Who doesn’t know them in the metalscene? Cannibal Corpse is well-known by a lot of people which isn’t that strange: the death metal band has existed for 25 years now and that’s of course a reason to tour. They brought co-headliner DevilDriver, main support The Black Dahlia Murder and opening-act Hour Of Penance, who replaced Winds Of Plague, with them.

As stated before, Hour Of Penance got the honours to start off this evening. They got some heads banging, but they didn’t convince many people. A quick side note: the room was only half full, probably some people went to work/school first or they simply had known this band a bit longer. The next time this band will play, I will be late too. Not because this band plays horribly or something, but the music just doesn’t make any sense to me. Nevertheless some people were applauding and banging their heads, I was just bummed out that Winds Of Plague wasn’t playing right now.

After half an hour of the first band it was time for some action and more movement. When The Black Dahlia Murder played their first notes some room to mosh was already being created. This melodic death metal band still has the wrong vocalist in my opinion because Trevor looks like a hardcore vocalist. However, he’s quite a famous name and TBDM wouldn’t be the same without him. Songs like ‘Moonlight Equilibirum’ and ´Miasma’ were very well performed and there was also quite some energy in the venue. Great to see this band back in Holland, but please come back for a show that lasts longer than 40 minutes.

Right after TBDM the evening finally got kicked off well, it was already time for the co-headliner of the evening, DevilDriver. Kicking in with one of their most famous songs ‘End Of The Line’, the crowd knew what they could expect: a very tight set and Dez Farfara in perfect condition. Having seen this band many times, I was sure that Dez has had his best time because he couldn’t reach all the notes the last three times I have seen them. How completely wrong I was, today the band played its best performance I’ve seen. Songs like ‘Cry For Me Sky’, ‘These Fighting Words’, ‘Horn Of Betrayal’ and ‘Dead to Rights’ aren’t their greatest hits, but were fabulously performed. Although I would have liked them to play some older songs, it was a great set. They ended with some bigger songs like ‘I Could Care Less’, ‘Hold Back The Day’, ‘Clouds Over California’ and of course ‘Meet The Wretched’. These eleven songs let the people scream for more, but that will be another time because this performance sadly came to an end. As I said before, one of their best shows I’ve seen in a while! DevilDriver is back!

In the end there was but one act to remain. The infamous Cannibal Corpse had the last slot on the tour and to be honest it was the act that I was stoked about. Let's be honest who doesn't like the fine tunes of songs like 'Priest Of Sodom", 'Make Them Bleed' and ofcourse their evergreen that even has had its 15 seconds of fame in hollywood, 'Hammer Smashed Face'. I witnessed them before a couple of years back when I was completely wasted during the Graspop festival. Back then I had an awesome time doing disco moves on their fine tunes. But true grimness as I am I decided to stay sober today and enjoy the show without any form stimulant. As I watched the show I can only say that my respect for Cannibal Corpse did collide a lot. Not only did they move around 1 square meter per song they also gave me the impression they didn't have any form of pleasure being on stage. Just a bit of daily headbanging and musicining. Add to this the sloppy performance of one of the guitarplayers and the drummer that had 'trouble with blasting' and you know they didn't fulfill the expectations I had of them. Oh and the really lame light show of two colours per song didn't made it very special either. Definitely a down side on this evening.