When I entered the venue Led Astray just began with their set of technical death metal with some thrash influences. It seems like these guys always give a good, tight show and their technical expertise impresses, but unfortunately not for the entire show. A lot of different riffs are used in a song, which is a nice challenge for your ears, but it’s a shame that too many of those riffs simply aren’t strong enough. While on the hand side some of their very strong riffs, the slower and more brutal ones, are giving too little space to fully show their potential.

 

Next up was Infidel, who played a mix of melodic death metal, thrash and metalcore. Instrumental it sounded ok and there were some nice guitar solos, but due to the lack of originality there was nothing to get really stoked about. The efforts of the front man to give the band their own sound succeeded, but in a very miserable way. He used his voice in such a way that it sounded very unnatural and artificial, just as if he was impersonating someone. Because of his ridiculous appearance, which had an amazing resemblance with a cute angry dwarf, I just couldn’t take Infidel really serious.

 

My heart stopped for a moment when I saw this same singer getting on stage with Total Demise, but luckily he only played guitar in this band which suited him much better than abusing a microphone. However, Total Demise also didn’t have a too skilled front man, because he often had to sing his lyrics from a piece of paper, a horrible sight, but he did his best to sing his lungs out. At his best moments I had to think of The Black Dahlia Murder but often his voice, compared with his looks, made me think of screamo, while death metal/metalcore was the main style they where playing. Just as Infidel they had some good solos, but I still missed a real strong point which could cause some fireworks.

 

The Architect had the honour to bring this evening to a worthy end and luckily they did! These guys sounded professional and were very confident. They brought us some modern sounding thrash with a metalcore touch, especially the singer reminded me of Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed, both by his appearance and his voice. This was a welcome surprise. Thrash rhythms were pleasantly alternated with pounding double bass patterns and also fine melodies reached our ears. A more distinct sound of their own would be preferable in the future, but as the only non-Utrecht band they did very fine and closed this evening worthy.