Like so many bands from the past, Californian Evildead have reformed since a few years. And now they are finally on the European continent for a few gigs. So I went to this Thursday evening gig in the Baroeg.

The opening support slot was for a Belgian band called Powerstroke. I had never even heard of them. This power trio plays what they call groovy metal. I found it rather generic metal with some thrash and death metal influences. Nothing really fancy. So most of the hall was empty after two or three song.

After changing the setup the hall quickly filled up for cult act Sadistic Intent. Yet another band I hadn’t heard. The whole band is now also in Possessed though. Mostly old school death metal, mixed few some early black metal elements. Some songs however could just as well be Morbid Angel or Incantation nevertheless. So nothing really new, but generally well executed. They played longer than scheduled, well over an hour.

A lot of people apparently left after Sadistic Intent, with the headliner still to play. Evildead was mostly in the original line-up yet with a different singer who appeared to be somewhat ill. Perhaps that was also why the vocals sounded a bit thin. Anyway, after the short intro, they started The Awakening, tight and fast. Live they sound much more powerful and energetic than on record. The set consisted of most of the Annihilation of Civilization album, with two songs of the Rise Above EP and a new song. Even the kind of weird song BOHICA (bend over here it comes again) was That sounded actually quite good, so perhaps we can expect a new album sometime in the future. After the regular set they reappeared to play one more song – Unauthorized Exploitation. So it was quite an excellent gig. Hopefully they do some more touring in the future.