Dutch doom death band In Age and Sadness opened this evening of doom metal. I never thought much of this band really as it is too generic. It isn’t bad really but just doesn’t do anything to me. They seem to fill many support slots these days as local bands when there is some doom band playing here.

The second band was the reason I went anyway. These Chilean guys from Mar De Grises have just released a follow up to their stunning debut album. This band plays a very original form of doom death metal with progressive elements. What I heard from the few times I listened to the new album is that it’s quite different from the debut but nevertheless it sounded pretty good. And that is exactly how I judged the new songs live. Different but still good. They played a mixture of newer and older material, culminating in the awesome song “To See Saturn Fall”, which I doubted they could play live but they pulled it off with ease. Anyway, this was really a stellar performance for a bit of an underestimated band.

Saturnus who brought a temporary replacement guitarist and were also missing their keyboard player were next and apparently the main attraction for most of the audience. I had seen them before and didn’t care much for them, even though they are not bad. And that goes for this time too.

The last band was the Norwegian Funeral whose albums I listened too but never much cared for either so I didn’t know much about them anyway. During their set most of the audience had already left, leaving maybe some 30 people. I didn’t think they’re that bad though, actually it was better enjoyable than Saturnus. I later heard that most of the band that played were different from the recording line-up of their latest album. There set was short too, only 40 minutes and no encore. I guess they didn’t care much about what they played.

Anyway, IMO Mar De Grises should have been the headliner here, as they were by far the best band of the evening.