De Vloek van Twenthe - Innocent Hengelo, 19 April 2025

Twente is a region in the east of The Netherlands. Mostly known for Grolsch beer, a Technical University, Dutch politicoan Pieter Omtzigt who quit his dayjob the day before and surprisingly was not walking aroud after stating he needed to relax more. Than there are two eredivisie football clubs FC Twente and Heracles, plus a comedian Herman Finkers. At Easter there is a tradition of burning fires and I saw one huge pile along the way. And than there is de Vloek van Twenthe (Twenthe's curse). Now when I read that name I immediately had to think of Folkert Velten, which might need some explanation. Around 35 years ago Heracles had a very strong striker, Folkert Velten. Unfortunately the poor boy believed in god and did not want to play on Sundays. This limited his career dramatically and when FC Den Haag came to town the chant heard most from the The Hague side was Folkert Velten, godverdomme (Folkert Velten Goddamn). In those days hilarious, nowadays probably frowned upon.

But de Vloek van Twenthe is an underground festival I had never heard of before until Eternal Storm announced a Dutch show. Last month I met with Alex in Patronaat at a Tech Death evening and knowing he also loved last year's A Giant Bound to Fall I mentioned this show. Both of us thought alike. Let's first see a timetable and possibilities of travelling to Hengelo. After that was sorted nothing was holding us back really. When during a recent episode of radio show/podcast De Loodzware Jongens the festival organization was called who told that 75% of tickets already sold I bought mine fast and prepare for Hengelo it was. Now I have to include a spoiler alert, as I am not going to review the full festival. I did come to see Eternal Storm and while spending 4.5 hours on trains today to see 45 minutes of Eternal Storm (1:6 that is) I hoped on some bonusses along the way, knowing my decent train home would leave already at 21:54. The first bonus was arriving at Innocent. A proper metal venue, with a low black ceiling and bar plus toilets filled with stickers. The best surprise came from behind the bar. 10 Euros would give you six coins and both Alex and I used to expensive venues in the west would expect a beer to be two coins. Not at Innocent, an ice cold Grolsch for 1 coin was sonething I did not get since somewhere last century. Maybe posh venues like Tivoli and Paard can watch and learn here. Further the atmosphere throughout the day was as relaxed as expected with these underground festivals. Most people seemed to know each other, but playing an away game I was pleased that Alex joined me ths day. Otherwise I should have started talking to total strangers which is a hurdle I can take too (especially with those beer prices). As if all was not good enough yet, we also got the sun out all day. This meant that people could go outside for talks and drinks, which is always a plus.

The other bands that played were mostly unknown to me and if I am honest some outside my range of interest. Coming from a progmetal and traditional Heavy Metal roots I have no problems with Death Metal, I accept some black, but often skip hardcore bands. While saying that the bit I did see by Lies! showed that they did create a party and most people loved them. I first saw Sayas a local Death Metal trio. While spotting additional strings on bass and guitars hopes went up for some tech death. They were not fully tech, but they did sound fine, a good opener to me. Hereafter Alkhemia from France came on. I saw them last year in Musicon when Ralf put them on at a White Room party. Their music is Black Metal, but it is the presentation that makes it nice to watch. Especially James with his long as in floor touching long, dreadlocks, does give us a show. Not for me to get on CD maybe, but live a pleasure to watch. Hereafter we went for a bite in the centre, meaning we missed most of Lies!. When we returned indoor Daniel was behind the merch desk for Eternal Storm. Alex knew him from his Be Prog festivals and we first sorted our merch, now holding a physical copy of Come the Tide and the Sleepers Tee did come in XXL luckily. Prepared we were and bring on the reason for our trip down to Hengelo.

Eternal Storm play progressive death metal with lots of breaks in heaviness. They came by four: drums, bass and two guitarists who sang. I did see Danny a few times before with Persefone and knew that we did not need to worry on live vocals. Turned out that Jamie blended very well, with mostly the harsh and grunted vocals, but also nice clear harmonies. The problem today was that 45 minutes is not a lot, especially when your sensational opening song of the latest album already lasts nearly 15 minutes. Due to the breaks within the song I guess that most who didn't know the band thought they played four songs already when An Abyss of Unreason was finished. Did not matter as they marched on wit A Dim Illusion with it's nice bass and drum intro. It soon became clear to both Alex and me that every minute on the train was paying off nicely with a band this good. Eternal Storm turned into a new absolute favourite of mine and we can only hope that they don't take anotrher six years to come back to The Netherlands. The set ended with some songs of the Come The Tide album, which I am now playing on the background. Strange I missed this one in 2019, but that must be due to overkill of good releases nowadays. After the show we thanked the band for their truly great set and finished the last coins before the train was calling. Such a nice day it was and a big thanks goes out to all the people behind de Vloek van Twenthe. In case they put next year a band on as good as Eternal Storm I definitely shall be back. As if one day with a wide range of heaviness outside my comfort zone was not enough, it is now preparing for a day of Festerfest in Musicon where Baroeg shall be on tour.