The 15th of December 2017 was the first day of the Eindhoven Metal Meeting in the Netherlands. It was in the venue Effenaar which has two stages: One smaller stage at the first floor and one bigger stage in the second floor. Last year was awesome, and I was really curious if this year would be awesome, too.
My first bands of the day were the Black Metal Band Baptism and the old-school death metallers of Pentacle in the big hall. I did not know the bands before, but the guys were a worthy beginning of the festival for me. The sound was nice, the mood was good, people were motivated and the whole performance was fine. So, the festival started well and I went to the first band on my personal list.
Verwoed played in the smaller stage and this was a good decision, because the guys play really atmospheric black metal. I was really delighted and a bit disappointed concurrently. It was a quite nice performance of the guys and the set list was great, but the sound was a bit muddy.
Carpathian Forest was my next artist on the list. I had never seen them live on stage, and I was curious about their show. Okay, they did a good job in general like playing well-known songs in a good mixed sound and performing nicely while they played. But the monologues of frontman Nattefrost were way to long and really annoying over time. I would have preferred it to listen to some more songs of them. All in all, it was a good but a bit annoying show.
The cancellation of My Dying Bride brought Dark Tranquility to Eindhoven. I was really impressed by their performance on the big stage. They used some video projections of music or lyric videos to support the light show. This created a special mood in the show. They played a nicely mixed set list of older and newer songs and the crowd loved it. The sound was crystal-clear and in any case fine, too. So, it was a really good show, and I was quite sad that I had to leave the show earlier…
I left, because I wanted to see Dool live on stage. They release their first and only album “Here Now, There Then” this year and it is just magnificent! Because of this fact, I really needed to see them live. What can I say, this band was live on stage the biggest surprise of the festival! The light show was appropriate the whole time, the sound of the three guitars, bass and drums was quite powerful and the atmosphere in the small hall was indescribable… You have to experience it yourself. Awesome!
Then, it was time for some powerful riffs and blasts of Deströyer 666. Damn, they were really awesome! The sound was good again and the guys on stage made many, many people banging their heads. The choice of the songs was great and a fine mixture and especially their song “I Am the Wargod” made the audience crazy. Very good show!
Last but not least, Cult of Fire entered the big stage as the last artist of the day. I was very curious about the guys, because the albums of them are very good and I always imagined how the tracks sound live. The stage was decorated with three (kind of) altars with candles, skulls and a big scythe and it reeked of frankincense. This was a cool setup. The show was nice and the sound was good, but the light show was redundant. I think a show with just the candles on stage would be nicer. But it was an awesome and quite atmospheric last show of the evening.
Last show was done and it was time to go to some bars in the city. The first day of the Eindhoven Metal Meeting was really cracking and I had nothing to complain. I was curious about the second day.
