Rockezine.com concert review for Hate Eternal on Jan 09, 2004 in the Baroeg/Rotterdam

Hate Eternal

Baroeg-Rotterdam

Jan 09, 2004

As I arrived at the Baroeg at precisely 2 minutes to nine and the first band began to play my first thought was that they sounded a lot like Deeds Of Flesh. After a while it became clear to me that it was indeed Deeds Of Flesh who were playing and the first band, Prejudice, had already played! A common but very irritating thing about these kind of European tours, schedules are changed at the whim of venue owners and tour managers.

Deeds Of Flesh
Deeds Of Flesh played a (too short) set with tracks from all albums, although I only know their last outing Reduced To Ashes, of which they played 2 songs. The kind of death metal they play is very suitable for playing in front of a live audience; the slower parts combined with the blast parts create a very dynamic listening experience. During one track the band also had Robbert from Disavowed as guest singer, which sounded cool. The sound was a bit messy but for Baroeg standards pretty good.

Dying Fetus
Dying Fetus was welcomed by an insane crowd and blasted of for a very energetic show in which songs from all their albums were played including the ‘hits’ “Rape Your Mother”, “Kill Your Dog” and “Skullfucked”. The furious death grind with a groove kept the crowd at its toes and there was quit a mosh pit going on. Singer Vince Matthews praised the crowd and the Dutch scene in general and looked like he had an excellent time on stage. The rest of the band was very professional but seemed like they did a standard gig. All in all an enjoyable performance.

Hate Eternal
Then the death metal warmachine known as Hate Eternal climbed on stage and started an hour of fucking insanely intense death metal, during which you can only look and listen with open mouth whispering: “what the fuck..”. The set was an ongoing assault on the eardrums and if you didn’t know Hate Eternal, I can imagine it sounded like a rampaging bulldozer rather than music. But if you are over the initial barrier one can hear 3 very talented musicians who are committed to producing the most intense music the planet has ever witnessed. Drummer Derek Roddy can not be human, the speed at which he operates is unbelievable, and his drumming is as tight as a virgin’s pussy. Bandchief Erik Rutan seemed to have a good time and newcomer Randy Piro who replaced Jared Anderson some time ago, acted like he has been in Hate Eternal for ages, backing up Erik’s vocals, bassing and stirring up the crowd all at the same time.

The wall of sound was only intervened by the guitarsolo’s which on record are backed by the rythmguitars but in the live environment with only one guitar on stage, they sound even better. Plus they give the crowd something of a break which is a good thing, I think. The tracks were evenly divided between the band’s two albums, Conquering The Throne and King Of All Kings and they even played a new track. Luckily for me and the rest of the crowd they played my favorites “King Of All Kings” and “Powers That Be” at the end, thus concluding a very intense set with style.

Photo`s from archives

(Review: Roy van den Brink
Pics: Marcia Gransbergen)

more pictures