concert review
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Concert review: Aviana, The Gloom in the Corner, Diamond Construct (& Atena), Dynamo Eindhoven, 6 November 2025
This was one of my most awaited shows of the second half of 2025. Within the last months, Aviana has climbed the ranks of my favourite bands and is currently sitting quite far at the top, which got even worse through the release of their new album VOID, and the fact that I got to interview Joel Holmqvist for a German music magazine and he came across super sympathetic. I’m seriously somewhere deep down the Aviana rabbit hole and this show was like the holy grail of my concert year. Here’s how it went.
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Concert review: Bloodred Hourglass & Luna Kills, FZW Dortmund, 22 October 2025
Back in the days before Spotify was turned into a shitty AI-run platform with pretty weak algorithms, I used to find some really good music through mixtapes. One of the bands I’ve discovered this way is Bloodred Hourglass. After seeing them live as opener for The Halo Effect in January I was more than excited when they announced a headline tour. I went to see them at FZW Dortmund (which is a pretty amazing venue!) and here’s how it was.
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Concert review: Annisokay, Heart of a Coward & The Narrator, Dynamo Eindhoven, 18 October 2025
I’m not gonna lie: When this show was announced and we immediately bought tickets, we already had tickets for 3 other shows of the Abyss tour (and we knew we were going to see Annisokay at Summer Breeze and Oelde Open Air). Just in case that anyone forgot how much I love Annisokay. But a) back then I hardly had any concerts scheduled for October and b) at least the line up for this show is a bit different than for the other shows I’m attending, because during this part of the tour, special guest were Heart of a Coward (instead of Our Promise for the later days). So I…
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Concert review: Oceans, Deliver the Galaxy & Safehxen, Rockpalast Bochum, 26 September 2025
For me personally, an Oceans headline tour was long overdue. Their music means a lot to me and so I was more than happy when they finally announced their first headline tour. I went to one of the earlier dates of the tour, at Rockpalast in Bochum, and here’s how it was.
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Festival report: Oelde Open Air – Friday: Annisokay, Any Given Day & Pentastone (22 August 2025)
Aaaand another summer festival, this time a smaller one. Oelde Open Air is a two-day „festival“ in Oelde, Northrhine-Westfalia. I put „festival“ in quotation marks because it’s rather two days of open air concerts, organised by a collective of music fans who really did a great job at putting this together. I only attended one of the two days and here’s how it was.
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Festival report: NEXUS Nerd Rock Festival 2025
This summer was intense in a lot of senses. This includes visiting a few festivals, and one of them stood out in a certain way: this year was the first time the NEXUS took place in its current form. NEXUS is a mix of convention and festival, which makes it somehow unique. I went there this year and here’s how I perceived the first edition of this festival. Spoiler alert: I think it was cool.
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Concert review: Caliban, In Hearts Wake, Cabal & Assemble the Chariots, Dynamo Eindhoven, 6 May 2025
I bought the tickets for this show with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was super excited to see Caliban again. On the other hand, I was a little worried since the last time I saw them was at Free For All and it wasn’t exactly my favourite gig in 2024. Then again, I got even more excited when they finally released their new album Back From Hell, because this album is amazing. But also I wasn’t super into the idea of four bands in one evening on a week day. The alternative would’ve been buying tickets for their show in Cologne, but a) I don’t really like the Essigfabrik…
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Concert Review: Samurai Pizza Cats & Enemy Inside, Club Volta Cologne, 1 May 2025
It’s been a while since I last saw the Samurai Pizza Cats, and I think I’ve never been to a headline show before, so I was pretty excited about this one. The excitement grew even more when they announced that people coming to the show in a super hero costume would get a goodie. While I didn’t plan to wear a super hero costume myself, I expected this show to be fun. And it was – although it was probably one of the hottest days of the year.
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Concert review: Maelføy, Torrential Rain & Call It A Day, Helios37 Cologne, 24 April 2025
2025 seems to be a year full of headline shows of bands I’ve picked up either as support acts or at festivals during the last year. Especially this spring I had a lot of shows scheduled of smaller German bands that I’ve seen last year. One of those shows was part of Maelføy’s renewed tour this spring. For different dates, they had different support acts in tow and since I also really wanted to see Torrential Rain live, I decided to attend their show in Cologne this time (although driving to Cologne always gives me mild anxiety…). Here’s how it went.
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Concert review: Bloodywood, Calva Louise & Demonic Resurrection, Live Music Hall Cologne, 6 March 2025
One of my most awaited shows in 2025: Last time Bloodywood toured in Europe I missed them and I regretted it dearly. The Nu Metal band from New-Delhi were far on top of my must-see list for a while now. I have a soft spot for Folk Metal and since Bloodywood includes a nice amount of folkish elements in their music – and since I’m a sucker for Bollywood movies – they’re exactly my jam. So I bought tickets as soon as the tour was announced and here’s my little opinion on the show.
