Wow! What a prog metal/rock package! Let me say one thing before: with this tour label InsideOut definitely cares for the very first highlight in 2006! That’s for sure. Anyway, once the biggest German hopefuls in matter of ProgRock and compared with Fates Warning, SIEGES EVEN released milestones in the late 80’s/early 90’s with the debut Life Cycle, the sophomore Steps and A Sense Of Change. Afterwards it got quiet around the Bavarians, their following records got hardly accepted and the band consequently split up. Now they are back, more charismatic and stronger than ever before delivering an absolutely masterpiece with The Art Of Navigating By The Stars. By the way, in ’91 SIEGES EVEN shared the stage with Psychotic Waltz, probably the first meeting with Devon Graves they now share the bill for an entire tour, since Devon Graves is now the mastermind behind DEADSOUL TRIBE. With their fourth record The Dead Word Graves and his buddies again proved to be the perfect creators of dark soundscapes, which fall upon on the listener.
Packed with around 400 fans the venue Zeche Carl soon reached a taut atmosphere since many of the people didn’t know the one or the other band or never saw them live to date. Much curiosity in the faces around …

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:. SIEGES EVEN ~ kicked off quite on time and surprisingly with the intro and The Waking Hours of the band’s ‘91 album A Sense Of Change. And that’s the way they went on this evening, delivering a mix of the just mentioned album and of course the brand new masterpiece The Art Of Navigating By The Stars. SIEGES EVEN absolutely enjoyed playing live in front of so many people, especially since the feedback from the audiences was growing with every single track. The band was in high spirits, singer Arno Menses was joking around, performing some stunts with his cap, walking and jumping around, bringing life on stage. Although performing with just one guitar – where Markus Steffen was worming out his solos and some tricky fretboard work – the Holzwarth brothers managed to give an ample amount of depth to the sound with their rhythm work. SIEGES EVEN had such a likable charisma captivating the fans in series and creating a relaxed atmosphere. I think musically you can take SIEGES EVEN as a softer version of Rush meets Fates Warning. Great show with much feeling, warmth and a good mood. Being off for such a long time SIEGES EVEN went down extremely well, gathering many new fans ;)
Setlist: Ode To Sisyphus, The Waking Hours, Styx, The Weight, These Empty Places, Unbreakable, To The Ones Who Have Failed, Prime, Stigmata, The Lonely Views Of Condors / Life Cycle

:. DEADSOUL TRIBE ~ were of course the real object of desire. Devon Graves just needed to poke out his nose (for checking the backline changes) and the audience was acknowledging him with applause. Getting their set started DEADSOUL TRIBE abducted the audience on an almost 2 hours lasting impressive retrospective through all four albums, focusing of The Dead Word. Same thing as it happened to Sieges Even as well: with every new song the feedback of the crowd was growing, leading to enthusiastic outbreaks at the end. As more the response was increasing as more the band brought out its best from the inside. And I had already forgotten which magic charisma Devon Graves owns and spreads. In a trance-like state while performing his songs he seemed to be far away but never lost the connection to the audience. Dark sound cascades were piling up, bursting in energetically heavy rhythms or losing themselves in gentle and optimistic tunes. Besides his grandiose guitar work Graves also picked up a transverse flute and used a bow to maltreat the strings. In between some communication-problems between Devon and drummer Adel caused funny situations as both had to start samples right on time, what didn’t work now and then ;) Just to increase the atmosphere two very old Psychotic Waltz song got played with I Remember and Skeleton, letting the fans almost freaking out. DEADSOUL TRIBE played such a grandiose, energetic and emotional show I was almost brimming over with enthusiasm. It was my first DEADSOUL TRIBE show btw… The band was likewise moved by the frenetic applause, screams and shouts of the audience, several times bowing and spending words of gratitude. What a show!
Setlist: Wings Of Faith, Flight On An Angels Wing, Spider And Flies, The Love Of Hate, In A Garden Made Of Stones, One Bullet, The Messenger, To My Beloved, Angels In Vertigo, Some Things You Can’t Return, I Remember, Black Smoke And Mirrors, Some Sane Advice, Let The Hammer Fall, My Dying Wish, Feed, Into The Spiral Cathedral // Coming Down, Powertrip, Skeleton, You

It was a great evening and – to tell the truth – it is really comfortable to see just two bands. They can play longer time building up a much more intensive atmosphere. And tonight’s show was sort of a home match for the label InsideOut (that is located near to Essen), its crew was completely present (thank you again for everything ;)) Taking this chance we inspired to organize an InsideOut festival (billing would be breath-taking *lol*), two days at least and in a great surrounding (Amphi Theater or Loreley, a castle, fortress?) …I’d know … ;)

story & pics © Dajana