Metal Battle [1 January ’20]

Metal Battle voorronde Zuid-Holland (preliminary round for South Holland)

Today is the first day of 2020 – a new decade, so best wishes are in place. May good health and prosperity be with you all the way! And great music, not to forget.

Speaking of which: Akelei will be there for you this year. We’ve come a long way with the crafting of our upcoming EP, Een van ons (see previous blog posts) but this month we’re taking a break from recording to focus on another challenge: the 2020 Metal Battle. Baroeg has selected Akelei and three other bands to compete in the first round of this band contest. This round is for bands from the province of South Holland and as such the line up of each band has to consist of musicians from this area. And since Akelei hasn’t had a full line up since our last gig in 2015… you could say there is some work to do.

Fortunately, my brother Josha is an excellent drummer (and also former live bassist for Akelei) and I asked him right away if he would up for the gig, to which he agreed. I used to accompany him a lot to gigs with Eve’s Fall, another band from Delft, and I thought of the guys from that band as well because of their professional attitude towards playing live. Big bonus: I always enjoyed hanging out with them before and after the gig. So I asked Johan and Jeroen and I am very glad and relieved that both said yes. Last but not least, I got in touch with Matthijs, a local musician that I’ve jammed with a couple of times. He’s also on board now, which completes a very promising line up:

Misha – vocals, guitar
Johan – guitar
Matthijs – guitar
Jeroen – bass
Josha – drums

We have one month to rehearse three songs and then prove our worth on stage. If we succeed and continue to the next round, we’ll be in the regional semi-final (Netherlands west) on 6 March, also on the Baroeg stage. After that, winners compete in the national final and whoever wins that gets to play at Wacken Open Air during the international Metal Battle final.

So, here’s our first gig announcement of 2020: Metal Battle at Baroeg, 31 January. Doors: 19:00. Tickets:: https://baroeg.nl/programma/www-metalbattle-nlinschrijven/ Come support us!