It was quite unannounced for me, but Kataklysm was supposed to play in the Baroeg in Rotterdam. I really wanted to see them again and I drove off to the Baroeg for an evening with 4 bands: Mystic Circle, Into Eternity, Graveworm and Kataklysm. Of course everything went wrong with the journey, as the heat shield of my catalyst would not stay under my car. I had to wait for 50 minutes for the ANWB and after that we could finally be on our way. The result was that we missed Into Eternity, but were just in time for Mystic Circle. Too bad, because I really wanted to see Into Eternity, but some people assured me it wasn’t that good.

Mystic Circle:

I don’t know what the trouble with Mystic Circle is. They create about 2 new albums a year or something like that but it’s just not of high quality. They started quite bad, but luckily it got better after 3 songs. I cannot remember which songs they played, but I remember a very cool performance on God Is Dead. I also liked it when they started with the Slayer intro, but turned it into on of their own songs. After a few songs it was finished again and I must say that I’ve seen Mystic Circle when they were worse. Tonight, it wasn’t even that bad, but it could also be influenced by the mass beer consumption

Graveworm:

I first saw this band in the 013, almost a year ago. They played on the pepsi stage, which is the largest stage of the 013. The band fitted quite nice there, but tonight the stage was really crowded. With 2 guitarists, 1 bass player, a keyboard girl, a drummer and a vocalist it tends to get very crowded on the small stage in the Baroeg. Nonetheless, they’ve given a superb show with the majority of songs coming from the Engraved In Black album. After some songs they played a brand new song from the upcoming album. I was quite pleased by that song, and if the whole album is going to sound like this, I’m sure I’m going to get a copy of it.

Kataklysm:

This was the band we were waiting for. I was happy to see that they haven’t changed that much from last time. Opening the act with the title track from Serenity In Fire, they instantly got people headbanging in front. After Serenity In Fire, they kicked in with Ambassador Of Pain. After that they started with Illuminati, one of the most powerful songs of the Shadows And Dust album. Most of the songs were from these 2 albums, just like the last time. The show was given methodically, and it was the first show given for the new tour. I could see that this live machine has been practicing a lot and that resulted in an extremely well performance! Some songs they played: The Resurrected, Chronicles Of The Damned, As I Slither and Where The Enemy Sleeps. When their time was almost over, they decided to fill that time up with a drum solo from Martin Maurais. It wasn’t that spectacular as in the 013, but it came very close. I still don’t get it how he manages it to produce a blast on his snare with one hand. The very professional drum solo was being prolonged into one of the fastest songs they’ve ever made Blood On The Swans. Their time was almost up, and they had time for just one song. Of course people were missing the first song from the Shadows And Dust album, which is also the title track. They ended their show with great dignity and left another great impression on me!