Deathrow – Riders Of Doom, Raging Steel, Deception Ignored Reissues


Having recently reissued classic albums by the likes of Kreator, Voivod, Celtic Frost, Tankard, Running Wild, and Skyclad, Noise Records continue raiding their metal pantry, this time with three albums by German thrashers, DeathrowContinue reading


Eindhoven Metal Meeting: Part II – Live At Effenaar


On day two of Eindhoven Metal Meeting, a surprising amount of energy has been drained by the inevitable afterparties that spread through Eindhoven, but also to the neighbouring town of Tilburg. Metalheads simply cannot stop a party once they get going, and so the next day starts up a little slower. Thinking I may be able to skip the long line for the pat downs if I arrive a bit later, I’ve decided to arrive between the first and second band. Nope. There is still a line as many more of the partying metalheads had a similar idea, as did many of the day ticket holders. Thankfully the line is a fair bit quicker today though than it was yesterday, and I manage to get the first band of the day.

Continue reading


Eindhoven Metal Meeting: Part I – Live At Effenaar


Every year as people around the world gather to celebrate their own midwinter celebrations, usually focussing around light and warmth, the Effenaar venue in Eindhoven instead celebrates the dark and heavy. Eindhoven Metal Meeting is seen by many as the Christmas party of the Benelux metal family. As in previous years, Ghost Cult Magazine sent me to report, and take some snaps.Continue reading


Venom, Dark Tranquility, Coroner And More Booked For Eindhoven Metal Meeting


With just over a month to go, the 2017 Eindhoven Metal Meeting approaches The lined up boasts the likes of Venom, Dark Tranquility, Coroner, Carpathian Forest, Master’s Hammer, Destroyer 666 and many more. The full lineup is listed below and tickets are still available but expected to sell out. As always, the “longest-running indoor extreme metal festival” in the Netherlands will take place Friday 15 & Saturday 16th of December 2017 at the Effenaar venue in Eindhoven. Continue reading


My Dying Bride Cancels For Eindhoven Metal Meeting, Dark Tranquility Added


Due to unforeseen personal circumstances, My Dying Bride has dropped out of this December’s Eindhoven Metal Meeting. Apparently, the cancellation was beyond the control of both the band and the festival. The good news is, Dark Tranquility has been added as an exclusive headliner on December 15th, the first night of the fest. More details, ticket links, and the full lineup so far are listed belowContinue reading


Venom, Tankard, Dool, And Merciless To Play Eindhoven Metal Meeting 2017


 

Long-time winter metal festival leaders Eindhoven Metal Meeting have announced their first line-up for the 2017 event. Taking place from December 15th to 17th once again at the legendary Effenaar venue, in Eindhoven NL the first bands announced are headliners Venom, with Tankard, Dool, Merciless in their last show ever, and more! Continue reading


Game Over – For Humanity (Re-Release)


GameOver-ForHumanity

 

Italy’s Game Over were one of 2014’s surprise packages. Their sophomore album, Burst Into The Quiet (Scarlet), was rated by many as one of the best thrash releases of the year. To capitalize on their success, the band have re-released their 2012 debut, For Humanity (Scarlet).

From the Nuclear Assault-inspired logo and cartoon apocalypse cover to the copious amounts of denim vest jackets, these Thrash revivalists clearly know their source material. If it wasn’t for the crisp production job, this could have easily come from any number of 80s Bay Area bands.

From the off, there’s little introduction or fanfare and they just get stuck in with the good stuff. Sharp solos, air guitar-inducing riffs, and shout along choruses, everything you want and expect from a quality thrash experience. From the shredding opening of ‘Abyss of a Needle’ to the stomping ‘Bleeding Green’, there’s a strong scent of Anthrax running throughout the album, while frontman/bassist Reno’s vocals are often reminiscent of a slightly less accented Tankard, which is no bad thing.

Highlights including the fast and furious ‘War of Nations’, the Kill ’Em All-inspired ‘Another Dose of Thrash’, the blink and you’ll miss it blur of ‘N.S.A’ are all highlights, but there are occasional moments where things can get a bit tired. ‘Overgrill (El Grillador Loco)’ lacks any real sparkle until the final searing solo, while album closer ‘Tupa Tupa of Die’ fails to really stand out. The re-release comes with three live bonus tracks including a souped-up cover of Motörhead’s ‘Iron Fist’ and a couple of originals, showing off a band who can really bring it on stage.

Game Over know what they want to be, and are a pretty perfect version of it. Fans of Burst Into The Quiet will find their debut equally satisfying. Energetic and well-executed thrash may not be hard to come by, but these guys don’t do much wrong.

 

7.0/10

Game Over on Facebook

 

DAN SWINHOE


Helloween, Carcass, Arch Enemy Confirmed For Out And Loud Festival


out n loud festival 2015

Out and Loud Festival has confirmed their lineup, which is happening June 4-6, 2015 in Geiselwind, Germany.

Confirmed acts include:

Helloween
Subway To Sally
Carcass
Arch Enemy
Testament
Overkill
J.B.O.
Wintersun
Blue Pills
Eluveitie
Equilibrium
Alestorm
Grave Digger
Orchid
Insomnium
Unleashed
Tankard
The Vision Bleak
Megaherz
Asphyx
Battle Beast
Feuerschwanz
Dark Fortress
Aborted
Skull Fist
Secrets of the Moon
Alpha Tiger
The Vintage Caravan
Deserted Fear
Diablo Blvd
Stallion
Carnal Ghoul
Rogash
Evil Invaders
Evertale

Napalm Records Stage:

AHAB
Civil War
Finsterforst
Moonspell
My Sleeping Karma
Visions of Atlantis

Out And Loud Festival on Facebook
Out And Loud Festival on Twitter
Out And Loud Festival on Instagram


Tankard – RIB (Rest in Beer)


tankard_rib

Though not held in the same kind of regard as other Teutonic thrash bands such as Kreator, Tankard have always stood apart since they have always been about having fun. Their 16th album, RIB – (Rest in Beer) (Nuclear Blast) keeps things ticking over nicely.

 

From the wacky mad scientist on the cover to songs about Auto-brewery syndrome – getting drunk from the chemicals inside your guts – these Germans have made their shtick stick by backing it up with some quality tunes along the way. Retaining Michael Mainx on production duties, the band – made up of Andreas “Gerre” Geremia – (vocals), Andreas Gutjahr (guitar), Frank Thorwarth (bass) and Olaf Zissel (drums) pick up pretty much where previous album A Girl Called Cerveza finished; Slayer-like riffs, chanting choruses and plenty of songs about beer.

 

If you weren’t sold on the band before, there’s little to convince you otherwise. High octane drumming, frantic riffing and the shrill vocals with often juvenile lyrics. The title track, ‘Fooled By Your Guts’ and ‘The Party Ain’t Over ‘Til We Say So’ fit the traditional fast and furious mould, but occasionally the band show brief glimpses that they could cast off the party atmosphere and lay down some serious-faced numbers. Opener ‘War Cry’ mixes melodic guitar work with pure sonic rage, while ‘Clockwise to Deadline’ is a great modern thrash song, and throughout the album there’s searing solos thrown about. Some may bemoan the lack of consistent tone but a whole album of beer jokes would no doubt become irksome pretty quickly.

 

Is there anything on RIB to match the likes of ‘(Empty) Tankard’ or ‘Chemical Invasion’? But pretty much every track is enjoyable, and if the likes of ‘Breakfast Of Champions’ or the self-aware irony of ‘No One Hit Wonder’ don’t make you smile then nothing will. That Tankard can still write songs about beer after 16 albums and 30-odd years is impressive enough. That they can do it with the same sort of energy and enthusiasm as they did in the 80s means you should probably give this a listen out of pure respect to alcohol.

 

8/10

Tankard on Facebook

 

DAN SWINHOE

 


Maryland Deathfest: Day 3 -Live at Ram’s Head Live & Edison Sound Stage, Baltimore, MD


MDF 2014  

 

Saturday

 

Ramen is truly some food of the god. I subsisted on all of Friday and most of Saturday with the aid of four of these magick squares. Only a dollar each at —you guessed it— Dollar Tree. Stock up for the apocalypse on that shit.

 

Ramen unfortunately couldn’t help Diocletian’s very evil brand of blackened death be more than an okay attempt at the sound of canned hell. Dark, swirling riffs and blasts ringing from bottomless pits is cool, but variety is severely lacking. Entrails, however, came to save my life —or end it, rather?— with their sticky, sweet old school Swedish Death Metal, complete with a logo that looks suspiciously like Entombed’s.

Machetazo-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

Spain’s Machetazo brought yet more evil to the fore with their wicked gore/death inflected grind, en Español. Hearkening to bands like Regurgitate and fellow countrymen Hæmorrhage, they seem uninterested in being unique (and with Grind, that’s quite a feat), just brutal, and they’ve certainly succeeded in that regard.

 

God Macabre-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest 

 

God Macabre, yet another group of old school Swedish Death heroes long forgotten, made their first appearance in the U.S. here, and probably was in the top three bands most likely given to old ladies if they asked fest-goers what “concert” they were heading to. With only one full length to their name, ‘The Winterlong’, you could probably guess the setlist, plus a cover of a Carnage song. Forget which one, but it was damn near heartwarming when vocalist Per Boder smiled in delight when the crowd reacted positively to the name of their fellow deathheads. “I guess they’re not so underrated after all.” You bet’cher ass, bud.

 

Nocturnus AD-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

When one thinks of progressive death metal, Florida’s Nocturnus (A.D.) should ideally be what comes to mind alongside acts like Pestilence, Atheist, and Death, though admittedly I hadn’t heard of them until I saw their name on the line-up. Playing their seminal album The Key in full, Nocturnus prove that synths don’t necessarily have to end up sounding cheesy when used alongside brutal music.

 

 

Vocalist/drummer Mike Browning (ex-Morbid Angel) seemed to be having loads of fun blasting and growling simultaqneously for such uplifting tunes as ‘Standing In Blood’, ‘Lake Of Fire’, and even a special cover of ‘Chapel Of Ghouls’, how rad’s that shit, homie? I think they even played a Death cover, but I could just have been imagining it. Setlist.fm isn’t helping my case.

Tankard-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

The original Speed Metal Drunks (who’s Municipal Waste?) in Germany’s Tankard were clearly not hammered enough; they could still play their instruments. The crowd was one-upping the fuck out of them, however, with a beer-soaked circlepit despite the blazing sun cooking them through. Songs about zombies, and beer. Party. It’s fun stuff, though not the absolute greatest that thrash, has to offer, nor is it the best that humour has to offer, but these krazy Krauts won’t fail to get a chuckle or headbang out of you.

 

 Dropdead-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

Finally taking my non-drunk self to the Soundstage to catch DropDead for my third or fourth helping this Gregorian year, I first caught Sweden’s d-beat heroes in Victims. They play a version of the genre that reminds me of Martyrdöd, with more melody than is normally allowed, and less ear-fucking distortion, though weren’t quite as captivating as I would hope. Had they played it straight Swedish and aped Anti-Cimex or even Finnish contemporaries (all Scandinavians are the same, right?) in Riistetyt and Kieltolaki, I dare say they’d be more what I was seeking. DropDead, however, are consistent in their delivery, combining crust punk, powerviolence, and d-beat cooked the right way; raw and still bloody.

 

Between socio-political and generally ‘wake-the-fuck-up’ rants came short but intense bursts of distilled punk fury, very rarely going below speeds safe to drive on the highway. The setlist seems to have changed, as they are including more new material that, while less speedy than the material of old, still has its fangs, yellowed with age but reddened with new blood as they press on. There was a special guest appearance, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to even mention it, though I will mention that they played a cover of Siege’s ‘Drop Dead’, and as an extra spiffy bonus, a cover of ‘It’s Not What It Seems To Be’ by fastcore/powerviolence legends Lärm. Sweeeet.

 

With Nocturno Culto finally bringing his drunk ass to America only to not play in Darkthrone was a disappointment to many, but I suppose Sarke is the next best thing. Who knows, maybe FenrizRed Planet will stop by to play material from Engangsgrill in a few years.

Sarke-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

 

At least the crowd hungry to hear one song, any song by Darkthrone got their wish, sorta, since Sarke played a ‘cover’ of ‘Too Old, Too Cold’. Clearly the case since Nocturno is never seen without a leather jacket. A weird mix of black-ish metal, normal-ish heavy metal, death rock, and whatever else Nocturno deems the right thing to do these days, it was interesting, but c’mon. Darkthrone. Not gonna stop saying it ‘til it happens.

 

True Norwegian Viking Death Metal warriors in Unleashed were something. Among my main draws to the fest this year, it’d be wrong to say I was disappointed, but underwhelmed is the word I’ll go with since their set was noticeably lacking in the glorious potential they are capable of.

 

 Unleashed-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

Having a staggering 11 full-lengths of Nordic praise, and my having only heard 5 or 6 of them in full (not counting the …Revenge demo), I knew there were gonna naturally be some songs I wouldn’t know well enough to fistpump to. However, the lack of ‘In Victory Or Defeat’, ‘Warriors Of Midgard’, and prime material from As Yggdrasil Trembles was distressing. To add to the discomfort, they stretched out some songs by at least two or three minutes (‘Death Metal Victory’ count: 8+), thus cheating themselves and the audience out of more songs. It sucks that happened, but at least Johnny Hedlund brought out a Viking drinking horn, and the predictable happened. My diagnosis: they were drunk. To Asgaard, their brains flew.

 

Next up were Dark Angel, who’ve probably got more riffs in a single song than an entire Bolt Thrower album (or two), arrived to show us that indeed, time does not heal, because Thrash is a lifelong disease.

 

 Dark Angel-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

Now recovered from a spine injury that left him unable to move, much less sing, Ron Rineheart is now back in action, and the L.A. Caffeine Machine is back to brewing. With speeds equal to or greater than that of even the fastest cuts on Sepultura’s Arise, it’s a wonder how Dark Angel never got up to the Big 4 instead of Megadeth, who stopped being thrash after Killing Is My Business. Oops. They’re as virile and potent as 14-year old sperm after all these years.

 

Following U.S. fast with U.K. fury were Extinction Of Mankind, who, while not a founding band in crust (having formed in ’92), are as important as acts like Deviated Instinct and Hellbastard when assigning blame to old British guys spreading this filth. Their particular style is that popularised by acts like Misery; slow-churned Thrash infused riffs, barked vocals, and a steady beat to break down the walls of establishment. Naturally, the scent of unwashed dreads is the only perfume to adequately accompany such sounds, what with their LP Baptised In Shit, and all. I saw them again in someone’s basement a few days later, maybe I’ll review that too. Maybe.

 

I took a little nap during L.A.’s Excrutiating Terror, who weren’t all that painful, nor scary, to be honest. It was decent grindcore, though not too much of a racket, so I caught a few Zs before heading over to catch the real death metal bastards in Asphyx, because what the fuck is a Schirenc? I’d have liked to have caught ‘Shrunken And Mummified Bitch’ live, but The Church Of Pungent Stench would be a much more sensible name, aye? Or even Pungent Stench A.D., in keeping with what seems to be an MDF tradition? Whatever.

 Schirenc-Hillarie Jason-Concert Photography-Maryland Deathfest

 

So, The Netherlands’ Asphyx, fronted by one of the few aside from  John Tardy who can audibly sneer while growling, Martin van Drunen belted out classics like ‘M.S. Bismarck’ and newer ballistics in ‘Deathhammer’ with equal ease and aggression, and the band are no slobs either.

 

Come to think of it, Hail of Bullets should play next year. Just a thought.

 

[slideshow_deploy id=’6657′]

 

Maryland Deathfest on Facebook

 

WORDS BY SEAN PIERRE-ANTOINE

CONCERT PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON