Under the banner of Thrashing Madness II, an evening of thrash metal was organised in the club Musicon in The Hague. Two Dutch bands I didn’t know opened before Inquisitor. The last time I had seen that band had been nearly 25 years ago and I think it was the third or fourth gig I went to. So it was about time to go to one of their gigs.

The opening band was Shuulak. They play more heavy metal than thrash metal. It’s largely mid paced where some more variation in tempo may make the music more interesting. The vocalist was pretty good and also quite active on stage.

Thoughtless is more thrash oriented than the previous but with a female singer (the wife of Toep Duin if I am not mistaken, who is now the drummer of Sinister). Even though she sings quite well, it seems to be a bit out of place from the rest of the band. Musically there was little originality. Not a bad warm-up band.

Inquisitor have been around for a long time, although they had an extended break in the late nineties till 2014 or so. Until then they had released only a single album. Now, last year they have come up with a second album which isn’t all that different stylistically. It’s fast thrash metal with lots death metal influences. The first Sadus album and Merciless comes to mind. Yet the extreme vocals is what really sets them apart. Alex’s shrieky grunts sound very forced yet he seems to be able to do it live to. They race through their set and finish the 11 songs in 45 minutes, then they have time for an encore Crypt of Confession. The set is more or less equally balanced between the first and last album. And even the Merciless cover Dreadful Fate is played. Great to see these guys again and in the same line-up only 25 years older.