Opening on this tour is U.K.’s The Defiled, I don’t know what these guys are aiming at exactly but it seems like fashioncore. It’s more about the outfits and make-up than about the music. Luckily they had already started when we entered the venue, which was hotter than hell, so the torture didn’t take as long as it could have. Musically they played metalcore with crappy vocals and with some electronics in it, even a drum ‘n’ bass beat passed by in their set. But just looking at these guys made me feel awkward, if only they would feel the same when they look in the mirror. Gay fashioncore is not fucking cool, lame asses!

 

I have not been fortunate enough to hear the new Static-X album Cult Of Static, but like always I’m more keen on hearing a lot of stuff from their legendary Wisconsin Death Trip and Machine records. Just like a large portion of the crowd. The band took the stage with full force, slamming out both classics like ‘I’m With Stupid’, ‘Bled For Days’, ‘Love Dump’, ‘Cold’  and new tracks like ‘Cannibal’, ‘Dirthouse’ ‘Stingwray’ and ‘Z28’ to name a few. Unfortunately their drummer Nick Oshiro didn’t come along since it appears he is on hiatus, his shoes were more than filled by Will Hunt, who bashed away like a maniac while displaying some cool stick-tricks. Today was guitarist Koichi’s birthday as well, all the more reason for the band to drink some more shots between the songs. It appeared that everybody was having a great time, both on stage and in front of the stage. Just a small minor is that the sound in this venue is basically fucked because it’s an old church, and also the vocal microphone of bassist Tony wasn’t working too well. Yet this couldn’t spoil the evening, especially not when the band returned to play ‘This Is Not’ and ‘Push It’ as an encore, driving the crowd nuts once more. I hope they’ll be coming to Europe more frequently now, because this is one of those bands from my early metal days that I’ve always kept loving. And they proved themselves again tonight. Hail the Cult Of Static!