the show the sound was out of balance, but this was quickly restored and then all instruments and vocals were in the right balance.


Performance
The band seemed to enjoy them selves on stage and so did the fans in the front. When we were asked to raise our hands I thought everybody did so, until I looked around and saw that only the front of the tent was joining in. A pity, but I do think they have convinced a lot of people with their performance. Simone seemed to have picked up a new move, bending backwards. It has a nice effect but maybe more if she wouldn’t do it so often. Coen was obviously enjoying himself, hitting himself in the head as he always does when he gets enthusiastic. The lights created a good atmosphere for their show. The only down side was the light which were used to light the audience, for they were too bright.

Setlist
01. Hunab K’u  
02. Mother of Light
03. The Last Crusade
04. Sensorium
05. Feint
06. Cry for the Moon
07. Linger
08. Quietus
09. Seif al Din
10. Consign to Oblivion

Rating
Music 8
Performance 7
Light 7
Sound 7
Total 




In Extremo (by RG)

After having seen them the day before in Tilburg I was excited to see In Extremo again for it was a fantastic show. At a festival there are usually less possibilities then in a normal venue. But it seemed they had some extras prepared for us just the same…

Music
This tour has not yet influenced the men of In Extremo to that extent that they still sound great. With their all time favourites such as ‘Kuss Mich’ and ‘Der Wind’ they lifted everybody’s mood. I was wondering why on ‘Horizont’ I did not hear Marta form Die Happy, that afternoon I had gotten the chance to ask Micha (vocals) and his answer was “because we play live”. In the sound mix, the drums were a bit too powerful. For one of the final songs Micha asked us to guide him with our clapping, for he had forgotten the instrument for that song. All joined in and then the drums did too to help us. It sounded fantastic, and it show that Micha is a great singer who can also sing a-capella. But the song is not all focussed on Micha, he gives his fellow band members space every now and then by leaving the stage, which enables us to enjoy their rich musical talents even more.



Performance
The band seemed to have gotten enough rest to perform with enthusiasm and energy. The audience was a lot different, sure there were some fans jumping and singing along but there were also a bunch of people who were there just there for the pit and there were of course those who had never seen them before or did not like what they heard and just stood there with their arms crossed. When Dr. Pymonte played his ‘catapult harp’ during ‘Nymphenzeit’ he had burning sticks, which was of course a great sight to see. During the third song in the set there was pyro on stage, warming us all. Later on there were white snips of paper flying through the tent and during ‘Spielmansfluch’  there were green flames shooting out of the stage. There was little space left to walk but they still managed to move around and avoid bumping in to Micha who was bouncing around the stage full of energy and power. The other band members were entertaining each other and the audience not just by playing their instruments but also by doing tricks with them, some are for instance very handy with their flute. The lights were not all that, they were not as tuned in to the music as during their show in 013.

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Light 7
Sound 7
Total 8 (7,7)






Paradise Lost (by RG)

As one of the final bands of this day, Paradise Lost had gathered themselves quite a crowd. They are a legendary band and many have heard their name, but is this legacy still as strong as they used to be, can they still convince a new audience?

Music
The drums overrule in the sound mix, which sometimes even makes it hard to hear Nick sing. Only when he hits his high notes does he overcome the loudness of the drums. This is music to listen too at home, sitting down. There is hardly any energy and it is not at al convincing. During one song female vocals and keys were heard, this added an extra dimension to the music and made it more interesting. There is nothing wrong with the music, it is well written and played but they seemed to have lost the power which has made them so famous before.



Performance

There was not much action going on on stage. Most movement came from Nick moving back and forth with his microphone. The faces of the band members are lit by red lights, making it hard to see their expressions, if there were any. Besides that there was a warm and dark atmosphere created by the lights, which fitted the show.  Greg (lead guitar) was head banging through most of the songs while Steve (bass) almost disappeared into his instrument, he was very concentrated. The entire band seemed very focussed on their music and not on their performance.

Rating
Music 6
Performance 5
Light 7
Sound 7
Total 7 (6,6)





Neck (by EE)

Today Neck is headlining one of the tents, and without any real main stage appearances for dark music bands we are considering Neck to be one of the major bands for us to review. Neck is a 6 piece band that is based around former Pogues member Liam Neeson the band shows us the rougher side of Ireland's folk.

Music
Take a 45 rpm Irish folk single and play it at 76 rpm, this is about the speed and energy you get from the stage when Neck is playing. Up tempo punk/rock music with a multitude of traditional instruments. Nothing medieval here, no a banjo, violin, penny whistle and a bagpipe do the trick here together with the modern guitars, bass guitar, keyboard and drum kit. The typical Irish vocals of Liam sound good and powerful, just what the music needs, while his musicians provide some decent backing vocals to go with the music. This is music that makes you smile, maybe even invite you to go outside to grab another beer if only that would mean you'd had to miss out on the music for a bit. The music in the tent was good, though it seemed like the vocals were at times a bit out powered by the music.



Performance

In a cosy light atmosphere, created through using smoke and lots of coloured lights, the band was playing for an increasingly enthusiastic audience. While most were just standing and staring at the beginning more and more people started to move. People were doing Irish folklore dances, others were clapping while yet others even managed to head bang to the music. The band itself was quite stationary, sometimes one of the musicians moved up front and play a bit of a solo but that's about it. In the mean time Liam is trying to communicate to the audience, but even though most people speak English, this Irish accent just doesn't get most of the message across. It does however give you this authentic Irish feeling.

Rating
Music 8
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 7
Total 7



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