Finally some real brutal stuff in my hometown again! After being slightly hung over from watching The Opposites the night before and passing out on the couch, I’m ready to fulfill my DJ-duties by drinking a massive amount of Desperados while occasionally blasting some very heavy music through the speakers. Ah, life can be sweet.

And all that sweetness is soon destroyed by the terror that is Emeth. This Belgian technical death metal act had played here once before, and they made a good impression on me back then. This time their bass player was absent and yes that did matter to me. Nevertheless a tight and convincing show was executed at high speed with one technical riff being thrown out after the other. A nice warm-up band for the carnage yet to come.

I had heard a lot about the German band Infested, and a little bit of their music as well. Mathgrind, or whatever you want to call it, in the vein of Cephalic Carnage only with even more guttural vocals was what the next thirty minutes had to offer us. Although it took them a little while to get me really adjusted to their sound and style, halfway through the show I was headbanging. A nice collection of structured chaos and massive breakdown riffs combined with ultra-low vocals soon made me dig this band very much. Fortunately they only have one album released yet, so I’m not that far behind yet. The only minor about them is that they have a bass player neither, but it was less noticeable here than with Emeth, since they never had one. I can imagine that it is pretty hard to find one to do this. A very good and convincing show indeed that made me a fan of this band.

Since I was drunk as fuck, something one should be when visiting a grindcore show, I couldn’t wait for Aborted to take over the stage and completely destroy whatever was left of our senses. These guys, like last time I saw them, thrashed and grinded everything on their path, taking no prisoners and sparing no one. Insane how this mix of thrash metal, death metal and grindcore sets me off. I love it. Headbanging action! I remembered that last time when I saw them, the vocalist (who was doing an excellent job) announced every song with ‘post-human kind’ which was funny to see. So this time I shouted that title, and he very well knew what it was about. So they played a track with that name (for this evening).
 
I do not know many grind acts from the Benelux that get me going like this, especially not after a line-up change as drastic as theirs. I think the only originals are the vocalist and a guitarist. The lead guitarist of Emeth plays along with these guys as well, and a female bassist is also something that impresses me, especially on this level. Again a monstrous and decent show by a high quality act.