Tag: Music

I’ve finally nerved myself to tell you about a sad development for prog lovers.

I first learned about the Dutch prog band Sun Caged when I came to Holland back in 2008. Shortly after I’ve even seen them playing on Walhalla. I must say I was impressed. But three years later, in 2011, the band has released The Lotus Effect (which also happened to be their last album), I was totally blown away as this was absolutely a masterpiece of progressive metal. I can’t even explain why, but I deem this album one of the best rock works ever, and I seem to be able to listen to it endlessly.

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Igor Abakumov, also known as Mr. Raskolnikov, an ex-member of Radiolaria, has shared some new material with me: tracks that were recorded for his own solo project called Zapreschennaya Akustika (“Forbidden Acoustics”). Even though it’s a home recording and perhaps you can’t really appreciate the Russian lyrics, the musical aspect seemed quite interesting to me.

So far four new tracks are available, all of them pertain to the sky for some reason:

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The band Dream Theater is absolutely legendary. They are considered the founders of the progressive metal genre, and each of them alone is equally legendary. If you doubt that, just watch their Instrumedley video; not many musicians in the world are capable of playing something like that.

The band was presenting their new album The Astonishing in the Theater Carré in Amsterdam on February 23^rd.

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If you think I pay too much attention to Stream of Passion, I can tell you I’ve seen a man on the show for whom that show of the band was the 94^th.

Moreover, with the ticket price of €14 it would be stupid not to go.

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My personal concert season open by the Nightwish fellas is at its climax.

I was fortunate to see a very popular (yet kind of underground) band called The Aristocrats on December 9^th. The band is playing some mindbogglingly complex tunes ranged from Jazz Fusion to Heavy Prog.

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It’s now Movember (a.k.a. Musical November), which means — showtime!

And today’s report is about the Finnish symphonic metal legend Nightwish.

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It’s been a while since my last gig report, time to catch up with the latest developments in the Dutch rock world. I’ve a perfect occasion as I’ve seen two live rock legends.

The project called The Gentle Storm, which is just one year old, were presenting their debut album The Diary in the Amsterdam club Melkweg (I’ve seen Pagan’s Mind there before).

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It’s been a while since I wrote about the masters of drive and female vocals, one of my favourites, Stream of Passion. They’re still there and have even recently toured in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which they posted about on their Facebook page.

Just before those, very special for both sides, events I’ve visited two performances happened with an interval of one week.

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Last weekend I’ve finally got to visit the most eminent, in every meaning, place in Amersfoort. Since I’d come to live here, my country has changed its president twice, one of them has divorced and the other has made quite a few equally destructive achievements, yet I failed to take my time to get to it.

In the brochure of Spoffin I found a discount coupon for climbing the tower for € 2.50 instead of € 4. The coupon was valid until August 31^st, which conveniently fell on Saturday. This chance we couldn’t miss.

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It’s August again, which means festival time in Amersfoort! In the beginning of the month there’s usually the world-famous Gay Pride in Holland. The main venue is, of course, Amsterdam, but many other cities, including Amersfoort, hold smaller parades. However in the beginning of August I was in Tyumen, so I won’t tell you anything about that.

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