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 don’t really care for Rotten Sound and Bodyfarm. The latter replaced Beast after they cancelled unfortunately.

So the first band I watched the Dutch band Abrupt Demise is the very small hall with the inconvenient pillar right in front of the stage. Anyway. They play rather dime-a-dozen death metal in the US style. Not bad but also not really interesting either.

Much more interesting was Schirenc Plays Pungent Stench on the large stage, even though I had seen them 2 days before. All the songs they played they played the Fridays too. So no surprises there, just a shorter set list. Still a very good gig and one can never get too much Pungent Stench anyway.

The schedule allowed for some 5 minutes between switches halls, so essentially there was gigs all through the afternoon and evening. Suffering Quota was next in the small hall. A Dutch, angry grindcore band. Entertaining to watch. Kind of chaotic, like early Napalm Death without the Discharge parts. Not really my thing but there were some cool drum parts.

Brujeria lost both their singers last year which is kinda odd. The son of one of them was on the drum kit. Musically I was never much interested in them. Some industrial, groovy grindcore or what ever never appealed to me and live it didn’t impress me either. It wasn’t bad and they played alright though.

In the small hall was Necroteqsue another Dutch death metal band. More in the Swedish old school style, HM-2s included. I’d seen them before. Rather redundant. So it was time to eat.

Then in the main hall it was the Dutch God Dethroned. I enjoy their first two albums of which the first album is a small Dutch classic death metal album. And it was a long time since I saw them live. I never much listened to the albums after Bloody Blasphemy. They played two songs of that album, Serpent King and Boiling Blood and these were the only songs I recognised. The remainder was newer material, which actually sounded quite okay. Pretty cool gig.

The last band in the small hall was Unlocked also a Dutch band an relatively new. Much like the earlier bands in the small hall a rather generic death metal band. So the bands in the small hall weren’t all that interesting this year and trhat was noticeable in the low turnout in that hall. I left early to be in time for the last band of the evening.

That band was none other than the English Carcass. I had seen them last year at an outdoor festival. After a taped intro they started with Buried Dreams. And Heartwork was the album off which they played the most songs. Most of the songs were played back-to-back with hardly any pauses in between which made it a very energetic show. They played real tight too. Bill still looks like a hippy, Jeff has his hair cut and throws out picks the entire time. Torn Arteries was only visited twice and not even with the best songs. They ended rather early but then came back for a three-song encore. Of which Tools of the Trade is a bit of a surprising choice. As the last song the drummer started off the intro of Ruptured in Purulence, but Jeff didn’t fall in with the bass and leaned against his amp stack instead, so the drummer continued into a drum solo after which Jeff announced it was time for a drum solo, so another one followed. It was kind of funny, though I don’t know if it was spontaneous or rehearsed. Anyway then again the intro of Ruptured in Purulence and the changed into Heartwork as the set closer. The set was nearly the same as last year. They did play Pyosified this time and no Reek of Putrefaction. Quite a good gig though.