Review and Photos by Fred Kuhlman
Promoter: 13th Floor Entertainment (https://www.13thfloorentertainment.com/ )
Venue: Pub Rock, Scottsdale, AZ (https://pubrocklive.com/ )
Date: Friday November 5th, 2021
Tour: CD Release Party for The Mystic And The Mountain Album
One of the great things about Phoenix is that we have a very strong and faithful Metal family. One of the bad things is that for some reason, this Metal family is not real big. Some people in other major metropolitan city think it is strange that we can only get about 8000 people at an Iron Maiden concert. But the nice thing is that we get to see these amazing metal groups in smaller venues. It is especially hard for local metal bands. Most of the time they either have to be on the sub-bill for a large touring band or they end up playing at really small bars.
Tonight we had a major CD release party at a small local bar for the local Folk Metal band, Adavänt. They were joined by locals bands The Writ and Cyterra. The problem with a lot of the smaller bars is the size of the stage and the poor lighting. Tonight, was especially hard for me as a photographer because only 1 of the 4 front projecting lights was working. So, the middle of the stage was lit OK, but the sides were very hard to photograph. Since these small shows don’t generate a large sum of money for the venue, it is hard for them to upgrade and fix lighting easily. Hopefully, Pub Rock will fix the lighting soon because they do put on some great small metal shows.
Adavänt
It was January 2019 my Metal Head friend Hugh and I attended an Ensiferum concert at Club Red in Mesa, Arizona. I was lucky enough to get a media pass so I could photograph the concert. Having checked out Ensiferum prior to the show, I know that they would be in face make-up and some would be wearing kilts. However, when the first band came out on stage, I was wondering who these strange looking people were. They had their faces painted along with their arms and some were wearing kilts.
This was my first introduction to Adavänt, now one of my favorite bands from the Phoenix area. They are a Folk Metal band. They also utilized a male and female singing dual. I was also amazed by the crazy keyboard player. He would jump around and at time even leap up almost level with the keyboard. I was hooked and really enjoyed their energy and music.
Well, its 2023 and Adavänt has just released a new CD. Like a lot of other small bands (and most local area bands) they had to resort to using crowd funding to help produce their CD. Tonight, was their public CD release party for this new CD, The Mystic And The Mountain. They will be having another release party for those fans in Tucson at The Edge on February 11th .
This event was held at a small bar in Scottsdale, AZ called Pub Rock (Pub Rock is also a local bar featuring Kansas City Football events). There was a nice crowd tonight of about 150 to 200 people. Everyone was enjoying themselves and seemed to have a great time with all of the bands. As you can see from the setlist, Adavänt performed the entire new CD in order. They also added a few extra fan favorite songs at the end including one additional song not on the original setlist, “Black Barrel Ale”.
If you listen to their songs, they have a very heavy folk influence mixed with a Heavy Metal sound. When we saw them originally with Ensiferum they were a perfect match. For the most part the band is basically the same as when I saw them in 2019. Still on lead vocals is the metal goddess Charlotte “The Alluring”. She is joined on lead vocals by the powerful and dynamic Nathan “The Ravenous”. Nathan use to play bass, but Corey “The Vigorous” has move over to bass. Justin “The Fierce” is on guitar, with the crazy Andy “The Cunning” as the energic keyboard player. Javad “The Fearless” always give me crap because I never get any good photos of him on drums, sorry Javad but the lighting on you is poor. In December 2019, just prior to the pandemic, they added Ryan “The Bardic” to the band. Ryan plays a number of folk instruments including different flutes and the lute. One of the best parts of this band is the diversity between the growling of Nathan and the sweat harmony of Charlotte.
This was the 5th time I have seen Adavänt and they just keep getting better. With the release of this new CD, they now have a great collection of songs to perform. For me personally I really enjoyed their performance of “Miss Maddie’s Forge”, “Her Last Howl”, “Pestilencia Swing” and “Mountain” from this new album. You can check out The Mystic And The Mountain on Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.
Hopefully, they will be able to stay together ((it is really tough for local bands) and they can get some additional recognition. If you get a chance to see them perform, I strongly recommend it. They sound really good on the new CD, but live they are outstanding. You can follow Adavänt on either their website, Facebook page or on YouTube. I hope to see you all at one of their future shows. I know I will try very hard to be there.
Website: https://adavant.bandcamp.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/AdavantOfficial/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adavant+band
The Mystic and the Mountain on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5rKTtRaWiyv0HuTXItvL2p?si=hBhRR9SCRCO2FDPWQAv40g&nd=1
Photos by Fred Kuhlman, All Rights Reserved
Adavant Setlist:
Mystic
Miss Maddies Forge
Lunar Cutlass
War Gnomes
Her Last Howl
Feast of Friends
Pestilencia Swing
A Respite Round
Confess
Mountain
Monks
Fairhaven
Renegade Ridge
Black Barrel Ale
Cyterra
Cyterra is a local Phoenix area Death/Groove Metal band. It consists of Attila Muller (Drummer), Arthur Seechoma (Bassist), Dan McCourt (Guitarist) and Luis Pedraza (Lead Singer). This quartet put on a good performance. Attila and Arthur provided the pulsating tempo while Dan mixed in the power riffs. Luis strutted (as much as the small stage allowed) around the stage belting out the lyrics.
You can check out Cyterra on their Facebook page and YouTube channel:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Cyterra.AZ/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAY1b8rhwzaYrqRws4kyQ3g
Photos by Fred Kuhlman, All Rights Reserved
The Writ
The Writ is a Progressive Hard Rock with 90’s Grunge influence and modern Metal impact from the Phoenix area. This quartet consists of guitarist and lead vocals Esteban Palacios, lead guitarist Daniel Dobbs, bass guitarist Cade Gardner and drummer David Wendling. I really enjoyed their performance. They reminded me a lot of Opeth in their sound. Their performance of “Spectral Aura” was especially good. If you enjoy this style of music then I would recommend going out and seeing The Writ.
Be careful in looking up The Writ because you will get different bands in other countries. Make sure you look at the Phoenix area band.
You can check out The Writ on their Facebook page:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thewritband/
Additional links: https://dot.cards/Thewrit?a=user%2Forxqsjpiqlpshtdyf187f7018%2Fc%2Fbl
Photos by Fred Kuhlman, All Rights Reserved
