The first gig of the year for me was none other than the mighty Asphyx. They don’t play all that often in their home country, bu they started the year with a few gigs in the Netherlands.

The first support slot was given to a new band from the Netherlands called Necrotesque. Even though it was a new band most members have been in several bands before yet none that I was all to familiar with. They play old school death metal in mostly in the Swedish style. No frills, no guitar solos. Just riffs and vocals. Musically relatively simple and straightforward. Like so many new bands in this genre, it has all been done before and they down bring anything new to the table. Solid playing though in general, and fine to watch for half an hour.

Graceless have been around a bit longer, with 3 albums already under their belt. It’s also old school death metal with some doom metal influences here. My main gripe about this band is that the drums are quite dull. And that hasn’t changed. Some of the newer songs sounded a bit more varied that the earlier material. Yet is still sounds quite run-off-the-mill. And this gig the lead guitars sounded quite sloppy. Rhythm guitar was solid as can be though.

Then it was time for Asphyx. They haven’t done any proper touring yet for their latest opus Necroceros, which was quite a good album, maybe even their best since they reform. They opened with the song with the peculiar lyrics “Botox Implosion” which is quite a fast song. The 2nd song Molten Black Earth has that more familiar Asphyx doom sound. MS Bismarck was back on the set, which is still one of their best songs. The remainder of the set was a mixture of older and newer songs. With the set closers The Rack and Last one on Earth. Asphyx played a very tight gig, had seemingly a great time on stage and with quite a good set list, it was certainly a great gig