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, […]

The Sunday of Dutch Doom Day featured another seven bands of various types of doom metal. The day started with the Dutch band Akelei who play melodic doom metal with Dutch lyrics that are sung clean. They use three guitars (and aren’t the only one this day), which were used to create multiple layers of […]

Houwitser have reformed a short while ago and are playing a couple of gigs in the Netherlands. Now I never really cared much about Houwitser, but they had Putrefied as support. They album was pretty decent – it reminds me most about the first Incantation album – and I heard good things about their live […]