Review: Stream of Passion, Bierkeller

There’s tumbleweed blowing through the Bierkeller as Bristolian/Welsh opening act Triaxis pitch up on stage, but they succeed in winning warm applause from the modestly swelling crowd. In contrast to the operatic stylings of tonight’s headliner, their singer is an old-school belter and the quintet benefit from two rather fine shredders. But the songs that work best are the more straightforward numbers like the NWOBHM-esque Stand Your Ground.

Hang on a minute, though – who’s that on bass? Only Bristol’s busiest bassist: Becky Baldwin of IDestroy, Metalhead, Control the Storm and countless others. Apparently she had to bugger off to play another gig with a different band at 10pm tonight. Does the woman ever stop working?

Main tour support Awake By Design are brimming with confidence, and rightly so. It’s hard for homegrown bands to gain any kind of traction in the UK with this brand of melodic, frequently keyboard-driven Euro-metal. But ABD have much in their favour – not least powerful vocalist Adrian Powell, whose voice is pitched somewhere between Bruce Dickinson and Geoff Tate in his prime.

It’s fair to say that Stream of Passion (Puddle of Lust was presumably taken) are not the world’s biggest symphonic metal act. Hell, they’re not even the biggest symphonic metal act to come out of the Netherlands, ranking somewhere behind Within Temptation, Epica, Delain, etc. And here they are playing what is both their first and last gig in Bristol, having announced that they’re to split at the end of this tour after 11 years and four albums together. The planet will probably continue to spin on its axis, but if SoP are to be a footnote then at least they’re a talented and entertaining one. Flanked by the hulking great figures of guitarist Eric Hazebroek and her bassist hubby Johan van Stratum, diminutive, relentlessly cheerful Mexican soprano and violinist Marcela Bovio has a huge voice for one with such a tiny frame. She reaches for the violin to play the intro to In the End but, rather disappointingly given that this is a signature component of the band’s sound, doesn’t touch it again until the end of the set.

Still, they’ve got a strong catalogue to draw on and cherry-pick the cream of it for this career-spanning show. The big dramatic mid-set songs Open Your Eyes and Broken kick things up a notch, while hit-that-should-have-been Out in the Real World is quite magnificent. Relying on fewer triggered sounds and recorded backing vocals than some of their peers also gives the band a more organic feel. “Now we’re going to murder a Radiohead song,” announces Marcela. True to her word, SoP serve up a somewhat unnecessary powerchord-heavy reworking of Street Spirit (Fade Out) (as also covered by The Darkness, fact fans). Set closer This Endless Night gets things back on track and offers her the opportunity to demonstrate her tremendous vocal range, reaching notes that one half expects to shatter all the glass behind the Bierkeller bar.

Returning for a three-song encore, Marcela delivers the anticipated speech about how she’s going to miss her fellow musicians and the loyal audience. Then there’s a surprise: she’s absolutely not going to miss that bloody band name: “When we got together, the name was chosen in all innocence and we didn’t even consider its connotations in the pornography industry,” she confides with a grin. “Have you seen the metal website Blabbermouth? I’ve lost count of the number of times guys have said they want to unload their stream of passion in my face…”

All photos by Mike Evans

Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2016