Gavin Spearhead's Blog

This years Drachten Deathfest took place on a Sunday, which had to do with touring schedules of the headliner, where previous editions were on a Saturday. Nevertheless they managed to get an interesting line-up this year. So off to Drachten I went for this sold out festival. I skipped the first 2 bands as I […]

Pungent Stench – or at least Schirenc plays Pungent Stench – is on a short tour again, with a few dates in the Netherlands. The first in in The Hague. And even though they would play at Drachten Deathfest in a few days, I went anyway, as it is close by and I could go […]

Thulcandra started as tribute band to the Swedish blackened death metal band Dissection. They even covered The Somberlain on their debut album. And although they remained close in style they found a niche of their own. Even though never as good as Dissection, still an interesting band. And as they are a side project of […]

I never have seen Cradle of Filth live before. I like their first couple of albums, up until Cruelty and the Beast, but never got to see them live. And after that I kind of lost track of them. So when I saw this gig announced I thought to check them out, seeing that they […]

The American veteran band Morta Skuld was touring in Europe for the first time, although they did at least a couple of festival appearance. I guess they arrived a bit too late on the scene, with their debut released in 1993 as by that time most of the death metal buzz was already fading. Much […]

Two fairly obscure bands went on a European tour together for about two weeks. The Canadians from Phobocosm are headlining and the Italians from Fuoco Fatuo are the support slot. The made one stop in the Netherlands (and two in Belgium) and close by in The Hague, so I rode my bike to Musicon to […]

Martin Schirenc plays a few gigs in September under the name of Schirenc plays Pungent Stench. Basically, it is just Pungent Stench albeit without Wank. And it is even more like Pungent Stench now that Pitbull Jack is back on Bass. The support slot was for the Dutch band Bodyfarm. And it started early. Half […]

Amongst a number of festival appearances, the Irish lads chose to do a club gig in Arnhem. Even though the venue is not all that big, it was (nearly) sold out. And as the band didn’t bring a support, the venue added one. Alvader was the first band, a relatively new Dutch folk metal band. […]

Atrophy is one of the many lesser known thrash bands from the late 80s. They released two albums back then and vanished. The band has been revived and buried again a few times over the years. But seems to be back now with a new line-up of which only the singer is left from the […]