I received some critique after my negative review of Ditchcreeper’s show at Death Feast Open Air this year. Added as opening act of this tour, I had the opportunity to judge them again. Unfortunately this time wasn’t worth the presence either. Ditchcreeper rattled like a car with no wheels and their brutal death metal with slamming breaks sounded way too angular. Their drummer is fast but doesn’t play with any groove which makes it a difficult listen. Some continuous sharp whistling noises made the show even more annoying. Most remarkable moment of the set was a guest appearance by a young girl who took over the mic for one song, doing some extremely brutal guttural vocals and degraded their singer to novice. I wonder why these Englishmen with no discography were on this tour. (Mindsaver)

 

After the way too long Ditchcreeper set, there was finally some space for quality! Sweden’s finest, Vomitory, was ready to enter the stage in support of their brand new seventh full length Carnage Euphoria. They kicked off with the first track of that album ‘The Carnage Rages On’ and continued to play a varied set of mostly new tracks such as ‘Serpents’, ‘Ripe Cadavers’ and ‘Rage of Honor’ along with a few older tracks I’m not that familiar with. The sound got a little better and instrumental wise the band did a great job, but I wasn’t satisfied with the vocal duties of singer Erik Rundqvist. A low monotone not-understandable growl during the whole set failed to add something to the brilliant instrumentation. Where this isn’t such an issue on CD, the vocals live didn’t match the required standards for a death metal band. There wasn’t any form of interaction with the crowd done by their lead singer either. One of the guitarists was trying to get a bit of interaction, while their bassist / lead singer stared at the floor with his long hair before his eyes. Ending with the title track of their second last album, ‘Terrorize, Brutalize, Sodomize’ the band left me with a bit of mixed feelings. But I certainly do want to give this band another chance. Maybe the lead singer was suffering from a brutal hangover? (Brent_)

After the crushing Swedes it was time for another long-time running act: Malevolent Creation. These men have, despite their ages, still a lot of fun on stage. Yet their show had two faces. The extremely fast (bass) drums caused a bit of a monotonous sound. The result was a violent pit, but at the same time people leaving the room - reminding me of Hate Eternal’s gig a couple of weeks ago. A lot of metalheads just do not seem to like these extremities. The fans that remained inside could enjoy a sharp shooting killing machine, which sounded more powerful with every song following a short break. On the setlist were old(er) tracks like “Living In Fear”, “Malevolent Creation” and “The Will To Kill”, next to tracks from their latest effort Doomsday X, such as “Deliver My Enemy” and “Cauterized”. After a one-song encore we could conclude that we didn’t witness a special show (the atmosphere is just too “tame” at Sunday noon gigs), but the brutality makes me want to enjoy this band more in the future. (Mindsaver)