When you’re through with the regular metal festivals, big crowds and ridiculously high ticket, food and beverage prices, the annual Into The Grave festival is arguably one of the best alternatives at hand. Its location in the historic inner city of Leeuwarden can’t be beaten. This year’s third installment brings us a variety of bands like Bliksem, Jungle Rot, Heaven’s Basement, Sodom and Devildriver. Meanwhile, Satyricon and Paradise Lost are the resident headliners.
Local heroes Stonehawk open the festival with their bluesy Southern rock/metal hybrid. Their song material is reminiscent of Down, Corrosion Of Conformity and Clutch. The band clearly isn’t used to playing for a larger crowd, but they soldier on nonetheless. When singer Lennart Wardekker’s microphone malfunctions things start to unravel fast. In short, a somewhat botched performance from a band that clearly can do better.
Belgian thrash metal ensemble Bliksem is fast making a name for themselves as one of the most ferocious live acts in the Low Countries. Their intense performance at Into The Grave perfectly underscored their reputation. With the ever charming Peggy Meeussen leading the charge they worked their way through a set of songs which can best be described as an unholy marriage between Bay Area thrash metal and all the attitude and swagger of Appetite For Destruction–era Guns N’ Roses. My personal highlight of the day.
Crude and primitive are the best words to describe Jungle Rot’s style of death metal. Huzzah for diversity, but these guys are the epitome of every death metal cliche out there. Interaction with the audience was next to nothing, their podium presentation was static at best and the songs themselves weren’t particularly memorable. Besides some diehard fans, the biggest part of the audience remained unmoved. Jungle Rot are a solid live unit, but their overall performance lacked panache.
Next in line were UK rock outfit Heaven’s Basement. In their home country they’re seen as one of the hottest bands of the moment, but at Into The Grave I failed to see what the buzz is all about. Granted, they put on an energetic live show, but their songs are rather forgettable. They’re eye candy for the girls in the audience, but for the vast majority they were simply too slick. A good moment for yours truly to get some food and drinks.
Veteran German thrash metal institute Sodom is the first band of the day that gets the crowd really going. With 30 years of live experience under their belt, there’s little that can go wrong with them. The focus is clearly on playing as many songs as possible and the interaction with the crowd is mostly limited to the occasional song announcement. The band put up a solid performance, especially drummer Markus Freiwald—the highlight with his tight playing.
I was never too impressed with Devildriver’s previous output on CD, but their live performance is quite something else. The band was on fire and played arguably the tightest set of the day. Frontman Dez Fafara really knows how to work a crowd and he plays his role as sympathetic host with gusto. They also played some new songs off their upcoming album and they blended perfectly with the older material. When you dare to close your set with Tupac’s ‘California Love’, you’re one of the big guys.
With a new album looming over the horizon Norwegian black metal formation Satyricon decided to introduce a couple of new tracks, including ‘Our World, It Rumbles Tonight’ and ‘Tro Og Kraft’. Both compositions are quite a departure from their more straightforward material and the crowd doesn’t quite know what to make of it. Luckily, Satyricon is one of the best live acts on the planet and with splendid renditions of ‘Diabolical Now’, ‘Black Crow On A Tombstone’ and ‘The Pentagram Burns’ there was plenty to enjoy still.
Due to time constraints and a long trip back home I sadly had to miss out on Paradise Lost, but I’m sure I’ll catch them some time on their current tour cycle.
Just like last year Into The Grave was a great overall experience. The atmosphere was great, it was superbly organised and everyone had a great time. Until next year!
August 10th, 2013
Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Words: Raymond Westland
Pictures: Blueberryheaven