Artist: Sanity
Title: Live at 22
Format: DVD/CD
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label: Six Pack
Website: http://www.sanity.nl

The Netherlands is a hotbed of prog-rock and one of the latest entries that will enter our consciousness is Sanity. Its funny, I would think that they would have named themselves Insanity to be more inline with the formula of prog-rock being out there and different from any other music, although that sounds more like a punk name so Sanity works.

This DVD/CD set shows the band performing in a small nightclub called Twentietoe. You can tell by the reaction of the crowd after each song that there was definitely not a large throng of onlookers there. I think the band was more interested in having a decent stage to perform on to cut this video than having a typical concert hall audience to acknowledge each song. This is a low budget DVD; there is no doubt about it. The camera work is average and the lighting suspect. This is not what I am accustomed to at all; I guess you could call it a demo DVD at best.

The band does the best they can with what they have to work with so I have to give them credit. Sanity is a good band, musically they are solid and tight and the lead singer Kees van Keulen sounds like Iggy Pop and Bowie all rolled into one person. His voice suits the driving punishing riffs of guitar man Jereon Hoegee. I could most certainly appreciate the timely rhythm section of Roger van Acquoy (bass) and Fred den Hartog (drums) as well. Nathan Cairo provides the necessary symphonic elements with flurries of keyboard virtuosity to take off the harder edge of Hoegee