Sacred Reich did a short tour through Europe this autumn. Starting at the festival Helldorado in Eindhoven, they ended it with a headlining gig in Leiden. As there were no supports on the tour, the venue added one. So the Dutch Martyr played first. They are founded in 1982 and they play fairly traditional heavy […]

Pestilence is one of the big Dutch death metal bands from the early days. Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients are classics and helped shape the genre. One album later they split up, only to resurface a decade and a half later. Newer albums never were all that successful and line-ups have changed a […]

Ceremony is a more or less local band who released a cult death metal album in 1990s. Shortly after its release the band called it quits, only to resurface several decades later, followed by the release of their second album in 2019. Now they had just released a new album and played a show to […]

Asphyx is one of the longest running death metal bands from the Netherlands – even though they have no original members left. They don’t play all that often in the Netherlands unfortunately, so if they do, it is time to check them out. This time they were invited by Graceless to headline their release show. […]

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 […]