Back to Live

Sylvan treats its fans to a new live recording of their entire concert at De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, on October 27, 2023. This particular show is the third of only six shows performed by the band last year, in support of their One To Zero album. As such, it is a special treat for fans who couldn’t make it to one of these concerts. This show starts with the groovy bass lines from Sebastian Harnack on „In Between“ (from the Home album), opening up the way for Marco Gluhmann’s legendary vocals on a song that is not an easy opener given the long walking vocal lines on the verses. The entire band nails it, paving the way for 93 minutes of glory and musical heaven. 


After this powerful opener, including a rear projection of our President Ronald Reagan, the band then segues into two back-to-back songs from One To Zero, before giving us a special treat with „Given, Used, Forgotten,“ the amazing long prog song from one of their best albums, X-Rayed. Marco’s vocals sound simply beautiful on the opening lines of this gem of a song. While the rest of the show focuses more on their biggest commercial success, „Posthumous Silence,“ it was quite a pleasant surprise to see them play Heal from my favorite Sylvan album Presets. The opening notes of this song took me straight to heaven and kept me there throughout this truly healing and magical song. The concert ends with the last song from the Posthumous Silence album, and there is no encore. Along the journey, „King Porn“, „In Chains“, and „Go Viral“ bring a strong, hard metallic edge to the proceedings, and the energy levels go visibly up with strobe lights et al. to match the frenzy and joy that are only experienced in person at a stage/venue.


The band is in top shape here, this being right in the middle of their 2023 tour. Everyone plays with passion and dedication. A special mention goes to Johnny Beck for infusing every song with such good guitar playing, and of course to Marco for nailing the vocals song after song, as always. The rest of the band acquit themselves very well, Volker on his melodic keys, Sebastian walking around the stage with energy, and the ever-focused Matthias on his drum kit.


Playing in front of a devoted audience of Sylvan fans is always great to enhance the mood of the concert at this small and intimate venue. Prog fans tend to be quiet and focused on the music, and that’s how it is on this show as well, saving the band from irritations like endless cameras in your face and stage diving. Well, the latter is a joke – I haven’t seen mosh pits in any prog rock/metal concerts in my life ever! 🙂


Technically, this Blu-ray is top-notch. I watched the concert twice – once in Dolby Atmos and the other in lossless stereo. The former mix is a surprise inclusion here, as it’s expensive to make one vs even a DTS 5.1 lossless surround mix. The Atmos mix is immersive and put me front and center, as if I was part of the audience. The Stereo mix is no slouch either for those that don’t have an Atmos setup at home. The video quality is superb – image is stable, colors are vivid, shadow detail is pretty good and thankfully the video editing is not choppy but rather focuses on the performers in the best way possible. The stage setup and the lighting are beautiful, evocative and support the complex and emotional music that is Sylvan. 


At 12 songs just crossing the 90-minute mark, this is one of the shortest Sylvan concerts, and that is a minor complaint about what is very much a tight and well-played concert. A concert is only as good as its set list, and even on this front, the band did a good job picking a great selection of songs representing six of their ten studio albums. It would have been nice to have had a longer concert with these other albums represented as well, but Back To Live is an unmissable treat for fans of Sylvan and progressive rock/metal the world over. You can get it on Blu-Ray, CD and vinyl here ↗.