| X-mass Festival | 013-Tilburg | Dec 16, 2001 |
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To celebrate the upcoming Christmas holidays thousands of metal heads have found their way to Tilburg for the annual X – Mass Festival, loaded with extreme death, thrash and black metal acts. And the same annual problems also occur this day. Kreator decided to step out of the package due to some kind of argument concerning Cannibal Corpse their headlining position. Besides that it may have come to your ears that our railway system does not work as it supposed to does. So with a delay of several minutes we arrive at the 013 seeing a cue outside, realizing that Sinister and Mystica would be goners. But fortunately REZ colleague Maura was already in, and she saw what I unfortunately had to miss. But there were some more problems, like the cues in front of the drinking coin stand and of course the fact that great and obviously popular bands always play at the smaller venue, so that many fans have to miss these bands. On the other hand the X – Mass Festival certainly is one of the most interesting festivals of the year. And I can conclude that also this year certainly had some great moments to offer.
(Teun) Only within days after the start of the X-mass Metalfestivals Kreator decided to abandon the tour due to organizational problems. Tonight the vacant spot is filled by Dutch death metal icons Sinister. And even at this early hour the 013 is pretty packed for the kick-off of the festival on the mainstage. Having recently firmly underlined their reputation with their latest offering Creative Killings Sinister set a solid standard for the bands to play later that evening. With an aggressive show, in which material from the new album and old classics are equally well represented, the band succeeded in convincing the Dutch metalheads that quality death metal doesn’t always have to come from abroad! Supported by a decent sound the technical abilities of guitarist Bart combined with the tight rhythm-section formed by bassist Alex and drummer Aad formed the perfect basis for Rachel’s impressive grunts (our photographer Marcia looked up in complete astonishment after realizing that the deeps growls were really produced by this tiny lady!). Vomitory The band played tight and seemed to be in top – condition, except for vocalist and bass player Erik who didn’t seem to have his night with his scares comments. But fact is that Vomitory also played some older songs like “Redemption” and that the people really enjoyed it. I even spotted some slam dancing punks from the upper ring, who must have felt for the crusty edge in some of their songs. Vomitory gained a lot of new fans. (Teun) Centurian Songs as “The Reading (ZarZax Unto Zax)” and “Feeding the Flesh of the Vortex” sounded great. The sound was perfect although the bass drums could have been harder in the mix. That maniacal drum player needs to be heard better than this. The new front man Jerry and guitar player Oskar seemed to feel at home in this band and that made this show one not to forget that easily. Great job. (Teun) Polluted Inheritance Polluted Inheritance clearly took full advantage of the opportunity to re-establish their name as one of the more interesting Dutch deathmetal bands around and enthusiastically displayed their musical abilities onstage. The focus lay on songs from the recently released Into Darkness album and the Morbid Angel/Death songstructures captured the attention of more and more people present. This is a promising step towards the recognition this band deserves. Dark Funeral A very wise decision indeed. In the past Dark Funeral weren’t exactly renowned for their dynamic live-shows but much has altered in this respect. Dressed in some sort of latex jogging-suit (?) Caligula fires up the 013 audience and successfully manages to ‘satanize’ the crowd. Although the sound is certainly not optimal for the high-speed blackmetal Dark Funeral offers the fans are eager to mosh to both the older stuff (‘The Secrets of the Black Arts’) and songs from the recent Diabolus Interium album (‘Thus I have Spoken’ and ‘Armageddon Finally Comes’). Even though their previous releases are recognized as blackmetal classics it is clear that the Swedes are now also more than ready the enter into the highest realms of Black metal as proven onstage tonight. Nile Three grunt vocalists with voices varying from low to not normal low, a lap top with all the great Egyptian samples, a very tight playing band made this Nile concert one to never forget and I certainly take this one a long to my personal favorites of 2001. Although I heard that many people, who were standing in front of the stage, thought that the sound was horrible I had nothing to complain standing more at the back. Songs as “Black Seeds of Vengeance” and “Nas Akhu Khan she en Asbiu” sounded perfect, and the mystery of the Nile releases certainly struck the audience. And with a hypnotized feel I let the outro come over me. (Teun) Krisiun But with a drummer like Max Kolesne its not even a shame that he plays one. Krisiun played a set like most of the fans would have expected. More a combination songs from their latest two releases “Ageless Venomous” and “The Conquers of Armageddon”. But nevertheless these Brazilians remain one of the most extreme and intense death metal bands on the planet. And it still amazes me how much noise you can make with only a three man formation. Songs as “Dawn of Flagellation”, “Ageless Venomous” and “Endless Madness Descends” really kicked as and Krisiun certainly deserved this spot on the bill. (Teun) Marduk Quite the opposite, the band was as eager and enthusiast as last April to convince to 013 that they are indeed one of the finest blackmetal acts around. Although I heard some disturbing rumors again about Legion’s failing vocal capacities during the show in Belgium the day before, in songs like ‘On Darkened Wings’ and ‘Funeral Bitch’ Legion sounded as raw and aggressive as on record. As during the Dark Funeral show Marduk had to cope with a rather mediocre sound but didn’t seem the affect the audience at all. The crowd’s response clearly justified Marduk high position on the bill and with Legion presenting himself more and more as a true master of ceremony success was guaranteed. I may have only caught a glimpse of tonight’s gig but it was enough to safely conclude that Marduk undoubtedly confirmed their status of leading blackmetal act. Cannibal Corpse This doesn’t mean that the over-all reaction was bad, on the contrary it was quite good but it was all a bit tame (and that’s what ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher thought as well as he tried to get the people going one final time this evening). This had absolutely nothing to do with the quality & choice of the songs. Also the band’s performance was pretty good (although they lacked the interaction for instance Marduk had with the audience) but 14 bands is just too much for a such festival and there is always the possibility that the crowd simply had enough scull-crushing and ear-raping death & black metal for one day. But when disregarding this slight mishap Cannibal Corpse were undisputedly headliner-worthy. With superb versions of deathmetal classics like ‘Scull full of Maggots’, ‘Addicted to Virgin Skin’, ‘The Spine Splitter’ and ‘I Will Kill You’ one can hardly go wrong. And can you think of a better ending for this year’s X-mass fest than ‘Hammer Smashed Face’?! I personally wouldn’t mind slimming the festival down next year to 6 bands max. In that way you’d avoid the crowd becoming too tired and drunk. The audience will then be able to much more enjoy the various bands and in particular the headliner which is more rewarding for the bands themselves too! There’s only one thing left to say for me in conclusion of this review. Let’s never forget the man without whom these big extreme metal festivals would probably never even have existed, Chuck Schuldiner. Thank you for making Death metal true art and may you rest in peace.
(Review: Maura Kampstra |
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© Rockezine.com Dec 16, 2001, viewed 837 times since 666
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