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 on my bike there anyway. And I expected them to play a full set, and not just the 45 minutes they get in Drachten. Besides you can never have too much Pungent Stench.

There was one support slot, by the local band Mancuerda. Coincidently I saw them before on an earlier edition of Drachten Deathfest. With a band name referring to torture methods, it would not be unlikely that they play some gore-based death metal. And that is what it is. The lyrics are all about the classic death metal subjects, including gore, necrophilia and torture. Musically it is rather slow to mid-paced death metal with some faster bits. And generally quite simple riffs and song structures, and a few guitar solos. There is basically no lead guitar. The vocals are rather monotonic, but other than that is was pretty much okay. Run-off-the-mill death metal. All the songs had samples in between. Some sounded familiar from Mortician records.

After a quick set-up, it was time for the Viennese cult act Pungent Stench. Martin is keeping this alive, and now with the help of the original bass player and yet another new drummer. Of course they only played the classic material, starting with Pungent Stench, Brainpan Blues and For God Your Soul For Me Your Flesh. Each song filled with the weird but familiar riffs. From the split even the old Dead Body Love was played. For the last couple of years, each time I see this band they seemed to be better. The playing is tight, despite it that it was the new drummer’s first gig. Martin still sounds quite good, snarling the over-the-top and generally quite badly written lyrics. There was no newer material that from after the split up in the 90s. True Life and Fuck Bizarre were the newest songs they played. The set ended with the groovy Viva La Muerte. Some of the newer songs would not be amiss though, like Got Milf or Suicide Bombshell. And I wonder if they’ll write some newer material too. Greta gig.