On this Sunday no less than 7 bands performed in the Baroeg. The Morbidfest tour that got postponed several times, finally actually took place. Unfortunately Grave had forfeit their slot. I think Baroeg combined this tour with another of two doom / death bands. Hence it turned out to be a very varied package.

The opening band was the US band Blasphemous Creation. They have released 4 albums already, but I had never heard of them before. They play death metal with quite some melodies in it. Pretty good band actually, especially considering they are opening. The God Dethroned cover was a bit superfluous.

From France Skaphos was next. They are quite a new band and play black metal mixed with some death metal. The vocals are very death metal like, but musically they borrow some dissonance from later Emperor. Apparently they have something with predatory fish. There imagery on stage show fish, and there were fish nets covering the monitors. Interesting band.

Solothus are from Finland and are not on the Morbidfest tour. They play death doom, so the pace went down quite a bit after the first bands were quite fast. Musically quite interesting although never really innovative. Heavy riffs, melodies – it is all there. The weakest spot is the vocals, which are very boring.

The US band Temple of Void was on tour with Solothus. They also play death / doom and have already released four album. The drummer was really hard hitting. Solid riffs and good melodies and even decent vocals. Nothing groundbreaking but just well done.

Hate are from Poland, they are around for over 30 years already. I had seen them before although I don’t remember that at all. I don’t think I have heard their recordings yet. They play blackened death metal. Not to bad but not really something I’m all that interested in.

The same is with the next band Belphegor. These Austrians also have been around for 30 years and play blackened death metal too. I can’t seem to get into this. The riffs are to bland and the melodies are mostly the same trick over and over again.

Then it is finally time for I Am Morbid. Dave Vincent has now recruited Morbid Angel’s original drummer Pete Sandoval, two guitarists to play some Morbid Angel tunes from the first couple of albums. Opening with Immortal Rites, and Fall From Grace, it shows Pete’s drumming just livens things up compared to the two previous occasions I had seen them. And when they play Blessed are The Sick, it is at the right pace and sounds great. Somehow I always liked their first two albums best, that form half the set. Covenant has some cool songs – Pain Divine, Rapture, but most of Domination I don’t care that much for. Surprises in the set are the Terrorizer song Dead Shall Rise – Pete and Dave both played on that album – and Desolate Ways the short semi-acoustic instrumental from Blessed Are The Sick. Quite a great gig and by far the best of the 3 occasions I have seen them. They only need to get Trey on board somehow for a complete classic reunion.