Not to brag, but once upon a time in my youth, I was somewhat of a taste maker in the Seattle underground punk scene. [some flowery intro]. There was a young band that clings to my memory to this day, Ain Sof. They couldn't have been older than high school kids, and yet they got the crowd moving just as hard as the veterans did. For an opening act, they sure set the bar high for the rest of the night.

The Ris I knew was actually a Ritsuka. He had shortened his name.

I met with a friend who was a local correspondent for a larger music publication who was overseas to cover the large scale Dream Royale Festival. There, I was told, I would find Ritsuka.

And I did find him, on stage, once again. I got the distinct feeling that he was being held back in Ain Sof, watching him perform with Eveningtide. The technically impressive, harmonically diverse progressive metal they were doing was a far cry from the distortion riddled but melodically simple metalcore he had done not even a year ago. Eveningtide was low-key on their movements but their music spoke for them.