Report and Photography by ©Jeanny Petrocchi, METALPHOTO

Last Friday we attended a great Dutch Prog Event at the Metropool in Hengelo with The Black Fall, Vault and Xeno. It was an evening featuring lyrical themes and songs of longer duration, riveting and twisting guitar melodies and riffs, mixed in with a good blend of harsh and clean vocals.

Here is a brief recap of Prog night last Friday:

THE BLACK FALL is a progressive rock and metal band, supplemented with clear vocal lines, mainly influenced by bands such as Porcupine Tree, Tool, Karnivool, Opeth and also old proggers like King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Rush. In 2019 they released their 2nd album, which was well received in the underground rock and metal scene. They played songs with longer duration perfectly and hearing how much they can pack into short bursts is mind numbing and exciting, resulting in a performance with many twists and turns. The band has grown composition-ally and their songs have gained depth and coherence. Because of the dynamic and diversity in their music, the response from the public is always very positive. The black fall has you drifting in another world of sound that weaves an intricate sonic story overflowing with a plethora of exciting riffs and ideas. The long-awaited third full-length album is expected in 2024, hopefully we can see more of this band after they finish recording their new album.

Vault was founded with the idea to make their music accessible not only to the underground scene but also accessible to mainstream listeners. With inspiration coming from prog rock, hard and classic rock, they strive to combine sounds from Steven Wilson, Opeth, Riverside, Rush and Porcupine Tree together into their own sound in order to gain their own identity. The band managed to perform with conviction and ensured that their story was powerful by using a digital projected backdrop. Every member of this band did an incredible job shaping their story and emotion. It was a performance filled with personality and careful attention to detail, easily blending together moments of dissonance and harmony.

XENO  balances between progressive and ambient passages, relentless grunts, sensitive clean vocals, aggressive guitar riffs and jazzy intermezzos. Combined with inspiring lyrics from a variety of philosophical and personal topics, Xeno creates a very unique, narrative atmosphere in which the audience can lose themselves. The music itself is influenced by bands such as Periphery, Tesseract, Opeth, Plini and Porcupine Tree, but also by Haken, Leprous and Lamb of God. This last performance was clearly a bit heavier than the other two bands, where metalheads were banging their heads on the catchy riffs and heavy grunts. This was also a farewell show for the departing members of Xeno; Edwin, Sean and Vincent.

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