When I entered the hall, Non Divine was already playing (the doors were opened quite late). I read that they played a groovy kind of Metal and while hearing that, I expected a stoner rock band or something.
That was (luckily) not so. Their music is mostly a little slower kind of '80's Thrash/Gothenburg Metal, but the band still has it's own great face. Their music is original and reminds me of Opeth a little sometimes.
Even though singer/guitarist Ivor van Beek had a little bit of a sore throat, he sung way better than on their demo 'My Obsession'; a lot cleaner. The sound was good and the band too.
The entire demo was played live and the audience was slightly disappointed when the band left the stage. And I can understand that; 'Sympathy', 'My Obsession' and the new song 'Visions' were interpretated greatly and I can recommend everyone to take a listen to 'My Obsession'.
After All (Christophe Depree, Erwin Casier, Piet Focroul, Dries van Damme)
After that, the Belgian band After All enters the stage. When man looks at the number of released albums, After All is definitely the most experienced band of the evening.
Their latest release, 'Dead Loss' (2000), didn't quite catch me. The music was definitely good, but the tempo was a little low.
Every one of the three album was represented this evening. The band started out with 'Damage Structure' from 1997's 'Transcendant'. The atmosphere was good and the sound too.
Drummer Chris De Neve was absent this tour. The new drummer was a perfect replacement, his slight progressive drumming fitted in the music great.
The band played some great versions of for example 'Behind The Mask', 'Damaged Trust', the new 'A Sweet Departure' and a great cover ('Black God, White Devil' from La Muerte).
Singer Piet Focroul took some pictures of the audience and the contact with the audience was good, the atmosphere too and that too made it a great show.
Mac-11 (Manfred van Zadelhoff, Rick Ambrose)
Mac 11 is a band I already knew a little. They were finalists in the "Metal Bash" festival for starting bands a couple of years ago and I heard their latest CD 'Structures Of Habitat'. Their music is a little too modern for me, but it definitely has some great moments.
Especially the heavy, Pantera-like guitar riffs sounded good to me. Too bad the sound was not that good and the guitar not loud enough.
Singer John Ambrose had a good interaction with the audience anyway and the bass parts by Manfred van Zadelhoff really impressed me.
The band opened with 'The Ungod', my favorite of the new mini-CD. Some good versions of songs like 'Frontline', 'Struggle' and 'As God Shuffled His Feet' were played.
Mac 11 was the band I liked the least of all, but nevertheless it was a good show and they're a lot better live than on the CD.
Wicked Mystic (Harald Te Grotenhuis, Niels Kuenen, Remko Roes)
And now finally the headliner. I wondered if Wicked Mystic could bring its good, technical Power Metal to us from a stage and I must say: THEY CAN!!!
As soon as the first notes of opener 'Bleeding My Soul' started, I knew that it was going to be a great evening of Metal. Too bad that guitarist Harald Te Grotenhuis started out with the same sound problems as Mac-11's John Stam. Luckily that problem solved itself later the evening.
The band was very good and their powerful music sounds even better live. The band received the best reaction of the audience and that's reasonable, because I can't think of enough superlatives to describe the evening.
Opener 'Bleeding My Soul', 'Stand Alone', 'Chronic Remorse', 'Stepped Out' and closer 'Mind-Bomb' turn out to be real live-smashers and especially the semi-ballads 'Doubt' and 'The Paramount Question' are (also because of the vocals of Remko Roes, which were even better than on the album) even a lot better than on the album (if possible).
The acoustical passages in 'The Paramount Question' and 'Shadow Dancer' were played very professionaly, not with distortion-pedals or something like that, but with real acoustical guitars!
After an hour (much too short), the band played 'Iron Maiden' (I guess I don't have to say from which band it's a cover) as an encore (after a little bit of playing riffs from the Metallica-songs 'Master Of Puppets' and 'Motorbreath') and it set Atlantis on fire once more.
Also really cool that Remko let someone from the audience (ME!!!) sing on some parts of closers 'Mind-Bomb' and 'Iron Maiden'.
Even though the headliner played much too short, this was an amusing evening. Maybe I will go watch the same package elsewhere in the country. I can recommend that to anyone who reads this, because it's worth every penny you pay for it!!!
