Thursday June 11th

Unchallenged Hate MySpace
The first band to play DFOA’s one and only stage was the late announced substitute act Unchallenged Hate. Although this band has over 12 years of history and released 3 full-lengths, they sounded quite crappy. Whether it was because they were the first to play or just because they weren’t warmed up, their Cannibal Corpse-like death metal just sounded way too rumbling and didn’t leave a good impression. (Mindsaver)

Sufferage MySpace
Sufferage, also from Germany, has just like Unchallenged Hate 3 full-lengths under their belt and thus a comparable history. Yet their music was of a way higher level than their predecessor. Although also influenced by Cannibal Corpse, we also got to hear some non-technical Dying Fetus-style death metal and a significant high-pitched snare during the blastbeats. All of a pleasantly brutal and tight level. Death metal by the book, but their upcoming record might be more interesting ‘cause the skills are there. (Mindsaver)

Remnants Of Flesh MySpace
Remnants Of Flesh from Athens, Greece played a more Suffocation-influenced style but with more slamming breakdowns - comparable to their country mates Inveracity. Yet Inveracity is a school-model for tight ‘n grooving brutal death metal, and Remnants Of Flesh’ singer sure isn’t the best frontman around. But the music was nice and promising, so I’m curious for some studio material from these guys, ‘cause at the moment they aren’t even included in the Encyclopaedia Metallum. (Mindsaver)

Ditchcreeper MySpace
Up next was UK’s Ditchcreeper, a name I came across multiple times recently, even though they haven’t got a Metal Archives page yet. Yet this was one of the worst bands on the festival. The music wasn’t very special, but especially the singer’s vocal-tricks were poor moves and made his voice sound really bad. (Mindsaver)




Fleshgod Apocalypse MySpace
From one of the weakest to one of the tightest bands of the festival... I’m talking about Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse here. A band that varies death metal with, pretty surprising: classical music. During the classical parts we had a lot of fun acting like guiding an orchestra, but the death metal parts (of course taking the upper hand in their music) are deadly serious and utter tight. A bit too tight for an open air stage actually, I can image that a lot of people didn’t get the exact accuracy that Fleshgod reach on CD. For those people: check “In Honour Of Reason” out on their MySpace. Another sick detail: I thought that former singer/guitarist Paolo left the band when I saw a different vocalist. Yet halfway their show I noticed Paolo sat behind the kit. After the gig I met this guy (who is also Hour Of Penance’s frontman) and he told me that their previous drummer left and they couldn’t find another one, so he just does it himself. For only six months now! (Mindsaver)

Man Must Die MySpace
Scotland’s Man Must Die didn’t seem to fit on the bill too much in advance, but were retrieving more and more response from the audience during their show. Their mix of melodic/technical death(core) had both nice and boring aspects. Their melodic guitar play still reminds me too much of Metallica, something I do not wish to hear at DFOA. The good things were the breakdowns, which provided a perfect moment for some slamming action in the pit. Later on they presented us some new tracks from their upcoming record No Tolerance For Imperfection, including “Kill It Skin It Wear It” which sounded really tight and brutal. Promising stuff! (Mindsaver)

Katalepsy MySpace
Katalepsy proved that brutal death metal on DFOA doesn’t have to sound extremely tight, as long as it’s slamming. The first true slam act on this fest were welcomed with open arms, or should I say bouncing hands? The circle pit that commenced at the start kept on growing during their show, and by the end of their set, almost half of the crowd participated in the ongoing friendly circles. Even after the rain. Musick Brings Injuries? Not physical here today, but it sure sounded nice! (Mindsaver)

Purgatory MySpace
I don’t mind and actually fully understand influences of the godfathers of death metal in bands formed years later. Yet the undisputable Vader influences in Purgatory’s music were just too obvious. As if they covered the completely Litany album here tonight, with just small fixes on the songs. A real cover of the song “Wings” made it even more laughable. A band from 1993 should have a little more face of its own! (Mindsaver)

Putrid Pile MySpace
Shaun LaCanne aka Putrid Pile seemed to be one of the audience’s favourites. This solo-act from Racine, Wisconsin delivered a very brutal and in-your-face performance with his kick ass drum computer, shredding guitar work and brutal grunts. A real hero for the crowd, and being a solo artist, all the credits were of course for him alone. A circle pit was formed within minutes and kept on growing, just like the first time he played on DFOA if I may believe the stories. The new material from his recently released third album House Of Dementia sounded great live, even more brutal than on CD, on which it has a more melodic feel than its predecessors. Heading towards the song “Circlepit Commando” made the crowd go even crazier, so props to this guy! (Mindsaver)

Entombed MySpace
The masters of Swedish death metal, who hasn’t heard or seen them before? Entombed filled the shoes of the cancelled Vital Remains, not a bad choice I’d say. They set the mood by playing The Louvin Brothers’ song ‘Satan Is Real’ as an intro from a CD and then kicked in the death ‘n’ roll rollercoaster. Twenty years this band has been rampaging the rock scene, and it still works as a charm. Luckily vocalist L-G Petrov (aka the Ozzy of death metal) wasn’t as drunk as he was at Neurotic Deathfest two weeks earlier and was able to perform a decent show. Nothing new, just decent old school Swedish death ‘n’ roll for all the oldies out in the field. Rock! (DemonDust)

Macabre MySpace
The headliner of the first Death Feast Open Air day was the Chicago murder metal outfit Macabre. I’ve seen them live a couple of times before, but I always had to conclude that this is just not a great live band. I personally love the Dahmer record; I can sing practically every lyric of every song. Yet again the band disappointed me with a bad performance. The sound started out real bad, especially the guitar and bass sounded like poop in the beginning of the set. But the drums sounded amazing though. Luckily this all improved as the set progressed. It seemed that they were on a tight schedule with a curfew lurking just around the corner, something mister Corporate Death kept telling the audience rather than playing another song. In the end I think they quit their set prematurely due to this, only to come back for an encore like ten or fifteen minutes later. Weird. Still not convinced Macabre is a good live band, but I do still enjoy songs like ‘Hitchhiker’ and the way the band announced their songs, explaining the horrific acts committed by various serial killers. (DemonDust)



Friday June 12th

Disembowel MySpace
On the second day we got told that Crepitation from the UK wasn’t able to play this noon - but instead got programmed as first act on Saturday. Still the very first act up was Disembowel from Germany, who delivered a nice slab of brutal death metal. Nothing really special, but with some slam parts they were of course soon well accepted, although there was no movement on the ground yet. Furthermore the guitar solos were quite boring, but the technical drum work made up for that. (Mindsaver)

Poppy Seed Grinder MySpace
I had some high hopes for Poppy Seed Grinder from Czech Republic since their latest effort Humanophobia appeals to me very well. Too bad that they couldn’t live up to my expectations, ‘cause their show was just too average. Nice parts were alternated with lesser parts and as a whole it didn’t sound all too tight. Too bad, because the varying grunts are really fun from this band. (Mindsaver)

Begging For Incest MySpace
Because Begging For Incest’s drummer arrived too late; Begging could only play a short set of exactly 20 minutes. The band played their most slamming songs with as final song “Crushed Testicles Smeared With Excrements”. When the band announced their 1-minute goregrind track “Guttural Anal Stuff” as encore they were unfortunately removed from the stage. Too bad, ‘cause I would love to hear that track live. (Mindsaver)



Nox MySpace
After the German slam show we witnessed a more serious act with Nox. This Dutch band featuring ex-members of Prostitute Disfigurement and Centurian delivered a set with a lot of double bass, but unfortunately less other drum elements. And although the band played pretty tight, the average speed remained too constant and therefore tended a bit too black metal as well. I say good band, but not perfect for this festival. (Mindsaver)

Hate MySpace
The Polish foursome Hate are another example of an extremely tight brutal assault. The lead guitar was a little soft but for the rest the sound was OK and the Polish accuracy therefore well audible. Most of the songs played came from the last two albums Anaclasis and Morphosis, in my eyes the most thrilling ones. Good job. (Mindsaver)

Insidious Decrepancy MySpace
Up to another solo act. Mister Shawn Whitaker alias Insidious Decrepancy performed a relentless show and proved that there’s nothing wrong with a drum computer at its time. Although his tracks with extremely long titles sound the same quite a lot, they had way more impact than on the last edition of Houten Deathfest. With a polonaise going on in the pit, Putrid Pile saw from the back of stage that it was good. (Mindsaver)






Evocation MySpace
We decided to watch the Swedish band Evocation from a distance, and I’m glad we did. Evocation who have a singer that wears gloves, sounded no different than a worse version of Caliban/Heaven Shall Burn with old school thrash influences. Hope they’re more interesting on their upcoming tour with Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus. (Mindsaver)

God Dethroned MySpace
One of the three Dutch bands playing at Death Feast Open Air was also one of the two bands to feature a girl in the band. Yes I’m talking about God Dethroned who once again lost their drummer. We missed most of their set because we went back to our tents for a minute. The band still manages to bring quality death metal, although it seems they have passed their highlight some time ago already. The crowd wasn’t too enthusiastic about their show either. Too bad for them, but what can you do. (DemonDust)

General Surgery MySpace
After the release of the new General Surgery album Corpus In Extremis: Analyzing Necrocriticism I was keen on seeing these Swedish gore ‘n’ roll pathologists play again. The band ran into some bad luck today, for one of their guitarists was forced to stay home due to personal reasons and when they took the stage they encountered some technical difficulties here and there. Nevertheless the band was received by the crowd as one of the main events, even though there was little response to whatever the singer had to say to them. The rocking riffs combined with brutal grinding blasts sure can start a party, add some screams and a little pitchshifter and you’ll get this crowd wild. Definitely one of my favourites on this fest. (DemonDust)

Vomitory MySpace
Up next was another old Swedish death metal band: Vomitory who announced that they would play a special set to celebrate their 20^th anniversary, featuring ex-members of the band in the show. I for one have no idea what was supposed to be special about it, all I heard was some of the tightest quality death metal this entire feast had to offer. Blistering and bludgeoning violence trampling everything in its path. A bit monotonous in the end perhaps, but as I said definitely one of the bands that delivered a superb high quality sound and show. Nothing more, nothing less. (DemonDust)

The Black Dahlia Murder MySpace
It seemed that The Black Dahlia Murder attracted a lot of their fans to the festival, since I saw a lot of younger people walking around in their merch. Yet those fans didn’t give the band enough response between the songs ‘cause they were constantly asking for it. I think the true death metal fan had (just like me) problems with their annoying metalcore riffs and typical boring vocals. I think the drummer fitted this fest the most, with his extremely tight drumming and abundance of triggered blast beats. Next year a real death metal band on this slot please! (Mindsaver)


Saturday June 13th

Crepitation MySpace
The UK retard-slam death metal outfit Crepitation didn’t make it to their show the day before, so the organization was kind enough to let them play in front of the first band the day after. In the already scorching heat, a number of moronic death metal mongloids dressed up in the dumbest outfits took the stage to play some technical yet hilarious gory death metal. A twin vocal attack (by the biggest idiots in the band, one of them actually wearing a shower-mat) with occasional pitchshifter spewed over the audience, already creating the first slam circle-pit of the day. Of course including Japanese gore chicks. They ended their short set pretty soon; it seemed because they had no more songs, but they stayed a minute extra to play Suffocation’s ‘Infecting The Crypts’ with Putrid Pile joining in on vocals. A great but not too serious death metal party! (DemonDust)

Choked By Own Vomits MySpace
C’mon, if this band name doesn’t put a smile on your face you’re a fucking emo fag! It is obvious this band has to come from Czech Republic with a name like that. I didn’t really know what to expect besides some form of gore-grind, but as soon as they took the stage I was blown away by this gnarly trio from hell! Uber-nasty vocals, finally! The band sort of combined the sounds of Regurgitate with Jig-Ai, which is one of the finest combos to be made in goregrind I’d say. Their little stint of a couple of less than ten seconds songs was funny to see, I bet they can fill a whole set with that! With basically every song being about poop or something other nasty, my craving for goregrind was finally satisfied after seeing Choked By Own Vomits. Hell yeah! (DemonDust)

Embedded MySpace
With Embedded, we witnessed yet another 13 in a dozen brutal death metal band. Prominent aspect was their brutal sound, while their latest record Beyond The Flesh has a pretty clean production. I would like to see these Germans again some time! (Mindsaver)

Infested MySpace
I had seen this German mathgrind outfit a long time ago, I think they were without a bass player back then because they couldn’t find anybody up to the task. Today there were five people that brought the most complex music found on this entire fest. Think of a less complex, more death metal version of Cephalic Carnage and add a lethal dose of breakdowns and guttural vocals and you get the point. A very enjoyable performance, enhanced by a small guest performance by the Despondency vocalist. Total fucking chaos, mathgrind all the way. Fucking great show for sure! (DemonDust)

Spawn MySpace
Before this German death metal band started to play I was informed it was supposed to be a kind of boring act. And it was, my description for it is Deicide with a little yoghurt. Why I don’t know, but it sounds funny. Also this was the other band with a female in it, but that didn’t help either judging from the small amount of people in front of the stage. Mediocre death metal that nobody really cared for. Well executed but monotonous and boring, a filler instead of a killer unfortunately. (DemonDust)

Gadget MySpace
After an eye-opening performance at Neurotic Deathfest two weeks earlier I was keen on seeing the Swedish power-grinders of Gadget play once more. Damn fucking hell, this is grindcore the way I like it. Power, more power! Blastbeats always tend to go on a little longer than I expect them to, something that pleases me a great deal. The true grinders at Death Feast had all gathered in front of the stage, and even though there weren’t that many they still managed to get a small circle pit going by the end of their set. These guys deserve to play way more often; I for one could check them out every day of the week. True grind! (DemonDust)

Lay Down Rotten MySpace
Lay Down Rotten attracted quite some people to the front. This Metal Blade-signed band released 5 albums in the last 6 years and seems to have become quite known because of that. Yet I think that they've become less interesting with every record. The sound wasn’t optimal either and therefore it became a boring old school death metal show. Matter of taste I suppose. (Mindsaver)

Gut MySpace
My first encounter with the German gorefathers Gut was about a couple of months ago, but it didn’t really get to me back then. Unfortunately this hadn’t changed when they took the stage here, yet judging by the response of the crowd I was one of the few. The fun-goregrind (which is more like rock ‘n’ roll actually) appeals to the masses it seems, and as they played their hits with lyrical topics like bukkake and poop the willing crowd started circle-pit number 235. It pleased the fans but now I know this is not a band for me for sure. (DemonDust)

Devourment MySpace
With Devourment we got our true slamming headliner. Many metalheads were looking forward to see this band for a long time and now this was finally going to happen. Immediately at the start a slam circle pit formed around some people in the middle, but they were soon absorbed after the singer’s command. The sound was utterly brutal and perfect for a show like this. The legendary song “Babykiller” was announced quite early in their set and was dedicated to the former bassist.. ehh vocalist who passed away a year ago. Vocalist Mike Majewski seemed to be a little drunk.. yet his sound was awesome and the way he did his vocals was remarkable, with one hand on the mic and the other in his pocket. All in all this was a great show that occasionally gave me goosebumbs from the massive experience of all the fans. (Mindsaver)

Haemorrhage MySpace
Yet another gore ‘n’ roll act covered in blood and singing about pathological topics, this time from Spain. Of course I’m talking about the legendary Haemorrhage. This trio of homicidal doctors got the party going once more, I even saw members of General Surgery running around in the moshpit during their show! Even though I don’t think their music is on the same level as those Swedish pathologists, it was still a very enjoyable show that pleased a lot of people. A good sound and a lot of crowd participation, excellent! (DemonDust)

Misery Index MySpace
Even though it was the fourth time this year I saw the grinders of Misery Index taking the stage, I’m still not bored by them. Even though it was at least the fourth time I heard all the same songs in the same order, I’m still not bored by it. And even though I’m going to see this band another estimated three times this year, I’m still not fucking bored! Do you get my fucking point?!? This is one of the best death/grind acts in the whole fucking world. See it and agree with me. If you don’t, well fuck you. We know better than you. (DemonDust)

Napalm Death MySpace
Before all annihilation was over, the grindfathers that still lead the way took the stage. Napalm Death came, saw and conquered as they always do. Furious jetfighter grindcore delivered by a bunch of old yet in no way tired dudes. It’s just too bad the average metalhead sees these guys a couple of times every year, might be overkill. Enjoyable overkill though. True grind! (DemonDust)




Pictures by Metalshots.com