Progressive metallers Boil from Aarhus was having a release party for their third and latest album, aXiom, in wind-struck February, and for maximum attention they had taken the not only to their hometown but also to the nation’s capitol, Copenhagen.

Hailing from the capitol of Danish death metal, Boil came off as quite the odd duck when at first my attention was directed at them shortly before this very show, but at the same time something truly unique and also something much more in line with what my personal preferences are in general; thus off we went to the old train station turned into musical venue Lygten, my thoughts and main concern mostly revolving around how and if they were going to be able to pull off a show which would match their musical abilities…
Before them, Boil had had two local Copenhagen bands warming the crowd up for them, Defecto and Broken Hand Charity, but I must say that as soon as Boil hit the stage there was no wonder why these guys were the main act – from the uniformal outfits to the stage setup with both backdrop and stage drops, from the improved lights to the close to impeccable sound, there could be no doubt that these guys were serious about what they were doing. And why wouldn’t they be, according to their management team they were just about to release the best Danish prog-metal album ever to see the light of day, and after giving it a few spins at home, I see no reason to disagree with this statement.
Since this is the first time we write about this band at Metalmoments, we thought it would be only fair to give a short introduction – Boil consist of five members, vocalist Jacob Løbner (also in the Danish melodic hardrock band Malrun), the guitar duo Stig Nielsen and Kenneth Avnsted, Kristian Outinen on bass and finally Mikkel Ib on drums, percussion and samples. The band began back in 2004 and later released their debut album Vessel in 2007. After this came A New Decay in 2010, and after a long time of fieldwork in the area of paranoid schizophrenia and other mental disorders, we have now arrived at the release of aXiom, a semi-conceptual album on this area.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, we have come a long way and have been looking much forward to this release-party!”
- Jacob Løbner (vocals)

Back at the show, the band chose to kick the party off with an older song though, from the debut we got Bound which quickly put any fears I might have had about the bands stage performance to rest, and also showed that the even more filled room at Lygten was more than willing to party with Boil.
To be honest, at the time I knew so little of the band's discography that I could only really lean back and enjoy the music, instead of being in the frontline shouting along to the choruses (expect me there next time though!); the only songs vaguely reminiscent to me were Moth To The Flame, the first song released on Spotify, Vindication, the first song off of aXiom to get a video, and finally Sleepwalker, the one track off of A New Decay which also got a video, but even these I was only familiar enough with to actually recognise that I had heard them before...
The incredible increase in quality and seriousness on the stage spoke its language though, and Boil had no problem getting in direct contact with their fans; here I think the small size of the stage and the fact that it was as low as it was helped, but it was still mainly the bands, and here especially that of Løbner, effort that the atmosphere was as good and personal as it was. There was just such an unbelievable connection, and I really couldn’t believe how it was that this band has gone completely below our radar until now! I’m not sure how much of a scene there is for this kind of thing at home, but put these guys in the light of an international stage, and there’s no telling how far they will go.
Looking away from the excellent performance skills of the band for a while, Boil also showed that they were quite capable of constructing a setlist that not only showed many of the facets of the band, but also organize them in a way that kept the audience interested at all times. The medley of So Many Men, Quiet Hours and Abstemious gave us a nice look into the roots of the band, and after a few harder songs, the intimate closeness and calmness of Darker was the perfect mood change. Straight after this we were thrown into an almost thrash-like frenzy with the beginning of the faster Blink Of An Eye, which in turn was followed by the even faster and much more aggressive Sunbound.
Here there was a possibility to end the show on a high note, something it looked like the band was prepared to do, but after loud and insistent shouts from the crowd, the boys of Boil accepted to play the last song on the setlist as well, the earlier mentioned Sleepwalker, which had been penned down as a possible encore for the evening, but only if we agreed to stick around for a while and hang out with the band over in the bar area afterwards. Well, no problem there as you might have guessed...

After spending some time relocating and reattaching my jaw, which had hit the floor hard somewhere along the gig in surprise of how extremely good this was, there was really nothing for it but to rush straight out to the merchandise stand and purchase a copy of the album, as should you as soon as you’re done reading this review. Yes, you. All of you.
Honestly, Boil isn’t just the best thing out of Aarhus in forever, this was established quickly enough, but it is simply THE band on the Danish market right now with the largest international potential, and I can only hope that this is recognised and used for the good of the band. I personally can’t wait to see them again now that I am more familiar with their material.

Setlist:

Bound
Welcome Tragedy
Faceless
Vindication
Sever The Tie
So Many Men / Quiet Hours / Abstemious
Heretic Martyr
Moth To The Flame
Darkest
Blink Of An Eye
Sunbound
Sleepwalker