The people that were already present stood a bit far away from the stage, waiting for what Novembre was going to do. After the first song, the drummer beckoned the crowd to move towards the stage, which people slowly did. This made things a little more personal and while the reactions were ok, I don’t think Novembre was that much of a success.

It’s always difficult of course to be the first band, especially in the afternoon. Novembre was, unfortunately, no exception.

Katatonia
Second band was a bit more known: Katatonia from Switzerland. Maybe it’s because I’m not that much of a fan of this kind of music, but Katatonia also wasn’t able to interest me much.

The performance was quite static. The singer did the same thing during the 45 minutes they played. He stood in one place when he was singing, moved towards the drummer when he didn’t, slowly moved back to the mic when he had to sing again, etc.. Add to this the ‘thank you’ after each song while the last notes were still being played, so before they even got an applause, and you’ll get the idea of what it looked like.

Not only the performance was quite boring, the music was as well. At first it sounded ok, but when the songs started to sound the same a lot, it got boring. The singer was low in the mix at the beginning. When his volume was turned up, you could notice the lack of expression and range in his voice. All in all the show lasted too long for my taste.

Opeth
The complete opposite of the previous two performances was Opeth’s show. Normally REZ partner and Opeth-fanatic Maura would do the review of Opeth, but she thought it would be interesting to let someone else handle the job to see what that person would think about it. I’m sure she’s going to like this review since it will be a positive one.

It was the first time for me to see Opeth on stage. The death metal parts mixed brilliantly with slower and accoustic parts is original and beautiful. And it came out live beyond my expectations. Main man Mikael Akerfeldt was able to sing both grunt and clean without any problems. The show started with ‘The Leper Affinity’ from the new masterpiece ‘Blackwater Park’.

A great example of what Opeth is about. The song starts heavy and it immediately made the about 500 people present bang their heads. The change to the slower part in the middle of the song showed Akerfeldt’s clean voice being in perfect shape as well. It can’t be missed that Akerfeldt is the leader in the band. His fellow bandmembers are inreplacable though. The second guitarist in the band, Peter Lindgren, matched Akerfeldt’s guitarplaying, a cool combination. The more than solid drum and basswork make this four-headed band complete.

Also from ‘Blackwater Park’ was ‘The Drapery Falls’, which was jokingly being refered to as their ‘hit single and blockbuster’. Songs from all of their five albums were played. ‘Forest Of October’ for example, from the first record called ‘Orchid’. The encore was the much anticipated ‘Demon Of The Fall’ from the ‘My Arms, Your Hearse’ record. The people wanted heavy and with this closer and all the previous songs, they got what they wanted. I was a fan already before seeing them live, but after having witness this show, it’s safe to say that Maura isn’t the only Opeth-fanatic at REZ anymore.

(Review: Frank Alders
Pics: Josje Klouwens)