I wasn’t familiar with Soulreaver, so I was a little bit surprised to see three guys and a lady on stage. Their stage performance was pretty boring, only the solo guitarist banged his head from time to time. I couldn’t make out any of the song announcements because the singer/bass player grunted them. What bothered me was the bad sound. It was way too dull, which made the music sound pretty messed up. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t stay focused with this band.

Devious
The second band of the evening was supposed to be the Brazilian death metal band Nephasth, but due to some vague reasons they were replaced by Devious. This Dutch band, hailing from Hengelo, plays a mix of US and Swedish death metal. And holy crap, they blew me away. Unlike the first band, Devious had a great sound, a little loud maybe, but clear enough.

The band has a great rhythm-section and both guitarists play as if the devil is on their heels. Singer Arnold reminded me from time to time of Deicide-god Glen Benton, using both low and high grunts. I really like that kind of variety in vocals. Mostly I get some kind of adrenalin rush from this kind of music and Devious succeeded to give me that rush! Who said that there was no good death metal in Holland?

Vader
Before you read on, I have a confession to make. I am a heathen. This was my first Vader concert. I have heard of the band of course, but I never had the chance to see them. Well, actually I did have the chance, but the band never really interested me. Therefore, I can’t bore you with long lists of songs they played or didn’t play, because I don’t know any songs.

What I can tell you is that the band played with a different drummer. Doc broke his leg, so Darray of Vesania is his substitute. I’ve heard some rumors about Doc’s reputation, but I can tell you, Darray is pretty good drummer too. He’s tight as hell. Obviously everybody knows that this band excists since 1983. I noticed it. Like a true machine the band began the show and pounded on until the end. They are real professionals.

With the Soulreaver show almost everybody was in the bar area, during the Vader set everybody was in the venue. And as they continued with the show, the crowd got crazier and crazier. The climax was the last song. At least, I thought it was the perfect climax. The band played “Raining Blood” by Slayer. I thought Slayer played the song at high speed, but the Vader version blew my balls away. My only point of criticism is the volume, way too loud in my opinion. Therefore it sounded a bit messy from time to time.

This review was writen by Lars van Bergen. You`ll be reading more reviews by this enthusiastic guy in the future since he`s Rockezines latest acquisition.

(Review: Lars van Bergen
Pics: Marcia Gransbergen)