With January 2012 already almost at its end, it might be a little late to post this. But because 2011 had so many great and impressive concerts for me, I still wanted to post this journal entry, featuring my 20 favorite concerts of the year. The list is quite diverse, but so is my musical taste.

1. Godspeed You! Black Emperor in Paradiso, Amsterdam

This reunion tour has been one of the most impressive live experiences I've ever had. I don't think there was a single person in that concert hall that didn't have goosebumps all over his body when…

Sat 10 Apr – Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt - Europe Tour

Had an awesome night watching Gorgoroth live in Rotterdam. The sound wasn't perfect, but hey: it's black metal. The show was great and the return of Pest has truly paid off. The choice of songs was also great, they played the following tracks:

Setlist:

1. Bergtrollets Hevn
2. Aneuthanasia
3. Katharinas Bortgang
4. Prayer
5. Revelation of Doom
6. The Rite of Infernal Invocation
7. Forces of Satan Storms
8. Ødeleggelse og undergang
9. Blood Stains the Circle
10. Satan-Prometheus
11. Destroyer
12. Incipit Satan
13. Profetens Åpenbaring…

Tue 20 Oct – Sunn O))), Eagle Twin

After discovering Sunn O))) a couple of years ago, it took me quite a while to really get into their music. I remember classifying it at first listen as, not surprisingly, monotonous noise. I couldn’t really see the point in all the bass noise and hissing vocals. I put the records I had away for quite a long time.

However, since mid-2008 I started paying more attention to the mighty old Sunn O))) again. I started to appreciate their newer stuff more and more and had a Sunn O))) discography marathon a…

Mon 12 Oct – Porcupine Tree, Robert Fripp

Last time I saw Porcupine Tree perform in Amsterdam, half of the venue was empty. Now, in the same venue three years later, it was crammed. A lot of PT enthusiasts showed up and it promised to be one hell of a night.

Unfortunately, my friends and I arrived too late to see Robert Fripp, but according to some people I spoke, I didn't miss much. Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong of course, I wasn't there to judge it for myself.

At 8.30 sharp the band entered the stage.…

Wolves in the Throne Room has proven to be relatively one of the most productive black metal bands of the new millennium. Ever since their debut in 2006 we haven’t seen a year without a Wolves release. And while 2009 had barely started yet we have already generously been treated to TWO Wolves releases: the Malevolent Grain EP and the Black Cascade LP. Because these releases have followed each other so closely in time and because they feature only six songs combined I have chosen to review them together in one article.

Malevolent Grain:

A Looming Resonance: Definitely not…

"The feel of the album is heading for empty and bleak with flashes of rage." Thus spoke Andrew Craighan, My Dying Bride's long time guitarist about their latest work For Lies I Sire. Of course this vague statement reveals absolutely nothing, as this could apply to any album from their gloomy catalogue. But after two and a half long years of waiting and anticipating I grew impatient, so I was thrilled when I finally got my hand on this record. Their latter albums definitely belong to my favourites and have never managed to dissapoint me thus far. So…

Today I had the day off to study at home. I had to take care of some stuff and write an important piece of work. After scrolling through my Winamp Library and inspired by listening to a lot of Sunn O))) and Lifelover last week I stopped at my Shining discography. I had only listened to V: Halmstad before, but also had all the other albums in my collection. So I decided to listen their entire catalogue from V to I. It was an amazing experience.

I was already familiar with the depressive black metal genre thanks to beautiful acts…

Amazing show tonight! It was my fourth Porcupine Tree concert, hopefully with many more times to come. The croud was a bit too noisy, (at my first PT concert, the entire crowd was silent during the whole show, wow!) but the band was great as usual

Setlist

For those of you who've never been to a PT show (go!), the band plays on stage and behind ans besides them are three giant screens where video's are played perfectly simultaneous with the music. This gives an even more magical effect to the already impressive show. They started playing the entire FOAB…

2007

As 2007 is drawing to an end the “best of 2007-lists” are starting overflowing last.fm. This year, I have chosen to join the hype. However, instead of naming the year’s best albums I have made a list of the best songs.

2007 has been a year of amazing discoveries for me. In 2006 I discovered a crazy little thing called post-rock and this year I have further refined and extended my taste within this amazing genre. It has been a great post-rock year with a lot of good releases by both the bigger names and the more underground bands.…

It was my second time seeing Anathema, my third time seeing Porcupine Tree and my fourth time seeing Steven Wilson. Nevertheless, the goosebumps were still as intense as they were the first time.

The gig was played at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. It's a nice venue, it was big enough for everybody and it left every person enough space to move.

Anathema opened the evening with my (and a lot of other people's) favourite Fragile Dreams. It was an amazing opening song and also the climax of their show. I have never been that into…