A first gig of the year after a couple of abortive attempts were blocked by train strikes and I finally get to take in The Subhumans in the annual Punk festival in The 100 Club – the scene of a number of good gigs I’ve enjoyed before. A long trip beckoned, but a hopefully worthwhile one nonetheless to finally see a band I’ve quite liked for a number of years now, complete with You and Knock Off in support duty.Continue reading
In the face of trying financial times for bands and gig-bookers alike, the fact that Damnation Festival still pulled off another sell-out edition is both impressive and heartening. Despite their own admissions about a couple of missed opportunities this year, Damnation always manage to bring an unmissable line-up that caters for a wide fan base, be it lovers of Extreme or the more Progressive, and once more they have done so with love and more than a few surprise additions!Continue reading
It’s a sell-out. This won’t come as any surprise to those who have followed the rapid, upward trajectory of Brighton’s Black Peaks but this is, as they say, a bit of a “moment” for a band that many have got justifiably excited about. This current tour, a showcase for their second album, the widely admired All That Divides (Rise Records), will see the band traverse the UK, but this stop off in the capital, on the same day that Marmozets are playing up the road and Crossfaith playing down the road still has touts asking (and getting) silly amounts of money outside the tube station is proof positive that this band have engineered more than a little bit of excitement about them.Continue reading
For some reason, Halloween is exempt from the Prohibition Against Mainstream Fun that prevents Metal fans from publicly enjoying other festivals. Admit that you like Christmas and you’ll be ejected from The Hall faster than if you’d been seen wearing a Five Finger Death Punch t-shirt, but celebrating Halloween is not just permitted but actively encouraged. Clearly not even a Cannibal Corpse gig is enough to spoil the one Metal Approved religious festival in the calendar, and tonight the Forum is packed with Teletubbies, scary clowns, lazily-made-up-skeletons and a man dressed as a giant penis. The audience is absolutely wired from the off, moshing to silence and bellowing for walls of death before the first band even take to the stage.
Fortunately, their enthusiasm is not misplaced as openers Aeon, having apparently not been told that they’re just a support band, rip into their set as if they’re headlining. In a recent interview with Ghost Cult, Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster described Aeon as a personal favourite of his, and it’s instantly clear why. They’ve been given a rich, heavy sound far beyond most openers and they don’t waste it, delivering taut, commanding bursts of powerful, Deicide-esque Death Metal with utter confidence and control. The audience prove that a band who act like headliners get treated like it, with a crowd response extremely healthy for a band playing at 7.30 to a venue that still hasn’t filled up.
Next up, Boston’s Revocation betray their simplistic name with an ambitious mash-up of Death Metal, Thrash and Hardcore with more progressive elements. It’s a complex, often surprisingly subtle blend that eschews many of the more traditional trappings of Death Metal, with Hardcore-style shouted vocals (occasionally giving way to clean-sung choruses), jagged song-structures and frequently dissonant changes of mood and tempo within a track. On paper they’re an odd choice to support a band as orthodox as Cannibal Corpse, and some old school Death Metallers in the audience are visibly perplexed, but for most people here the sheer savagery of the performance and the band’s clear enthusiasm wins through, earning another hero’s welcome (not to mention a circle pit in which the man in the penis costume sticks out like the world’s sorest most misshapen thumb).
By the time Cannibal Corpse take to the stage the audience are so wired that they’d probably circle-pit to ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rumble’ (PJ and Duncan) on a loop, but the band don’t use that as an excuse to cut corners. By this point in their career, reviewing Cannibal Corpse almost seems pointless – if you’re reading this you know exactly what they sound like and whether you like them or not – but live the sheer, undeniable enormity of their performance simply overwhelms everything else. On record their familiarity can be almost comforting, but live they take repetition to the point of transcendence, one idea repeated so often and so powerfully that it annihilates everything else. The point of a Cannibal Corpse review is not to tell you what they sounded like, but to attempt to capture just how good it was.
The first thing you notice about Cannibal is that the flashy showmanship and theatrics employed by both support bands are entirely absent. With the exception of some endearingly awkward stage banter from George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (challenging the audience to a headbanging contest; sincerely exhorting them to “keep supporting fucking Death Metal!”), there is almost zero communication between band and audience – they stand in a line, lock their feet in place and simply hammer out one song after another like there’s nothing else in the universe. It seems jarring after the usual Metal posturing, but is entirely fitting and consistent with the band’s aesthetic of unrelenting, no-nonsense Death Metal. The second thing is how utterly, terrifyingly tight and precise they are. Watching Alex’s fingers is dizzying in itself, a more fitting visual accompaniment to the musical assault than any amount of shape-throwing or play acting would have been, and it rapidly becomes clear that you are watching a band who – twenty six years and thirteen albums into their career – still rehearse every single day. The music is literally everything, and within the tight parameters they have set themselves, they have attained absolute mastery.
Every possible criticism of their performance – the lack of variety; the relentless, no-pause-for-breath pacing; the lack of showmanship – misses the point of what it is they do, and why. Those aren’t bugs, to steal a phrase from a different world entirely, those are FEATURES. Cannibal Corpse are essentially a machine, constructed solely for the purpose of musically punching the listener in the face as many times as they can until the lights go on – if that’s not for you, that’s through no failing of theirs.
In a genre as insular and niche-focussed as Death Metal bands who dare to put their heads above the parapet will often be derided as sell-outs, but Cannibal Corpse are not just the most successful band in Death Metal, they are its purest and most dedicated adherents, and are still at the very forefront of the genre after twenty-six years.
Cannibal Corpse Setlist
Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead
Fucked With a Knife
Stripped, Raped and Strangled
Kill or Become
Sadistic Embodiment
Icepick Lobotomy
Scourge of Iron
Demented Aggression
Evisceration Plague
Dormant Bodies Bursting
Addicted to Vaginal Skin
The Wretched Spawn
Pounded into Dust
I Cum Blood
Disposal of the Body
Make Them Suffer
A Skull Full of Maggots
Hammer Smashed Face
Devoured by Vermin
RICHIE HR
Saturday 14th: After a fitful night of sleep and a late brunch we’re back in Eindhoven at two in the afternoon. Today’s program is a little more light hearted, mixing folk metal, some more experimental death metal, and symphonic metal. We start the day with The Monolith Deathcult, who gets to wake up the sparse and bleary eyed crowd with their a little more highbrow and complex death metal. The music and the show feel bigger than their slot suggests. The intros get a bit cheesy after the first few songs but the sound mix is excellent, though a little heavy on the double bass drums.
After a short respite we get treated to the old school trash-metallers of Destroyer 666. Sadly, their playing is a little sloppy and messy, possibly due to the inhumanly fast pace they keep it. The vocals seem pretty decent, but drown a little in the pummeling heavy base mix that plagues the venue yesterday as well. They do give a good an energetic show and the room quickly fills up with happy metal heads finally woken up.
We travel shortly to the cold regions of Russia with Arkona taking the stage. Their folk infused metal is less happy and energetic than most folk metal, 
and a little more somber. The whole music feels Russian, even if the singing wasn’t in Russian. Sound-wise, the guitars are very, very low in the mix and the vocals very high, which means the drums and bass overpower the vocals quite often. Interestingly enough the folky whistles and the bagpipes are very well audible in the mix, while usually they’re the first things to die. The folk influences are a little more subtle and apparently with their newer music the band is moving more towards the back metal side, though their folk roots stay important to them.
We return to death metal with Hail of Bullets. Normally death metal isn’t my cup of tea, but these guys are great and I find myself nodding along to the beat. With a great songs and a nice little party vibe going on throughout, even for the non-death crowd that’s was there was into it. That it’s a great show however shouldn’t be surprising as this band shares a front man, Martin van Drunen, with the incredible Asphyx, and the rest of the all star line-up of the band. This may also be the reason the sound mix is very well balanced and crisp. All in all a great show.
In metal it’s not rare for a band to form a completely new band simply by addition of a different, usually more prominent, vocalist. The best known example probably is Ihsahn with Leprous. Elvenking and Martin Walkyier’s Skyclad are a similar story. Elvenking played for forty minutes before being joined by Walkyier, and turning into Skyclad and playing another forty minutes. The music doesn’t change much between the vocalist addition (Elvenking’s somewhat emo styled vocalist stays on for the full eighty minutes, running around the stage behind Walkyier). It stays a sort of emo-folk inspired metal. They have a pretty good sound mix and a good performance, but Davide “Damna” Moras’s vocals get on my nerves a little. The switch in the feeling of the music when Walkyier joins the band is amazing. The music, feeling a little more emo oriented at first suddenly gets a darker and more power metal feel when Walkyier’s vocals join in. Sadly, Walkyier’s grand entrance fell a little flat with the crowd, where he clearly expected a grand recognition only confusion shone on the crowds faces when Walkyier walked up, arms spread like a messiah.
It’s now time for one of my personal highlights of the day, Arcturus. I had no idea what to expect but the avant-garde metal troupe of masked entertainers is incredibly good. Their music has so many influences it’s hard to really describe, but the vocals have a certain power metal/prog type feel and the music contains traces of black metal, but also power and symphonic. Simen Hestnæs’ vocals often drowned in the drum and bass parts, unless he belted, and the guitars ate the, quite atmospheric, keyboard additions. Still the show was incredibly good, and I hope to see them sometime with a better mix.
Coroner is described as the Rush of thrash metal. Now I like thrash, especially the hyperactive, aggressive party vibe it seems to share with punk. The more progressive and technical approach coroner has, while they do what they do very well, somehow just doesn’t connect with me. I have the feeling I’m not the only one, since the room is surprisingly empty for what basically is a headlining band. The feeling that if they were programmed in Tiamat’s slot yesterday and Tiamat switched to this slot, both bands would have been in front of a better crowd crept up on me. Again, in the back of the room, Coroners music got lost in the thundering low regions. The band does an energetic attempt to move the crowd, but people seem paralyzed in the sheer amount of sound coming their way. A real pity.
Finally we get to Therion, the proper headliner of the day. Being the symphonic-metal giant that they are, the stage feels a little small for them. With three vocalists (who are also the main crowd entertainers) guitars, bass, drums, keys and a huge amount of razzle dazzle (including a belly dance act.) Very nice. This show cannot disappoint. It’s magnificent to watch and, while softer than certain bands on today’s line-up, they certainly pack a pretty metal punch. The sound-mix is really well balanced, which is needed when you have such subtle vocal harmonies to balance against raging guitars. The soprano vocalist sometimes sound a little harsh and sharp in her high notes, but this is forgiven for the sheer amount of show this band puts out. Even is symphonic metal isn’t your thing remotely, you have to admire the enormity of the show. This was definitely the best band of the day, and rightful headliner.
Since this show cannot be topped by Gothminister and last train needed to be caught, we left Eindhoven Metal Meeting’s party awestruck, exhausted and satisfied. Though the venue was plagued by less than supreme sound, certain bands shone through, and especially the ambiance was magnificent. Eindhoven, thank you for the party! Until next year.
Eindhoven Metal Meeting on Facebook
Official Festival Website: http://www.eindhovenmetalmeeting.com
Written and photographed by Susanne A. Maathuis
Eindhoven Metal Meeting is quite the event in the southern Netherlands and even most of metal loving Europe by now. This year the festivities were three nights starting Thursday 12th through Saturday 14th of December. Billing 40+ bands in various genres and a very restricted press list, Ghost Cult was more than happy to be their press partner this year. Being solo, our reporter and photographer decided to only follow the main stage, excepting the Thursday when the running order was a little more forgiving.
Day one: Thursday 12th the party begins. Sadly we missed the apparently brilliant set by Death Angel due to travel issues. Apparently these classic thrashers played a great deal of their newer work with verve and gave one hell of a show. Sadly, they didn’t play much of their older work in this set. Arriving just when Sabaton started playing the main stage, the power metal party was starting. Sabaton know how to engage an audience. They may be a bit over the top, although compared to the rest of the power metal genre, they’re pretty timid. Their show was bombastic and everyone in the room enjoyed them very much. There was a smaller crowd than you’d expect with a name like Sabaton, but maybe the variety of the line-up accounted for this. It seemed that the core of the audience came more for the thrash and death related acts. Sabaton decide to play a somewhat different set than they usually do, citing they know many fans at this gig have seen them many times before. The vocals and mix are a little off, but the solos and general mood were awesome. It’s clear though they were playing for a “home crowd.”
Next up in the small room downstairs was Izegrim, a local up and comer in death metal. These guys have been playing all over NL of late and personally I hadn’t caught them yet. Their female vocalist promises to add a slightly different touch to a genre that is usually pretty conservative in its taste. When they started playing, inexperience, and possibly nerves showed. There are some good show elements (stepping forward to the edge of the stage to solo and such), but they last only a fraction of a second, giving their show a nervous feeling. The guitar solos sound a little patchy and the music in general is straight forward death metal as we know it. It’s well constructed though and while inexperience shows in the lie show, these guys could definitely grow bigger after they relax due to some more stage experience.
Finishing on the main stage is Accept. These hard rockers have been around for years, and experience showed. Their show is big and well executed, but carefree and relaxed at the same time. The best thing to see was that they really enjoy themselves. This infected the crowd who, even if it’s not their cup of tea musically, seemed to enjoy them. The sound too was exceptionally good too. Props to these guys for pulling off flawless solos and vocals, thundering drums and even slight improvisations while giving a great show, building a real party. Since I hadn’t seen Death Angel, they were my highlight of the night, but I heard Death Angel could rival them in excellence.
Friday 13th: The next day we return to Eindhoven Effenaar for a second day of loud. This day had a distinctly less party feel with mostly death and black metal bands playing the main stage. No power metal, thrash, or hard rock today, but bleak, dark, aggressive metal. Because of the denser programming today we could only cover the main stage. When we arrived we found out Fleshgod Apocalypse sadly had cancelled due to travel problems. The fans who came especially for this band (and there was a few of them) milled about the main room and in front of the venue aimlessly.
Now opening on the main stage is Morgoth. This German death metal outfit’s name is so common as a metal band, it’s a bit of a search to know who you
have in front of you. They make a very quick solo filled type of death metal, with a very tight drum base. Sadly, many of the songs sound very similar, with growling vocals, and loads and loads of shredded solos. They’re very good at what they do (even though the sound is a little off, with the bass drum being overly represented.), but not very special. Good, more traditional and solid death metal.
At the same time Dues Mortem are playing in the smaller room downstairs. Since Morgoth couldn’t keep my attention I decide to have a look there. The room is decently full, but it seems most of the crowd prefers Morgoth to Deus Mortems somewhat slower, more song structured and listenable black metal. The Polish outfit is less black than some of the other billed bands, and doesn’t really use the more complex chord schemes and high vocals that normally characterize the genre, but pull off a good show.
After this we go to catch Belphegor. A quick discussion over genre-types with a clear black metal connoisseur in the press pit leads to the label of “Blackened Death”, who, while starting out as a black metal outfit, is moving more and more towards death metal. They still work with the wall of sound approach, but the vocals are lower and more growling, there are less dissonant in the guitar work and the song structure is simpler than most black metal. These guys also definitely know how to give a show, adorning the stage with some interesting bone sculptures. Melodies that almost float over the wall of noise created by blast beats, and quick guitar strokes are actually quite good and catchy. Definitely a very enjoyable band.
Napalm Death takes the stage next, and definitely show the punk roots in their hyperactive, aggressive grindcore and death metal. Running around the stage, vocalist Barney Greenway never leaves a dull moment in their 2-3 minute elapsing songs. They get 50 minutes to completely annihilate the crowd. Sadly, the sound is poorer than usual with these guys, and it kind of muddles and confuses the more crisp sound they normally have. Everything was very loud, which is good for Napalm Death in general, but now gets a bit over the top, especially with the sloppiness in both the playing and the mix. Definitely not a bad gig, but I’ve seen them do better.
The next band is one I’ve been looking forward to for some time; Carpathian Forest is, according to my black metal connoisseur, the only real black metal band on the bill. Being one of the relics from the old Norwegian scene, they should be exceptional. Sadly, the mix is terrible, laying emphasis on the bass drum and low sounds, vocals strangely mixed, where‘s vocals drowned out whenever the second set came in. It almost felt like a death metal mix, and even then was very poor. A fan mentioned, flabbergasted, that he hardly recognized the songs they played. Definite disappointment, while from an engagement and visual point of view the show was exceptionally good.
Then it’s time for odd duck on today’s billing; Tiamat. The new wave/Goth metal band would have been in front of a better crowd had they been billed the next day, when there is more melodic metal booked. This means that the rather dull song structures and lethargic deliverance which works wonderfully for goth fans does nothing at all for the more death and black oriented crowd today. Many trickle out or silently abide, waiting for whom they really came for to get on stage next, Watain.
Playing on Friday the 13th of the 13th year of their existence, the show doesn’t seem to hold much special value for Watain themselves. Having heard horror stories of the bands stage props and blood chucking habits, I was prepared for the worst, but didn’t get anything too bad. They left home their rotting sheep’s heads, only tossed one goblet of old blood into the awaiting crowd (which hit a very excited young man and his much less thrilled girlfriend), and had their fire rig set up flanking the drummer, accompanied by two huge screens made up of skin and bone panels. The band still has their own particular funk, but nothing too bad, and the sound was actually the best of the whole day in the much plagued room. I think the band has toned down the gore for a festival gig, where the next day the same room still has to be used for a full day. The show was excellent and really engaging, even though the band is mostly interested in their own ritual performance, and not much in the ecstatic crowd. Definitely worth waiting for the witching hour for them to start.
See our review of Part II here:
Eindhoven Metal Meeting on Facebook
Official Festival Website: http://www.eindhovenmetalmeeting.com
Written and photographed by Susanne A. Maathuis
As the slow decent into arctic oblivion comes to an end, glorious sunshine spills over a bemused Islington who inhabitants are seemingly perplexed at the sudden appearance of the giant, yellow orb. In contrast, death metal patrons head to the cramped and stuffy surroundings of the Islington Academy for an evening of gloriously indecipherable grunting and frantic guitar bashing.Continue reading