Suffocation has been touring a lot for the last few years. This time they made a stop in Tilburg amidst some festival appearances. I hadn’t been to Hall of Fame before, as it is relatively new, but it is close to the 013 venue. There were two support slots.

The first were for the Tasmanians from Psycroptic. Another long running, quite technical death metal band. I am mostly a fan of their first two albums but they unfortunately did not play anything off those any more. The oldest song played was the title track of (Ob)Servant. They even played a new song just released a while back. Never the less it is a pleasure to watch these guys play; it is super tight. And as the Haley brothers are now also a member of another very cool Aussie band, maybe they can bring Abramelin to Europe one day.

The second band of the evening was also from Australia, called To The Grave. I had not heard of them before and the flyer said they were death core. Any sure they did a lot of break downs but other than that the sound was too terrible to judge it. I could only hear the drums properly. There was only some faint guitar sound and barely any vocals audible.

Then it was time for Suffocation. They opened up with – surprisingly – Catatonia. And the rest of the set list would be mostly the same songs they usually play. Pierced From Within, Liege of Inveracity, Effigy of the Forgotten, Infecting the Crypts, Funeral Inception, basically all the classics. They did play Breeding the Spawn again – one of their best songs still. And they added some newer songs, mostly of their latest album. Nothing of the underrated Souls to Deny. The playing was skilful as ever, almost mechanically tight. Quite a good gig. Freshening up the set list a bit may be a good idea though – lets bring Beginning of Sorrow, Souls to Deny, Suspended in Tribulation, Mass Obliteration. And they are coming back already in December as supports for Cradle of Filth. Probably a shorter set list and even less surprises.