Blind Ego - Liquid Live - 2017
“... a good view of a Blind Ego gig ...”
intro
Blind Ego is the side project of RPWL guitarist Kalle Wallner. The band released three albums so far; “Mirror” (2007), “Numb” (2009) And “Liquid” (2016). Because of the many personal changes the band was for years an ever-changing organism. But with the current line-up, there is now a kind of consistency. Under the name “Liquid Live” Kalle Warner’s own label Gentle Art Of Music has now released two new Live recordings of the Liquid tour. The information sheet of the label is talking about a CD & DVD release, but I received only the CD “Liquid Live” that was recorded at the open air stage of Loreley during the “Night Of The Prog Festival” of this year (2017). The DVD “Live At Logo Hamburg” includes a complete gig that was filmed without a single cut and is also accessible for everybody to stream via the YouTube channel.
line-up
Kalle Wallner (RPWL) - guitars; Scott Balaban (Amon Ra) - vocals; Julian Kellner (Dante) - guitars; Sebastian Harnack (Sylvan) - bass; Michael Christoph (ex Dreamscape) - drums
review
Blind Ego is more a kind of rock powerhouse and not a real progressive rock band. But there are of course influences because as you can see above the line-up includes members of progressive rock bands like Sylvan and RPWL. At the “Night Of The Prog Festival” edition of 2017 the band played a tight live set in the pouring rain. I know this because I was in the audience that weekend
The only serious rain shower of the whole weekend and the band was playing the song “Never Escape The Storm”. Most of the audience braved the rain and enjoyed the set the band was playing. That set included most of the tracks of the “Liquid” album. In a live setting the band radiates a lot of energy. Personally the band is too much on the Rock side of the progressive rock spectrum for me. Sometimes I really miss a keyboard player. But I can enjoy a great track like “Don’t Ask Me Why”. You can find some fine melodic guitar parts in this song which has a nice structure. And with Scott Balaban the band has a good vocalist. For me this song is one of the highlights of the album. The guitar solo in the end is wonderful and shows the skills of Kalle Wallner as a guitar player.
This is followed by the next personal highlight of mine, the song “Never Escape The Storm”. Again you can enjoy some lovely guitar playing in this track. The two following tracks “Death” and “Hear My Voice Out There” have more influences from the metal scene. A song like “Blackened” with it’s lovely guitar parts is more my cup of tea. Those songs have more diversity and are more influenced by progressive rock. But of course this is only my personal opinion. The opinion of a reviewer that is not so much into progressive rock that is clearly more influenced by Rock and Metal music. But when you listen to the last song “Tears And Laughter” you will notice that the crowd just loved it.
conclusion
“Liquid Live” of the German band Blind Ego gives a good view of a Blind Ego gig. A powerful gig with a high energy level. Played by skilled musicians. You can find some wonderful guitar solo’s, played by Kalle Wallner on this album. Personally I think that the music of Blind Ego is more interesting for Progressive Rock lovers who also can enjoy Rock and Progressive Metal. So please enjoy!