Macabre did a short European tour this summer around a couple of festivals and added some club gigs to it. One of which was in Rotterdam. I saw a post online that the were looking for a driver to bring them from Copenhagen to Rotterdam and then to the next gig. Turned out their driver was unreliable with drug and alcohol use, so they fired him and eventually the had to drive themselves and they were just arriving as I arrived at the venue too.

Fortunately there was a support band, named Damnation. Not a particularly original name, as there are more than 10 listed on metal archives. But anyway, this is the Dutch band that consists of a rather young band members (well Entombed were 17 when they recorded their Left Hand Path) and they play old school death metal. And actually they were quite good. Some good riffs, and interesting drum work They started out with a single guitar, which sounded a bit thin. But halfway through the set the singer also picked up a guitar for the rest of the set. He is also a much better lead guitar player, playing some cool leads too. Only the Dying Fetus cover was a bit unnecessary. Apparently they will be releasing their debut album. So interesting to hear how that sounds.

Then it was time for Macabre. I haven’t seen them live in something like 10 years at least. In the years 2000-2010 or so they were around all the time. When they released Dahmer, the gigs were superb. But gradually become more routine. And where Sinister Slaughter is an amazing album, later albums became a more gimmicky and lacklustre effort. So I was curious to check them out and see how they’d fare now. Apparently Nefarious stayed home and they brought a guy called Beavis to play the bass. Like so often they started with Zodiac. The drumming was still pretty solid, still – Dennis seems to have hardly aged. The guitar sounded quite okay, but the vocals – it seems Corporate death cannot do these crazy vocals any more. He also didn’t seem all that energetic, but maybe that was just lack of sleep as he said. They intervals between songs were long, with short introduction about the serial killer that is the subject of the song. Anyway they also played a couple of songs of their latest album and live they sounded better than on the album. Joe Ball was his Name was a funny song, and so is Wheels of the Bug. Slaughter House was cool too. Warte Warte, is dumb song and in German, and it sounded pretty terrible live. These songs can’t just touch Nightstalker or Vampire of Düsseldorf. McMassacre was the only Gloom track (which is just 40 seconds long – where is Dr. Holmes? The Cat Came Back…. oh well – bring back Mary Bell. They played Ed Gein as the first encore and the sole track of Grim Reality – no Serial Killer and Hitchhicker as the second. Pretty decent show, with a set list that could have been better.