This years line up wasn’t really interesting, except for the final day, for me there was one must-see band, namely Intestine Baalism. There were a couple of other bands I like to see, too. So I skipped the first two days and only went the Sunday.

The first band I saw were the Belgian Possession in the main hall. Black/death metal. Not too interesting to me really. So I left after a few songs.

Phlebotomized played the small hall. Tom Palms is now the only original member left, but he has an injury and is unable to play. One of his students stepped in as lead guitarist. Also they no longer have a violin player. They opened with the good old Devoted to God, but played mostly songs of the album. I haven’t heard it yet bet the songs sound okay. The clean vocals by singer Ben in Barricade were quite terrible. Though quite a cool gig, I am glad I saw them twice a few years when they had four original members and playing classic material.

In the main hall Revenge from Canada was playing. Black death metal as well. And again not much to my liking. Chaotic solos, shouted vocals, lack of good riffs.

The main event for was in the small hall, where Intestine Baalism would play. This is their first gig outside of Japan or so it seems. It also happens to be one of the bands I want to see live the most. Musically they lean very closely to Swedeath with distinct melodies, that retain the brutality of the music. After a short intro track they played, they started with Corporal Celebration. The remainder followed in quick succession, all from the first two albums. The sound was somewhat muddy yet everything was audible. The drummer is quite entertaining to watch, wearing his sunglasses and every thing is moving. A slight technical problem occured in Banquet in the Darkness but was quickly remedied. Really awesome gig. Hopefully they can finally tour properly one day and play a full set.

I then went to see a bit of Mgla. More black metal for which I don’t care that much. The band hid their faces behind mask. Not really a style of music I am into.

Severe Torture is another band I can’t get really into. Brutal death metal. And the hall was already very crowded as I entered. So I left early again

In the main hall then Vomitory played. It’s one of the few swedeath bands I can’t really get into. Can’t really put my finger on it why, most of the riffs aren’t all that interesting, lack of lead guitars. Speaking of which the only harmonic lead guitar part wasn’t play well, false notes and out of time.

Viscera Infest is another Japanese band who play some sort of goregrind with some doomy sections and blisteringly fast section. The drummer played is his underpants and had a particularly weird set-up with only one tom raised to eye-height. A weird band, and don’t care much for goregrind.

Incantation are a band that sometimes can be good and sometimes there is something lacking. Their first three albums are the most interesting and after than the music seems to be less interesting. At least they now have two guitarist which certainly is a plus. The opened with Christening the Afterbirth one of the best songs of the debut album. And also Golgotha and Immortal Cessation of that album were played. Ibex Moon closed the set. Quite a good gig for a band I’m not that much in to.

I skipped Prostitute Disfigurement, as I don’t care about them and I was getting particularly tired. The same goes for Naglfar, which was playing last in the small hall. The headliner of the main stage however was Deicide. They don’t play much in Europe the last years. And the only time I saw them was when Glen refused to come over. I never been much of a fan really. The opened with Dead By Dawn, and one of the guitarist immediately broke a string which held up the next song. What followed was a cross section of their discography. I didn’t particularly like Kevin’s solos, as they seem to be too random sections; the few solos by Chris were a bit better tho.

So NDF this year had a pretty thin line-up with very few interesting bands, with the exception of Intestine Baalism, who were awesome. The turnout didn’t seem that great either as it wasn’t as crowded as previous editions.