Evergrey, Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore, Maryland USA, September 5, 2015
The Evergrey show at the Baltimore Soundstage was a bit of an eclectic mini festival. In addition to the headliner, there were four opening bands, each showcasing a different variety of metal. The show began with MindMaze, a very talented melodic/progressive metal band from Pennsylvania in the USA. They are a four piece band formed by the brother/sister team of Sarah (vocals) and Jeff Teets (guitars). I’m a huge fan of this band and always try to catch their shows when they come to town. They played an awesome but short five song set, culminating in one of my favorite songs from their first album, “This Holy War”.
Next up was Oceans of Slumber, a six piece band from Houston, Texas, that included guitars, bass, drums, keys, and vocals. They were one of the most unique bands of the night and a little bit hard to classify. There were clean vocals provided by the lead vocalist Cammie Gilbert, as well a death metal growls provided by her and several of the other members. The music had a bluesy, progressive, yet doom metal type feel. The band’s stage presence was very ethereal with dark red and blue lighting. Cammie spent a lot of time, while she wasn’t singing, doing a slow swaying dance with undulating arm motions. I’d never heard of this band before but they were musically very good and I enjoyed their set.
Borealis, a five piece Canadian power metal band was the third group to take the stage. I’d not heard of this band before either, but I thought they put on a great show. A six song set was performed that began with “Past the Veil” and ended with “Regeneration”. The music was very guitar heavy, which is always good in my opinion. Matt Marinelli’s vocals were great as well. The venue was getting more crowded at this point and the audience was starting to get revved up which always adds to the excitement of a show. All in all it was a really solid set.
Voyager was the final support band of the evening. I had heard of this band before and was really looking forward to their show. They are a five piece band from Perth, Australia that play a unique variety of progressive metal. The band has been active since 1999 and have released at least five studio albums to date. Despite being a metal band, their stage presence if very light and often humorous… especially between the lead vocalist, Danny Estrin and guitarist, Simone Dow. They had a significantly longer set than the rest of the opening bands, but I lost track of the actual number of songs. The audience really seemed to love their set and I did as well. It was obvious this group had a lot of fans in the audience as there were several voyager T-shirts being worn and a fair bit of singing along. They were a great lead in for the headliner.
When the Swedish progressive powerhouse Evergrey finally hit the stage the audience was ready. It has been a few years since the band has come around our way and everyone was looking forward to the show. I was a bit surprised at the attendance… for such a great grouping of bands… I thought the Soundstage would have been more full (it normally holds around 500 people). But on this night, I estimate the attendance at around 200. The fans that were there were loud and animated… those that weren’t there… well… they missed a great show. Despite four bands going on before them, Evergrey had a full set of what I believe was 16 songs. At least five were from last year’s release, “Hymns for the Broken”. As expected for a band that has been around for 2 decades, the show was tight and professional. The sound quality was excellent as well. Despite being a midweek show, the crowd kept up the energy and hung on until the very last encore was played. The show began with “King of Errors” and ended with “The Grand Collapse”. I personally really enjoyed the live performance of “Monday Morning Apocalypse”
It was a great night of metal… five great bands… over five hours of live music! Definitely a night to remember!
