Four bands toured under the banner of Morbid Fest headlined by I Am Morbid, the Morbid Angel spin off by David Vincent. I had never been to this venue, as it apparently doesn’t organise many metal gigs. Having a little trouble finding the entrance and some difficulties with scanning the tickets on mobile phones, it turned out to be quite a nice venue. Sound would be good all evening mostly.

The opening band was the Italian progressive metal act Sadist. They have been around for a very long time, but I never got much into them. The singer came on stage wearing a butcher’s apron, a horned mask and a chainsaw with chainsaw sounds over the PA. Musically very solid, with some interesting bass lines and drums. And it is quite fascinating to see a guitarist play keyboards at the same time occasionally. Not entirely my thing but quite a good gig nevertheless.

The second band were the German Atrocity. They brought no bass player. I really liked their first two albums but never got to see them live before. The first has some really weird death metal with some Pungent Stench-like riffs and the second is closer to early Death but with quite some originality. I lost interest with Blut and its successors. Now with the two Okkult albums they returned to the more death metal style and they only played death metal songs and none of the gothic or whatever of the other albums. However the newer material isn’t as good as the earlier songs by a long shot. Blue Blood, Fatal Step and Necropolis are killer tracks. They played these songs quite well so all in all an entertaining gig.

Vital Remains was the third band of the evening and their gigs are always killer. Apparently with a new drummer and lead guitarist since I saw them a while back. The focus is still mostly on Icons of Evil from which they played three songs. Singer Brian went stage diving a couple of times while singing. Their long songs seem to work a lot better in a live setting than on album. They furthermore played Forever Underground and Dechristianize. It was tight, fast and brutal, as always. Great gig again.

I Am Morbid is David Vincent with a couple of guys playing Morbid Angel songs, mostly of the first four albums. I had seen them a year ago or so in The Hague, and they played the same set. In the mean time they replaced one of their guitarist. Nevertheless, David seems to be having a lot more fun playing than last time, with more drive in his both his playing and his activity on stage. And overall they played much more aggressive than last time. I never much cared for the albums after Blessed are the Sick. Covenant had a few good tracks, still. To play the title track of Blessed are the Sick is a bit of an odd choice. Some Rebel Lands or Brainstorm would be cool. Pretty cool gig all in all.