Psychotic Waltz is one of the most original metal bands ever. They are often categorised as progressive metal, but that is far from the whole story. Particularly the first two albums are chock-full of great and varied songs. There is a obvious thrash background. And all are excellent musicians. There latest album is already 20 years old and they have been working on new material for quite some time now. Anyway, they are doing a short tour along a few festivals and a couple of clubs this summer with a single gig in the Netherlands, so there I went.

The opening band was the German Poverty is No Crime. I had never heard of them before, even though they already released several albums. The first couple of sounds sounded quite mellow, I guess progressive metal. Well dull may be a good word. Only the last couple of songs sounded better, a bit faster, more crunch. Not that I’d become a fan anyway.

After a quick change-over Psychotic Waltz appeared on the stage. Starting off with a song off Mosquito, but then immediately continued with Faded. That set the tone for most of the gig, the songs follow one quickly after the other. They play extremely tight and especially the drums are impressive. At first hearing they don’t sound all that special, but there are a lot of dynamics and accents in it that are preformed really well live. The first half of the set seems to focus mostly on the last two albums. Even a new songs is played, which sounds good. The second half focus mostly on A Social Grace. Only Ashes and the title track are played of their magnum opus Into the Everflow. At one point something sounds wrong at the start of one of the songs. And as Buddy explains, they have all the effects programmed in a laptop that control the pedals. That’s probably especially convenient for Brian as he is bound to a wheel chair. After a restart everything is well. And some 90 minutes and 18 songs it all over. Despite lots of audience cheering, they don’t return for an encore. Other than that an excellent gig.