You can always tell by the band tees and the facial hair when another prog metal band are playing in Nottingham: such was the case on Wednesday night, when Rescue Rooms was home to Psychonaut. Touring the UK for the first time to promote new record ‘World Maker,’ the Belgian trio have a lot riding on the spectacle and technicality of their live show— together with Cobra the Impaler, the group absolutely delivered on every mind-bending note you could ask for.

Cobra the Impaler

If Psychonaut leaned more towards the ‘progressive’ side of ‘progressive metal,’ Cobra the Impaler were here to satisfy the headbangers in the room. This supporting show came at you thick and fast, sporting a bulbous double kick sound that felt like it was shaking the venue: for all its fancy clean guitar work and well-rounded performances, the set was dominated by crushing riffs and furious breakdowns, enough to make your neck ache. Sporting a synchronised light show that turned every track into a strobe-fuelled fever dream, Cobra the Impaler were clearly out to impress— their live show is far more vicious and demanding than their studio output, and even if the mix could feel a little uneven at times, you’d hardly care when the ending of ‘Assassins Of The Vision’ was slamming you about the head. A song like ‘Spirit of Lyssa’ was completely transformed here, and only in the most brutal of ways.

The five-piece certainly brought a confidence to Rescue Rooms— they are a super group, relatively speaking— clearly having a lot of fun running through this material. Guitarist James Falck and vocalist Manuel Eiremmer, in particular, seemed thrilled to be up there on stage, routinely interacting with the crowd and throwing up the devil horns: it’s a particularly impressive effort from Eiremmer, as the set demanded that he switch between grizzly harsh vocals and wistful cleans on the fly. It must be said that his vocals, together with Michélé De Feudis’ backing harmonies and a range of other musical details, could get lost in a mix that felt so overwhelming and dense— once again, this was a performance that felt more ‘metal’ than ‘progressive,’ regardless of what the melodies of ‘Colossal Gods’ might imply. By the end, the band just seemed grateful to have garnered such a positive reception, which is always lovely to see. For those of us on the floor, we were just reeling from the onslaught of crushing riffs.

Psychonaut

There was a surprising lack of fanfare to Psychonaut’s entrance at Rescue Rooms, with the band launching into the gradually building post-metal of ‘And You Came With Searing Light’ in their own time: in place of the dazzling lights show at Cobra the Impaler’s disposal, the night’s headliners opted for a more stripped-back aesthetic (though that wouldn’t stop the performance’s heaviest moments from leaning on some rapid-fire lighting choices of their own). You might’ve imagined a group making music this esoteric and ritualistic would opt for a more stylised stage show, and maybe you could criticise Psychonaut for the relative simplicity of their aesthetic— really though, their show at Rescue Rooms only put greater focus on their musicianship, and that really was a sight to behold. Where albums like ‘Unfold the God Man’ and ‘Violate Consensus Reality’ shroud the trio in mystery and wonder, their live show intentionally strips it from them: just like the act before them, you could tell the band were simply thrilled to be there.

Put plainly, Psychonaut sounded unbelievably good on Wednesday night, only growing more confident and comfortable with every song. Dual vocals were a running theme across the two acts, and the one-two punch that is Stefan de Graef and Thomas Michiels really couldn’t have sounded more impassioned or pitch-perfect if they tried— the explosive barrages of fan-favourite ‘The Fall of Consciousness’ wouldn’t have hit quite so hard without those roaring screams, but the track was nothing if not mighty on the night. Psychonaut make incredibly demanding music, as you can hear on cuts like ‘All I Saw as a Huge Monkey’ and ‘Endless Erosion.’ For these musicians though, you’d hardly know it: Graef was plowing his way through complex tapping sequences while head banging like his life depended on it, and drummer Harm Peters looked like he was hardly breaking a sweat (while performing parts you could only really describe as ‘death-defying). That musicianship lent itself to a show chock full of psychedelic soundscapes and devilish prog metal grooves, neither of which were falling on deaf ears. When the band came down into the crowd after the show, you can bet they were met with nothing but firm handshakes and happy customers.