The first band on stage had quite an interesting name, One Man Army And The Undead Quartet, featuring the former vocalist of The Crown. Unfortunately their music wasn’t as interesting as their name. I can recall a combination of death and thrash metal worked out in a way that I’ve heard millions do before them, so I lost interest pretty quick. Adding up to that was the terrible mix coming from the 013 speakers, I’m really starting to hate that guy behind the buttons. Every single show starts fucked up because of him.

 

The same with the second band of the evening Ektomorf from Hungary. In the beginning of their set there were almost no guitars to be heard. But I could see exactly where this band was going. I read that they’ve been around for quite a long time already, starting out as a Sepultura orientated band, but suddenly changing styles. The result: a Soulfly orientated band. Like easy moshable thrash riffs with pounding drums and a scream that is exactly like Max Cavalera’s. And I mean exactly, even the way he stands behind his microphone with his guitar is like Max. That takes the fun out of it for me pretty fast, but if you’re into semi-Soulfy-tribute bands then this is the shit. Respect!

 

So here they came, with incredible amounts of junk built up on stage. They had the front of a car and some oil barrels on stage, nice for the light show, but what the hell does it have to do with ‘Are You Dead Yet?’

Anyway, as soon as Living Dead Beat kicked in we were off! Off to a night of show-off guitar and keyboard playing. Yes it does get boring after a while, although very impressing. They played songs from every album (except the first one I think…), amongst others Follow The Reaper, Silent Night, Bodom Night, Hate Me!, Hatecrew Deathroll and We’re Not Gonna Fall. Everything was executed very tight, beside the transmissions from fast to slow and vice versa being out of the original tempo due to the drummer here and there. But somehow the rest of the band immediately caught on to those mistakes and played on in that particular tempo so most of the people probably didn’t even notice. 

To see their vocalist/lead guitarist on stage is nauseating, he thinks he’s so fucking great he would probably eat his own poop. Yuck what an obnoxious person. On the other hand, he can play like hell, especially the dual solo’s with the keyboard are very impressing, as well as the battle of their solo’s. It’s just too bad that he can’t scream that great live as he does on the albums.

 

So after a night of lightspeed solo’s and a lightshow that almost gave me a headache it was time to venture into the depths of Tilburg and party on till the late hours. I actually danced to 2 Unlimited’s No Limit, but that’s another story…