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Despondency, Covenance, Rottenness, Carnal Decay - Supreme Misanthropic Brutality
Every once in a while, multiple death metal bands are booked by Tilburg’s famous rock&metal café Little Devil. This time a brutal line-up of international bands from the States, Mexico, Germany and Switzerland.

First off were Swiss trio Carnal Decay, starting in front of practically no one and ending up performing for only a few dozens of people. The ambiance was more like a Monday eve's gig, while it was actually Saturday night. Come on people, there’s some death metal to support! Carnal Decay delivered a fine piece of grooving brutal death metal, which doesn’t hold much variety but for those who simply love blastbeats that shouldn’t bother really. Vocalist/bassist Michael had, despite the small audience, a lot of fun on stage (stoned?) - while their female guitarist Isa contributed to the groove very well with her low guitar sound. Drummer Reti had no other task than to blast his feet off, on which he succeeded with great perseverance.

Up next was Mexican flu-core band Rottenness, a band without a drummer using a  drum computer instead. This was easily the most excessive band of the night, with extremely guttural vocals from two guys in the front and the on and on blasting lap-top - which reminded me of a jammed CD player. Horribly fast and heavy and thus fun to watch, although we can also conclude that this wasn’t of the highest quality. Actually, I’ve heard music like this before done better by one man alone (Shawn Whitaker anyone?).

The third band of the night was one I was looking forward to a long time already. Covenance from Annapolis, Maryland might not be very known, but the former bands of its members can’t be missed by any death metal fan. These men have experience in Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Unmerciful and in the past even Cryptopsy. Pretty much a supergroup of lads who play Misery Index-style death metal with songs lasting for about 2 minutes. With only 2 EPs released, I think they played both Ravaging The Pristine and The Wasting in its entirety and still kept their set short. During their show the sound never got optimal, the guitar sound was way too loud and the bass was not very noticeable but overall it was doing well, while it was extremely nice to watch their drummer go bezerk on his kit with ultra fast fills and blasts. Even though they don’t reach Misery Index’s live level (which band does?) I can now say that Covenance is killer both live as on CD.

Headliner of tonight’s mighty package was German four-piece Despondency. Now I’ve only seen this band once before (at this year’s Neurotic Deathfest) but that was enough exposure to conclude I never wanted to miss a show of this band on Dutch soil in the future anymore. So here we are, at a cosy small café, still not very crowded but those who attended were at least a bit drunk now. Technical brutal death metal with slamming breakdowns got spawned over the audience and still no moshing occurred - but seeing the smiles on the audience’s faces confirmed everyone liked this band very well. Older work of their 2003 God On Acid album sounded very brutal while the band pushed its limits with this years Revelation IV (Rise Of The Nemesis), of which the band played some relatively long lasting songs with great ease. Massive band that I will definitely check again the next time they visit our country.
Details Written on Sunday Sep 27th, 2009
Writer @Mindsaver

Tags: #Despondency #Covenance #Rottenness #Carnal Decay