These climbers were the opening act of tonight, namely Blinded Colony from Sweden! Blinded Colony is a very promising melodic death metal band who were formed back in 2000 as Stigma, but changed their name in 2002. Although this band exists for quite some years now, you could see that they were very young and nervous. Their personal skills weren’t that sensational neither, but they know how to write songs and how to play them together live. Their music comes, next to accessible and modern melodic melodeath, with some kind of sampled industrial/synth sound that made it all a bit sinister (far more than on the albums). Most of the songs that passed the set were from their latest record Bedtime Prayers that came out just a month ago, with as highlight '21st Century Holocaust', “a song that is so fast, so aggressive and so melodic that will rip your ass off” – like the frontman announced. His nervousity didn’t go away and so he kept on biting on the flex of his mic and singing with his shirt over his head. Maybe the empty hall made them anxious.
When after the backline-change Kayser started to play they immediately overruled the youthful opener Blinded Colony with a lot more power and volume. These Germans were much older (read: more experienced) and they certainly were way more skilled musicians. The first two tracks both were two furious thrashsongs. I was completely overwhelmed, it was partytime! If this could continue for like two or three hours you wouldn’t hear me complain. Sadly enough the band didn’t seem to be as happy as I was. They didn’t get the reaction they wanted (what do you expect; 50 people that clap their hands simply doesn’t sound louder then a guitarist who keeps on playing guitar between the songs, no way that they could have heard the fans). And when I thought the sound was good (specially for this venue) the singer himself had a different opinion. He took his mic-stand and put it down in the middle of the hall with the words “let’s see if the sound’s better off-stage”. He seemed content with his decision cause he didn’t get back on the stage. In fact, he could now watch his bandmates perform and easily walk to the bar to grab another beer. Nevertheless he was always back on time to do his vocalparts. Vocals that sounded a lot like James Hetfield. But not only Kayser’s singer Spice sounded like Metallica. Kayser’s repertoire doesn’t only contain thrash songs but hardrock tracks as well which were also played live. Overall it was a good gig but at the same time the second band of tonight who had difficulties with the small crowd.
I can be very clear about headliner Ektomorf. After seven studioalbums and a lot of gigs in a lot of countries this band still doesn’t show any sign of being ‘rockstars’. Their mixture of thrash, hardcore and punk together with a political message has always been the same. They are always very thankful to their fans, even if there are only a few present. This mentality creates a very positive atmosphere and this time a moshpit as well. I mean, you can’t stand still if a band plays like their lives depend on it and I think that everybody had the same thought. After their one-sided but solid set which contained most of the songs from the Outcast record they left under a loud applause. Still there were many who wanted to hear some more and when an adult fan with a mic commanded them to come back, they gave a nice bonus.
