Friday the 13ths always have something special about them, and this one was no different. What’s special about this day is that it held a pleasing night for every music lover: the release of April’s first EP after 4 years of playing.

The event took place at Metro Al Madina in Hamra, a place progressive lovers would now call home, since most progressive bands play there. Metro Al Madina sure is a good venue for progressive metal/rock, as fans of the genre vary from metalheads who want to headbang and move around to the older generation who wants to sit and enjoy the show.

Doors were supposed to open at 9:00 pm, but didn’t until 9:45 pm. Though the lobby, where the bar is, could be a good place to wait and chat, the music they play there is way different from what everyone came to listen to, leaving you with no option but to wait outside or get a headache.

Dirty Enzyme, the post-grunge opening band for tonight, started at 10:20 pm. For almost 40 minutes, they played a list of their own songs: “Never Let the Woman”, “It Means Nothing”, and “While I Lay My Head” which is a tribute to Kurt Cobain and was quite interesting. Then Ayman Zebdawi, a friend of the band, joined on the keyboards for two songs: “Paradise” and “Pending Intentions” which had post elements and some jazz on the keyboards. Dirty Enzyme continues with “Absence”, a newly written song and then “Grungeadellic”, a psychedelic grunge song. The band had to remove one song, “Don’t Leave Me”, due to lack of time, something which should have been managed more properly by everyone. However, all songs were well played, and they put a great show with one thing to note: every song was different from the other, and Dirty Enzyme is yet to find a solid sound for the band. Unless diversity is what they want, which means harder work, if put properly, could give greater results.

About 15 minutes later, April was on. Now, April, as labeled, is a Progressive/Psychedelic/Ambient Rock/Metal band, but after watching the show, all those words don’t matter anymore, because it is simply great music.

The band started with an intro jam followed by Dream Theater’s “These Walls”. Then they played their first original from the Ep, “Deconstruct”, a song about the mental gap that is preventing the character from grasping a genuine sense of happiness in his existence out of social distorted theories and dictations. Following up, they played two Porcupine Tree songs, “Trains” and “Open Car”, and the second original, “Ephemeral”, which is about a girl’s expression of a mental struggle concerning a past love whose loss is also mourned by Nature. Three other songs were played: Blackmore’s Night’s “Diamonds and Rust”, Tool’s “Jambi” and Porcupine Tree’s “Anesthetize”, before playing their last original, “Subtle”, a song about a character in a conflict between carrying on his self-indulgence in his guilty pleasures and redeeming himself from this twisted pain that fulfills him; he suffers in the process that reveals his acts to him in order to decide how to crack this mental split. The last two songs for the night were Dream Theater’s “Forsaken” and Tool’s “Right in Two”.

Everything was set to be great, and there were no problems with lights and sound; it was a night to look for. Both bands have put a good performance and people definitely enjoyed as comments about the event were great.

For those who didn’t get the EP, April lately released a booklet with the lyrics from the EP, and will soon announce how to get your copy of the EP, and in this case, I strongly recommend you get one.