Eindhoven Metal Meeting feat. Shining (NO), Sodom plus pre-party, Effenaar, Dec. 7-9
This review is for Quint Meerbeek, forming member of Bodyfarm, forming member of Deathmarch and Codex Mortis, of whom I heard he died a week before this edition of EMM. Rest in peace my friend, introverted but hard hitting drummer and slashing guitars, you’ll be missed. As Bodyfarm will perform this weekend, we’re curious how and what the band will do to tribute Quint.
With last year’s stress in mind I did all I could not to have to endure as much stress as heading out to the pre-party of Eindhoven Metal Meeting, which has become my favorite festival of all. I got early-birds of the festival on papers that could easily be influenced by the sun (LaserJet paper) and scanned literally every week if the pre-party + presale was announced. End of March = bingo! Not only was the first and second batch of bands announced (1st: Shining (Nor), Vomitory (Swe), Holy Moses (Ger, final Dutch show) ; 2nd batch: Sodom (Ger), Urgehal (Nor, final show), Cyclone (Bel) and Graceless (friends ^^) but the pre-party will hit the D-19 stage hard as well: Pentacle (Net) will do a special set and Ereb Altor too (+ a few illegibles). Hotel was arranged when we hadn’t even paid for the 2022 hospitality
Favorite as in… yeah you know. I’ve seen literally every day called EMM since it’s beginning and will continue to do that, and I’m coming close to the amount of years I went to my previous favorite: the long deceased and easily remembered Wãldrock (15 encounters; EMM now: 13). Time to bulk up some music from bands I don’t know but will perform: Cult of Fire, In Aphelion, Haliphron, Whiskey Ritual (this part was written before Union Berlin haha) and more. I wonder if I ever come across the Swedish Shining once
April it got even hotter: OVERKILL will bash in some bat skulls in Eindhoven! Instant idea: buy Stach a festival shirt ^^
As a municipal worker (sort of) I have to work 1,664 hours a year but always work more than 36 hours a week, to be able to take a good long rest after all the work is done. Over the years I could wish every colleague a happy new year earlier, as my so called plus-hours are mounting every year., resulting in a Merry Christmas from November 30th already ^^ Still, I have some final appointments I made before so just before travelling to Eindhoven I had the morning on full throttle: a delicate case of neighbors hating, asbestos being thrown into surface water and lawyers cooking over easily. On my friggin’last day of the work year. I wanted to drive at noon, it became a little later… fine. We ate at our usual Restaria, they know us by now
At the pre-party, of which I didn’t have an idea how crowded it would be, we brought Wanda’s rollator and parked it near the stage. This way she'd be able to see as much as possible. Hum. People only see some room in the darkness to jump into, resulting in many bumps but less ‘sorry’bou tha’ we hoped for. At least Marcel VII (5 ft 7, wide, can look VERY angry if he has to ^^) secured Wanda’s space. A little. First band soon showed up: Enisum. According to MA the band combines black metal with ambient, much to the delight of Wanda. She’s got some 150 ambient CDs, ranging from near-pop, via black metal-ish roughness to machinemade monotony. Nevermind the +150 black metal CDs she owns/had, she gave away a lot of her BM CDs to people who’d enjoy them more than we do. In band terms, I didn’t notice much of the ambient in Enisum, the more I thought of atmospheric black metal like Alcest and being influenced by latter Emperor. Not bad for a starter, but also no means to travel half the globe for. We were invited to the reenactment of the 80-Year-War (1568-1648 against the Spaniards) by ‘soldier’ Stephan, good to see you again my German friend. Together we watched Hideous Divinity, but the three of us fled to the in-the-name-already, aggressive hideous music. Wayyy too technical for us three, four, five (Marcel and his concert buddy – no gf [yet]) joined us OUT of the small Effenaar hall. We wanted to see Pentacle anyway or no way at all. In the meantime, score some EMM merch, maybe a cool one for Stach as well.
Pity this is the third band with the third ADD lights man, the salvo of lights never stopped. Pentacle wasn’t fooled by their backlights, so the blunt, dark and heavy ‘Ancient Death Metal’ was pushed into our faces like an square sausage to a round mouth
When they started with ...Rides the Moonstorm my hideousness to Hideous Divinity evaporated soon. What aggravated me much, was a dick of a woman pushing Wanda OFF first row, fuck that rollator, kutwijf… Wanda later said she knew her, done that before, but to my regret without me seeing it. I’d kicked her if I knew who… Strangely enough, Wannes did see it and put the kutwijf to the stand :cool: Thank you my friend! Appreciated! When Ereb Altor was already checking sound I walked up to the stage, asked drummer Jan Verdonk if there were a set list left, he instantly asked mé for a marker: I got the set list signed by the entire band: ‘from the Abyss – Death Consumes You!’
- Intro
- Rides the Moonstorm
- Behold Denial, Despair and Cruelty [talking about Malta as if Wannes works for a travel agency
]
- Adoring an Endless Dawn
- Into the Fiery Jaws
- Christen Thee Doom
- Deepness of the Depths
- Black at Heart
- Reaper
Guitarist Mike Verhoeven put the encore on the set list: For I Am Chaos
^^ the set list ends with “The rest is silence” – oh no, there’s another band to be seen tonight
The last band of the preparty would be Ereb Altor. According to the flyer Pentacle was the ‘headliner’, but I think they just wanted a beer some earlier
Ereb Altor, I thought, might surprise me. I’d heard a few tunes off YT thinking about Primordial and that band can make something loose in me. But… for sounding like Primordial you’d expect a band with more variation in speed of riffing, more atmosphere or a more vibrant singer… uhm no. Even for Primordial standards it’s too slow, hinting more to latter Enslaved. Note, I do know Enslaved (and their biggest fan in the US
) but still the connection to both ‘influences’ wasn’t overtly strong. Kjelsson and Averill have more stage personality as well. We got out after some 4 songs, having met quite some people, drank several Weihestephaner (no need to try Bahvaria haha), nodded to some bands and whatnot.
Friday started with an exuberant breakfast, as Wanda said ‘no idea when we eat what again’. But, having gluten, sugar, salt and loads of proteins gave so much pressure to her guts, when I mistook the direction to some shop, in a hellish filled shopzone, people not taking notice of her, in the rain, she freaked out to the point of mental exhaustion… damned!! I wanted to be early for the bands, but had to walk her back to the hotel, then arrange some fingerfood (…) and distraction… off to Effenaar in the rain. When I got in, wrist band secured by Bart ^^ I instantly walked to the small hall on Roman’s advice: he was proud to have Moribund Oblivion on his bill! I think I heard about a song and a half of nice melodic death metal and that was Moribund Oblivion to me. I had not seen enough to make more of a description, oh well, off to the big hall for Misþyrming. My long time friend René advised me to go, but he doesn’t always pick my favorites right. The fierce, new school black metal without a bass player was over the top for me. Halfway the set I saw a man running on stage, he slipped into the photo pit and was helped ON stage instead of out of the venue? Uhm, OK, interesting, who’s he then? Marc and Jane helped, this was the singer of Helleruin and did one song with Misþyrming, don’t ask which one. Icelandic is illegible to me and I don’t even bother for a set list. Sorry René
After some Bahvaria 0,0 (I didn’t want to extend the meltdown by returning to the hotel drunk) I found out Bahvaria IPA 0,0 is a lot tastier and with a new type of drink I wanted to get into the small hall for Massive Assault, the Dutch death metal band… I had never seen them, even though they exist over+20 years and hail from bands like God Dethroned, Absorbed, Sledgehammer Nosejob, Katafalk and some more North-Netherlands metal institutes. But to my distraught, a guitarist checking sound tore off the Massive Banners off the cabinets and a Theotoxin backdrop was raised! Goddomme, now I can’t even check if the position on my Holland Hoodie of the band is right >< No need for those Austrians, I’ve had nights spoiled with this band before. Good thing: Vomitory is in big hall now! Puffing ‘heh heh, finally some death metal’ is just now… the band has some old school light technician (thanks!) but the sound engineer has left his earplugs at the hotel, it’s way not loud enough for a band of this caliber. Finally some neck movement on stage and off and around me
so I get in shape once more. OK, headbangers shape, I’d walked for nearly an hour and a half minimum today, let the neck do the rest now! Known songs to me: Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize early in the set (second song), followed by Piece by Stinking Piece and Rundquist is on the hunt: ‘Are you ready for a heavier song?’ - shouts – more urging on – shouts louder – ‘ODE TO THE MEAT SAW’ is thé heaviest and hardest sounding song for a day and a half in the past! The light show did get more ADD after this, but I wandered… being poked in the back by Kreft
, saw some unique Overkill merch, bought Bodyfarm for the Neckwreckers set, got a bunch of stickers (Nafearya and Bodyfarm alike
- Dave Pennekamp should be proud haha) and prepare for Necrophobic. Of course I’d seen the band before, even WITH Bodyfarm and I know Vieze Pim (R.I.P., is it two years already? Almost. You’re missed!) and Alwin Zuur adore(d) this band, but it couldn’t grab me this time. At all! The band WAS tight, the audience DID freak out, but not me. I think I had too much black metal or didn’t get the death metal I wanted, too much light, no Wanda and no alcohol… I skipped half the Necrophobic set (did get a song they usually don’t play Stormcloud or something and Sinners Burn) and got off, meeting Ralph de Boer telling him sorry for not showing up (..in over two hours) and explaining… black metal probably drains me if I’m not totally in the mood. Ralph later mentioned the small ritual they held on stage, commemorating Quint by playing Well of Decay for him. The band Bodyfarm goes on. Oh, did Norwegian Shining get to Eindhoven or not? I no longer care. I’m in for a real beer with Wanda, she liked it when I got to the room sober…
Saturday I soon noticed Wanda wouldn’t join me, not even to my bosom friend Clemens. I decided beforehand he might like the Saturday bill, having seen a lot of metal in our Groningen days and knowing I’d freak out to at least Graceless, Cyclone, Overkill and Sodom. I wasn’t sure when he’d join me, but we agreed ‘after your dinner, big hall, near the small bar’, no one can find another easier than that. This place also held a rail so Marc could ‘hang’ properly. Marc had had a severe hernia, had been operated and his tendons halfway his body still pull too hard; he brought crutches if necessary he’d use them. I got surprised by Belinda, saying ‘you got me so much goodies, now I have the money to repay you. Pick a shirt now and a Sodom one later’. Muchos gracios! I chose the Cryptosis one, as they were about to perform next. In the big hall they had quite the audience, not just the occasional thrasher (dùh, Overkill, Sodom, Cyclone!) nor the normal deathhead (Graceless) and black dude/dudette (plenty black metal all weekend, see flyer yourself
). The band has a concept they stick to, in video performance, set list, light effects of their own (not so flashy
) and a certain lack of genre links: riffing goes between hard rock, heavy, death, black, melodic, thrashy and near grind. VERY good show!
Main atractions beside mentioned in the previous alinea: In Aphelion – featuring Marco Prij (Cryptosis) and Necrophobic members; Haliphron – would it be the logical successor to Izegrim? Cult of Fire – totally new to me, Urgehall – final show ever. For this moment, Haliphron is on in the small hall. I saw the sound check, greeted any member I knew (Marloes, Jeroen, Frank S) and be surprised. I had the CD as a birthday gift from Peter Lord Belial, but I admit I haven’t heard it so specificly. When I heard the CD I thought ‘Dimmu, mid era – Izegrim vocals but even more aggressive – excellent drumming – tight guitar duels’ and that was what I got, standing on the balcony of the small hall. It wasn’t as full as I expected, but still the band got greeted well and the melodic black/death was well responded to. Even some Epica influence got by, but overall I must say I think the keyboards did give the performance a bit too much smoothness for the lyrics spit on us. Marloes has found an extra option for her voice: yeah the hard hitting screams she does now too, next to her bark, shout and howl. Next time, I promise to stay the entire show, as I thought I had not seen enough Cryptosis to be worthy of the shirt
I saw Frank te R do an excellent bass solo, as if he’s in a seventies-rock-progressive-metal-band. Very cool!
As one of the biggest Graceless fans north of Leiden, I had to be on front row during Graceless, of course. Wanda had been in contact with Marc about a special item, but as I wasn’t sure about what I never mentioned the word special to any Graceless member. Special was the show indeed, at least to an ever busier small hall during these songs:
- Giants
- Malignant Seed (no guitar from Bjørn for half the song)
- Retaliation of the Wicked (shouting contest on first row, I win :cool: )
- Shadowlands (man does Kreft look like Cronos when he tilts his head? HA HA yes!)
- Blood of the Brave
- Slashed and Served (giving me a real Sepultura – Mass Hypnosis feel in those riffs!)
- Embrace the Rain (‘for the fallen brothers in Bodyfarm’)
- Warpath (my goodness, what a difference in brutality from these two songs ^^)
With so much killer bands you have to make choices. I chose to stick around the small hall, not just to greet the Graceless dudes (set list and guitar picks I gave away. I have my collection already) and deciding not to run for Sulphur Aeon. I had had quite some black metal or blackened metal so far, I need THRASH!! What did I get: a full fist to the mouth from Cyclone! The Belgians sure made friends amongst organizers since MEF 2021, and the small hall is absolutely THEIRS for about 40 minutes. The small hall explodes with headbangers, the first pit of the entire festival, beer sweeping, heads that drink were turned to banging, throats being ripped, denims being tested on strength, sharp as a blade thrash metal becomes infectious! The sound is marvellous, as is the volume, the light presentation and the reactions to all this. I only write ‘In the Grip of Evil’ and ‘Fighting the Fatal’ and just have a great time. It’s so good to see old metalheads on stage and off go insane.
Getting to the big hall I find people that are interesting, drunk, searching or a combination of ^^. One guitar plectrum from ‘The Nameless Elite’ (nothing printed on it, not even a brand), an M-16 shirt from Belinda (THANK YOU) and possibly Clemens will show up. I met a lot of people asking about Wanda’s whereabouts and I gladly text her who said what
I had sent videos of Cryptosis and Graceless when she texted ‘I’m out of data, says the screen, I have to get offline, kisses’. Uhm, last Holy Moses show in Holland? Would Sabina have the energy she used to have? Headbanging, running, shouting, singing, cheering, drinking? How’s the band nowadays? The first hint is the start up music: Lionel Richie – Hello & Wham! - Careless Whisper – brutally cut off for the Holy Intro! This gig is going to be party, no matter what. And, the band deserves it. Friggin’42 years on and off stages, worldwide, some 12 full lengths, great tours, small festivals, they’ve done it all. I remember Dynamo Open Air 1989, my first ‘Moses show, hayday of thrash metal; 2006 Aaltjesrock in a house room festival in Harderwijk, of all places, Wãldrock, Wacken… yeah. Sabina has a young band surrounding her, they sound fantastic, the songs withstood the test of time, but surely her vocals did NOT. Sounding like a crow near a hoof grinder, no pattern in reach anymore, hardly any power left to sing, but friggin’she does it! The fans go out of their heads and limbs, as she asks halfway the set ‘give me a mosh pit big enough to win over Angelripper and Blitz’. Vocally she should have quit four years ago (a show with Sodom in Oberhausen, Belinda also present, she reminds me Sabina HAD much more reach and power back then, but hey, she turns 60 in two weeks!) but the energy is abundant. Like said, running, banging, stirring people up, inviting girls onto stage (first one to show up: Marcel V Hummel HAS to be on stage HA HA HA, second is Marloes) and build a party A-Z. I think everybody present forgives the vocal lines in favor of the party the band makes and cheer to the entire history of the band. Pity the mosh pit keeps to some 15 people, Sabina sure deserved more, I guess. Note, I’m still in the back, waiting for my bosom friend. At the end of the Holy Moses show, there he is, being explained what’s going on on stage and smile widely to Sabina & Holy Moses!
A win in mosh pit? Not when Sodom is on the kill. Of course, Angelripper claims most pitters are about an hour too late, but his smile says it all: when Among the Weirdcong is played as first song, it’s chaos in Effenaar. That Blackfire has a white permanent hairdo doesn’t give anything less hahaha, the band goes 200 per cent and they easily KONKRAHHH EEEIINNDDHOOVUHHH. Sodom is really on fire this night. No one is watching Thyrfing, all hail Sodom! I explain, when Jabba the Hut is played, to Clemens about my thoughts about Kreator and Sodom over the years, from underestimating Angelripper to believing Kreator is overwhelmed by Sodom nowadays. Kreator is so melodic now, Sodom just dusted off 38 year old songs to KILL! Their 40 Years at War compilation is played about ten times more here than the last three Kreator albums combined.
See what I wrote:
- Among the Weirdcong
- Jabba the Hut (hated the original, now I bang my head furiously)
- Sodomized
- An Eye for an Eye
- Conflagration
- Agent Orange (‘do you like punk songs?’ No strange thing when I met Giedo of Cyclone and Laurens of Cryptosis [formerly thrash threemankillership Distillator] during this song HA HA]
- M-16 (Angelripper: ‘what’s this Bavaria shit?’ Of course dude you’re a Gelsenkirchen Veltins Schalke 04 guy!!
)
- The Crippler (‘not played live since 1990’)
- Let’s Fight in the Darkness of Hell (friggin’off the second demo, NOT a medley
)
- Blasphemer
- Nuclear Winter
- Remember the Fallen
- AUSGEPIT – of course, I can’t stand still during a Sodom show. I hand my glasses to Clemens, my phone to Jane (Clemens can be as clumsy as me
) and I’m off. Three rounds in the pit, gasp, one round, gasp, one round, gig finished) and hit the sack full. I return like snakes to turtoise eggs, in blazing heat, sweat dripping from my hands back in my Weihestephaner, hoarse but proud. Sodom is THE band of the festival to many, including Clemens, Jane, Belinda, Laurens and all the headbangers, moshers, shouters and what-the-fuck-you-call-yourselfs around Effenaar. Jürgen and Sylvia surprised me with a little package of their city: Eupen patch, Eupen pin, Tankard pin THANK YOU!!
What would Overkill bring that we haven’t seen lately? They toured Europe in April, that was terrific! Would they keep up with Sodom? No, by far, no. As a matter of fact, it was bad. Why? Because DD Verni wasn’t there, normally the driving force of the musical part of Overkill. He was replaced, no idea to what reason, by Speezy. Yes, the 22-year-long-Kreator bassist, but never played an Overkill tune, not to save his life. He was nervous beyond belief, not wanting to make mistakes but in the fear, he did. Having brought his normal Gibson Explorer bass he’d easier joined Sodom than the BC Warlock Beast DD torments for Overkill. Sad point was, the band couldn’t keep up and to my surprise, Derek Tailer with his hair cut was doing the ‘Scott Ian madness’ to wind up the audience. Tailer, please keep to your strings and let the moshing be done by the audience… it looked so unnatural. Nice to have heard Jane and Marc had met Sabina, Angelripper and Dave Linsk in the hotel, but this was fruitless. Gutless. Add the same set list as Hedon to the problem, minus a few songs, no hint of enthusiasm could fill me up. Bobby kept hailing the Skullcrushers but they refused to get off the friggin’balcony ‘to protect our banner’ so that part of the audience made more fools of themselves than in Wörrstadt HA HA. Jane looked at me, saw my distraught and Clemens lack of understanding and called it a night. Yeah, I know Marc isn’t top notch now but knowing Marc is a black metal fan and not feeling a 100 per cent, she bailed out. As did we. Clemens wrote on the ticket ‘Top that I could come, see you, thank you, hug you’. As he went to Effenaar by bike and I needed some time to think, I hugged him again and said goodbye. OK we’d seen a special part in both Holy Moses’ goodbye gig and Sodom’s WE KILL EVERYBODY gig but also disappointment in Overkill. 5 songs in, out!!! I’m not that sorry I missed the last Urgehall show, but waiting had no sense to me and later I heard Spasm couldn’t enter at all, it’s OK to leave. Sodom, Graceless, Holy Moses (to a certain point), Cyclone and Cryptosis were enough for me on this last day of this years’ Eindhoven Metal Meeting. With only one early bird for EMM 2024 and a hotel already reserved, I come back to Eindhoven to Asphyx, Impaled Nazarene, Anaal Natrakh, Savage Grace and some 60 more to be announced.
Epilogue: EMM 2023 has been a rollercoaster once more. No stress beforehand, but stress on the site. Love, friendship, cameradery, it’s all present at metal shows but I can’t put all in positive mode. It was too full in the foyer most of the time. The bar personnel wasn’t all experienced, that’s a first timer for Effenaar to me. Food outside good, inside meh. Overkill on a bad day is boring as fuck. Sodom on a bad day is still Sodom >< People with interest in fellow beings is great, but after 36 hours of explaining why I was alone patted my back as well. I am grateful to the friends I met, the stuff I got and bought, the bands that gave me what I needed but also the abundance of black(ened) metal was out of balance to me. If the thrash, death and black metal bands were more mixed, I think I would have seen more individual bands or liked more what I experienced. Now I have the feeling I missed the new gems, so to speak, by not wanting to keep walking. I’d been walking enough these three days and those walks weren’t all for metal. They were also to keep my love going. I love metal, I love Wanda but together it seems there’s too much to keep combining it. I have to accept I might have to go alone more often than I already did last five years. But can I go safely? Will her mind hold? Or my longing for her and for metal???
Conclusion: Plus: Pentacle, Vomitory, Cryptosis, Moribund Oblivion, Graceless, Cyclone, Holy Moses, Sodom, Clemens, Belinda, Jane, René, Jürgen, Sylvia, Bavaria IPA 0,0, Weihestephaner, the sound in both halls.
Minus: Overkill. Lights. Necrophobic. Stress. Too much black. Walks. Bahvaria. Some doofs from my past not worth mentioning. Missing In Aphelion and Massive Assault.
Reaction: one early bird + hotel for Dec. 12th-14th, 2024. Only one. I’m metal. But also a human with all my emotions.
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