Gavin Spearhead's Blog

This is the third gig for me in a weeks time. These are busy times, indeed. The fourth – Blitzkrieg on Sunday – unfortunately got cancelled. There were three bands scheduled to play, who I hadn’t seen before. All are Norwegian. I was mainly interested in Obliteration. The first band was Vorbid whom I didn’t […]

Four thrash metal bands decided one day that they should tour Europe together under the flag of good ol’ Headbanger’s Ball. The only Dutch date was on the 5th of December when in the Netherlands we celebrate Sinterklaas. And that means that traffic is rather unpredictable, but very likely there’s a lot. As the gig […]

It was the Tenth edition of the Belgian Darken the Moon festival already. A few years back I went to edition number V, in Brussels, this time it was held in Sint Niklaas, which is about half an hour closer by. The festival was held in a very neat, old building called De Casino. It […]

The start of autumn is usually the time for Dutch Doom Day held at the Baroeg, the 17th installment already. Two days filled with doom metal, often rather obscure bands that one doesn’t get to see often. I went to only the first day, as I didn’t really know or liked any of the bands […]

Napalm Death are one of the oldest still going extreme metal bands. Formed in 1981 as a hardcore band, they pioneered grindcore in the mid-80s and later included death metal influences in their sound. Even some groove metal influences appeared in the 90s. There are no original members left since 1987 or thereabouts. But Shane, […]

Purtenance is one of the many death metal bands from the early 1990s that released a nearly forgotten album, then, which is now a cult release. Even the re-release of their debut album is hard to come by at a fair price. They broke up after the release and only many years later reformed and […]

Diamond Head are one of the first NWOBHM band, yet they are best known through the covers Metallica played. Back in the early 80s they had everything, yet they never gained the success like some of the other NWOBHM band like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Anyway, for a while they have resurfaced and are […]

The Irish lads from Mourning Beloveth were doing a short tour in the Benelux during this weekend around a festival in Leeuwarden. The second gig was in Rotterdam and the third in Belgium, however that gig was cancelled. So a really short tour then. Originally the Dutch underground act Phlebotomized were supposed to play, however […]

Hamferd played this same venue half a year ago. I was very much impressed by their gig, at the time. Then as a support act, now as the headliner. This was the last show of a short tour they did in Europe. The venue added one opening act. Beyond our Ruins had the honour to […]