Reveiw by Erwin van Dijk – Date of Event: 18.04.2008

Metal in Het Kasteel again. This time an album release party from two female fronted prog metal bands: Android Soul and Gandillion. Linda from Android Soul also sings in Icaros and Joyce from Gandillion has a whole history of bands. Like Ellanore, Sarah’s smile and Transentience. Android Soul is here to present Disappointing Paradise and Gandillion for The 4th Nightingale. Both from PMM Records.

There are a lot of similarities between Gandillion and Android Soul. Both line ups consist of keys, bass, drums, one guitarist and the singer. The differences: Linda’s blonde, Joyce a redhead. And age: with Gandillion you have four thirty something old geezers and one 18 year old girl while the Android Soul crew are more or less of the same age.

Android Soul’s music is more up tempo compared to Gandillion (but with a ‘no risk for a moshpit’ guarantee). I am not going to choose between Joyce and Linda about who’s the better singer but personally I liked Android Soul’s music better. This is because Android Soul is from after the Gothic metal explosion and Gandillion does not have those influences. Live performances must ROCK after all!

Because this is a double album release party the venue is crowded with friends & family, including a lot of other musicans. As a consequence, it feels like a birthday party with people you do not know. Every one is in a good mood and I guess nothing is more difficult than doing a gig in front of your friends and family. The problem: after the Android Soul set half the people go home leaving Gandillion with a decimated audience.

Android Soul does one cover, ‘Nemo’ from Nightwish. Boys and girl: you do not really need to play covers anymore, besides Android Soul cannot duplicate Nightwish’s over the top bombastic music – nobody can, the current line up from Nightwish included.

Another similarity between Android Soul and Gandillion is that both bands rarely do gigs. The reason? Who knows. But the live performances of both bands were flawless.

I even had the opportunity to ask Linda about their gig. Joyce wasn’t interested.

LINDA:  'We were so happy with the cd, and the cdpresentation added a golden shine to that. The total picture was awesome, the show itself rocked, and the crowd was fabulous! We really enjoyed ourselves and hopefully, we'll hit the stage any time soon again. And the feeling of finally having your own cd out in the world can barely be described!'

Android Soul

Line up: 

• Linda Aerts - Vocals
• Dennis Graafland – guitar
• Cees van Ooijen – Keys
• Robert van der Poel – bass
• Jeroen Lankhuizen – drums

Setlist: 

• Intro
• Pride
• Yesterday’s Sunset
• Conquest
• Serpent’s Sarcasm
• So Hard to let You Go
• The Butterfly Effect
• The Company
• Sacrifice or Waste
• Candlelight and Pain
• Glory
• Nemo (Nightwish)
• The Infidel

Official MySpace Profile

Official Website 

Gandillion

Line up:

• Joyce Dijkgraaf – Vocals
• Stephen de Ruijter – Guitars
• Raymond van Uffelen – Drums
• Michel Krempel – Bass
• Feiko Withagen – Keys

Official Website