Soen Takes On North America – November 30th Sees Soen @ NYC’s Gramercy Theatre – Ryan’s Interview w/ Joel Ekelöf

Ryan Murray | Co-Owner | Chief Editor | Contributor

r.m.music84@gmail.com

📸 – Inaki Marconi

Sweden’s progressive metal outfit, Soen, is a band that was originally formed in 2004, but officially announced in 2010 their formation and quickly gained notoriety and a large fan base with their debut album “Cognitive”. They showed no sign of stopping, with each subsequent release just getting better and better, constantly outdoing themselves each time.

Soen is a band that while are labeled as progressive metal, really don’t fall into just one category, but rather, I’d consider them a genre unto themselves.

For the first time, Soen is headlining a North American tour, and it couldn’t be a better time! With live music back in full swing after a global pandemic with lockdowns pretty much everywhere, Soen fans in the US are hungrier than ever and have been beyond excited to have the band here!

On Wednesday, November 30th, Soen stopped in New York and were at the Gramercy Theatre in NYC. Having been a fan of Soen since around 2017, finally getting a chance to see them live was absolutely great! Touring support from Oceans of Slumber, whose stripped back, intimate and simply beautiful set was absolutely incredible and one everyone should hear. Review and interview with Cammie coming soon, so keep your eye out.

Soen played a very well-rounded set with tracks from Imperial, Lotus, Cognitive & Lykaia, and brings to the stage an incredible energy! You wouldn’t know this was their first headlining tour in North America, it feels like they have played here before! Their live performance is incredible and is a must see!

Now that Soen has finally made it onto US soil, it’s only a matter of time before they come back. This band’s popularity is only going to continue to sky rocket, I’m excited to see what their future holds!

The setlist included –

“Monarch”, “Deceiver”, “Lunacy”, “Martyrs”, “Savia”, “Lumerian”, “Jinn”, “Modesty”, “Lucidity”, “Antagonist” and “Illusion”

ENCORE: “Lascivious” & “Lotus”.

Before the show, I had the chance to sit down with Joel Ekelöf for an interview, and we discussed some history of the band, “Imperial”, “Atlantis”, NY bagels and more!