Due to the Dutch Railroad Association I missed the first three bands of the meeting which where: The Banner, Strike First and The Setup.

After entering the venue and installing myself near the bar Himsa started their show. I noticed that the sound was much better then the last time I saw them. From the beginning of the show Himsa played like their lives depended from it. The stage presentation was really good and they were constantly seeking for some contact with the audience. At the end of their show their attempts finally paid off and Himsa could leave the stage satisfied. The next act of the meeting was Annihilation Time which plays hardcore with influences of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. If you ask me, those influences were really hard to find in the beginning because the sound was really bad at the first couple of songs. After a while it went better but the damage was already done. Most of the people went away to get some beer or go to grab something to eat. Annihilation Time couldn’t  convince these people to stay nor could they convince me to buy an album or something like that.

 

Bold was up next and finally the crowd reacted on the act that was on stage. At the beginning of the set the audience was a bit shy, but after a few songs the audience loosened up and the first mosh pit was a fact. The tightness of the band really contributed to this, although their singer was a bit nervous on stage. At the end of the set the singer and the guitar player switched roles and the shit hits the fan when “United we stand” is played. The crowd goes crazy; people are stage diving everywhere. It’s a great end of a great show which in my opinion was hard to exceed.

Path Of Resistance which exists of former members of the straight edge band Earth Crisis was up next. From the beginning of the show it was obvious that there was happening something fantastic at the Arnhem Hardcore Meeting. They started with an intro they also used on their last album “Can’t Stop The Truth” and after that there was total chaos, they played a very powerful set and people were stage diving everywhere. And of course the 3 singers from “Path Of Resistance were firing up the crowd constantly. In between the songs Karl Buechner was also spreading the Straight Edge message for anyone who was listening. Overall it was a great performance and the only Dutch show of Path Of Resistance is a show that will be remembered for a long time.

The last act of the meeting was Death By Stereo which played for a venue that was half empty because most of the people came to see Path Of Resistance and went home afterwards. They started their set really powerful with some songs from the “Into the valley of death” album. Halfway the second song the singer jumped into the crowd trying to get the moshpit going , but there were simply not enough people. Still Death By Stereo continued playing very tight and gave everything on stage. The set was pretty good but overall I believe they deserved better.