The first gig for me in 2019 is none other than the cult death grind act Terrorizer. They are promoting their new album, released a while back and did three dates in the Netherlands no less. Leiden was for me the closest. So there I went.

The opening band had just started playing as I arrived. I had seen De Profundis from London UK, before. It’s a bit of a difficult band, I hear influences from Opeth when they still played death metal, later Death, and maybe a bit of Cynic; they have solid songwriting, has catchy hooks, and yet it sounds bland and dull. I really can’t get into it.

The second band I didn’t really know: Skeletal Remains from the USA. I checked out some videos which sounded quite okay. They play old school death metal mostly in the Floridian style with quite a bit of New York death metal thrown in the mix. Hence expect virtually no originality. Interesting band to hear once live, and quite a solid performance.

Then it was time for Terrorizer. Only drummer Sandoval is in this band from the World Downfall era, accompanied by two blokes from Monstrosity. The majority of the set was comprised of songs from the World Downfall album, as it should be, the later albums are far from the quality of the debut. Two songs from Hordes of Zombies were thrown in the mix, and Crematorium, the old song recorded from the demo days on Darker Days Ahead was included. And of course a handful of new songs from Caustic Attack. Although a pretty decent album, the old songs really stand out. Pete the Feet really is awesome to see playing live, particularly in a small venue as this. Everything about this guy is moving while he is playing, including his tongue. After the regular set they came back to play the classic Dead Shall Rise and World Downfall. This gig was really a blast.