The ultimate underground music and culture festival of Europe will return next year as Roadburn Festival has made its first announcement of bands for 2017.Continue reading
Tag Archives: Tilburg NL
Incubate 2016 Part II: Tilburg, The Netherlands
Part II:
Not many bands can say they played every single day of a four-day festival. Well, Slow Down, Molasses can! The Canadian shoegazers took to the stage at various venues over the weekend. They mostly played songs from their brand new record 100% Sunshine, which you could buy on PINK vinyl (needless to say, we did). Continue reading
Incubate Festival 2016 Part 1: Tilburg, Netherlands
We’re back at Incubate Festival in the Dutch town of Tilburg to see all of the weird and wonderful this alternative music festival has to offer. Tilburg is in the midst of its last warm summer days and on our way to pick up a ticket we already see a lot of familiar faces. Incubate, we’ve missed you! Instead of having a week-long festival, this year Incubate has split up into three different editions (May/September/December), of which the four-day long September weekend is the biggest. Continue reading
Incubate 2016 Line Up Set, Thurston Moore, Deerhoof, YOB, Nothing, Mutilation Rites And More
Incubate Festival, one of the essential yearly gatherings of music, art, film and other cutting edge in Europe is back in 2016. Continue reading
Wire, Ufomammut Added To The 11th Incubate Festival
Seminal avnt-garde post-punks Wire have been added at the closing act of the upcoming 11th edition of the Incubate Festival on September 20th. Wire will be hosting a special curated event of like-minded bands dubbed DRILL: featuring Wire themselves, Pink Flag Guitar Orchestra, Novella, and Tomanga.
Italian instrumental doom masters Ufomammut have been added to the September 19th program along with 11Paranoias, Gcu:ll, Vidunder, Hypnos.
Ufomammut, by Hillarie Jason Photography
Based in and around the city of Tilburg NL, Incubate has previously announced a plethora of bands, including to separate nights with The Melvins, on September 15th and 16. Overall the fest will host over 300 bands, collaborative visual artists, seminars, underground film, comedy, other events, and a host of vendors at a dozen venues throughout the city. Tickets are on sale now.
Neurotic Deathfest 12 Part II: Live at 013, Tilburg NL
Sunday also started out very slowly, people were slow, I was slow, my friends were slow. This was hangover day and we were finding remedies for them. After trying milk, coffee and a good breakfast we were feeling more OK. And then we went up to see Internal Suffering. But once again we notice, this band was a victim of the bad sound. I hope this gets better when the 013 had its renovation. We left soon and spent more time waking up. It was hard to get on track this day and you noticed that the news that this was the last neurotic deathfest slightly put some sadness over some people. Imagine the old-school rockers that have been there all 12 editions. That must be a big loss for them. I have only been there four, and I even felt like I lost something.
All good things come to an end and we are going to listen to the last sounds of battering drums, shreiking guitars and grunts that almost make you sick in your stomach. The last few breaths of utter pain.
We went up to the smallest stage which is going to disappear after the renovation for the last time for Neuroma. These happy British guys know how to add in a good dose of humor. I still need to meet the singer’s grandma, he promised that from the stage. There we stood for a nice piece of brutal death, and we got a little bit of a comedy show too. This made this show even more enjoyable. The music was good! I think without the cunningness of their singer I wouldn’t have enjoyed them this much. It does count if you ask me.
Crowdsurfer at Neurotic Deathfest, by Susanne A. Maathuis
So been there, done that, got a t-shirt. We were really looking forward to seeing Immolation. But that still took a while and because it was such good weather we decided to go away from the festival and search out a nice little terrace. Just 30 meters from the 013 there is a long street with only bars and clubs. People who have been to NDF or Roadburn before must know about this street. In the south of The Netherlands we are used to quite a burgondic life and with that nice food and nice beers and wines go along with it. We don’t deal with shit. That is why you seldom see Heineken in this area. We are keen to Belgian beers and definitely Belgian special beers. Speaking about special beers, on the end of the street where you almost enter the city center you have a café called the “buitenbeentje”, which simply means “outsider”. This is a café with the cheapest beer in whole of Tilburg, and they also have a great variety of special beers and whiskeys. And you can go cheap, or even expensive if you feel like it.
Immolation, by Susanne A. Maathuis
We went back and head for Immolation, this time they were only with 3 members. One guitarist had a family emergency back home and stayed home. It was a little bit empty when Robert Vigna started playing his virtuous solo’s. He is always so much fun to watch, it always looks like he is having a party on his own on the stage with his happy face: “look mom! I make death metal”. I love it. Immolation did show that even when a member short, they can still put up some good old death metal! It was tight, but it sounded different. But that is more than logical if you ask me.
And then we got Obituary. This actually was the first time I’ve seen this band, so I was pretty excited about what to come. These guys are legendary and one of the founders of this genre. I somehow needed to see this band and I don’t get why I haven’t done that before.
Obituary, by Susanne. A. Maathuis
Obituary started to play and it immediately turned into a big pit of epileptic people in the front. It was notable that there were a lot of die-hard fans in the audience. They came with a sound that was unbreakable and the best sound I have heard on Neurotic up untill now! I enjoyed this. One song also got dedicated to the recently passed local “Fozz Bear” which gave me and a lot more Tilburgians quite some goosebumps. Obituary performed a great show with a lot of passion. And for that we thank them.
But now the unthinkable, Neurotic Deathfest was to an end, forever. The screens showed a huge “Thank you for 12 years of Death Metal” and all the posters of past editions. From the editions in the Baroeg in Rotterdam, to the Dynamo in Eindhoven, and the last years in the 013 in Tilburg.
Thank you Neurotic Deathfest for 4 years of death metal.
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WORDS BY KAAT VAN DOREMALEN
PHOTOS BY SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS
Neurotic Deathfest 12 Part I: Live at 013, Tilburg NL
It was that time of the year! It was time for the annual festival full of Death, Grind and Slam metal. It was time for Neurotic Deathfest again. We were blessed with another year with extremely good weather and after drinking some beers at a local bar we strutted to the 013 venue. We are going to talk about the atmosphere, why do I always want to go to Neurotic Deathfest so bad, and I will highlight some bands.
The reason I love to go to Neurotic Deathfest is at first my love of death metal off course, but what also counts is that the 013 is comfortable. I live in the city of Tilburg, which means that I can sleep in my own bed and my whole group of buddys is headbanging or somewhere else in the city.
But this year was different. This year it was clear the atmosphere was different, ther was a cloud of astonishment hanging in the air. There was something going on, we were soon to find out. We hadn’t gone up to get a festival program, but when we did, we knew what was going on. This will be the last Neurotic Deathfest ever!
Farewell message from the Neurotic Deathfest Program
After hearing this news it kind of hit me like a bomb, Neurotic Deathfest was a statement for the city of Tilburg. Even Non-metalheads knew what was going on when this festival was in town again.
Dutch bands always represent on this festival and Koprse was one of them, the first pit is a fact and this venue was filled up. This was blasting to the max! We still had to warm up but we were ready for a party and Korpse made you feel like you wanted to party. So you got back from the venue with five extra beers in your stomach to go on to the next show.
Morgoth, by Susanne A. Maathuis
Morgoth was a band that had high expectations for us. The big venue was still a bit quiet. It was not crowded enough to get the party going and get the feeling of a crowded place. Morgoth started to play and we noticed that this is a band that means serious shit. Nice piece of death metal with a tight hard and a sound that filled up the whole place with a nagging feeling. This band made me think of Asphyx for a bit, not for all of the music but more about the kick this band gives in your nuts.
Entombed A.D., by Susanne A. Maathuis
Strutting around the venues there was a swirling mass of people, it got more crowded The more we got to the headliner Entombed A.D. the more people got excited.
Entombed A.D. for me the least interesting headliner. So I might have drifted away sometimes in the show. Though this band was dominant over the rest of the bands, they never stood on Neurotic Deathfest before but they rip this place apart. Front man LG Petrov shows that he enjoys doing this and isn’t afraid to show this to the audience. A golden shine rises from the stage and gets thrown upon the audience, they get wild. Entombed is a band from the first hour and the A.D. does add something to the name, but the music still stands tall. Good job guys, they definitely got me more interested into Entombed.
The Afterparty was headlined by the also Swedish band Tribulation. Tribulation and Entombed don’t have much in common though, but both bands do know how to show the audience some enthusiasm about their music.
Saturday
Day 2 started way more crowded than the Friday. We all had the idea that Friday was very low on visitors. We were still having fun but it did something with the overall atmosphere, the 013 is more built for crowded concerts but not that much for a calm party. Maybe it was time for the last edition, the line up was interesting though even I have seen most of these bands before. If you wanted to explore new bands, you had some chances but most of the bands everybody has seen multiple times. It were good bands, you wont hear me complain about that.
Talking about good bands, let’s start about Disavowed, there is no better wake up call than Disavowed. This dutch band is a band we have to keep in mind, it was amazing and this front man Robbe Kok really shows what enthusiasm is. You could see he was happy to open the Saturday of Neurotic Deathfest for bands as Benighted and Bloodbath. With a swing he drops himself in the audience and climbs in the barriers. This is energetic and a bulk of energy a lot of bands could learn from. This band does not fly on autopilot.
Disavowed almost had a full venue and they opened on the main stage, this was in great contrast with the Friday where the main stage wasn’t filled up until Entombed. This was good for the overall atmosphere and coziness amongst all metalheads. There was enough beer to give a 3rd world country and food your bowels got mad about. Today you knew you were at a festival.
Friday I spoke about looking for new bands, and this was one of the perfect examples of one of these bands that I didn’t know and got completely siked about! PerfeCitizen is the loudest, hardest most brutal stuff I heard in years! This got in my ears that it was pure sweet ear-rapement. Already after hitting the first chord, if it even was one this band shows its hardness, but also their tightness and know how to play. This is one of the bands where the drummer will make it or break it, but he definitely made it. You don’t hear it often that you hear a drummer go this fast and tight like him. Jarda Haž shows what drumming is all about and it gets clear why this is called “Blastcore”. Missed this band? To bad, for me they were one of the best bands of Neurotic Deathfest.
Dead Congregation, by Susanne A. Maathuis
One of my favorite genres is Deathdoom. Imagine a candle dripping slowly and oozing all over your table and drips on your toe to sometimes break open the gloomy feeling that came over you. One of these bands that perfectly know how to do this is Dead Congregation, it was time to throw some good old darkness into the audience. If it wasn’t for the soundguy, this band normally knows how to bring this feeling and make you feel naggy. This was just a shame, they became a victim of their own sound and this is why it didn’t really got to me this time.
Origin, by Susanne A. Maathuis
As we already discussed there is a big amount of old friends we have seen on Neurotic already. Origin is one of these bands. And I understand why they ask them back all the time. This is just an awesome tight Techdeath band brought with a great bunch of humor from the singer. Straight from Origin we started waiting for Bloodbath, we wanted a good spot we were siked for this show. There were a lot of chatter going on: is this a new singer for Bloodbath? Is this going to work? Doesn’t it affect the sound? How will this affect the audience because this Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) is a completely different kind of person than Mikael Akerfeldt.
Bloodbath, by Susanne A. Maathuis
We were waiting for what was going to come at us. The venue filled up. We had our beers already paid in front of our nose. You could hear the tension in the air. Bloodbath, not on an open-air festival and in such a setting. Then the venue went dark and we knew Bloodbath was gong to enter the stage and we would soon hear the first chords. This band is theatrical and sometimes maybe a bit plastic. It started as a tribute to old school Death Metal. The vocals were good. Actually very good! They went back to a more old-school sound. Though I am a big fan of Opeth and Mikael, and it is hard to admit for me, but I think I like Nick Holmes more in Bloodbath.
WORDS BY KAAT VAN DOREMALEN
FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Neurotic Deathfest
The biggest and certainly best indoor death metal extravaganza of the festival season kicks off today as Neurotic Deathfest gets underway at 013 Club in Tilburg, NL. Now in its 12th year and still going strong, the 2015 NDF will feature 42 bands on three stages in total from all manner of death metal, grindcore and black metal greatness. Ghost Cult’s Dutch team will once again be on hand to bring our fans the review.
Friday has the benefit of a top band of the moment and a legendary name as the main headliners. Tribulation and Entombed A.D. will surely have the heads banging and drinks flowing. Tech death grind champs Devourment, the avant-garde minded Nader Sadek, and the back from the dead Morgoth are other can’t miss acts on Day 1. Soulburn and Sinister are two other choice names among others too.
Saturday reigns over nearly every fest in 2015 for the sheer murderers row of death metal royalty in a row with Obituary, Immolation, Broken Hope and Pyrexia. Whoa! Other good choices to get your brutal fix on for Day 2 include Internal Bleeding, Incinerate, Mass Infection and Bleeding Utopia. Stay hydrated my friends, this day will be a bumpy ride for the moshers!
To close the fest on Day 3 we are presented with a bit of old and a bit of new in the form of Bloodbath, Origin, Benighted, Dead Congregation and Gorod. Other worthy acts on this day also included Ingested, Jig-Al, Kronos, Acranius, and Slaughter to Prevail.
Entombed AD, Sinister Added to Neurotic Deathfest 2015
Neurotic Deathfest has announced that they have added ten new bands to the bill, including Entombed AD and brutal Dutch death metallers Sinister. With the bill nearly complete, and the fest less than two months away tickets are moving fast for this years’ 8th Edition, which is the largest indoor death metal festival in Europe, held at the legendary 013 venue in Tilburg, NL. Hate Eternal has been forced to cancel their appearance. Previously announced headline acts such as Obituary, Bloodbath, Devourment and Immolation lead a strong lineup. Tickets are on sale through www.neuroticdeathfest.com.
New bands added:
Entombed A.D. (SWE)
Sinister (NL)
Regurgitate Life (UK)
Hideous Divinity (IT)
Contrastic (CZ)
Perfecitizen (CZ)
The Walking Dead Orchestra (FR)
Near Death Condition (SWI)
Bleeding Utopia(SWE)
Abhorrent Decimation (UK)
Neurotic Deathfest online
Venue info www.013.nl
Anathema – Mother’s Cake: Live at 013, Tilburg NL
The Austrian band Mother’s Cake seem to enjoy disregarding genre boundaries. While on the one hand they have a very funky sound due to the bass, which is often played with slapping and popping, they guitar tends to have a more punk-rock style. The vocals are pretty high in pitch with that classic hard rock squeeze, but the drummer seems to prefer playing progressive music. Then again, they also incorporate unexpected reggae or ska breaks, and play a very good Hendrix-style blues. The dissonance between the various musical instruments and the vocals as well as the occasional very high pace means this band does not qualify for easy listening. Sometimes it seems as if we are witnessing three separate musicians rather than a band.
However, the band attack their instruments with great enthusiasm, and in those sections of songs where the diverse elements fall into place they are actually really, really good. Because of the diversity of sound they remind of a number of different bands, The Music being one of the first that popped into my mind. The end of their set was really strong, with vocals similar to those of Robert Plant and on the whole an almost Led Zeppelin quality to the music.
While I personally didn’t enjoy all of their musical experiments, I liked their skill in various fields and the risks they take in playing so many different genres. I think if they can move towards a greater coherency in their music they will be a band to keep an eye on.
Anathema, the masters of dramatic tension have once again returned to Tilburg, and judging by the size of the crowd the venue is very nearly sold out. This year saw the release of the band’s tenth studio album, Distant Satellites (KScope). Distant Satellites is much closer to heavy progressive than Weather Systems, which was rather ambient in sound, and these new songs provide a very strong opening to the show. Anathema do not play only their new works, however, and it is very interesting to hear ‘Untouchable part I and II’ played with the intensity of Distant Satellites. Other older songs include ‘A Natural Disaster,’ ‘Fragile Dreams,’ and ‘Universal.’
I was glad to see backing vocalist Lee Douglas present on stage from the very start, and especially to see how much her stage performance has improved. She is really starting to take her space in the spotlight, which is well deserved considering her strength as a solo singer as well as the beautiful harmonies she provides that match both Vincent and Daniel Cavanagh’s voices. Vincent’s vocals, while not flawless, have a very intense and emotional quality about them, and it is truly impressive how he manages to sing in a completely different rhythm from what he plays on his guitar. Daniel’s voice is softer and is usually only present when he is playing keyboards instead of guitar.
Although Daniel Cardoso is capable of great subtlety it’s great to have John Douglas present on percussions as well. John is also quite adept at the keyboards, which he proved during ‘The Beginning of the End.’ When they played ‘Storm Before the Calm,’ we saw Vincent behind yet another keyboard backlit like some kind of dark lord. Eventually, Daniel Cavanagh started playing his guitar with a violin bow.
The band has a wonderful stage presence, and certainly great audience interaction, since Danny can speak a few words of Dutch, Vinnie a few phrases, and Jamie lives in the Netherlands so he can hold entire conversations with the spectators.
The band announced that they were going to play a very special festival in the 013, which means that we are likely to see them perform at Roadburn 2015.
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WORDS: LORRAINE LYSEN
PHOTOS: SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS PHOTOGRAPHY