Last week, Swedish progressive metal band Soen began their first-ever North American tour, promoting their most recent album Imperial. This band has been active for about 12 years now, so it’s quite surprising that it has taken them this long to properly tour Canada and the United States. On Wednesday, November 23rd, Toronto-based fans finally got their chance to catch Soen live, as they performed at a packed house at Lee’s Palace. Considering the warm reception the band received, it’s safe to say that their debut headlining show here was a great success. Soen’s supporting act on this tour is a Texas-based heavy metal band called Oceans of Slumber, who are trying out something a little different for these shows.
Oceans of Slumber is (usually) a five-piece band, but as they took the stage at 8 pm, it was evident that this was not going to be your typical metal performance. Dobber Beverly, the band’s drummer (and an incredible one at that), came out first and got situated behind a keyboard. As he played a piano intro, Beverly was joined by bassist Semir Ozerkan and vocalist Cammie Gilbert-Beverly, the latter of whom told the audience that the band would be performing an intimate, stripped-down set as a three-piece. These new arrangements of their songs really gave Gilbert-Beverly lots of room to shine, as her vocals were powerful and highly emotive. She sounded especially good on The Lighthouse, and The Hanging Tree, both tracks from the band’s most recent album Starlight and Ash, released earlier this year. Bassist Ozerkan contributed lots of lovely backing vocals, often harmonizing Beverly-Gilbert’s lead lines in his falsetto register. He was also a lot of fun to watch, as even though the song arrangements were more stripped down, his stage presence still featured very metal-looking power stances and headbanging. Beverly demonstrated he is a very capable multi-instrumentalist, as his piano parts helped give the songs compelling dynamic arcs. Between songs, he mentioned that he and Gilbert-Beverly had grown up Southern Baptist, and already wove some gospel influence into their music. Additionally, he does most of the initial songwriting on piano, so trying this piano- and vocal-driven arrangements live seemed like a natural next step. Performing these arrangements while opening for a metal band is a bold choice to be sure, but an admirable one. Their set was very well-received, and they likely made a lot of new fans on this night.
At 9 pm, the house lights dimmed once again to cue the start of Soen’s set, and a siren sound in the backing track began to blare. This went on for a few minutes, seemingly longer than intended, and it’s likely some last-minute tech issues had to be dealt with before the show could begin. Fortunately, once the band took the stage, and drummer Martin Lopez launched into the opening drum fill of Monarch, it was smooth sailing from there. Soen’s thirteen-song set consisted primarily of material from their most recent two albums, 2019’s Lotus and 2021’s Imperial, with one song each from Cognitive and Lykaia. Vocalist Joel Ekelöf came on stage looking like a full-blown rockstar, complete with a leather jacket, ball cap, and sunglasses. As soon as he began to sing, it was clear he sounded as much like a rockstar as he looked. Ekelöf sounded particularly great on songs like Lunacy, where he held a long sustained note before the band hit an instrumental section, and Lumerian, where his chorus hooks soared over some rhythmic double kick by Lopez, and incorporated some nice triplet phrasing.
The stage at Lee’s Palace is on the smaller side for a touring five-piece band, especially when the drumset takes up as much real estate as that of Martin Lopez. That said, it didn’t seem to be an issue for Soen, who made the most of the space. There was a moment during an instrumental section of the song Deceiver when vocalist Ekelöf stepped back in order to give his guitar and bass-playing bandmates room to headbang in unison across the front of the stage. The band not only sounded fantastic all night but was very obviously having a great time up there as well.
Bassist Oleksii Kobel had a moment to shine at the top of Savia, the sole song in the set from their 2012 album Cognitive. He played the main bass groove solo, throwing in some variations and some harmonics, before being joined by Guitarist Lars Ahlund on bongos and Lopez on djembe. Åhlund was a busy man, playing not only guitar and bongos, but keyboards and shakers periodically throughout the set as well, and doing a great job on all of them. Soen has been very open in interviews over the years about the influence that Tool has had on their music, and at no point in the set was that influence more evident than on Savia. It’s not a bad thing by any means, but it was interesting to hear the growth from the Cognitive era to their newer material, where the band has really developed their own sound.
Progressive metal, in general, tends to give its instrumentalists plenty of chances to show off their abilities, and this Soen set was no exception. Guitarist Cody Lee Ford, who is actually from Ottawa, got to take a few lengthy guitar solos throughout the set. Lucidity featured Ford tastefully playing over a slower 6/8 groove, making good use of space and bends, while Illusion featured a solo where he alternated between single notes and chords, and peppered in some whammy bar use to great effect. Modesty, from the Imperial album, featured a solo from Åhlund, which climaxed in an exciting 16th note run that Ford jumped in to harmonize. Each member of this band is an incredible musician, and they know how to contribute their individual abilities to create an end product that is greater than the sum of its parts. The band left the stage after playing Illusion, but with the crowd chanting “So-en! So-en!”, everyone knew they had some more in them.
When Soen returned to the stage for their encore, Ekelöf took a moment to introduce and thank his bandmates, and the band’s crew members as well. A successful tour requires the hard work of many people, on top of the musicians themselves. There’s often a tour manager, a merch person, as well as lighting and sound techs, and they all have important roles to play. However, a special shoutout goes to the Soen crew member who was assisting the band from the side stage. There were several points during the night when one of the band members would be playing a shaker for a portion of a song, only to have to ditch it in a hurry as they transitioned back to their primary instrument. This crew member was always standing by to catch the aforementioned shaker as it was comically launched his way after someone was finished with it.
Soen’s encore consisted of two songs from Lotus: Lascivious, and the album’s title track. Lascivious showed the band’s incredible dynamic range – there were some heavy passages filled with palm-muted rhythmic patterns, as well as a more chill middle section, with some tasteful, somewhat jazzy drumming by Lopez, and a short solo by Ford. Lotus is a fan favorite that had many in the crowd singing along, and featured yet another tasteful guitar solo by Ford. After concluding the song, the band took their time to thank the audience before leaving the stage. Bassist Kobel draped a Ukrainian flag around himself as he waved, which received arguably the loudest cheers of support all night.
Soen may have kept their North American fans waiting a long time to see them live, but this Imperial tour made it worth the wait. The show was top-notch, and the band sounded incredible all night, with tons of great individual performances. Coupled with Ocean of Slumber’s unique opening set, this was a fantastic night of music from top to bottom. The tour continues through the United States, concluding on December 17th in San Diego, California. Do yourself a favor, and catch one of modern progressive metal’s finest bands making their live debut in a city near you.
