In Solitude and Beastmilk joined hands and teamed up for a 3 week fall European tour. On this warm autumn Sunday-evening, these two very different bands ended their collaboration in the packed Willemeen in the city of Arnhem.
Opener of this evening, were Dutch death/thrash outfit Villainy. I’ve seen this band a couple of times before and they are a good young band, which is highly influenced by old Death with hints of thrash-metal. It had been a while, since I last saw this band. They changed their sound drastically! It seems they are trying to create more layered an atmospheric songs, instead of just full on rippers as they did in the past. Not sure what to think of it though, the songs seem not complete yet. It sounded like loose fragments and not as a whole song. Pity, I do think this is a promising young band though!
Beastmilk has been a much talked about band, since the release of their debut Climax. Some say even hyped, we’ll be the judge of that! Their unique sound of metal, postrock and hugely Joy Division influences, makes it accessible to a lot of people. Whether you like dark wave, gothic, metal, postpunk, you’ll find something it the sound of Beastmlik. Luckily they added a good looking female guitar-player to the line-up, which give their sound even more power and dynamic. I must say, after a disappointing set on Roadburn in April, this show was something else! It almost felt like, if I was watching a reborn new band, so much more power and energy on the stage. With Kvohst their singer as leading spill, they mesmerized the audience with their apocalyptic death-rock. Kvohst voice was beautiful and the band played with passion and energy. Even with a bad sound, this was a very memorable show.
I’ve seen In Solitude a dozen times before and this band always delivers a good, energetic show. This one was no exception! From the start this band played with full energy, through a setlist that unfortunately contained a lot of songs of their last album Sister. All though this is a strong record as well, I would like to hear more songs of the first two albums. Nonetheless, as always we saw a band that played their music with passion and energy. Unfortunately also with In Solitude, there were some serious bad sound issues. Also it became clear that the audience had been divided in two categories, Beastmilk hipsters and metal-heads. A shame for In Solitude, because in the end of the show, the venue was only half packed. For the people that stayed, they saw an inspiring, passionate occult metal band giving it all, despite the sound issues.
