Kreator set to tour Europe again after the release of their new album “Phantom Antichrist”. So on this Sunday afternoon I travelled to Eindhoven to the Effenaar – a venue I hadn’t been before – to hear how that album works out live. After a bit of a detour through Eindhoven I found a parking spot not too far away from the venue. And once inside It was only a few minutes before the first band to start.

That was the US thrash band Fueled By Fire who I didnt’ know beforehand. Turned out it was rather generic thrash – basically like so many of the new wave of thrash band.

The next band was US death metal act Nile who I had missed every time during all their European tours. Somehow I don’t find their brutal death metal style all that overwhelming, unlike say Ulcerate, Cryptopsy or Krisiun. The technical proficiency of these guys is obvious though but none of the songs really grab my attention for too long.

First of the two headliners was next, namely Morbid Angel. A band I haven’t followed since Covenant, and seen scrarcely throughout the years. Last time must have been some 6 years ago – then still with Steve Tucker. They started off with a bunch of classic tracks: Immortal Rites, Fall From Grace, Rapture, Maze of Torment. Which were great, tightly performed. After that a bunch of new songs followed, and that showed just how boring the newer material is compared to the classics. What followed were more Altars of Madness songs, Lord of All Fevers and Plague and the mandatory Chapel of Ghouls. They ended their set with four more songs of Domination, Covenant and Formulas. So where was Blasphemy, Thy Kingdom Come or Rebel Lands. Not bad – actually quite as I expected. They should though as was rumoured do a tour with only A and B songs. In 75 minutes they should be able to play most of those. Now that would be awesome.

Then after a long set up it was up to Kreator. A white curtain was hung in front of the stage and Johnny Cash played on the PA. A projection of Kreator related images shown on the curtain. The Mars Mantra followed and then finally they really started playing the title track of the latest album. When the curtain was dropped, the stage was set up with various props in the style of the album cover. What we got was a mixture of newer songs and classic material for about 90 minutes from a band that was in excellent shape and an audience that was going crazy. Guitarist Sami pulled of an acoustic intermezzo showing he could much more than just play power chords and tremolo solos. Only that bastard Phobia should somehow be removed from the set next time. They got so many more better songs that that. And where the new album sounded a bit dull, the new songs fit quite well during the live shows. Futhermore an excellent show.