The Haunted - with God Forbid & God Dethroned
What to do on a Thursday evening in Rotterdam? Visit metal-walhalla De Baroeg and witness a show by The Haunted sounded pretty good to Metalrage reporters DemonDust and Mat-Core, so there we were, ready for some good ol’ noisy music.
God Dethroned:
The first band to open up for the popular acts God Forbid and The Haunted did really boil my blood to turn over. The sound wasn't particularly swell, but was nice enough to bang your head on. Songs like “Villa Vampiria”, “Soul Sweeper” and the ultimate moshsong “Warcult”. The audience was getting itself loose and after the show several people went away, their only purpose fullfilled. To watch God Dethroned. For me this was the best band of the evening, because God Forbid did not turn anything loose in me. The Haunted was quite entertaining for me, but I was stoned/drunk right then.
God Forbid:
I had seen these guys earlier this year opening up for Machine Head and I didn’t like it one bit. This time however started off pretty interesting. Their volume was an awful lot louder than God Dethroned’s which made an immediate impact upon the crowd. Their enthusiasm got a couple of moshpits started during tracks like “Anti-hero” and “Into The Wasteland” which I always love to see. Violence! Their version of what is called the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal sounded to my liking for about half their set, then I got bugged by all the emo parts that take out the brutality a tad too much in my opinion. Some nice beat-downs though. A very good show for the fans indeed.
The Haunted:
Now I only own a copy of their One Kill Wonder album but I was still quite curious on how they’d be to see perform live. Even though their volume wasn’t even near God Forbid’s they got a moshpit started during the first couple of songs. They played some tracks of the album I own, which actually made me bang my head. A very tight performance that in my opinion sounded slightly slow. It could just be me though, but in my impression you can seldom go too fast in thrash metal so speed it up!
The vocalist had quite a humorous presentation, ridiculing black metal every now and then but didn’t always sound convincing in the songs, especially during the more melodic parts. But then again, he ain’t the one singing on the disc I own. All in all it was a very entertaining show on a very entertaining evening.
God Dethroned: Mat-Core
God Forbid: DemonDust
The Haunted: DemonDust
God Dethroned: Mat-Core
God Forbid: DemonDust
The Haunted: DemonDust