Benediction is one of those old school death metal bands (est. 1989) that I never saw live a lot and when I did they were mostly supports. So a good reason to drive to Uden to a venue I had never been before.

The Dutch thrash metal band Cryptosis opened the evening. This however isn’t your ordinary thrash metal. It sometimes reminded me more of the latest Coroner, but faster. Particularly the drums sounded quite energetic with cool fills. Most riffs sounded a bit odd and uses a lot more higher notes that common in thrash. Anyway a pretty cool gig.

The German band Carnal Tomb on the other hand plays straight-up death metal like it is 1989 again even though they exist only for some 10 years. The guitar sound is quite murky, making it hard to pick out the riffs at the low end. It has all been done before and better, holding the middle ground between the US and Swedish style of yore. Even though it all sounds al right it lacks originality and good songwriting.

Then it was time for the British legends of Benediction. After they got old singer Dave Ingram back they have already released two albums. They are now on a short tour, with a single stop in the Netherlands. Unfortunately their guitarist Daz could not make it as he was apparently ill, so it was only Rew on guitar. And they also had a stand-in bass player. They opened with a couple songs of their latest two albums. They sound was pretty good, maybe the guitar a little thin in the mix. Dave sounded as good as in his Bolt Thrower days. Subconscious Terror came early in the set, preceded by a bit of Artefacted Irreligion. Followed then by the awesome Vision in the Shroud. They would visit pretty much all their recordings. Foetus Noose of the Dark is the Season EP. The fast Violation Domain of Transcend the Rubicon, with the very fastly sung verses in the end of the song, which Dave happened to pull off quite well. They even played some of the Dave Hunt era songs. The gig ended with another fast one – The Dreams you Dread. Quite a cool gig.