Festival season means many bands are travelling through Europe. With most festivals taking place Thursday - Sunday the early weekdays are open for headline shows. Last year Nobel managed to get Exodus and this year they booked another thrash top act with Dark Angel. This Tuesday competition was fierce in The Netherlands with shows by Orbituary, Hatebreed, Trivium or Extreme to name but four. I wanted to see Dark Angel anyway and with Nobel being closest to home the choice was easy. When Koen proposed some warm-up drinks in nearby Lazarus an early departure it was. With the sun out and the drinks cold it was almost hard to leave on time to enter Nobel. There was a support band in Inherited, but I felt they were no good match for the older thrash audience. Young kids shouting motherfuckers all the time to people who actually are given their age, seemed strange to me. So back to the entrance it was where most of the people I knew were hanging out.
After a break it was time for Dark Angel. This tour they would play Darkness Descends in full. That would be the end of the show. First we got treated on some oldies and also some new songs. The latter as after 34 years a new album is coming. About the show I can only say we got treated on a totally awesome set. This band is in peak form. The evening was dedicated to Jim Durkin the man behind lots of Dark Angel's music who passed away in 2023. On guitars we now got Eric Meyer and Laura Christine and they took care of all the guitar duels and solos in fantastic style. On drums it is legendary Gene Hoglan and on bass Mike Gonzalez Vocalist Ron Rinehart turned out to be very well on vocals and a great performer aiming at saying a personal hallo to most in the audience during the show. So during one of my favourites Black Prophecies he was singing from the balconies. To me Darkness Descends is their best album, so playing it in full was no punishment. When they were over and done and the band picture with audience was taken there was one consensus among all I spoke to. We just saw a very special show of topclass thrash metal. One of the highlights of the year and bring on that new album now. Next thrash appoinment in Nobel is at Metal Experience Fest in October. If it can be only half as good as Dark Angel was, we are in for a treat
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