Flesh Made Sin
After having quenched my thirst with some hellish fuel I went to see Flesh Made Sin, the Arch Enemy support band. Since I didn’t know them too well – though their performance was fukking great – here’s a small review by thrash metal maniac Janbenjamin: Flesh made Sin ( Tilburg, NL) started quite early in the afternoon, playing at the small D&T stage. Being one of the more unknown bands this day for most of the audience, they totally broke down the building with their extreme aggressive and tight thrash metal. Starting with their unholy ‘Lustful Killing ’ they played much of both the Masterwork In Blood and Dawn Of the Stillborn album, but also a new track which will appear on their new album. After a few minutes there were many headbangers in the front and even a small mosh pit. Quite remarkable because Flesh Made Sin was one of the first bands that played this day. However, they were very tight and fast and were easily one of the best bands of the day for me. I banged my head off my neck and screamed all songs along with Flesh Made Sin. The only bad thing about this gig was that they had only 45 minutes to perform… Thanks to Janbenjamin for writing these lines! Back to my own demonic writings then…

Antaeus
Being a raw black metal desecrator, the French band Antaeus was my main reason to go to this festival. Today would be their last show ever! Though having seen them perform only a short while ago (28th September, Goudvishal, Arnhem) I once again had great expectations. Back then, in the Goudvishal, the venue’s atmosphere was great, but the audience was quite lame (probably because that crowd was waiting for Secrets Of The Moon, not my cup of blood at all). This was better today, people were more enthusiastic and there even were certain moments of bestial frenzy. The atmosphere of the D&T stage was exactly opposite to that in the Goudvishal though: just like last year (read my review of Fluisterwoud’s performance here in 2005) a too large room to fill with blasphemic black metal, bright lights on the sides, a café area with people uninterested in the current show, etc. Antaeus’ performance itself was in general grand and devastating, dark and evil, total Bleeding Blasphemy. Mkm’s blackened vokills and the great bass playing of LSK/Hellsukkubus (also in Hell Militia and Vorkreist) belong to the most advanced flesh tearing black metal ever heard. This might have been fuelled by frustration, due to the bad skills of the right session-guitar player (as seen from the crowd), who fucked up almost every song. Mkm informed me that the main cause for this were severe line-up problems. Antaeus’ drummer quitted just after the recording of the new album Blood Libels and the second guitar player was kicked out the band due to drugs problems. This is also the reason why Antaeus quits playing live in the future. Mkm: “Since we couldn`t find anyone getting to match our expectations... better quit.” Also, this brings danger to future releases by Antaeus, Blood Libels might well be the last album ever released (time shall tell). Since Antaeus survive already about twelve years in their wretched existence, they’ll find a way to go on with their Satanik Audio Violence I guess. With the unplugging of the microphone, all ended. Thanks to Mkm for this information.

Intermezzo
Time to get some meat in the grey and rainy city of Arnhem ! This caused me to miss several bands, but created a highly needed greasy layer in my stomach for further drinking, and made it possible to stay alive till the end of the festival. Back in the Musis Sacrum I talked to Trol of Fluisterwoud, he gave me some news about Fluisterwouds’ quitting in the near future. Reason is the lack of interest to produce more of the same raw black metal. After their two full-length albums (the second one will be released very soon) they achieved everything that was the purpose of Fluisterwoud from the start so there is no reason for a third album. If you never saw Fluisterwoud be quick, your last possibility is one last unique show when the new album will be released! After Fluisterwoud, Trol will continue his activities in his psychedelic chaos black metal band Dimensional Psychosis.

Tankard
A crowd of thirsty, fat, red-headed people swarming to the bar in the Nuon hall announced the upcoming Tankard performance. The German thrash band entered the stage before a crazed audience. The somewhat uninteresting thrash was made up by the band members’ activities. What a great stage performance! During the whole show, the massive front man Gerre was grinning with pleasure, bouncing around with his great beer-filled belly, sexually harassing himself with his microphone and drinking beers taken from the audience. The fierce playing bass-midget looked like a twin-brother of ‘It’ (Abruptum, Vondur) with his grim looks, great! The guitar player was a true German metro sexual, transported directly from the eighties. In the meantime the enthusiastic crowd was moshing and headbanging like maniacs. In all, a great freak show! Ending with ‘Empty Tankard’, we festival fanatics retreated to fill up once more.

General Surgery
Surgeons in white uniform covered in filthy blood entered the small D&T stage to unleash their havoc. General Surgery sure caused an ‘Orgy of Flying Limbs and Gore’. The Goregrind band from Sweden played a brutal set of fast noise that could not really catch my interest (though there for sure were people who liked this gig). Grant McWilliams, the band’s vomit-spitter, seemed to be drunk as hell, but I don’t think most people saw that as a problem. Nice time off for me at the sideline.

Arch enemy
Arch enemy seems to be a festival machine, always performing well and energetic. Besides some complaints about the bad sound the audience was frantic with anxiety, shaking the crowded concert hall. In my opinion a good performance without real surprises.

Immolation
And then, with my inside totally soaked with alcohol, Immolation! What great anti-religious death metal! The New Yorkers played a great set and aroused the crowd to insanity. Then again, perhaps I was too drunk too write an objective review here. I’ll leave it with this, my only memories being that I had a great time headbanging (head was still banging the day after).

Not really the end... Nedermetaal additions!
All in all a great festival mainly caused by the atmosphere then the bands. The only truly interesting bands to me were Flesh Made Sin, Antaeus and (perhaps) Immolation. To give you a more complete impression of the festivals I will now print a translated (and shortened) review written by our colleagues from ‘NederMetaal’ (www.nedermetaal.nl).

Aeternus
The casual attitude of Aeternus created a relaxed unforced atmosphere for about half an hour. Vocalist/guitarist Ares doesn’t do introductions; the music was launched with a simple “here comes the noise”. The sound wasn’t perfect, being quite hollow, but was good enough for this raw and dark metal. Both older and newer songs were played, but the older and slower material was performed in a too fast pace, taking away some of their magic. All in all a great show!

Ancient Rites
Ancient Rites is getting a veteran band in the metal scène. The black metal once played has turned into more symphonic and bombastic metal over the years. The band line-up has doubled since its founding, so bandleader Gunther Theys had to show his qualities on a crowded stage. Speaking of this main man, he is also the band’s most negative element. In contrast to the past, he now only sings with a clean voice, even with older songs on which he used to scream. His voice is often unstable and out of tune, which made this performance for me a bit annoying. Most of the other crowd was very enthusiastic though! Songs from the newest album Rvbicon were taking turns with older songs like ‘Fatherland’ and ‘And The Horns Called For War’.

Melechesh
Being convinced by the albums Sphinx, Djinn and this year’s album Emissaries the time has come for Melechesh to prove their talents with a live performance… and they DID! At about half past four they started their one hour show with the song ‘Rebirth Of The Nemesis’. The lack of live experience wasn’t recognizable; Melechesh played concentrated, tight and enthusiastic. Their new album was their main focus, but also older songs like ‘Of Mercury And Mercury’ and ‘Triangular Tattvic Fire’ weren’t forgotten. Like with other performances, the sound quality of the Nuon hall wasn’t perfect, but that didn’t ruin the great black/thrash. With this first step, the world has opened before their feet, making it possible to go on tour without any bad feelings. Check them out on the Excess Of Evil-tour with Marduk, Enslaved and Keep Of Kalessin!

Pungent Stench
Though Pungent Stench has achieved an almost cult status, I’m still not very familiar with this band… time for a change. They play great rocking death metal without getting too difficult or technical. Some jokes thrown at the crowd caused an easy and relaxed atmosphere, though making fun of Arch Enemy’s vocalist Angela Gossow was maybe a bit too easy. “Huhuhuhuhu, tits…”

Necrophobic
Necrophobic is a nice average band writing black/death metal songs. Not really outstanding and neither really boring, just easy listenable and rocking metal. The enormous spike bands and the “black metal” image of the band didn’t really fit, but music-wise they were Ok. Nothing more, nothing less. Thanks to Nedermetaal for their writings!

(Review & Pics: Mart Kwakkel)