German thrash metal legends Kreator had just released a new album last week – their twelfth in 25 years – and already commenced a seven-week European tour. The gig in Tilburg was the very first of that tour. The package they brought with them unfortunately was – to speak in German – Scheisse. I skipped the first two bans, Emergency Gate and Eluveitie; partly because of the shittiness of the bands, partly because it started early (18.30) and driving to Tilburg at that time is nearly impossible due to traffic. When I entered the hall Caliban was about to start. I’d rather have skipped them too. Boring metalcore. So I won’t waste more space on them.

Kreator took a long time to set up, approximately 40 minutes, including time to reboot the laptop they use to show some short movies on during the gig; and also some footage of the crowd as next to Mille, a camera was installed. But after the traditional intro, Kreator kicked off with the title track of the new album – Hordes of Chaos. The new album is very good to digest and much in line with the previous albums albeit the songs are a bit shorter and faster. And as such they worked quite well in a live setting. They played a whole bunch of new songs, including Amok Run, Destroy what Destroys You, To the Afterborn and Demon Prince. The remainder of the set was comprised of a couple of songs from Enemy of God (the title track and Voices of the Dead), Violent Revolution (again the title track) and a whole bunch of older songs including Pleasure to Kill, Phobia, Terrible Certainty, Extreme Aggression. Betrayer ended their regular set, but they came back to play four more songs: Amok Run, and the classics Riot of Violence (with Ventor doing the lead vocals), Flag of Hate, and Tormentor. Even though the band seemed not completely warmed up for the tour yet and Mille’s vocals were a bit difficult to hear – dunno if it was a technical problem, it seemed more that he didn’t exactly recall the lyrics, it was pretty good gig with an interesting set list. Only I don’t understand why they have to put the boring Phobia into it time and time again. Why not swap in Under The Guillotine, Awakening of the Gods, Behind the Mirror or anything from the Coma of Souls album, which they completely overlooked this time. Even Prevail would be an improvement.