An odd package assembled on this tour, that took the stage in Theater Romein in Leeuwarden. The opening band was the German death metal outfit Debauchery. Dressed in white and covered in blood, they played their 35 minute set of mostly mid-paced death metal. The band’s music is simple, straight-forward, and hundreds-of-times-heard-before death metal. Nevertheless […]

Lasts I time I saw Immolation play live was some 5 years ago. But this tour, they didn’t play anywhere reasonably near, so I had to go to Groningin to see them (When I lived in the East, they never played there, but always at the Baroeg in Rotterdam. Now I live in the West, […]

Officium Triste just released their fourth opus titled “Giving Yourself Away” and this performance was the CD release gig, a.k.a the CD presentation. It also coincided with the departure of their guitarist Johan, for whom this was his last gig with Officium Triste. And this happening took place in the rehearsal room of Officium Triste, […]

Cynic is doing a short reunion tour through Europe, playing a number of festivals and some club gigs. Local supports were brought in as the band hadn’t brought any. In this case the band Dutch band Detonation. Detonation plays a fast paced melodic death metal that sometimes reminds me of early Gothenburg style bands like […]

Shining was doing a tour through Europe for the release of their fifth album “V Halmstad” and their only Dutch show was in Arnhem so that is where I went on Friday the 20th of July. The opening act was the dutch band Isthar. These guys play a mixture of death and black metal, but […]

Amongst all these crappy – sell-out – reunions, sometimes something interesting surfaces. And so after many years – 11 since their last album the Americans of Sacred Reich decided to do a reunion and played a few shows (4) in Europe, including a show in the Dynamo club in Eindhoven – I’m quite sure that […]

The American thrash metal band Testament did a single show in the Netherlands during the festival season, which took place in the Burgerweeshuis in Deventer of all places. And as I had never seen Testament live, I went to Deventer on this Thursday evening.There was a single support slot, that was filled by the Dutch […]

Candlemass had just released a new album (King of the Grey Islands) and what better promotion is there than touring. The 2007 Candlemass tour had two stops in the Netherlands, both not very close, so I went to the Dynamo club in Eindhoven. When I arrived the first band (In Age And Sadness) was just […]

During the reunion season, yet another long split-up band decided to reform just for a couple of gigs. This time the old cadaver of the American Massacre had been re-animated and decided to tour Europe. A tour that I heard didn’t go too well with approximately 50 visitors per show. At 2 November, they made […]

This has been the sixth instance of the annual Dutch Doom Day festival with 15 international doom bands in two days. It is one of the few doom only festival, along with the German Doom Shall Rise. The festival typically hosts doom bands from all sides of the extreme – from classic doom, drone/sludge doom, […]