Cynic had just released a new EP and so there was an excuse to do a European tour. Supposedly with the French band Hypno5e, but for some reason they were dropped of the tour. Instead the Baroeg arranged a local support band to open the evening.

Eden To Ashes were the lucky few. A young, Dutch progressive death metal band. They employ no less than three guitars and three singers. Stylistically they vaguely remind me of early Obscura, playing some modern sounding death metal inspired by bands like Death, Atheist, Pestilence with an original touch. Not a bad opener really.

Next was an instrumental UK progressive metal band called Chimp Spanner of whom I had never heard really. The mix various metal styles of old and new to relatively short songs with a focus on the lead guitar. One of the guitars having no less than 8 strings. Somehow instrumental bands always seem to bore me quickly and that happened with this band as well. The drummer tried to spice up his playing by doing all kinds of fancy movements with his stick and doing weird facial expression. Like the former band very proficient but not as interesting tho

Then there was Cynic who had set up the stage differently than is usual, with the drums in the back corner, the bass all to the side, Paul on the other side of the stage and the second guitarist at the centre back. Despite the early Wednesday evening, the venue was quite full, but certainly not sold out. They kicked off with a new song. Paul rarely spoke in between the songs and seemed to be kept busy with his effect pedals instead – quite unlike the last time I saw them a few years back. They played songs off all their albums very tightly despite the complexity of the songs. Even though the drums always seem to be a bit more hyperactive than suits the music. The focus songs had real grunts this time by the second guitar player instead of taped ones. So a pretty solid gig.