I’ve seen this band just two weeks before this show, in an opening slot for Mayhem. I wasn’t impressed in the least by this Dutch black ‘n roll band back then. Today however they had a better sound and that helped improving the power of this band a lot. Musically this band is in between the newer Darkthrone, Motorhead and the Misfits/Danzig. This time it was a lot clearer to hear, what they are trying to do and I even discovered some great songs in the 20 minute short set.
 

After an amazingly fast build-up of this band (5 minutes or even less), this band knocked everyone present of their feet. The sheer brutality they unleashed on the small stage was quite impressive. They recently released their second full length album called Breathing The Fire. I was familiar with their first record Beyond The Permafrost, but I wasn’t in the least impressed by that album, so I didn’t know what to expect. What they gave me, was an incredible fast set, with short interludes and a bad ass heavy sound. Looking into the crowd, I wasn’t the only one that was surprised by this band. From the first song on, they got a bigger part of the crowd going wild in the pit. Musically they sound like Exodus, Legion Of The Damned playing old crossover tunes from D.R.I. and Cryptic Slaughter, with a loud as hell Motorhead bass sound. This big bearded thrash-horde played songs from the first as well as from the second album. They pretty much steam-waltzed the crowd ready for Toxic Holocaust. Absolutely energetic bulldozer thrash, which kicked a lot of people in the nuts and made them aware: “Fuck off, we are Skeletonwitch and we will thrash this joint!”



(Skeletonwitch / Pic : Lindsy Bouten)
 

The day I heard the album Evil Never Dies for the first time, I have been an admirer of Joel Grind ever since. So when I saw Toxic Holocaust for the very first time with Municipal Waste, I was so disappointed by that absolute terrible show, that I didn’t had high expectations for this show. Luckily he is no longer a one man thrash-machine and actually got used playing with other people on a stage. This show was miles and miles better and from the very first tones, it was pretty much obvious that almost everyone in the crowd was there for Toxic Holocaust. The set-list contained a lot of songs from the last album An Overdose Of Death, but also some songs of Hell On Earth and just 1 or 2 of the brilliant Evil Never Dies album. Joel Grind was in a very enthusiastic mood and got the crowd eating out of his hand. The crowd went berserk on tracks like ‘Wild Dogs’ and ‘Endless Armageddon’ and some fantastic old school thrash-metal rituals occurred, like a huge circle-pit, crowd-surfers and stage-divers! The vibe was amazing, the band was tight as hell and I’m glad Joel Grind took his revenge on me. Welcome back Joel Grind, the grave lord of thrash-metal!

 
(Toxic Holocaust / Pic: Lindsy Bouten)

Goatwhore

After a devastating set of Toxic Holocaust it was hard for Goatwhore to top that! It even became a bit harder, because quite a few people left the building after the Toxic Holocaust set. Luckily for Goatwhore, they circulate the headlining position on this tour. Quite a loss for the people who left earlier, because with two New Orleans icons in the line-up (Sammy Duet/Acid Bath and Ben Falgoust/Soilent Green), you can expect some dirge sounding black/death-metal from the sludgy south! They played a lot of songs from the recently released album Carving Out The Eyes Of God, which is an amazing album. The spirit within the crowd was gone, with just a handful of Goatwhore fans left going nuts in front of the stage. Still they gave an amazing, energetic and powerful show and with an amazing vocalist like Ben Falgoust it is a party none the less. Next time better in front of a crowd that cares!