With
PESTILENCE one of the legendary and very important Death
Metal bands of the late 80s and early 90s are back again. The
multi-cultural band starts up to raise hell in Europe with their
strong comeback album Resurrection Macabre.
The band certainly had no financial gain in my mind in choosing
the support bands (in case they had any influence on that), because
THE NEW DOMINION should be well known to insiders only
and the Norwegian insurgents VREID are no crowd pullers
yet in the Black Metal scene. Other bands choose to play safe
by taking the one or the other hip Metalcore band to the billing
to pull as many kids as possible to the gigs.
Thus
the Backstage
is comparatively empty at the beginning as Tilburg-based ::
THE
NEW DOMINION :: enter the stage and even during
the headliner’s gig the rows are as sparse as my growth
of hair.
The opening act doesn’t fit optically (except for the guitar
player Tom and drummer Yuma) the Death Metal cliché. All
the more surprised am I by how feisty the quintet presents its
traditional Melodic Death Metal with partly very thrashy riffing.
There’s nothing to criticize about the technical skills
of the band, the songs are worth hearing across the board (even
though the numerous blast beats seem performed as an end in itself
to me – a little less would fit finer to the all in all
very groovy sound), which is rewarded with more than polite applause
by the crowd. And the band appreciates that in turn. Vocalist
Bart is endued with a hellacious voice – whereas he shows
especially while the short trips to more melodic regions that
he has a very fine “normal” voice as well. Definitely
the first thumbs up for this evening’s entertaining introduction!
::
VREID
:: are a constant in the rock-like Black Metal and
have again just released a first-class album with Milorg, which
has to be promoted live now. The Norwegians seem to be in a good
temper this evening – especially bass player Hváll
tries to incite the crowd.
Taking a look at the t-shirts in the crowd this evening, the overwhelming
majority seems to have come to the gig to see Pestilence (from
Pestilence- over Carcass to Bolt Thrower-shirts the Death Metal
part was prevailing clearly), which didn’t make it easier
for VREID to get the crowd on their side with their straight
route of march. The choice of songs considered all releases and
was very well balanced and packed with hits. The quintet started
a rousing gig with hellish groover Jarnbyrd. The fans even
receive the quite fresh Milorg songs Speak Goddamnit
(goose bumps feeling in the mellow middle section of the song),
Blücher and Disciplined with favor, whereas
band classics like Pitch Black let the attendant Black
Metal fans cry tears of joy.
Unfortunately a lot of refinements in the sound of VREID
drowned in the dominance of the bass sound. Nevertheless Sture
tells me after the gig that the Sogndal-based band seems to gained
new fans according to the merchandise sales. Very fine!
Setlist: Jarnbyrd, Raped By Light, Speak Goddamnit,
Disciplined, Då Draumen Rakna, Svart, Blücher, Pitch
Black
Nothing can
go wrong when the debut of Swedish sickos Death Breath rotates
in the CD player during the short break of ::
PESTILENCE
::, can it?
As expected the quartet starts the technically delicate set with
the album-openers of the comeback Resurrection Macabre
Devouring Frenzy and Horror Detox. As expected all
the records of the band’s discography are regarded for tonight’s
set list. As expected the old songs are presented in a modified
way. Sure, it’s comprehensible that a band is not into interpreting
old classics the way they did in the glorious eighties and nineties
after existing so long and the long break. But, do they have to
disfigure a song like Lost Souls in such a way? As already
mentioned in the review of Resurrection Macabre,
this song clearly is the outlier downwards. It’s no killer
performed live in this form as well. The other new songs such
as Fiend or Hate Suicide, however, are real neck
breakers. Exceptional drummer Peter Wildoer (Darkane…) takes
the opportunity in the last mentioned song and performs a drum
solo in the absence of the other band members, which was really
heavy. Shortly afterwards Tony Choy joins him and, well, what
can I say? This guy lives each note he plays. And how he plays!
Even laymen have their jaws dropped while watching him performing
his solo.
I don’t know how it looked like in the previous and how
it will look like in the forthcoming dates, but Mr. PESTILENCE
himself, Patrick Mameli, seems so half-hearted, uninspired and
bored tonight that you have to ask yourself if he’s still
up for touring. I haven’t experienced it that often that
a “supporting actor” like Tony Choy steals the show
from the front man in such a way without self-congratulatory searching
the spotlight – it’s his performance, his charisma
on stage and his playing that make him this evening’s winner.
Btw., playing just one single encore after such a long absence
on the stages of this world verges on impudence. For after one
hour the gig is already over.
Well, what else happened? After the gig I met “repatriate”
Patrick Uterwijk. He answered the question if there will be another
PESTILENCE album featuring him on the guitars with saying
that it depends on how Resurrection Macabre will
sell. The statement of the evening! Guys, if you do all this only
because of making money, then better let alone!
Setlist: Devouring Frenzy, Horror Detox, Chemo Therapy,
The Process Of Suffocation, Fiend, Hate Suicide, The Secrecies
Of Horror, Chronic Infection, Mind Reflection, Synthetic Grotesque,
Lost Souls // Out Of The Body
