3-6 - Cephalic Carnage - 013

6-6 - Slipknot - Paradiso

7-6 - Mudvayne - Melkweg

12-6 - Cephalic Carnage - Goudvishal

13-6 - Fantômas - 013

18-6 - Fields of Rock

21-6 - System of a Down - Ahoy

24+25+26-6 - Graspop

28-6 - Sunn 0))) - Paradiso

 

It all started out with a Cephalic Carnage show in 013 Tilburg on June the 2^nd. I was really looking forward to this show because it’s one of my favourite bands ever, and they’re also very very cool guys to hang out with. I even was invited by Lenzig (vocals) to hang out at Seth’s (Severe Torture) place and smoke an incredible amount of weed. I laughed and smoked my ass of that night, Bob Marley could have learned from that shit. But anyway, here we are at 013 where the first band has already begun as we enter the venue.

The opening act was the Dutch band Isle of Man, of whom I own a record so I was kinda looking forward to seeing them too. It’s a bit like Cephalic Carnage, only more death metal based and a bit less extreme on the hectic mathematical parts. It has some real cool breaks and bad ass riffs, and the vocalist knows how to work his voice too, there’s just one tiny little thing bothering me. With his brutal throat, he seldom manages to spew out something original or catchy. He has the voice for this kind of stuff, he just doesn’t know what to do with it, or how to make things interesting. Also he does some clean parts, JUST DON’T!!!!! And I wont mention him being one of the most idiot stage acts I’ve seen in Dutch underground metal, devil horn batty boy.

The second band was Scarve, one of those new technical death metal bands with brutal and melodic vocals. Yuk. Reading this reaction you can probably guess that I didn’t see a minute of this. Indeed.

 

There was just one song of the new album Anomalies that I really wanted to hear tonight, the ultra heavy stoner track “Piecemaker”. But that meant that I had to convince one of he weirdest dudes on the planet to do so, tough job one might say. Jawsh’s (bass/vocals) first reply was “maybe, maybe…”, after that came “for a shot of whiskey I’ll do it!”. My reply: “to the bar!!!”. If I just could do that with every band I see…

Their introduction “theme” was a vague sample of a song to which the only lyrics were “you’re a man you’re a man, now you’re a man”. Quite hilarious when you see Jawsh play- backing it in the microphone. And that after doing a soundcheck with the Knightrider theme, just imagine one of the most extreme bands out there doing the Knightrider theme, I laughed my ass off!

They played quite a lot from the new album, namely “Scientific Remote Viewing”, “Counting The Days”, “The Will Or The Way”, “Sleeprace” and of course the arse kicking new single “Dying Will Be The Death Of Me”. Even the recovered demo track “Kill For Weed” was played. Some old classics that couldn’t be missed of course came by, like “Lucid Interval”, Hybrid” and even the almighty satanic “Black Metal Sabbath”. After all these tracks I had laughed my ass off, was amazed by their extraordinaire technique and was musically extremely satisfied. On to the next show!

 

 

Three days later, Amsterdam, Slipknot in one of the smallest venues they’ve played in quite a while. Opening act Shadow’s Fall has already taken a beating in the live view of this evening, so I won’t waste anymore words on them here.

So, in an intimate environment filled with maggots the lights went out and the intro to the Volume 3 album kicked off. After this a mixture of tracks of all three albums came by, containing “The Blister Exists”, “Duality”, “The Heretic Anthem”, “People=Shit”, “Wait and Bleed”, Spit It Out and I believe I even heard “Get This” and “Everything Ends”. Two tracks I had never seen them play before. Everything was played just as enthusiastic and energetic as at any festival stage. So I surely couldn’t resist thrashing my ass off with two other Metalrage maggots.

Although Corey’s singing was off now and then, and although the Clown wasn’t present here they managed to give a excellent show once again. A lot of crowd participation, a lot of jumping and screaming and of course enough middle fingers in the air to give the pope a heart attack.

 

 

So the day after I woke up in some office building used as a students apartment, ready to see my next show. Which would be Mudvayne at the Melkweg, a place renounced for it’s awesome sound. After a weird interview with bassist Ryan Martinie I had to wait for like a couple of more hours before the doors opened. When that magical moment arrived I was very anxious to see the opening act. Which was American Head Charge of whom I own the first album, but still haven’t seen their second one.

I tell you, I was very impressed with the show they put on. Martin’s vocals were extremely good, didn’t hear him go off-tone even once. Truly amazing. The songs were mainly from The War Of Art album, so I recognised most of the stuff. The new tracks seemed to be done in the same formula as before.

Impressing show from a band that had just recently lost a bandmember. Cool fact about this show, the bassist wore a t-shirt with a fluorescent  print that said “Hitler was a nigger”. I thought it was funny.

 

I just hoped that Mudvayne could top this show. But they did, and how!!! The sound was just extraordinaire, every instrument could be heard as if it was the only thing playing, while the overall sound was bulldozer. One word: jaw-dropping!!!

So of course a lot of new tracks from the Lost and Found album came by, like “Determined”, “Happy? ” and “Fall Into Sleep”, accompanied by golden oldies like “-1”, “Not Falling”, “Silenced”, “Death Blooms” and the ultimate Mudvayne track “Dig”. It’s a save thing to say that I have seen quite a lot of bands, but a bassist like this is extremely rare. He uses techniques I have never seen before and makes it look like it’s nothing. Seeing that just send shivers down my spine.

The entire band played very tight and convincing and if there’s a person that went home that evening dissatisfied, I’ll kick his ass personally. This truly was a rare display of professionalism and expertise. Goddamn!

 

 

Ok, back to the loud, noisy technical grindcore by the potheads of Cephalic Carnage . The band to start of this evening in the Goudvishal in Arnhem was Charlie Adler. I hadn’t seen them in a while, so I was curious on how they were doing. And I’d say great after the show. They had gotten a lot tighter and more complicated in a Dillinger Escape Plan kind of way, with a nice groove to it. Too bad vocalist Tammi felt it was a good idea to accompany his screaming with some singing, which he definitely can’t. For the rest is was a very good show and a worthy opening act for the headliner.

Up next was Caedere, of whom I heard the album quite some time ago at the bassist’s place. This was my first encounter with them live, and it wasn’t a real bad one. Brutal technical death metal that was executed very nicely and enthusiastic. Supported by a vocalist that mastered his voice pretty well, screams and grunts that lasted thirty seconds were no exception. Too bad it got boring after three songs, but still a hell of a lot nicer than the death metal act Brutus which opened up for Cephalic Carnage last year.

The torch of loud noise was then passed on to Isle Of Man again, who put up an equally nice show as they did in 013.

Now between the bands, I ventured out to the parking space outside to hit the bong a couple of times, you know, to get in the right mood. When I came back, Cephalic Carnage was almost ready to hit it. Lenzig asked if I could roll a joint, so I did. He inhaled like half of it with one puff and the music kicked in, and he fucked up his first line, followed by some mumbling. I thought it was hilarious. They played the same set as the show I had seen before, only the sound wasn’t as good as in 013. Which rarely happens by the way. I was entitled “Holland’s biggest stoner” by Lenzig too, of which I still don’t know if it’s a good thing…

After the show I hit the bong with those idiots during a thirty minute lasting bullshit interview that was just as worse as the year before. Don’t believe me? Just wait ‘till I get the time to type it out, if I can make anything out of it between the coughing and the bong bubbling…

 

 

The day after it was time for another jaw-dropping act, namely Fantômas at 013. I saw them the year before and was totally convinced that this was the best live act ever. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, you just know you’re impressed.

Opening act was again the Flat Earth Society, a screwed up fusion/jazz band with like somewhere around thirteen people on stage. I mean trumpets, guitars, a xylophone you name it they had it. Not really my thing, but cool to see, especially with the wacky parts, like molesting a trumpet, orally. You figure out what I mean by that…

This time master basher Dave Lombardo wasn’t present with Fantômas due to touring obligations to Slayer. But an even bigger legend had been found to replace this monster. Yes, none other that mister Terry Bozzio, the 54 year old ex-Frank Zappa drummer, who had taken the effort to write out all the Fantômas music on paper for himself. Now that alone is an incredible accomplishment, but to learn all that fucked up music in like a month, I can show nothing but respect.

Now for the show, it was their tour for their new album Suspended Animation, which is a lot like the extremely hectic first one, only with far more electronics. The sound was crap like usual, but Mike Patton was again sublime in singing pure and directing the others to playing their parts well. Bozzio made some mistakes now and then (and you could see Patton clearly get irritated by it) but he still did a pretty nice job. The parts where you really noticed that there was someone else behind the kit was with the really fast chaotic parts, he played them a bit too static.

His drumkit that evening is worth mentioning, cause it had like four (!) bass drums and a shitload of crashes, hi-hats, toms, snares and stuff I had never seen before. The bass drums worked like, one pedal, two kicks, to increase the impact. Dude!

Material from all four albums was played, but it’s hard to place most of the time, since a lot of tracks last like twenty seconds. But in that period of time more happens than in your standard Iron Maiden track to name something. Even the ultra brutal “The Omen (Ave Satani)” came by! Although it wasn’t nearly as convincing as the first time I saw this crazy stuff on stage, it still was fun. And there was a second chance for a good show, at the Dour festival, where they were a whole lot better.

 

 

I was there with a big Deftones fan, so I was kind of forced to watch Team Sleep. The music was making my body really heavy, but there was something on that stage that caught my attention, namely the drummer’s awesome performance. He grooved, in a way you rarely see. He just kept on going, didn’t really matter what the guitars where doing, he just went for it. I’d like to see him with a real metal band sometime! The music was spacey guitar stuff accompanied by electronics, I like that. What I’m not so fond of, are Chino’s vocals, he makes everything sound like a deep sigh to me.

I believe Mastodon was the first thing I had to see. And yes, in my opinion they stole the show that day. Outplayed every other act that day with their overwhelming spine-shivering riffs and unique drum rhythms. Cool thing is that they can play every track in their repertoire, so they usually change the set here and there. Of course they can’t leave without playing the usual “Blood and Thunder”, “Iron Tusk” and “Megalodon” , which are live still the best tracks to me. My head has to go up and down at those riffs. Yes I’ll admit it, seeing them do that still makes my dick go hard, figure of speech of course…

 

This elevating performance was followed up by perhaps the most extreme live act metal has ever seen. Yes I’m talking about The Dillinger Escape Plan. I had witnessed them two times before, which had already scarred me for life. Well it was about to get worse; ever seen a man puke on stage? If you’re into grindcore you probably have. But this time the puke came for a reason, the vocalist had just seen Papa Roach perform on the mainstage…

They played, like usual, as if their lives depended on it. Dropkicks versus amplifiers, mic-holder versus crowd, mic versus tent, towel filled with puke versus crowd and back, it was all here. Total mayhem, accompanied by music that makes the toughest jazz musician scratch behind his ear. Of course we heard “Panasonic Youth” and “Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants”, but the older tracks like “43% Burnt” and “Hollywood Squares” were executed at least just as good. Excellent performance, by an ultra extreme band.

I had to run outside quickly to witness a couple of tracks of Slayer, which were in short “Angel of Death”, Postmortem” and “Raining Blood”. Later I heard that this was one of the worst performances they had ever given. Can’t judge about that, but I do recall Dave Lombardo doing that real cool double bass part in “Angel Of Death”. Ah well, there was always next time at Graspop.

Chimaira was an act I was curious about, with the release of their new album coming up and newly recruited monster blaster Kevin Talley behind the kit. Regrettable, Talley fucked up big time. He was so out of rhythm, with mainly the double bass, it screwed up the entire show. A big disappointment. I heard he was quite drunk…

The only tracks he managed to play tight were two tracks of the new album, “Nothing Remains” and “Comatose”. But I still though it was a big shame. All the older tracks I loved were raped, and hard.

 

And now it was time to make choices. I could watch a bit of  Machine Head, witness Black Sabbath and perhaps leave early to see Soulfly.

Machine Head was giving an awesome show, with a very good heavy sound to it. “Imperium” and “The Blood, The Sweat The Tears” are the only tracks I can remember seeing, but it sounded very impressive. The tent was overflowing with crazed fans screaming their asses off, but I just had to leave to experience a performance by the band without whom this festival never would have existed.

It was my ultimate metalhead dream to see these guys, because they probably wont be around much longer. That was also the motivation to skip the Soulfly show, I just had to watch it all before one of them died. The show was all right, which I had certainly not expected. The only thing really bothering me was them playing medleys with tracks in it I really wanted to hear. And Ozzy screaming “I can’t fucking hear you” all the time. They played legendary songs like “Black Sabbath”, “Electric Funeral”, “Paranoid” and when “Iron Man” kicked in you could hear the entire festival crowd chant the riff along. One of the most emotional moving things I have ever witnessed in my short metal history. It brought a little tear to my eye. After seeing this show, I can die a happy man.

Now I can’t really say that I saw Rammstein, because I’m not really into that, but I saw some fire and stuff from quite a distance. After three or four tracks we went back home. It was a good appetizer for the festivals yet to come.

 

 

If it wasn’t for a free ticket I had received I wouldn’t have gone to the System Of A Down show in Ahoy at all. Way too expensive dude. Opening act was 80’s Matchbox B-line Disaster. Now I usually witness a couple of tracks of the opening act, even if it really sucks, but this was just too much for me. I like experimental stuff and all, but there was just noise coming from the stage. I couldn’t really find an interesting song structure in this one track I witnessed, and there was nothing about all the instruments nor the vocals that insinuated that I should stay, so I fled to the hallway.

After a long wait behind a giant curtain with the sleeve of the Mesmerize album the intro “Soldier Side” began. As the curtain dropped down we were treated with the first single “B.Y.O.B.” which, if I may speak freely, sucked ass. All the other tracks sounded all right, but this one is live unacceptable. The chorus misses that catchy tsjikke tsjikke sound in it, so the entire climax of the track for me is gone. Too bad. Now I can’t recall all songs of this evening, since I saw them with a different set later at Graspop (where they were oh so much better) but a couple of them were “Revenga”, “Mr. Jack”, “This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I’m On This Song”, “Sugar”, “Chop Suey”, “Toxicity” “Psycho”, “Forest” and a whole lot more. The show was quite nice, unlike some of us might have seen at Pinkpop some years ago, with a lot of musical intermezzo’s between the songs, and some humour coming from Daron (guitar).

What amazed me was that Daron and Serj’s vocals sounded awesome combined live. I remember seeing them last time in Amsterdam, but Daron was a bit irritating back then. Now he matched perfectly with Serj.

Now I was hoping for the track “Sad Statue”, which has the roughest SOAD-metalriff ever, but it never came. Don’t you just hate it when that happens. Ah well, I went home slightly impressed, not knowing that they were gonna leave me mesmerized three days later at Graspop.

 

So after fighting to stay alive in a heat that was so bad there were people hosing water at the crowd everywhere, I saw the first act I came here for; Immolation. I own practically every album of this band, but I had never seen them. They played quite all right, although not as devastating as I had hoped. Newly recruited drummer Steve Shalaty did a pretty good job, even though the difference between him and Alex Hernandez is more than noticeable. New tracks of the Harnessing Ruin album were presented to the crowd, along with some older stuff. Among those one of my favourites; “Father You’re Not A Father”.

Then I wandered around on the field, accidentally witnessing stuff like Alter Bridge, and Papa Roach, which I both find awful. The first reasonably interesting thing I saw was a band called In-quest playing in the Metal Dome, where starting acts got a chance to perform. Friends of mine knew them from some time ago, when they supposed to make death metal. But the stuff they were playing know was some kind of ultra heavy grooving metalcore which pleased me very well. I must remind myself to check out one of their albums some time.

This year there was no mic-stand for The Dillinger Escape Plan on stage. They probably remembered how it was completely destroyed the previous year due to a collision with a very intense crowd. The show they gave was quite similar to the one at Fields of Rock, only there was no puking involved here, even though Papa Roach had played before them. It is still, in my opinion, one of the best live acts metal has ever seen, what an intensity and selflessness in their performance. I just keep being amazed by it.

 

As soon as the last notes were struck in the tent I rushed outside to see System Of A Down, who had the big as curtain already hanging in front of the stage. As soon as the intro kicked in I was mesmerized indeed. Incredibly loud, but so extremely clear! This was without question the best sound I ever heard on an open air stage. A big applause for the guy behind the buttons for doing that! I heard later that before Megadeth ended, the intro for SOAD had already begun and it could be heard over the crap that Megadeth was playing. He didn’t do his encore because of it! Hell yeah, up yours Dave Mustaine!

The show they gave here was slightly different from the one in Rotterdam, with a few other track like for instance “Violent Pornography”. The intermezzo’s were even more ridiculous than before, with Daron being quite wasted on stage (but managing to play very tight though). He actually sang a song about one of their roadies’ anal sickness… Yeah like we needed that information. I thought it was hilarious. Too bad that their single “B.Y.O.B” sounded like crap here too. For the rest, it appeared to be the best show I saw at this entire festival.

 

After that, I don’t remember much, I know I saw Nevermore and Kreator but I can’t say I can recall any of that. On to the next day!

 

When I arrived at the terrain something horrid called Skitsoy played the mainstage, so I went to see some of the market’s stands, where I bought a hat to get the sun of my head and a pipe, for my pot habit. Two of the best purchases I ever made if I do say so myself! I had promised myself to go see a bit of Behemoth and a bit of Peter Pan Speedrock, which I had never seen before and that is quite an achievement when you’re from Holland. But Behemoth gave such an utterly amazing tight show I actually forgot PPS was playing! Part from the corpse paint I enjoyed every bit of this ultra brutal blasting Polish death metal. Very impressing indeed, I need to check out their latest release Demigod sometime.

After that I heard and saw parts of Epica, Kamelot, Gorefest and Pro-Pain, but none of it interests me besides Pro-Pain, but the sound they had to play with was terrible so I left.

It was time for Hatebreed!!! This band had made such an impression on me last year in one of the tent stages I was anxious to see if they could do the same on the main stage. The performance was not as good as the year before, but still very much to my liking. This time the moshpit made an even bigger impression on me. The braveheart pit was so fucking huge I honestly expected people to die here or something. What brutality, and I was right in it!! Which appeared to be a real bad choice, considering some punches to my head, but it was worth it! How I love their beat-down riffs, like in “Perseverance”, “I Will Be Heard”, “Puritan” and my favourite of the last album “Doomsayer”. Very nice show indeed.

 

After this I had to rush towards a tent too see the best newcomer in metal for the I believe fourth time this year. Yes I’m talking about Mastodon, again! But this was the worst show I saw them give. Not that it was terrible, but I saw some mistakes here and there and that hadn’t happened the previous times. Not that it really mattered for my headbanging and freaking out and stuff. They played their cover of The Melvins called “The Bit” again, which was very nice, but for the rest the set wasn’t that much different from the one at Fields of Rock. I was quite surprised that this time they didn’t outplay all the other acts for once. Could be due to the poor sound quality too… I don’t know. A bit disappointing, but still fun though!

After this I regrettably saw Accept, but I also saw a gothic band with quite a chick in it called Sirenia. If you’re ever visiting a festival and they’re playing while nothing else interesting is, go check out the girl!

Slayer was given a second chance here, and they fulfilled it with ease. They gave a very tight good show which caused me to go insane. I even brought a forty year old Slayer fanatic to the ground!! Never thought that would happen, but hey, he grabbed me first! Can’t exactly remember all the tracks besides the ones they always play, I just can say that my neck was really starting to hurt after this show. And I still had to see Slipknot!

I witnessed a little bit of Anthrax in their original line-up, but to say if that was a world shocking experience, I don’t think so. Time for some maggot music!

Slipknot played unfortunately exactly the same set as in Paradiso in Amsterdam. Even the stuff Corey said between the songs was the same. But I could care less. After being loosened up in the Slayer pit I felt like going berserk for this entire show, again. Hell yeah! Thrashing madness, only this time on a bigger scale. A nice end of a very heavy metal day for me.

 

Day three. Pain, hangovers and heat could be felt everywhere by everyone. This day had no real interesting bands for me. After getting irritated by an asshole named Axell Rudi Pell I went to see Hatesphere. They put up quite a nice show. Some of the songs grooved in a way I could appreciate, although other parts went in one ear and out the other. One of the better bands here this day, too bad their new album is not what I expected it to be.

Aborted played right after I got irritated by Primal Fear. By the way, this entire day was heaven for old-skool metal heads and progressive nerds, but unfortunately I was not one of them. Thank god for death metal! Although I felt like they made a bigger impression on me the first time I saw them, it was still nice to watch. And I noticed that the Leng T’che drummer sang in this band. How often do you see that?!

Now for some reason I felt it would be a good idea to go and see Walls Of Jericho. Sweet Jezus, it looks like that woman’s giving birth without anaesthesia or something. Her voice to me sounds, in one word, terrible. The music doesn’t really add something to the entire metalcore scene, so I lost interest and left for  Nuclear Assault. There I ran into the ex-Hot ‘n Steamy Monkey Love bassist, so I watched the rest of that show with him. Which wasn’t as boring as I had expected. It supposes to be a kind of thrash/heavy metal, but due to the crappy sound it tended towards some kind of heavy rock ‘n roll. Thrash ‘n roll one might say.

After seeing Dio trying to stay alive by singing Black Sabbath songs like “Heaven and Hell” I went to see Amen. It was terrible, Casey Chaos was throwing around all kinds of hardware on stage while some hired geek put everything back in place. A kind of fake-Dillinger show, which I find very childish. Either you thrash stuff, or you don’t. Just don’t make a crappy show out of it. And I’m not even going to talk about their music…

 

I believe I saw something of Lacuna Coil, but I can’t remember anymore because it didn’t take long for me to realize that I should go see Terror on the other stage. They were actually quite nice to see, a nice heavy sound mixed with the old-skool hardcore stuff. There was something catchy about it, so I watched a couple of songs, before getting bored again.

And then it was time for the most successful band from the new wave of British heavy metal ever; Iron Maiden. I watched like ten songs or so, and I didn’t get irritated once which was a miracle to me! But boy were they show-offs! With every song a different curtain appeared on the wall behind them, and I’m talking gigantic style here. After we heard “The Number Of The Beast” we felt like it was time to leave for home. Unfortunately we missed the big Eddy puppet but at the exit of the terrain  I received something that made my day. A flyer for the Dour festival… with a killer line-up… live view to follow soon.

 

 

I had just recently recovered from the intense experience that is a three day festival, before I was faced with the decision to visit my third Sunn 0))) concert in Paradiso in Amsterdam. Of course I went, because the temptation of mind elevating music by the use of two incredibly distorted and low-tuned guitars is just too much for me.

Opening act Lugubrum had already started when we walked in, a band I had never heard of before. Some kind of doom/black metal blasted though the speakers, accompanied by a saxophone, which sounded quite nice. It gave a unique touch and a very refreshing approach to the style of music, something I can definitely appreciate. Too bad I still haven’t been able to locate any CD’s of them.

 

As soon as it was over, I sat down were I stood to roll an incredible big ass killer joint. As I lit it, then men in monk’s habits entered the stage, and the thunderous blasphemy commenced. Again there was a different line-up on stage, There was a third guitarist named Oren Ambarchi present, who is responsible for quite an impressive number of mellower Sunn 0))) kind of stuff, and to please us all they had brought Mayhem vocalist Attila Chisar from the White2 album to add the ambient dark moans.

It didn’t take long for me to enter into higher spheres, the lower and heavier it got, the more spacey I got. There was this moment where I decided to stand right in front of the stage, that must have been one of the loudest noises I’ve ever heard. My ear drums were transformed into bassdrums as the lower than low frequencies entered into my head. That’s what I call music! We were forced to leave early, otherwise we wouldn’t make it back home, I hate leaving shows before the end, you never know what you’ll miss.

 

So there you have it. I think I have never seen more bands at different stages in this short a period ever, and I doubt it will ever happen again. I just know I had the time of my life and wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Arse kicking metally goodness!!!