FESTIVAL REVIEW: EINDHOVEN METAL MEETING 2016 - Day 1 (Friday)

Near the border of Germany lies Eindhoven, a city which once a year experiences an invasion of metalheads who visit the Eindhoven Metal Meeting in the venue Effenaar were this great two-day indoor-festival takes place. There are two important floors with two stages: I entered the stage hall and was quite delighted about the location. A large, high hall surrounded by bars with and a sizeable stage in the back of the hall. Quite nice!

My first schedule of the festival was Ill Disposed. The hall was half-filled and the people seemed motivated to see the Danish death metal giants in Eindhoven. The band did a good job on stage with a nice setlist: New songs from their newest album ‘Grey Sky over Black Town’ like “Again” and “Your Darkest Son” and the really old song “Submit” as their last one. The death metal spirit went through the hall. What a perfect beginning of the festival! Up Soulburn in the small hall on the ground floor. The hall was full-filled but it was difficult to separate the single parts of the band. But Soulburn did a good job and the crowd had fun with them. I changed the stage while Soulburn played to see the end of Enthroned. The few songs I heard were stunning. The whole band had fun themselves and their energy was contagious.

Then it was time for Hail of Bullets. Past singer Martin Van Drunen left the band a while ago and the Benediction’s singer David Ingram supported the band to perform at the festival. Being, very curious about the new guy on the microphone, wequickly found the show to be awesome! The band rocked the stage and David was a great performer. The first circle pits or mosh pits appeared while they played their opener song “Swoop of the Falcon”. The crowd had big fun with the guys on stage. “Tokyo Napalm Holocaust” was the most powerful song of the show and was dedicated to their old friend Martin “Kiddie” Kearns. So far, the best show of the festival!

I went to the small hall to see the Netherlander Wederganger next. Their played a very atmospheric set of powerful riffs and drums including clean singing and screaming.Then I changed the hall again to see the rest of the show of Destruction, but there was a little problem. The sound was really quiet by comparison. Eventually the people in front of the stage weren’t very active or motivated to headbang or to mosh.

Then the first special show of the evening appeared in the form of Watain who performed their second album ‘Casus Luciferi’ in its entirety. The atmosphere was amazing. The stage was decorated with inverted crosses, torches, skulls and spider webs. The band performed powerfully, the people celebrated (or maybe worshiped) the concert and headbanged like that was their last day on earth. Amazing show!

The occultism continued with the headliner Mayhem. The big hall was massively full-filled, but to little surprise. It’s just Mayhem and it seemed the greater part of the guests wanted to see them. The lights went dark, hooded people went on stage and the band began. They performed a special show, too: The first album ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ was played completely with a nice decoration, too. “Freezing Moon” let the people scream the lyrics, very amazing. In general it was very atmospheric and with a clear and powerful sound again. It was awesome to be there.

After Mayhem I wanted to see the deathgrinders Benighted at least for the last song in the small hall. Shortly said: Pure brutality with an awesome sound and a very likable frontman. Too bad, they played contemporary to Mayhem, because I wanted to see more of the guys!