Unluckily we weren’t there to witness the first three bands and arrived when Alestorm played their set. The Scottish lads are bringing the fun element to metal, an element that in my opinion is hugely underestimated and utilized. Sometimes metal takes itself a tad to seriously. With a backdrop that showed a duck/banana hybrid (yes it sounds as strange as it looked like), it is clear that Alestorm is there to have a good time and there music is excellently suited for it.  A lot of response from the crowd let to an entertaining performance, which was capped of by a one-wheeled wheel chair crowd surf by one of the people in the public. Even the guys at Alestorm were surprised by this!

 

Next up Biohazard, one of my favorites from my early days discovering metal. The latter albums were a bit of a disappointment, compared with the first couple of albums, so I was as happy as a child in a toystore when they almost only played songs from Urban Discipline and State Of The World Address. The started off with “Wrong Side Of The Tracks”, which unfortunately wasn’t really well audible since the sound was quite off, luckily this changed during their performance, although the sound on the vocals of Scott Roberts was not 100% during the whole performance (especially compared to Billy). For me it felt like a meeting with an old friend. High notes: “Resist”, “Love Is Denied”, “Victory”and “Punishment”. Very enjoyable show, happy to have seen them for the very first time!

 

Nuclear Assault is a band I am not very familiar with (which is strange with my love of thrash music), but they didn’t persuade me to check them more often. I don’t know if it’s their style of music or the sound was really terrible, but it sounded as if I was listening to one gigantic song. The material lacked a lot of variety and didn’t appeal to me. Perhaps the fans of Nuclear Assault have seen a great show, but his was not my cup of tea. Next!

 

Also for me a first, the mighty Death Angel landed on Eindhoven, a home away from home as they said numerous times during their live set. And they really played like it! Lead by a very very energetic Marc Osegueda, Death Angel delivered an impeccable set. They got the crowd into it very quickly (although truth be told, I think that during the whole festival the people were quite laidback and not as energetic as you want during a metal festival, perhaps because of the weather, but the energy as a whole wasn’t really there), with some nice uptempo bashers. It made so much impression, that they made a new fan in the friend I was with (and note she isn’t a real fan of the heavier side of metal, so that’s a real accomplishment!). She was amazed that a band who is as long in the game as Death Angel is,  can still bring it with that much energy and enjoying it still so much. Older songs blended easily with newer songs like “Dream Calls For Blood”. They can again be witnessed at Schollenpop, so for everybody who missed them this time around, please go and watch them you will not be disappointed! Also I would like to mention the performance of drummer Will Carroll, the way he hit the drums was like hitting a wall with a sledge hammer!

Then it was time for Arch Enemy to take the stage and closing out the festival. From the get go they performed very professional with Alissa White-Gluz as energetic eye catcher. She run around the stage continually, waved flags and was very expressive in her stage presence, a joy to watch and a very good replacement of Angela Gossow. Not only by stage presence by the way, but also the way she handled the vocals live! All songs were spot on, with excellent guitar work and razorsharp drumming. I only would love to see a bit more enthusiasm from star guitarists Jeff Loomis and Michael Amott. They played marvelously, but I am missing a bit more soul like towering big guy Sharlee D’Angelo has. The majority of the songs came from the War Eternal album, but also older albums as Wages Of Sin (3 songs) and even Black Earth (1 song) were not forgotten. Personal high notes were the renditions of “Death Eyes See No Future”and “We Will Rise”, the latter remains one of the crowd favorites and got the most response. All-in-all Arch Enemy left a really good impression, perhaps not as enthusiast as Death Angel, but still more than worthy for a headliner!