By Jase Walker
Continuing 2026 kicking off with massively stacked lineups that are making the cold of winter just that bit more bearable, this one in particular made the lengthy trip to Tilburg absolutely worthwhile. Ukrainian prog metal stalwarts, Jinjer are finally back on the road for a headline trip around the ÜK and Europe but have two stellar support acts in tow, Unprocessed and Textures. This stacked selection of three outstanding proggy metal bands is going to be a fantastic way to spend a Saturday evening!
The room darkens and subtle blue lighting dances across the stage with the huge screen backing the stage displaying the Textures logo in bright chrome-like lettering. I’m so happy to see that Textures have properly made the return to touring after their reformation and subsequent new album drop.
I had my concerns about potentially suffering from quiet mixing as they’re openers on a large stage but these are immediately put to bed with the fat low end feeling like it’s rumbling every hair on my arms and neck. This is only the second date of the tour but this show for these Dutch proggers will no doubt be a fantastic home turf performance.
The sound mix is genuinely fantastic, the leads fully soar across the room, carried by strong rhythmic and layering elements. I’m finding myself on several occasions being fully in awe of how fantastic the lighting production is as it’s so common for opener acts to get some sort of throwaway routine that doesn’t really seem much beyond “give em some ambience”.
In the case of whoever’s doing it for Textures though, there’s clear real thought and care put into it as spotlights highlight members on focused moments, intense moments are highlighted by rapid strobes and sombre moments with slower moving pillars of light that rotate at the same time. If this is just the start of the show, I am extremely excited to see how the rest of the show rolls because the bar is already set insanely high.
Next up it’s time for guitar virtuoso outfit Unprocessed, keeping up the standards of incredible lighting production considering this fantastic introduction before they take the stage.
Every time I see Unprocessed, they get that much better every single time and I can say without a doubt in my mind that this is easily the most epic I’ve ever seen them sound. You’d think that technical and hyper melodic playing would lose a lot of punch but Unprocessed absolutely buck that trend. Ridiculously heavy, every bit as much as they are intensely melodic and somehow never falling even a tiny step out considering the insane rhythmic elements they use too.
I hear the signature chord progression for ‘Glass’ and I’m already trying to tell myself the chorus lyrics to make sure I can belt them out at the top of my lungs!
One thing that really shocked me was when they asked people who didn’t know them to put their hands up, it was almost the entire room, I mean I know I fucking love these guys but that really caught me off guard! They’ve clearly picked up a bunch of new fans though considering how many people are bouncing along to ‘Snowlover’!
It’s pretty obvious that Unprocessed have been a winner with tonight’s audience though, frenzied circle pits, crowd surfers, the absolute works, nevermind being a warm-up act for Jinjer, Unprocessed have absolutely made this show their own. Another headline tour would be rather lovely lads, chop chop.
And finally for this evening, Jinjer!
The stage illuminated by bright blue lights and the band name across the screen as it turns out the entire stage is also part of the screen as we find out when they hit that first chaotic riff and I feel like I’ve been thrown into a Gojira show with this sort of production and sound.
Tatiana eventually makes her way onto the stage to the whoops and cheers of the crowd, the whole room absolutely fixated on her.
After a short moment it occurred to me how little.. stuff? I see on stage. What I mean is that I barely see any trailing cables and junction boxes and the like anywhere near the band, there’s not even steps for them to prop themselves up on. It’s odd to me because I feel like I’ve become so used to such clutter across stages even on large scale productions to the point of being blind to it and yet the complete absence of it suddenly feels so jarring. In addition to this it’s noticeable how little the band barring Tatiana herself are actually moving, keeping the focus absolutely on her along with what feels like a very minimalist set considering what the lighting and videos are doing.
Normally I’d be a bit irked by the lack of movement on stage because I do genuinely love an active and moving band but in this case the stylistic choice is massively engrossing. Jinjer are seeing a pretty consistent amount of crowd surfers coming over the top but surprisingly not much in the way of mosh pits.
No sooner do I remark on that does a gigantic void appear in the middle of the crowd before smashing into each other and turning into a sea of moving heads and flailing arms.
This is another one of those shows where I feel like it’s over before it’s really started because I’ve just been so engrossed in so many elements of the show, not just the music itself. The texture of the sound mix and how one guitar, bass, drums and vocals can generate such incredibly forceful music being a huge part and I find myself trying to listen out for backing track use and there just seemingly isn’t any which is astounding for how thick it sounds.
The incredible lighting production consisted of several elements ranging from the ceiling mounted lighting, the pillar lights either side of the stage, the heat lamp style lights alongside the drum riser all the way up to the massive screen that takes up the front panels of the riser too.
This headline tour has been long overdue, the stepping up of the game since seeing them in Manchester’s Academy 2 all those years ago is truly fantastic. It’s not like they haven’t been busy over the past few years as they’ve been on festival slots pretty consistently over this time including a pretty massive main stage slot at Download festival a while back but the personalisation element of a band’s own headline show truly cannot be matched.
Of course it shouldn’t come to the surprise of anyone that the finisher for the main set is ‘Pisces’, as this was the song that arguably cracked the mainstream appeal for them and launched them into many peoples minds. Jinjer are set to continue this tour as a veritable lengthy stomp around the ÜK and Europe and I could not be happier to see them striking out like this again after so long.
Also lastly, I just wanted to say I remarked on the next Manchester show was going to be the Ritz in my last review of them and I fucking called it.
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