When bands take a seven-year hiatus, you might be forgiven for thinking that they'll never get back together again. It's all the more pleasing, then, when they release a new album, go on tour, and prove that they're still tremendous in a live setting.

Swedish post-metal group Cult of Luna brought a bombastic and hypnotic fusion of post-rock, doom metal, and electronic atmospheres to the Z7 Konzertfabrik in Pratteln, where they were supported by post-rock trio A.A. Williams (UK) and the punk-ish post-hardcore Brutus (Belgium).

A.A. Williams

Monochromatic but far from monotone, Greg Gonzalez and his Brooklyn-based dream pop band Cigarettes After Sex entranced their devoted audience at the delightfully intimate Plaza in Zürich.

"Right, chaps, are we ready?" is not a phrase you would necessarily expect to hear at a progressive metal concert. But that's exactly what amiable Opeth singer Mikael Åkerfeldt asked his fellow musicians midway through the band's show at the Volkshaus in Zurich, before launching into another of their complex, multi-layered songs.

What do you get when two masters of between-song banter share the Baloise Session stage? A highly entertaining evening and music to die for. Both Tom Walker and Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody have a knack for telling stories, taking the mick, and just generally spreading cheer.