It doesn’t happen all that much that the Hague host death metal gigs or metal gigs in general. So when one does happen I can ride my bicycle to go and take a look. Malevolent Creation are a second tier Floridian Death metal band from the late 80s and were celebrating 30 years of their second album Retribution by touring Europe. Unfortunately their only original member – guitarist Phil Fasciana had some accident and had to stay home. The three other members completed the tour nevertheless.

They didn’t bring a support, so a local band filled that slot. It was the band Melting Eyes, from the Hague. I had seen them before in the same venue, a couple of years ago with Gruesome. It’s very generic death metal, mostly mid-paced, mostly in the early Floridian style – some Obituary, Death, Massacre. It’s quite well played, with some interesting lead guitar work here and there. I think they improved a little since last time.

Then Malevolent Creation. They started with a couple of songs – seven – from Retribution, The Coldest Survive and Monster were skipped. With only one guitar it sounded a bit thin. And the sound wasn’t all that great. The vocals have a bit of a hardcore feel to them. The drums were quite good. The bass was there too. After Retribution they played a few songs of their debut album, The Ten Commandments, and a few of Eternal. Multiple Stabwounds was the Encore. I’d like to have heard Thou Shall Kill or Malevolent Creation. A pretty good gig, but it feels a little strange when a band has no original members on stage. Still an interesting gig.