The French Ataraxie embarked on a short tour this weekend through Belgium, Netherlands and France. They didn’t bring any support acts so a local band was added to the bill. The Dutch gig took place in Tilburg in the small venue – essentially a bar with a podium – Little Devil.

The opening band was Zwart – Black in Dutch, who come from Tilburg. In essence it is Abysmal Darkening under a new name. They play black metal, with some doom elements. The lyrics are mostly in Dutch. The two women in the band were dressed with veils. The songs are basically quite straightforward. Mostly tremolo picked riffs with some powerchords and arpeggiating. Not really my thing but not bad either.

Ataraxie took the stage next. With three guitarist and a bassist the small stage is quite full. They started off with the title track of their latest album. And as all their songs it was quite long, nearly 20 minutes later the song has been completed, meandering going through sections of slow and fast, melodic passages and heavy riffs. The second songs – their shortest this evening – was L’Ataraxie off their debut album. The dissonant riffs of the first have and the melodic section of the second half make this an awesome song. Sounds somewhat different than on record. The announced the last song then already as Face the Loss of Your Sanity off L’être et la nausée album. Fortunately they played another song to complete their 70 minute set namely Les affres du trépas; the final song of their latest album. Pretty great gig.