It has been a long time since I�ve seen the fruitcakes of The Red Chord throw out some brutal rage on stage, and tonight they were to open up for two big metal bands. As I hoped, the show of The Red Chord outclassed the two things to follow with ease. These guys ripped through all things pretentious, and showed us sheer creative brutality for as long as their opening slot would allow them. Their music simply rules, as do their beards, because it links (death) metal, with hardcore and grindcore in a unique way, but with huge impact. Not for the faint-hearted and not for the dumb metalfarmer with nothing but Cannibal Corpse shirts. The humour aspect of their music fortunately wasn�t gone either, as vocalist Guy put up an entertaining show by asking people to get closer to the stage, actually singling people out and advising small people to stand in front of tall people. Overall I was very satisfied with this show, but I�d love to see another headlining gig by these weirdos, because this simply wasn�t enough for me. Great show, and the end of the evening for me! [DemonDust]

 

And there was Job For A Cowboy! The band that is renowned for their deathcore demo in 2004 and mainly because of their 2005 EP titled Doom, released a pure death metal record earlier this year, and didn't became less popular because of that. What attracted my attention was that JFAC didn't act like rock stars since they've grown so big in a short time, but that their singer looked more like a shy person to me. He at least didn't talk or joke between the songs except for announcing the next one. Musically seen it was very well, yet the best thing was the performance itself including the lightshow, it really had a big impact on me. Only few colours were used, mostly flame coloured spots shined here and there on the stage. The nicest spot was just one bulb in the middle above the stage, really cool done. My conclusion: JFAC definitely realized my expectations. [Mindsaver]

 

2005, the record Miasma, ah yes, I really liked the aggressive and mean feeling of this record, with an alternated style which offered just a little bit more than all those metalcore bands. End of 2007, Effenaar, Eindhoven, was The Black Dahlia Murder the righteous headliner of this night? The answer would be yes when you just look at the popularity among the more mainstream and younger metal fans (just to prevent that I harm somebody�s vulnerable feelings: this is not meant to be degrading in any way), but when I look at the creative and renewing factor I must say no. Sure The Black Dahlia Murder put up a tight and aggressive set, but come on, a band with a fat naked frontman doing the more than familiar things today, did I really travel one and a half hour for that? Oh wait, the first thing IS undisputedly connected with metal, but for the latter, no I really didn�t have the need for that. But to put my musical taste aside just for a little bit I will round off positively by saying that The Black Dahlia Murder is one of the nastier bands in the modern melodic deathcore scene. They are on full speed for almost the entire set and the energy blasted off them�but it just couldn�t really reach me. Shit, I just couldn�t help adding that final, not-so-positive, remark. You get my point. [Sledgehammer]