The Unquestionable Blasphemy tour hit Amersfoort and I had to be there as one of the two headliners were Atheist. Why this need? here is the long explanation. This summer fifteen years ago doctors told me I probably only had months to live left. Between the first surgery and the second I had some weeks in which I tried to recover strenght and fitness (well I walked and jogged a lot no gym's for me). During those weeks I also had a sort of farewell tour of shows. I attended Atheist, MSG and Cynic. For the MSG show I made it to de Boerderij but a freakattack of pain on the stomach made me leave before they even started. So basically my farewell tour consisted of two shows Atheist in de Kade and Cynic in P60. I always wanted to see both bands again, but work made me miss a return a few years later. During the corona years several tours were announced and cancelled and even rumours of a joined Cynic/Atheist tour passed by. In the end it turned out that both bands toured seperately but would play The Netherlands the same week. Last Sunday I saw Cynic in Dynamo and Atheist played Fluor and shall play Dynamo tonight. So in order to revisit both bands and show an imaginary finger to all those doctors who were wrong and messed me up for life. That is only physically as mentally I only came out these dark days as a more cynical atheist.
So Fluor it was, even if trains tried to stop me from going by cancelling direct connections. Upon arrival I immediately bumped into Jeffrey and we both shared how hard it was to find the entrance. The evening was not sold out (with not so far Dynamo on the Friday following) but maybe the city of Amersfoort was flooded with metalheads who could not find the entrance either. Unquestionable Blasphemy is an attractive name and the two headliners even sold combined T-shirts wit tour dates on the back. I stuck with the Unquestionable Presence Tee, had a beer and positioned well with Jeffrey to see what the evening would bring us.
72 Legions opened the night. This melodic death metal band did fine and I thought it interesting that an unsigned band managed to get on board of this tour. Musically they were fine, with the only miss that the guitars were a bit low in the mix. This was a pity as their guitar work sounded most interesting. A good warm-up they were.
Amersfoort, we're Almost Dead and so are you What a lovely sweet opening line and what a party would follow. These Americans gave us lots of groove and at one point their vocalist did sound like Phil Anselmo. This was one lively presentation and Almost Dead did impress. While musically they were tight, the vocalist stole the show with his jumping around, singing from the floor and in a song called Selfish Suicide fall of the stage and lay dead in the hall (Murder in the Front Row?). I highly enjoyed both the show and the music. When I passed their merch later on I found CD's had sold out. Well obviously I was not the only one being introduced to Almost Dead this tour and liking them.
After a remarkable short break In The Flesh was played from tape a sign that Atheist were preparing themselves. And on they came (slay?) showing Kelly Schaeffer with a fairly young band. I do not mind much when older bands are no longer complete and younger band members pop up. Actually I believe that most of Atheist today was the band that gave us Till The Dirt last year and interesting return of Kelly Schaeffer on CD. Today it would be Atheist all the way and than only the early nineties so Jupiter was ignored. At least I think so as I must admit I recognize the songs, but can not immediately give title and album for each. The band was of the very high energy kind. Running around all the time with the bassist asking for circle pits throughout their set. Most important was that the playing was more than a bit impressive. Kelly Schaeffer did not like his microphone, but sounded fine to me and what a performer he is too. So adding the positive and the good we got a highlight of gig year 2024 this 14 March. Where Cynic earler this week underwhelmed us, Atheist definitely surpassed high expectations. There was no specific highlight in their set, but Water did please the Brazilian in me, with a samba that showed how Dutch can't samba. We can headbang though and with all generations present the younger ones did run in circles quite a lot. I already was an atheist, now only got more convinced. Maybe Fraudulent Cloth I missed now that the pope just showed again what a dick he is in recent times.
After an absolute high I always find it hard to enjoy a next band. Cryptopsy from Montreal Canada were an unknown to me. Further the train troubles in, made me want to play safe and catch the not last train home. Still from what I saw Cryptopsy were a brutal death machine. A vocalist who showed a range in his grunt and some nice guitar solos made this one solid OSDM band. Unfortunately I only attended the first 25 minutes or so, but would guess they closed the evening in style. So anyone in doubt still if going to Dynamo tonight makes sense do go as you won't regret it. Four bands bringing something for anyone mildly into any form of Death Metal. If you live near The Hague however, forget about Unquestionable Blasphemy and head for Musicon tonight for your dose of (Czech) Death Metal.
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