It has been quite a while since I saw Grave, their previous tour in 2003 got cancelled somehow. But now they’re back to promote their latest, excellent album “Fiendish Regression”. But first the support acts.

Opening act were Katafalk, from Groningen. Their thrashy death metal (and not death/black as on the flyer) was pretty good for an opening band as was the sound, altho the vocals sometimes were a bit too soft. They seemed quite professional, and the music was technically apt. Lots of short songs with a mix of fast and blast music but certainly not overdone.

Most people in the audience seemed to have come for the special guests of Grave for the Dutch part of their tour: God Dethroned. Although they are not bad, and played quite well – I couldn’t really get into it as I never could on CD either. Their blackish death metal tends to bore me quickly. Nevertheless they played some “classic” tunes, like “The Serpent King” and “The Sombreness Of Winter”.Their guitar sound was a bit thin in the mix, which was a shame for they have many parts where lead guitar plays a dominant role.

Then finally the band I came to see: Grave. First thing I noticed was that the sound got much better. A thick guitar sound and the accoustic drums set a pretty good atmosphere for this old school Swedish death metal. The over and hour long set was filled with a good mixture of new and old tracks, any of which were great. Only the “Hating Life” album was forgotten, which is their weakest album anyway. At the end of the gig I managed to get hold of the set list:

• Last Journey
• Reborn
• You’ll Never See
• Turning Black
• Christinsanity
• Out Of The Light
• Morbid Way To Die
• Breeder
• Below
• Deformed
• And Here I Die
• Heretic

—Encores—
Rise
Soulless
Into The Grave