Rottenness & Gorgatron - Musicon The Hague, 9 June 2023

Tonight was differet in many ways and I thought writing my fastest review ever, as music went extreme and sets were short as a logical result. Upon arrival with Marko at Musicon  we felt some tension in the air, as the soundguy pulled out last minute and something needed to be improvised Far tooo technical for my limited brain I only discovered later that soundguys are not a necessity as sounds were OK for both bands.Warm weather, the middle of festival season with Into The Grave and lots of shows over the last months always made this an uphill battle for audience numbers. Luckily some showed up and I got an energetic and entertaining evening.

Gorgatron opened the night ,with most of us still sitting outside as temperatures were all too pleasant. I listened to some clips on forehand and knew this band would be more up my alley of the two. Death Metal from Fargo, North Dakota it was and they sounded very fine. Knowing of the sound issues the clear difference between the two guitarists and all instruments was amazing. Their style went from Death also through thrashy bits and some great domination of instruments made this a good set. Ending with a more known song we got Dead Embryonic Cells by Sepultura. A good set which made me look at the merch, but eyes being hollowed out on the back stopped me from buying which is not a very OSDM thing to do I know.

Headlining were Mexican/American band  Rottenness. Their grind/brutal death metal goes beyond my usual comfort zone, but that means little for live shows. And while considerin the music of Gorgatron better , the presentation and  energy coming from Rottennness was contagious. Well not in a way that pits appeared and Musicon got moving, but the show was appreciated by those in the house. I would expect with this extreme style to have more youth in, but unknown bands can't attract youth that easy nowadays. Rottenness also ended with a cover and Anthrax' I Am The Law almost sounded pop after their set, but closed the evening in style. With the small crowd and the long tour ahead, I felt like getting a Tee, also as Musicon, The Hague appears on the back in green and purple. A good evening was had and I went slow on the beers as tommorrow my return to a football pitch awaits after ten years while last time I broke my pulse. So after a hectic evening a good night rest is needed and  I shall proudly wear my Rottenness Tee during the annoying DJ sets after the football has finished.

Kaderock - Around Musicon The Hague, 3 June 2023

Kaderock this year turned into a two day festival. After the sold-out closed doors of last year, the old people music went to the Friday and the (Hang) youth was welcome on the Saturday. As I am young at heart it was Saturday for me too, also as the two best bands would play that evening.

Our start with live music was surprising. With guests at home I city-toured as a guide and to my surprise found that the Hofvijver had a regatta. Apart from boats rowing against each other it also meant live music and beer stands. So our start was at the Lange Vijverberg.

At the end of the afternoon I went with Ricardo to Musicon in order to find that the entrance moved to the other side, since the last time I could make it. A busy street meant queueing for coins and beers, but soon that got smoother. The first band of interest was Temple Fang and they played well. Their spacey, stonerish music at relaxing speed came alive well and the outbursts did sound fine. A good way to open the festival.

Than it was outside as two stages were at the street and square. No names I knew of, but I did bump into friends of Tiago who asked if I also came for Hang Youth. Never heard of them my reply was: no, for Graceless. It turned out that Hang Youth was not bad. Singing about Belastingdienst and seeing some young people jumping around angry, while they never paid a cent of tax in their lives was good. I watched from a distance as at Kaderock you always meet people you haven't seen for a while. Nicest surprise this year were Petra and Wim being in town, whom I had not seen in some 20 years. Noone changed and our difference in lenght still stands strong as well.

Musically the festival would end for me in Musicon again, where Graceless gave us a strong show. One of Holland's leading Death Metal bands got the room moving and gave us Die on Demand, Where Vultures Know Your Name and the likes. A great ending of Kaderock, but not really. Outside there was still some 15 minutes of Rudeboy Urban Dance Squad. I never liked this crossover from teh nineties and still don't. The exception being Faith No More, who ar e on a different level. This just is not for me, but some people go down on memory lane to the nineties. After that set we learned that our new major is a bastard, so all bars closed at 22:45. This was written at the coin machines, but noone took that all to serious I found by reactions. Finally I noticed that wearing a shirt with a classic song opening results in many questions. René sang the lines to me, but most people had no clue. Women being confused and in awe, while upon leaving the area a girl even ran to me asking if my mother really was a witch and been burned alive. Nope, still very much alive and kicking, so ending the day with a smile.

Ashen Horde - Finality - Hellripper - Max Enix - Trespass

Different kinds of extreme this time, resulting in four highly recommended albums.

Ashen Horde - Antimony

I believe the first time I read about this album was on Angry Metal Guy (yes them again). A concept album about the unsolved murder of Charles Bravo almost 150 years ago. Cause? Antimony. The album looks at several suspects and related people, Now that was interesting, but this extreme metal album got me hooked straight from the beginning by its music. The base is Black Metal of the progressive kind, but with Stevie Boiser from Inferi on vocals, some Tech Death also passes.  Even small parts of doom pass by and at times clean vocals can be heard. The last coming from Trevor Portz who started this band as a solo project ten years ago. The mix of styles is not my comfort zone maybe, but this intense album only got better when reading along with the lyrics. This is their fourth full lenght and I might especially need to check out 2019's Fallen Cathedral, when Stevie joined on vocals. I don't think any extreme metal album will blow me away this much, this year. After listening on bandcamp I ordered the CD and decided to add the kick ass shorts. Well that took three months and some emailing back and forth, but now happy owner of what must be the best extreme metal album of 2023.

Finality - Technocracy

Finality play a different form of extreme. Their progmetal is filled with thrash, tech and power. Last year Imminent Sonic Destruction made it to #2 on my end of year list. They announced playing at Finality's album release show. So you check out Finality and love the two songs they put online. So much I even broke my rule of never paying more for postage than for the CD. Listening the first two times I was maybe underwhelmed after my extremely high expectations based upon the two videos. The album does not vary a lot in speed, it is mainly fast. Well now I am at playing number 5 or 6 and man, is this another gem of 2023. An absolute must hear album and one that needs to be promoted with a tour through Europe. Well fat chance for that now that even bigger US names start cancelling tours due to high costs over here. For now the CD has to do, but what an album this is man. Be like me and pay postage over art for once.

Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags

Hellripper popped up on Bandcamp for me. Hellripper is a one man project, namely James McBain from Aberdeen Scotland. This is his third album already and he impresses here. Blackened Seed metal which nods to teh past, but sounds very fresh. Hellripper is touring quite a lot, so he should have a band for that. Reviews of his Effenaar show were very positive and he comes to Pitfest and Uden as well this summer. As that is during my summer holidays, I now definitely plan going to Roosendaal Open Air 2 September. This music should be heard and felt live. Not miles apart in style from Brazilian bands I hosted in my HM B&B Sodomizer and Imperador Belial. This with the advantage of Scottish mother tongue and a good sound, even if the latter might annoy purists. Extreme return to the eighties at one side, me extremely happy.

Max Enix - Far From Home

Max Enix found me online and his music is also extreme. Extremely long in this case. This album comes in the form of 5 (five) CD's totalling well over five hours. To be honest I found this too much. The first two CD's both amost 80 minutes are the base. The last three are orchestral versions, which I tend to play as often as the Inside Out hobby of adding instrumental versions with their albums. That is zero times. But the first two I heard and there definitely is something for many in this ambitious release. The playing and performance are fine, but the long list of guests is not really for me. I mean I am Dutch but can't be bothered by Ayreon. If you are into that band, you should check these albums out as I think you will like them.  Curious to see if Max intends to play live in some sort of form. 

Trespass - Wolf at the Door

Now that Trespass started to release full albums the last decade many comments are the same. Dated music, Marc Sutcliffe is not among the best vocalists and noone is waiting for this kind of music in 2023. Wrong!!!. I love the new Trespass as much as anything Trespass that came before. For me Trespass means extreme nostalgia and they bring me back to 14/15 year old me who discovered them on Metal for Muthas 2. I taped their songs at the time, but they never released an LP. Bright Lights I taped from Stampij and that was it. Years later I bought compilation album The Works, followed by The Works II. Eight years ago I travelled to their home-town Sudburry to see them playing the local theatre. What a perfect weekend that was. A year later they became the first band to stay at my HM B&B. So resuming a bit of a Fanboy am I. So I don't worry about Marc's voice it just fits Trespass. I love the guitars again, where the double work sounds comforting old school. The new album even holds some songs I would love to hear live on stage (Crooked Cross, Unsinkable, Live Like a King to name a few) Finally the album is packed in a beautiful cover created by Mark Wilkinson, my favorite cover artist. So what's not to like? Having wolfs at your door maybe, which became reality for some in Holland the last years.