The third gig in a week for me…. these are busy times. This time a little closer by and hence I took my bike instead of the car and had no trouble with traffic and all that. Destruction played in the Gebr. De Nobel in Leiden with two support acts. Maybe they are the least interesting of the three Teutonic Thrash metal bands, but still a great band, and with another album of re-recorded songs I expected a lot of the eighties material in the set.

But first there was Hellbender. A local thrash metal band. Basically run-of-the-mill thrash with some death metal influences and some slower parts. Pretty decent, playing was quite solid, but nothing particularly interesting.

The second band was the Belgian band Bark. They play a mixture of styles, mixing death metal with some grind riffs and hardcore vocals. Not really something I enjoy. But live it was entertaining. The singer in particular was quite energetic on stage. The band as a whole came across as quite aggressive.

Then it was time for Destruction. After the intro it was Curse the Gods. As usual the stage was set up with three mic stands, adorned with skulls. Schmier was constantly changing between the mics, and guitarist Mike Sifringer would change to the other side and back. The band was obviously having a ball and their playing was tight. And as I expected, the set was mostly old songs with only three or so new songs. As such almost the entire demo they did in the early 80s was played. I would have really liked some Cracked brain in the set. So great gig from a really good live band.