You are waiting for an event to happen for so long but when it passes it feels like it was just a second in comparison. This is how it was for me with this event but let’s start from the very beginning.
I heard about this tour several months before an event in Calgary and was very interested to visit it as the mixture of bands gathered was pretty amazing. Every band in the list is interesting in their own way and has a great influence on the metal scene and the music itself nowadays.
The concert took place in the Palace Theater venue which is quite popular for the big concerts held in the city. I arrived a little bit earlier and what surprised me from the very beginning was the line to the entrance. I expected much more people for such an event and till the start of the concert it became obvious that the amount of visitors wouldn’t be very big. I don’t know, maybe the reason was the amount of concerts held that days or the fact that this was the working day but the event wasn’t too crowded so I entered the place pretty fast.
The first band was The Omnific from Melbourn, Australia and this was the only band I haven’t heard before. Considering the whole concert is all about progressive bands, I was interested to listen to them to find out what was so special about them. What startled me immediately was the bass lines. It sounded as if the bass was the only instrument heard and, afterwards, I found out that this is actually as it is))) The band consists of 3 musicians, 2 of them are bass players so I wasn’t far from the truth.
Nevertheless I play bass myself and I love this instrument so much, I tried to imagine how guitar lines would sound if they would be present all the time of their performance. In general, the impression from the band’s music is very controversial. Some lines were sophisticated and interesting, some parts sounded like somebody switched on the background music. On the one hand it was refreshing but on the other hand it was a metal concert first of all and you are waiting for the band which is progressive and technical yet still metal. I haven’t felt that they found that golden mean.
Canadian Beyond Creation was the second band playing and those guys I knew very well before the concert. To tell the truth, one of the reasons I wanted to visit this event was them. I heard all 3 albums but hadn’t had the chance to see them live earlier. So, I pushed through the crowd and went closer to the stage to enjoy the show. What can I say, Beyond Creation is very inspired musicians. Every line of their music was fulfilled and you received exactly what you had expected from them from the musical and technical perspectives. Sometimes, it felt like you joined some spiritual circle and were trapped in some sort of trance.
One additional pleasant thing about them is their open mindedness and willingness to chat with people around. I was able to chat with Simon Girard and exchange the experience of surviving the harsh period of coronavirus disease for musicians. This is how I found out that he is also a great photographer and the part of their merch is his own works! (I will add his Instagram page for ones who’s interested to view the works).
And the last but not least was Ne Obliviscaris from Australia. This band is already well known to thousands of metalheads around the world. What’s interesting about them is that they are known not only to metalheads but also to other musicians around the world thanks to their composer ideas and braveness to mix the styles without considering if it would be an awkward thing to do or not. Can you just imagine, their song “And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope” from their debut album Portal Of I included in a teaching curriculum at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, one of Australia’s most prestigious classical Conservatories! This is huge.
There were some concerns about their performance in this tour due to unexpected change in the band’s structure. It was announced that the North American tour of the band will be held without Xenoyr, the vocalist of the band. He was replaced by James Dorton from Black Crown Initiate/The Faceless due to Xenoyr’s health issues. Despite this fact, they performed very well and played the songs from the last and previous albums.
To tell the truth, this band is not for everybody and somebody would find them hard to perceive. They mix so many things that are considered not suitable, their music is not the easiest and chilling one. Speaking about me, their music forces me to think and analyze it constantly. Sometimes, I want them to be more metal, other times I just want to relax and they are too hard to comprehend at those times but I could not admit that they influenced the metal scene a lot. No matter how you feel about them it is really hard not to admit their talent and innovative way of thinking.
In general, the concert was great and went well. I like the idea of making the concert with a smaller number of bands but each band is the story itself. It gives you a better opportunity to appreciate every band more thoroughly.
Even 1 week after, I felt the mood and the emotions from the event and listened to my favorite songs of those bands again and again. This is the effect you are expecting to have after good concerts.
Ne Obliviscaris
https://www.facebook.com/NeObliviscarisBand
https://www.instagram.com/neobliviscarisofficial/
https://www.neobliviscaris.com.au/
Beyond Creation
https://www.facebook.com/BeyondCreationOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/beyondcreationofficial/
Simon Girard (Beyond Creation songwriter, guitar, vocal) works as a photographer
https://www.instagram.com/simon_girard_photography/
THE OMNIFIC
https://www.facebook.com/theomnific
https://www.instagram.com/theomnificband
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5yn8jrJH5Z5PaGFStNUvgR
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