Recensie Zornik

On April 27, Zornik had a big and unique gig at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp. They have choosen 2 support acts. Those acts were better than the average 'level' I mostly hear during concerts. But of course everbody was there to see Zornik performing. We were about 4500 people, most of them were teenager girls who are secretly in love with frontsinger Koen Buyse. Next to me, a twenty-something fairly hair-girl was sitting, trying to whistle on her fingers. She didn't succeed, so she kept on shouting: 'Come on Koen, you can do it!' On the other side, another girl was sitting, secretly hoping she had eyecontact with Koen Buyse. He understood what she screamed, as the microphones which were recording the audience where very close to our seats.

The set list was well balanced, new songs were played together with their hits. In the beginning, the bass-sounds were blasting us almost on the people sitting behind us. But from song 2 on, the volume changed and my ears were not screaming for silence anymore. Then suddenly Zornik started to play the first notes of 'Hey Girl'. I didn't realize yet they started to play that song, but of course all girls in the audience did. At that moment I felt 'weird' in a crowd with mainly girls.

Zornik played 2 hours. That's a lot nowadays. They came 2 times back to play a curtain call. One of them was "Scared of Yourself". The last one was Goodbye a very long version with a lot of interaction. The public was clapping their hands for almost a quarter of the setlist. Spontaniously, Koen Buyse didn't had to push us to do that at all (sometimes artists do when their setlist is boring or when they are not performing on stage with enthousiasm) Zornik was playing with tons of enthousiasm. A song ended in the start of another song. So the rhythm of the concert was rather high. In the middle of their setlist, they played their biggest hit 'Believe in me'. From that moment on everybody believed this concert was really unique and could become one of these concerts you will remember for a longtime. The atmosphere was unique, the crowd clapped their hands on the beat of 'we will rock you'. Although Zornik doesn't play that Queen's song, surprisingly, this handclapping was doing well with Zornik's songs. I really have to rediscover this concert, this atmosphere on the dvd MTV Networks was recording. If somebody is still looking for a good present for me, buy that one!

The first time I saw Zornik performing was during their "All strings attached" tour. Then, they played their songs in an accoustic version with guitars and violins. They created an intimate atmosphere. Songs which can be played both on an intimate way and in its pure rock version, are songs which will last for a long time...

It was in September 2006 when I saw Zornik for the second time on stage. This time they performed around 6 o' clock in the morning in the main hall of the Central Trainstation in Antwerp. My ears still remember the echoe of that historical building.

It was a small concert, they got on stage too late and so they could only play a handfull of songs. As it was their last performance before they went to Malta to record a new album, Koen Buyse, the leadsinger, felt 'fucked up'.

They performed my favourite songs including "Scared of Yourself" and "Believe in me". Their last song before they took the studio break was "Goodbye".

On April 13 Zornik's new album 'Crosses' was released. The album is said to be full of killer songs, let's say the harder stuff. Although we also know the group performing accoustic rock. So I guess many fans will have to rediscover a new kind of Zornik.

Their first single from this fourth album 'Crosses' is called 'Black hope shot down'. The videoclip is a rather obscure one, filmed in an old prison nearby Hasselt. Zornik is showing their darkest side on this video, and maybe on the full album in general.

During the past TMF Awards, Zornik won 4 awards: best rock, best live, best album and best male performer.

< Bert Hertogs>