Concert review: Self Deception, Eyes Wide Open & THECITYISOURS, Club Volta Cologne, 5 December 2024

Once again I’ve been to two shows of Self Deception’s current headline tour with their new album Destroy The Art. And stuff’s getting a little complicated, because a) I took photos at both shows but b) only at the first show in Vechta I took photos of THECITYISOURS and Eyes Wide Open and c) I don’t have the best memory of the show in Vechta because I started feeling terribly unwell mid-show, which overshadowed large parts of the concert experience. So in my review, I’ll focus on the Cologne show, which I could enjoy to the fullest. I’ll most likely prepare a separate gallery post for my photos from Vechta.

Concert review: One Morning Left & Lost in Hollywood, MTC Cologne, 31 October 2024

Other people visit Halloween parties, I decided to attend a concert. It’s been two very long years since I last saw One Morning Left live at Escalation Fest in 2022. Unfortunately, they then had to cancel their European headline tour in the same year due to bad ticket sales. So it’s unsurprising that their tour this year was called „Buy tickets for this tour tour 2024“. Well, so I did – and I was hyped – and here’s a little spoiler: IT WAS WORTH IT. One Morning Left might have made rank 2 in the best concerts of 2024 (no one will get past Imminence).

Concert Review: Equilibrium, Oceans & Scar of the Sun, Musikzentrum Hannover, 28 October 2024

First of all: This concert was actually headlined by Septicflesh, but we left before the headliner, so they’re not included in this little recap of mine. I mostly went there for Oceans and Equilibrium and it was a fairly spontaneous decision to visit this show as well (I went to the same tour in Bochum but I’m not going to review Bochum out of personal reasons, I’ll only upload a photo gallery later) after Oceans released their new album HAPPY. So here’s my little report.

Concert review: Illumishade & Seraina Telli, Turock Essen, 28 September 2024

It’s been quiet for a while. I didn’t visit many concerts in summer – two more festivals (MPS Bückeburg & Summer Breeze), but due to some difficulties I didn’t feel much like blogging about them. And since I didn’t feel all to well during the show of Insomnium in Essen last month, I also skipped that one for blogging. So now I’m back with another Illumishade show. Actually the headliner was Visions of Atlantis, but out of multiple reasons I left before the headliner. That means I’ll focus on the opener Seraina Telli and Illumishade as special guest and I won’t say anything about Visions of Atlantis (I plan to see their show on Wednesday in Tilburg)

Festival Review: Free for All Festival, Stapelmoor, 20 13 July 2024

Festival number 2 this year – yet another one that took us roughly 2.5 hours of travel, this time towards the north. The main reason we decided to go there were Caliban, who I personally loved a lot at Full Force last year. Another big plus was that Maelføy were part of the line-up and we’d also seen Venues before (as support for Blind Channel), so all in all the line-up didn’t sound too bad given the price. Here’s my little festival report.

Concert review: St Aurora (& The Night Flight Orchestra), Tavastia Helsinki, 17 May 2024

This show was probably one of my most awaited shows in the past few years. St Aurora are one of my favourite Spotify discoveries. Their song They All Remember popped up in a Spotify mixtape of my girlfriend in September 2021 and since then, I lost my heart to this band. Players of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty might be familiar with their song Going To Heaven – which is an absolute banger. I was super excited when I found out that they play a support show in Helsinki during the time I would be there for a seminar, which gave me the opportunity to see them live for the very first time. Here’s how it went.

Concert review: I Prevail, Set It Off & Kid Bookie, Mitsubishi Electric Halle Düsseldorf, 11 May 2024

When I saw I Prevail in 2023, I was fairly unimpressed. To be fair, I was there for the support act (Blind Channel), and I got ill before the second show I saw of them. Considering this, I decided to give them a second chance and I got tickets for their tour this year almost as soon as they went on sale. I wasn’t too positive about the show when they announced shortly before the tour started that they would have to do it without Brian. So to be honest, even on the road there I was still almost convinced that the evening wouldn’t go too well. Let’s see if I was right.

Concert review: Finntroll, Metsatöll & Suotana, Turock Essen, 27 April 2024

Finally a review that doesn’t take me ages to write it down, yay. Last night we went to Essen to see Finntroll, who have been one of my favourite bands since I was around 13 or 14 years old. And since I don’t have any photos to edit this time and I have a short break between my work right now, I can take the time to write this little concert review.

Concert review: The Warning & Conquer Divide, Live Music Hall Cologne, 17 April 2024

Yet another concert I visited to see the support act. This tour was Conquer Divide’s first tour ever in Europe. I’m a big fan of their music since their feature in Electric Callboy’s Fuckboi, so I was super excited to hear that they would finally play shows in Germany. Only that those shows were sold out before they were even announced and I can tell that this was the most painful struggle for tickets ever, worse than Bad Omens or BMTH, because while in the latter cases, most resale tickets were just ridiculously overpriced, there were almost no resale tickets for this Cologne show at all. In the end we somehow managed to get one ticket and one spot on the guestlist, so here we are with a little concert review. Little because I honestly can’t say much about The Warning.

Concert review: Fiddler’s Green & The Feelgood Mclouds, Carlswerk Victoria Cologne, 12 April 2024

Concerts during week days can sometimes be a bit troublesome. Especially when they are Cologne. Getting there is a pain in the ass and also I’m often so exhausted from work that I don’t really feel ready for a concert at all. Thankfully Fiddler’s Green are the type of band that will make the evening great even when I felt mostly like staying at home. The show of their The Green Machine Tour was no exception…