Delphian, The Barstool Philosophers - CD Presentation Delphian
Dutch metallers Delphian just released their second album Unravel and to support that event they organised a release party at OJC Gaellus in Tienray. With their friends The Barstool Philosophers, a progrock ensemble from Enschede, as a support act.
The Barstool Philosophers lost their stage virginity this night. What most bands do in this case is that they try to over impress the audience. It’s just sheer amazing how loud the guitar reverberates across the small venue from the opening song until the last few notes. Add on top of that the swirling layers of keyboards and you have over the top symphonic rock. It would work in a big arena, but hardly in small venue such as OJC Gaellus. I’m not saying they are a bad, I even like some of the songs, but easy on the sound dudes. Because there are moments where you couldn’t define whether the sound was coming from the keyboards or the guitar. But ok, it was their first gig and they’ve done a pretty good job.
Then it is up to Delphian to present their new record. Kicking off with 'Starting to Unravel', I defy the person who doesn’t at least nods a little to the main riff. A catchy song which reveals a different musical direction moving on from progmetal to more straightforward metal. Using riffs that makes you wanna grab the nearest air guitar available.
Now the show is backed with an impressive lightshow. Accompanied by tv screens it helps the audience to know which song is played, very convenient with a new album and fresh song titles. All eight songs of the new album are performed, for a review of the album please view the section CD Reviews. The encore compromised of covers from the likes of Guns 'n' Roses and Led Zeppelin.
.JPG)
An impressive show, although the large amount of equipment made it very difficult to move around a lot. It wasn’t only due to the small stage. Because the keyboard player from the support act accompanies ‘Air’, his instrument had to remain on stage. Now this song is a great duet with singer Leon Brouwer of The Barstool Philosophers. As he also performs on their new album Unravel, he joins Delphian on stage for this track. Both voices mix together very well; live as well on the record. All in all a great show, but I do feel that both bands would do better at a bigger venue.