With a name like Cryptex, you expect some sort of old school death metal heaviness, but not these crazy Dutch guys. Sounding like The Beatles crossed with Oceansize after a week in an Amsterdam café (with a dose of The Specials thrown in for good measure), this is very upbeat and melodious madness.



Right throughout their 45 minute slot, The Garage is a room full of slightly perplexed faces as the trio bounce through a veritable pick'n'mix of disparate genres that really shouldn't be on stage at the same time. But, somehow, they make it all work, I think, with the help of some fine musicianship, a good tune, and an unabashed sense of freakery.


Pain Of Salvation are back with yet more new musicians in tow after their recent stint supporting Opeth, and with a few new additions to their live repertoire. The early part of the set however, is dominated by fan favourites - 'Ashes' in particular perfectly demonstrating the band's strengths of emotive songwriting married with some punishingly heavy riffs.


A trio of tracks from the most recent Road Salt Two album heralds the departure point of this new iteration, but really the baying mass are after the publicised re-working of 'Stress' from 1997's Entropia, and it does not disappoint. New guitarist Ragnar Zolberg shows his worth here as he dances around the fret board in this jumpy, schizophrenic gem of a track, long overdue an airing again.

Pain Of Salvation are masters at wringing every drop of feeling out of both song and audience, a trick they pull off with aplomb tonight. This is no more apparent than on the epic 'Enter Rain', another recent addition, that sweeps the place along on a massive cerebral wave (helped by a rather sexy fretless seven string guitar, I might add).




And the encore of two tracks being debuted on this tour, the manic 'The Physics Of Gridlock' and the beautiful 'Sisters', has the crowd enraptured by their magnificence and energy, levels of which have remained impressively high throughout. Tonight, Pain Of Salvation have proved (again) that they are not just prog, but progressive too.

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