By Jase Walker
It seems I’m visiting all the venues I’ve never been to before this month and in this case as rather than being at the infamous 013 venue in Tilburg, I’m treading new ground at Hall Of Fame. Not only that but a double bill of bands I’ve found through friends at festivals such as RADAR and ArcTanGent, in this case it’s Vower and Giant Walker. It’s fantastic that bands such as these are jumping across the channel to give the mainlanders a dose of brilliantly proggy metal from old Blighty, so as if I’d pass off a chance like this even if it is at the other end of the country.
Prior to the show, the lovely lot in Giant Walker make the time for a quick chat and catch-up about how they’re finding the tour so far as well as their first foray into the wider continent and so far so good! Check it out below if you have ~15 mins to spare!
Right on cue as the set is due to start, the crowd from the bar area suddenly floods onto the room so it’s great to see a solid turnout for Giant Walker! Kicking off with ‘The Fact In Fiction’, an excellent start with its slightly off-time and lumbering riff to really throw down some heaviness to get things kicked off in the right way!
Giant Walker has such a fantastic mix of influences in their sound going from Karnivool to Leprous to Tool and maybe even a bit of Queens Of The Stone Age, you name it they’ve got a little flash of it in there and make it work in a wonderfully unique and neat little package. While the rest of the band hammers away in intense rhythms and grooves, Steff’s soulful vocals soar over the top of it all.
I’m definitely adding Hall Of Fame to my list of fantastic sounding venues in the Netherlands too, Giant Walker have incredible clarity considering how meaty the sound is too. Every now and then I take a quick look around to see if the crowd is into it and considering I barely see a single person who isn’t enthusiastically banging their head along with a huge grin on their faces, I’d say Giant Walker have got the crowd sold on their sound!
It’s great that they got a slightly longer set than most openers at 40 minutes and it’s clearly been enough to really grab the attention of a crowd that most likely doesn’t know them at all. The material on the whole leaned extremely heavily on the latest album which isn’t super surprising as you’d probably want to give a new crowd a more recent snapshot of your sound and vibe.
The new(er) material sounds bloody fantastic and they’ve moved super hard into stronger grooves and a bit of a riffier sound with Silhouettes. I’m kinda hoping I’ll see them pop back up either at RADAR festival next year or returning on another trip through Europe at least, I fucking love this band and being able to see them on their first ever show in the Netherlands and Europe has been a great privilege.
I hope the rest of the stomp through the continent is rewarding for them, they deserve all of it.
And finally the headliner act, Vower, formed from the ashes of Toska, Palm Reader and Black Peaks into a proggy post-metal powerhouse. I did enjoy these from a distance at RADAR but I could barely get into the bloody room because everyone else seemed to have the same idea, so this’ll be a bit of a different experience I think!
A fairly extended monologue intro plays as the band walks onto the stage to a round of applause. They launch into a slow, droney introduction to get things started, the bass and drums shake my legs while the guitars pierce my ears and finally their singer walks onto the stage to more cheers.
Seeing Vower up close has put a real different spin on my live experience with them though, the commanding aura that Josh on vocals demonstrates is every bit as strong and imposing as it was when he was fronting Palm Reader. I am a little bit surprised how Rabea seems somewhat subdued in the live performance though given his reputation and the like. Vower’s sound is absolutely devastating though, like a wall of sound it absolutely smothers me from every angle.
Steff from Giant Walker joins Josh on stage for some vocal duet work, harmonising with each other and it sounds bloody fantastic as you’d expect from two of the best vocalists in the upcoming prog scene in the UK! Apparently this is the first time they’ve done this too, how about that eh? Oh fuck yes, a drum solo too? A treat I’ll never moan about, a fantastic palette cleanser.
Finally a pit breaks out… I was genuinely wondering whether there’d be one or not because a lot of post-metal adjacent bands don’t usually get the most active of crowds so it’s good to see some big energy appearing in the audience finally! Josh also drops that Vower are finally working on an album, after giving everyone tasters in the form of the EPs they’ve released so far and we get a first taste of the forthcoming album with a brand new track.
I have to admit the more I get through this set the more I’m re-evaluating how I feel about Vower as I think my first experience trying to force myself into a rammed room and essentially getting a terrible spot in the crowd while shoulder to shoulder might have soured my experience a bit. This show has been vastly more engrossing and enjoyable that I can actively feel myself getting more enamoured with them in every passing moment.
Out of nowhere one of the guitarists suddenly rushes into the middle of the crowd and flings himself around the middle of everyone, and with almost zero hesitation everyone moves along to his lead in unison. We’re in the homestretch now and I can feel myself getting a bit sad that it’s over already even though it’s been over a bloody hour.
What a fucking wonderful Tuesday to watch two bands absolutely slay it in Tilburg. Time for that lengthy journey back home… at least the trains are warm!
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