The Murder Metal band Macabre is currently on a short summer festival tour through Europe while doing some club gigs in between those festivals. One of these gigs took place in the small hall of the 013 venue. As they didn’t bring any support acts themselves, two (more or less) local bands were added.

The first band was about to start when I entered the nearly empty hall – even the bass player wasn’t there yet, they had to call him to start playing. This was the local band Foretold who play a rather mid-paced type of death metal that I’m usually quite fond of. But somehow this band seem to have little to offer except riffs heard many times before. The rather simple songs were played with apparently little conviction. Half of the band is also in the much more interesting doom metal band Faal, but even the slow sections were rather dull. 30 minutes of this was more than enough.

So next was the band The Lucifer Principle who I also hadn’t heard before. The style they play is some kind of modern death metal with some slight industrial tones added. They started out rather aggressive with the first couple of songs. But eventually the become a bit more mellow. They interacted much more with the audience and even a small mosh pit – okay two guys basically – was started. I can’t say really that I dig this band a lot.

Then after another half hour it took to change the stage it was time for Macabre. No redneck serial killer outfit this time, but the usual casual wear. I guess this had something to do with the heat in the room as it was terribly hot inside, even though outside it was a mere 22 degrees or so. Nevermind. Macabre are back on the stage in Europe after many years and seven years after their latest album called Murder Metal. They had a new EP out and a new album forthcoming to celebrate their 25 years anniversary. They started off with the classic Zodiac unfortunately the guitar and vocals were a bit soft in the mix, but that got fixed later on. Corporate Death introduced all the songs in his usually manner, digressing on the particular killer the song is about. In between all the classic songs, they managed to include a few new tunes of Grim, Scary tales. The first one about the Roman Emperor Nero, called Nero’s Inferno. A typically weird Macabre tune. The other songs title I didn’t catch, but it was about William Burke and William Hare – two serial murderers from Scotland (edit: It’s called simply Burke And Hare). A solid Macabre song. So the new album is promising in that sense. But there was nothing of the EP they just put out, which I found a bit odd. Anyway. after an hour they concluded the 15 songs long set with Vampire of Düsseldorf. No encores, but a promise to be back in November with Napalm Death and Immolation. A solid gig, but some more variation of songs from the earlier albums would be nice. They always play the same old songs. And no Dr Holmes.

Approximate Setlist:

• Zodiac
• The Trial
• Temple of Bones
• Serial Killer
• Nightstalker
• Nero’s Inferno
• The Iceman
• Mary Bell
• The Wüstenfeld Man Eater
• Burke And Hare
• Scrub a dub dub
• Hitchhiker
• You’re Dying to Be With Me
• Ed Gein
• The Vampire of Dusseldorf