Eindhoven Metal Meeting a festival in the “burgundy south” of the Netherlands. Here the weathergods do not tell when it becomes winter, no, it is only winter when EMM is over. EMM, a.k.a. the Eindhoven Metal Meeting is a very established festival that celebrates in an extreme way. They don’t call themselves an extreme metal festival, but I guess 75% of the bands that will play at the 2014 edition you can definitely describe as Extreme Metal bands. Get your warpaint on, search for your battlejacket and dust off your army boots, EMM is not for the weak.
This indoor festival lasts 2 days, has more than 30 bands on its bill and because the festival is in the cultural center of Eindhoven, you can enjoy some pretty drunk afterpartys. Or for the chicks amongst us, yes, you can shop pretty good out there. But we are talking about metal, not about the latest fashion.
Let’s just take this opportunity to highlight some bands you should really see according to me. Let me begin with Triptykon. I am a huge fan of this band, and after seeing them live two times I can say this is one of the best live bands to see yet! I am not exaggerating! After releasing one of the best metal albums ever, Eparistera Daimones (Prowling Death/Century Media) I was completely hooked and it was a real step up to doom music for me. If you are just a little bit interested to see this band, do not hesitate and just go and watch! I am not going to tell you what you can expect from the live show if you don’t know this band yet, you just have to experience that yourselves. My words will only fall short if I try.
Urfaust, just like Tryptikon is a band you have to experience. These are the kind of bands you can’t just explain in a few sentences. I can only tell this is the kind of band that brings you the perfect combination between the best atmosphere and some really REALLY good music. I will be pretty pissed off if they will play at the same time as Asphyx by the way. I just wouldn’t know who to choose (I think this will depend on the amount of beer I drank), Asphyx is the dutch pride of Death Metal with front-man Martin van Drunen, and if you know the least about Death Metal, you know with Martin you can expect some top-notch old-school battering death metal. Thanks man!
Then, I am going to hop over to Saturday to highlight Aborted for you guys. I think Aborted is one of the best “New School Death” bands, if you have albums of this band in your car, chances are you will be driving faster than the speed limit. Known for a very energetic live show, some real badass music and the overall feeling you get while Aborted is playing involves that you are watching one of the best bands in death metal.
And then, Exhumed. Haha what to write about Exhumed. A live show of Exhumed involves puking, a weird chainsaw guy and A LOT of beer. This band’s music is not the hardest and technical music ever, but it is just fun, and they know how to bring the P in Party! I’ve always enjoyed a Exhumed concert and had a lot of fun. I am just a little bit afraid this just won’t do if they play to early, it is definitely not a headliner band but god damn this would be pretty awesome for the afterparty if you ask me.
A band I haven’t seen live yet for myself, but I haven’t heard anything negative about is Valkyrja. Good music on the albums, and definitely worth to try and see live. I can’t always vouch for myself and only share my opinion, but there is so much more. And I think Valkyrja is going to be one of the bands that will satisfy my needs live.
Then Origin, this is that technical death metal band isn’t it? Mostly I don’t really know what to do with this sub-genre, but Origin hasn’t let me down just yet. I am always kind of sceptical about Tech Death bands, I am not a musician so my attention will slowly drift away and when a show of this kind of band takes too long. I will just lose my patience and go and get a smoke I guess. Origin however has succeeded to keep me interested throughout an entire whole show before, and it is pretty awesome to check out. So, why not again?
Back to the Friday I would like to pay some attention to Funeral Whore, which is an awesome old school death metal band. And the last one I have to pay attention to is the afterparty band Sisters of Suffocation, again awesome death metal. The music will not bring you something really new in the death metal genre, but it is played by only females. I might be a female myself, but I sincerely think this is an awesome band.
Last but not least I want to mention Woland, which is a post-black metal band. I actually get a bit sick by all of those “post” bands that are trying to look like complete retards. Woland gets the genre and knows how to portray this in the right way, and sincerely try to do something new with the post-black genre. Check this band out, you will not be disappointed.
Well I hope I gave you some good tips about the bands you should go and see according to me. But most of all I hope you all have a good time out there in Eindhoven. I will end with some tips where you can go when the venue is closed or you just don’t have any band to see for the next 2 hours (which I can definitely not imagine). There is enough to do over there!
Close to the Dynamo venue there is an Irish pub named O’Sheas that is definitely worth a visit. If you are not that fond of Irish pubs there is one street named “Stratumseind”; this is where all the bars and other small venue’s are. I could really recommend café The Jack and café Altstad which are both alternative bars and are both on Stratumseind.
Well I hope I gave you enough tips to go on for EMM. I hope I see you guys at the festival and have a lot of fun!
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