Corona killed The Hague Metal Fest, which was mainly a Death affair, so starting a new festival called The Hague Death Fest made sense. When the line-up became known with lots of big names it was no surprise that on the day some people who bought no ticket in advance had to be sent home upon arrival. Well we were better prepared and got our ticket in time, so a long day of Death Metal lay ahead of us.
When Marko passed by my house to pick me up, Josie asked if he first wanted a coffee. I said no we can't as the first band are from The Hague and we have to support our locals. Luckily we were not the only ones, so that even at 15:00 hours Mancuerda kicked of in a decently packed Musicon. Their Death Metal is of the doomy kind and more heavy than fast. A nice opener of the day they were, with their sinister soundclips introducing songs on death and violence.
Next band were Funeral Whore. Unknown to me in advance. The stage was dark and the songs heavy. I thought the inbetween song banter could be more than thank you The Hague and then silence. On bass I recognized Maxime with her third or fourth different band on stage in Musicon. The last song was dedicated to Arian, but I did not know why that was.
Melting Eyes are a monster and The Hague's leading OSDM band at the moment I guess. A long stage swap meant they lost a song, but what they brought to us sounded damn fine again. Pier has a mighty grunt and if you than add a strong rhythm section and good guitars it always is a joy to see Melting Eyes on stage. Expectations were high based upon past performances and they did not disappoint indeed.Next logical steps seems to me national and international death fests.
Wound Collector from Belgium came on next, but they had a false start. Swapping the whole drum set resulted in a shot in the foot. When the band were ready to kick off, the drums were not half ready yet. So they had to cut their set and now played some 25 minutes only. Wound Collector first came to Musicon during the all seated corona sessions. I missed that, but saw them later on giving a full set picking up CD and Tee at the time. Their main difference is the very prominent saxophone from Peter. This is an audience divider, but I like the differnce during the day. What I also liked is that their music came closest to Tech Death, which on a death fest was a bit under represented (if not absent). Pity they lost time as I did like what they gave us again.
Next on were The Monolith DeathCult. Marko and Ton saw them seated during Corona and were enthusiastic about their set.My frieed Andrew wrote a raving review on Ave Noctum on their latest album. This because he is British and not German, but that is a long story. It did not take long to get what they all meant as TMDC gave us one hell of a show. Strange soundbytes and clips blended through their set it was one great show. This band has no boundaries, but are having fun on stage while presenting their hectic music. I don't know how much came of tape next to the obvious bits, but I know I did enjoy their full set. The last song started liek Van Halen's Why Can't This be Love and included an Eddie like solo. Variation enough anyone?The sound was suddenly very good too. So I picked up the CD that was recommended to me and playing it now I hear it needs some more time to digest all of it.
When Rectal Smegma started their set we were in the snackbar nearby enjoying dinner. I saw the band before and their grind is just a bit too much to me. What I did see at the end is high energy they always bring and a Musicon jumping along. So definitely a success on the day, just musically too far from my comfort zone to really enjoy.
Bodyfarm are among the very top of The Netherlands Death Metal scene. The story of the band and the sad setbacks are known. Even more amazing how strong they are nowadays. What I like most about them is that their Death Metal is accesible. Lots of plain Heavy Metal is blended in their sound and the grunt is understandable too. 40 minutes for a top act like this means they have no time for bullshitting around and definitely among the highlights of the day again.
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Stillbirth are from Germany and these brutal detah metallers brought a lot of merch. Anyone knowing my story understands that I won't be wearing a cap, bermuda or T-shirt with Stillbirt printed on it. When they hit the stage with surfboards and in colourfull bermudas, they first all took of their shirts. What followed was slam detah core or something, but not something that kept my attention spanned. Marko and I agreed that they suffered from the Ancient Rites syndrome. Meaning that band earlier this year closed a festival after Bodyfarm and could not follow them up. To us Stillbirth could neither and we decided to call it a long death metal day and cycle home. Great to see Musicon packed today with all generations in too. Hoping for a repeat next year ( TechDeath included pls) and so happy that this festival replaced Kaderock when I won't be around.
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