It seems quite the thing these days to have 2 versions of one band: Sepultura, Terrorizer, Asphyx and now also Morbid Angel. David Vincent is now playing older Morbid Angel songs under the name of I Am Morbid, with former Morbid Angel drummer Tim Yeung and two hired guitarists for a European tour. They brought no less than 4 support acts.

The first band The Heretic Order plays heavy metal with some death and black metal elements. There were not even 50 people in the venue when they started playing. Musically not very interesting, and even the Mercyful Fate cover seems rather lackluster. The second band was the US Helsott. They play some odd mixture of death, thrash and folk, with lots of keys and soprano vocals from tape (or laptop). Another rather forgettable band. The third band has released four albums, and I had never heard of them, yet I had seen them before according to my administration. De Profundis play rather chaotic doom, death and black metal laced with more traditional guitar leads. I don’t think I’ll remember them next time I see them.

The Necrophagia. One of the oldest death metal bands around. Killjoy is touring with a couple of youngsters – about half his age. Musically they never appealed to me. And the snarling vocals seem a bit out of place. Anyway amusing to watch for a bit. The older songs seemed more inspired and interesting.

Then it was finally time from I Am Morbid. As far as Morbid Angel goes I dig the first two albums, with the third I mostly lost interest. The kicked off with Immortal Rites and Fall from Grace. Two songs that have appeared regularly in Morbid Angel sets before. Visions from the Darkside and Blessed are the Sick haven’t. David’s vocals sound way deeper than early on in the band which doesn’t seem to fit all that well. And Blessed are the Sick doesn’t come off all that well. His stage presence is quite uninspired and the bass lines are very basic. Musically it sounds all quite okay, but but there seems to be something missing. Most of the remainder of the set consisted of Covenant songs and some Domination songs. Only Maze of Torment – one of the better songs of Altars of Madness – got squeezed in. The guitar solo bit near the end of the set was pretty useless. So on the one hand, and interesting gig to see, especially as they played some songs they rarely did before. Otherwise, it all seems quite on autopilot. And the abundance of mediocre supports doesn’t help a bit either. We’ll see what the other Morbid Angel will bring.