Netherlands Deathfest III, 013 Tilburg, March 2-4, 2018, headliners Carcass, Emperor, At the Gates
This is going to be the best tradition ever, I guess. Seeing such an abundance of metal styles, not too far from home, not too expensive, meeting friends, great hotel (already booked the second day of NDF II
) and usually great weather to walk from hotel to venue. What else does a metalhead need? Couple of days off, some cash, that’s all doable. The date was set during NDF II, the first bands announced early April, one hour later the tickets were in the pocket! It could be Tom’s last visit to NDF for a while, as he wants to try something else next time. OK bro, no problem, I will go to NDF IV anyway. Now, the IIIrd edition:
Angel Witch was in the first batch of bands announced. I would like to see some bands that said Angel Witch influenced them, but as I like me some heavy metal too, I can wait
I was happier with the return of Sadistic Intent to Holland, last time I saw the band on a Dutch flyer was a cancelled tour with Pentacle and Possessed, somewhere in 2007 or something… but that tour never happened at all.. Carcass was announced early, as was Witchery! Finally! People debate whether it still has to be called a deathfest, but I don’t care about names. I once visited a Chaos Blast Meating and I’ve seen The Storm is Coming, right? We want metal, not fluffy names of douchy festivals.
Friday I was happy to have the entire day off. February is the busiest month for me and last weeks I felt completely drained. Tom would be at my place after a morning’s work, Bryan and Wanda would be earlier. For a nice coffee and Belgian waffle, or was that Graspop? Nah, nowadays you pay € 300 for a Graspop festival ticket easily, over € 120 for a one-day-one, food’s gone off the hill, prices up, bands down. And to travel to Belgium for just a waffle, I’m no Stip hahaha. He once drove to Antwerp for specific rolling tobacco and Belgian Palm, but as he no longer drinks nor smokes… I started the festival with relaxing exercise and relaxing music: Entombed – Left Hand Path, Gorefest – Mindloss and Rose Tattoo – Assault and Battery
. In car: AC/DC – Touch too Much
Even though it was very cold, the ride to Tilburg was smooth, catching up with Tom and stories with Bryan filled the beloved VW Golf Mk II once again. Wanda had arranged the Bastion hotel, but had no idea it would be sooo costly: € 980!! That’s more than double we paid in Auberge! First people to come out of Auberge: Andrée and Kathe!!
) Cold and windy but sunny, we had a great walk to 013. At the door we heard there were a few problems: the wrist bands weren’t delivered, some goo about backpacks and rucksacks, Vallenfyre was stranded in English snow and big chance some more bands wouldn’t make it. As Vallenfyre was scheduled as first band of the Saturday, it soon became clear the festival would simply start some later, no need or no effort for another band? Carnation isn’t situated that far from Tilburg *wink* *hint*
With my first beer in hand I already met 20 friends
and Aura Noir soon got to stage. I don’t know, it was like a bad attempt to worship Venom, but without the fuck-off-mentality. The guitarist even sat down on a friggin’chair, bored shitless, when the bass solo was played! OK, don’t screw my good mood, I get it. I leave, find myself a handful of patches (HJ, hello Jerry
thanks Wanda for an awesome Let There Be Rock patch!) In the main hall Broken Hope was also trying to bore me to death so within 25 seconds I returned to the foyer and my friends. I honestly don’t know which band I saw later, as the schedule was turned inside out the rest of the day. Some black metal hush hush, I don’t recall. We were waiting for Suffocation anyway. The band bashed all air out of all lungs and made very much pores sweat exuberantly
The band started with two new songs I didn’t recognize (still haven’t bought the new album) before Wanda had her time of the day: Effigy of the Forgotten, Funeral Inception [Bryan stating: ‘at least it’s loud enough!’ Uhm, don’t you like the way they play it? ‘Yeah, but this needs volume and indeed, there’s loads of it
‘], Clarity Through Deprivation, Pierced From Within, Entrails of You, As Grace Descends, Liege of Inveracity {thanks, setlist.fm
clearly thinking of Frank Mullen’s comment on the band’s lyrics
} Catatonia and Infecting the Cryps were shattered over our eager heads. Tom ruled the pit, even though he told me the ankles had become so much worse the operation needed comes closer… then he’ll never pit again… There even was one crowd surfer that lost both his phone, one shoe and still he tried to get on stage.. fool. Cut his wristband and throw him out, please! Douche. Another douche present in the form of a roadie, bringing all set lists to the LEFT side of the stage, handing out guitar picks at the left side of the stage.. we were at the RIGHT side of stage. I decided to do something a little more drastic, I signaled guitarist Charlie Errigo to swap shirts. So, he got my (reasonably dry) Sabiendas shirt, I’ve got his soaking wet Internal Bleeding shirt. Clearly, he’s got the better part of the deal, but the soppy shirt fits like a glove. A wet glove HA HA HA. I made friends there
On Sunday I was thanked by Charlie for the dry shirt and got a picture taken
Both in dry shirts again
Another thank you to Wanda, as she offered me ‘shirt of choice, offer only for today’ and got me a clean, lovely Deströyer 666 shirt (Call of the Wild). All and all we got home with over 30 patches too 8-) (peak into pile: Violator, Attic, Motörhead, Grave, Sarcófago and said Let There Be Rock)
Carcass headlined the Friday. As I had no longer any clue what band would play in Patronaat or the small hall, I chose not to taste that much luck and stuck around for Bill, Jeff and Co. The band did a Heartwork set, with all filthy classics of old and sharp versions of Descanting the Insalibrious and even Exhume to Consume and Genital Grinder passed by. I loved it, but as I had not eaten that much I did not see the entire set and left for a taxi. Good thing: I had a good night of sleep, bad thing: Tom clearly did not. His intestines seemed to be knotted and as a result we chose to walk through the sunny streets to Café Karel. That was a good choice, as he clearly got better every step he took. Let your own blood cleanse you
. Some coffee and stroopwafels did the rest, the psychological barrier of 12 o’clock was passed hesitantly. But we did it. First beer at 12.05 25 *cool* Pity Karel had so much problems with the compu-tap, so we had to settle ourselves with Jupiler instead of HJ… I wanted to be on time, as I’d met Ben and Loek of Skullhog/Inhume yesterday and Loek told me: ‘if you’re on time on Saturday, I’ll have a patch for your Dutch Denim’ so at 13.59 precisely we got into the small hall for Skullhog. After a few songs of pure goregrind Loek asked ‘how’s the sound’, I replied: ‘het is kut, maar dat mag!’ “it sucks, but with goregrind that’s OK”
Laughs. Not only Loek had an Inhume present, Ben couldn’t linger and he gave me an Skullhog street patch! Thanks a lot, gents, highly appreciated! The band also played songs of the new split with Violation Wound and it seems Reifert & Co. get some live mileage with Skullhog! OK, noted! If that means Skullhog members show up at Maryland I couldn’t quite decipher, but I will keep my eyes out! First beer is on me! I like me some cross goregrind – stoner! Loek also thanked the clog dancers and belly dancers, so a lot of shirts were raised
I made a picture of the set list (featuring a print on a NDF flyer 8-) ) :
- Risen to Bludgeon
- Smouldering Abnormality
- Curse of Dunwich
- Tusks of Gore
- Savage Butchery
- Gateways of Eibon
- The Final Chapter
Second band we saw today was Nunslaughter. Bryan was overexcited to (finally?) see the band as it turned out both Nunslaughter and Carcass shared the same hotel he did and their fanatical death/grind with hint of black is butter to his ears. I wasn’t impressed by the start of the gig, but it got better all along. In one song I heard a wing of Saxon, an oldschool Carcass riff and a whiff of Megadeth? Yeah, that sums it, I guess. I stuck near the stage, as I knew Skinless was about to wash our ears with gore and filth and I knew Andrée and Kathe had mostly come to Tilburg to see them. The band had a superb sound, combining blunt death metal with a stroke of doom. Andrée wanted to buy something, but forgot his bank card (like I’d forgotten the credit card; Tom had to balance in quickly before I could set it straight at ‘my’ bank on Friday
) so I lent him some. Doing so I nearly got Kathe in tears, as she clearly had not expected me to lend him money without even blinking an eye. She got me back my € 50 within half an hour
Andrée got the set list:
- The Optimist
- Extermination of my Filthy Species
- Tampon Lollipops
- Deviation will not be Tolerated
- Savagery
- Fetus Goulash
- Skull Session
- High Rate Extinction
- Foreshadowing our Demise
- Crispy Kids
After Skinless I met up with Bryan and Wanda as I’m in for pizza! We were shooed out of the pizza parlor so that’s another black cross behind that venue :-/ and we walked on. I got the best carpaccio I’d had in a long time and Bryan got his ‘extra fries’ which I nearly ate totally
That we missed Witchery, owww that’s a fact I can’t deny and I can’t express how sorry I am to have done so, but the reactions to the band were as wide as the North Sea (some said it was pretty cool, some people hated it.) so I leave it at that. It was time for the headliner of the entire weekend: Emperor. The band would do an Anthems to the Welkin of Dusk set, but Tom had already left in the first song. He hated it, called it spreeuwenherrie (‘starling noise
‘). I couldn’t do much more than follow him, but where he went so fast I don’t know. I was lucky enough to find Jordi and he called Kimberly if I could be brought to Auberge. I am not too fussy about missing most of Emperor, as I’d seen them in Wacken years ago. All I know is that Emperor also plays PartySan, of which David (of Enjoy the Torture) got me a ticket! Muchos thankos, myos friendos!
Tom clearly had a better night than before. The wind was gone now, the sun prickly, temperature rising swiftly. No more snow to be found, spring is in the air! As was HJ at Café Karel, including people speaking Norwegian, Spanish and more around us
The new date for NDF IV is set too, next year NDF will bash Tilburg on May 3rd-5th! Ahh, one of the reasons Tom didn’t want to choose to go or not WAS the date. February can mean cold, wind, snow, May is usually a lot better period to sit at Heuvel 24 *cool* We were right on time for the first band: Sacrificial Slaughter, the fiery American death grinders with not two, but three putdeksels for vocalists
I kept thinking of the many songs I know by the name Sacrifice (Bathory, Motörhead, even Elton John in all diversity), my hunger to finally see the real Sacrifice or the CanadianSlaughter… wishful thinking, I know, but still. Damned, Sadistic Intent flew via England and are STRANDED! Goddomme! Second band today was Altarage from Portugal. Oh no, Spain. Or should I say Portal? The black/death was blistering loud, the band was wearing pest masks or executioner’s hoods and they. Play. Loud!!!! It was so loud the pest masks withered in the bass lines, did I mention LOUD?? The third band we saw was The Flesh from Norway. Uhm, were those the men sitting next to us only an hour ago?
Yeah, I recognized a guitarist’s head but Metal Archives doesn’t help me. MA says the band is split up years ago, they played death metal but this is a mixture of crust, stoner and some black metal vocals. OK three genres in one song, we’re off. Luckily the Inhume- and Carnation-members found me and we had a lot of beers
Jonathan even mentioned a CD presentation gig, but I missed where. I think it’s a matter of peeking FB a bit
I was just in time for the other highly wanted show: the return of Angel Witch to a Brabant stage! The band had frequented Dynamo (venue and Open Airs) in the eighties, but I only got to see them first on Bloodstock (2011)) and later Tongeren Metalfest (2014). The mix was great but the singer Kevin Heybourne could have had a better day, I guess. Bryan totally, totally freaked out! That was fun to watch, him being so introvert haha. Looking all directions, always funny to see some oldschool deathheads go insane. On ancient NWOBHM
With this set list:
- Gorgon
- Confused
- Atlantis
- Dead Sea Scrolls
- Sorceress
- White Witch
- Into the Dark
- Angel of Death
- Baphomet
- Angel Witch
What I’d say is something like ‘with this set list it’s not strange to freak out. Deathhead or not.’ Of Goblin I won’t say much. I hate movie scores and these guys/doll play electronic, half-metallic versions of gore horror movies I’d never see. I’m not into horror at all and with these tunes I don’t think I will be. My pictures or these bytes are wasted. I returned with longing to… Grave! The band got a full hall in front of them, a sound close to eargasm and a set list consisting of the coolest songs:
- Deformed
- Black Dawn
- Day of Mourning
- Hating Life (!!!)
- Into the Grave
- Extremely Rotting Flesh
- Reality of Life
- Severing Flesh
- Eroded
- Annihilated Gods
DIT WAS FUCKKKKKKK GAAFFFFFFF! The set list was so good, I could not bother too long that Ola Lindgren’s guitar was set to zero, maybe 0,2 on a scale of 10… Weird. The band has been around since 1988, from 1984 in other incarnations, Lindgren is in the band ever since, but still they can’t manage to put that one bit straight… for the entire gig!! I wanted to get Alwin a Grave shirt, but they only had M-sized shirts? Uhm, OK, let me get a NDF shirt instead. He was puzzled by the gift, but also happy with the shirt haha. We meet in Heidelberg my friend! Where we won’t see Mournful Congregation, I guess, because the ‘Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise on 11 RPM’ couldn’t catch my attention. Two pictures, back to main hall. We weren’t really into the mood for At the Gates so we left during the sound check. NDF is over, but not the tale. We had another excellent breakfast and booked for May 3rd-6th 2019!! WE RETURN. To NDF. To Tilburg (still have a hand full of coins
). To Death!
I really wonder what the organizers are going to do next. With Deathfests.com there are already four deathfests, OK, most of them in North-America, but can the line up be as diverse again? Tom and me do hope there’s some room for thrash (like on MDF), I hope some German death metal bands can show up, maybe some Canadian ones (hint hint Sacrifice, Infernäl Mäjesty, D.B.C. and the likes). Not too much atmospheric black metal. Keep some doom and grind available. The venue is greatly fit for NDF, even though I haven’t been inside Patronaat apart from the Goddess stand. I must say I missed two thirds of all bands this weekend (Root and Blood played way beyond midnight, plenty bands got stuck in England), but I can only be on one place at a time and I won’t rush. I don’t need EVERY band. I need my friends as well, even though Ineke did bring confetti again. I need metal. On the road home we had such a great time, I won’t easily forget the hilarious reactions of Wanda and Bryan to De Heideroosjes – Ze Smelten de Paashaas and the deep need to see more death metal live. We return.
full Suffocation set list and reaction seen for members or guests at
http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... ss-emperor