“Necessary Darkness”, the new EP from DEAR MOTHER, was released on 19 April. The project, spearheaded by guitarist Merel Bechtold and vocalist David Pear, began in early 2020 with a crowdfunding campaign to finance the debut album, “Bulletproof”, released in summer 2021. It remains one of my favourites of recent years, and I’m delighted to see the evolution of DEAR MOTHER, which I’ve been following since the very beginning.

To celebrate the release of “Necessary Darkness”, the band organised four concerts in the Netherlands in the same week. On 21 April, at the Willem Twee in Den Bosch, I attended the final show of this little Dutch tour.

The event takes place in the afternoon, which works out well for me given the three-hour journey I have to make after the show. The date is set for 3.30pm, with Another Now opening for a Dutch modern metal quintet. The style is a perfect match for the headliner and the five musicians (or six with the second guest singer) perform with vigour for nearly forty minutes. A good start !

After a long forty-five minute break, DEAR MOTHER finally took to the stage. The venue wasn’t full, but the audience was there. The Willem Twee has a particularly interesting configuration, with a stepped pit and balconies on the side, so that no matter where you are, you can enjoy the show to the full. Well, almost fully, as the thick omnipresent smoke spoils the party a bit in my opinion. It would seem that this phenomenon has become fashionable of late, so let’s hope it calms down. As for the setlist, DEAR MOTHER obviously make the most of their latest EP, including “Unbreakable”, the first single released in the summer of 2023, and “Delusion”, where we have the pleasure of hearing Merel Bechtold on part of the lead vocals. The “Bulletproof” album is also represented with, for example, “A Soul For Hire” (one of my favourites!), the magnificent ballad “Palace” performed as an acoustic guitar/vocal duet on the edge of the stage, and “Symbiose”, which literally blew everything up several times during the band’s first concert at Zik Zak in Belgium. This time round, there were no technical problems to deplore, in fact the sound was very good and the five musicians gave a top-quality performance. After an hour’s concert, it was sadly time to say goodbye. The next dates announced for DEAR MOTHER are Wacken Open Air and Summer Breeze Open Air this summer. We hope to see more dates added in the near future, perhaps in Belgium or France, where we can’t wait to see them.

Another Now

DEAR MOTHER