I had just seen Benediction play about half a year ago in Uden. Then without Daz and still fronted by David Ingram. The latter had since then left the band, due to health issues. He has been replaced by multiple singers including Kam Lee of Massacre and Dave Hunt who has previously fronted Benediction for many years.

Two support slots were added by the venue. I skipped the first. The second was the Dutch Pentacle. They play Ancient Death Metal as they call it themselves. And they had also announced that they will stop playing live in 2027. I have never been a huge fan of them, but they are part of Dutch death metal history none the less. It sounds quite ancient too – there are some obvious Celtic Frost influences there. And although they started in 1989, they released only 3 full-lengths. I only have the Fifth Moon EP and this was I think the first time I saw them and they played a song of it, namely Black at Heart. For the rest they played a bunch of new songs of their latest split EP and Rides the Moon storm of the album of the same name. The ended the gig with a cover from Hellhammer, The Reaper, that they had also recorded long time ago.

Then it was time for the UK death metal band Benediction. This time thus fronted by Dave Hunt. And they had a new bass player. The started with the newer song Engines of War. But quickly followed by Nightfear of the classic Transcend the Rubicon album. A few more songs of the latest two albums followed including the obvious Stormcrow. Dave was quite chatty this evening and was joking around a bit. And misremembering that his first gig was in the Baroeg, in 1998 supporting Death – it was in Noorderligt, Tilburg. They touched many of their albums throughout the set but missed The Grand Leveller and Dark is the Season. It must have been ages since they played the title track of that one. Obviously The Grotesque, Subconcious Terror were included. And as they had a little extra time left they squeezed Shadow World into the set too. And ending it with possibly their fastest song The Dreams You Dread. Pretty cool gig.