Opening this first show of the tour was Anaphylactic Shock, a local band that I have seen a couple of times before. This time however I was very impressed with their performance, or actually convinced I should say. The show they put on was of a very high quality. Their blackened sludge/doom metal was presented with such a great sound, I was immediately dragged into their dark world. Vocalist Michiel did a great job being convincingly grim and evil, without all the attributes black metal artists tend to use. Overall Anaphylactic Shock did an excellent job getting this evening started, and I wouldn’t mind running into them more often at all.

 

I was about to explode when Burnt By The Sun took the stage. I know a lot of their songs inside out, so I was keen on hearing all that familiar material played live in front of me for the first time. Unfortunately I had forgotten that original vocalist Mike Olender would not be on this tour, which was a bit of a disappointment for me personally. Luckily the band found a reasonably worthy replacement in The End vocalist Aaron Wolff, who has already done some singing for them in 2005. Overall he did a great job mimicking the vocal sounds I wanted to hear, so I can’t complain too much in that area. The band itself performed tight as hell, with some small, forgivable mistakes here and there. Personally I think that drummer Dave Witte should spend more time with this band than with Municipal Waste, yet I know this will remain a wish. His performance this evening was top notch from start to finish, damn this guy can bash like hell! Burnt By The Sun displayed material from all their albums, but it were the old ones from the first EP and first full length that got the best crowd response for sure. For me they couldn’t play long enough, but luckily they busted out another two killer old songs in the encore, concluding this evening with a big bang. Satisfied I went home this evening, knowing that I will see them again by the end of this month, ready to destroy once again. I can barely wait!