It has been quite a view years since I’ve been in the Patronaat and never in the small hall, but the penultimate gig the tour headlined by Obscura and with Spawn of Possession in particular seem like a valid excuse to go to Haarlem. I was right on time due to some issues finding a parking spot as the first band was about to start.

That band was the Dutch Exivious who are an instrumental band. Half of the band toured a few times with Cynic. And frankly the music isn’t that far from the later, rather laid-back Cynic style but with a lot more guitar soloing. So excellent music skills aplenty, but half an hour of this was more than enough for me as all the “songs” sorta blend together.

Then there was Gorod, a French band. This is fast, technical death metal, interesting but I didn’t know the music beforehand. And it’s kinda hard to digest this kind of material. Most of the music seemed to be played quite high up the fretboard so it lacks a bit in power and brutality. But overall well executed, and the singer knew a little Dutch which is cool. Funnily, the bass guitar seemed to have filed-off frets beyond the 5th or so leaving only the top and bottom tips.

Then there was Spawn of Possession, a Swedish technical death metal band who had just released their third album Incurso. Nevertheless they only played one song of that album. The rest of the set was filled with material of their first two albums, including Swarm of the Formless, Church of Deviance and Spawn of Possession of the debut and Lash by Lash of the second. Their performance was tight and precise, with just a few minor glitches in the solos, but apparently the music provides little room for actual movement since all of them were basically standing still staring at their instruments. I must say their fretboard gymnastics is of the highest ranking. They brought yet another second guitarist, who turned out to be Dutch and was quite, good. Also extra kudos to the new bass player, he is really fast which put a nice, thick extra layer underneath the guitars – there are some cool videos of him on youtube in case you’d care.

The headliner was Obscura who were promoting their latest album, that was released a while back. The level of technicality dropped a bit compared to the two previous bands, as well as the sound quality. The bass drums sounded unnatural and rather loud. They only played songs of the latest two albums which is a bit of a shame, since I like the debut the best. Playing was reasonably good but not entirely faultless, and they’ve got a really good drummer this time (Hannes Grossmann formerly of Necrophagist). And Jeroen Paul Thesseling left this band to focus on Pestilence (but why as they have been slammed all over). The new bass player also played fretless, but had drawn on frets, which look a bit weird too. Nevertheless a decent gig, with a drum solo near the end where Hannes could do his thing. And they played a quite unnecessary cover as an encore – Death’s Flesh and the Power it holds – with Tymon Kruidenier of Exivious on vocals. Oh and I did manage to grab one of them drum sticks Hannes through in the audience :D.