02/01/2017 17:16
Anthologyfest – 17 december 2016
On the 17th of December, the first edition of Anthologyfest was planned as a small metal festival in the Fort33 De IJsbreker in Leusden. On this day 11 (!) metal bands took the stage and Dutch Brutal Death Metal was there as well.
Around 14:00 Anthologyfest began. It wasn’t that busy at the start to be honest. The organisation really had everything sorted out well. I arrived around 14:00 so I could be there from the start until the end. On 14:30 the very first band ‘The Dutch Duke’ took the stage. The audience that was present were well treated by ‘The Dutch Duke’ and they were a good opening act. They play a combination of heavy metal and speed metal. They gave the audience a good 30 minute setlist and both the band and crowd enjoyed the show.
After ‘The Dutch Duke’, ‘Warborn Waste’ took the stage with their set. The crowd was very happy to see them play at Anthologyfest and ‘Warborn Waste’ was happy as well. The band is working its way up the Dutch metalscene with their upcoming albumrelease at the 22nd of April. The guys have played on Metalcon which was one of their highlights as a band. I guess Anthologyfest was a very good stage for ‘Warborn Waste’.
After the show of ‘Warborn Waste’, the audience was provided with ‘King Drive’. The guys of ‘King Drive’ were given a 30-minute show just like ‘The Dutch Duke’ and ‘Warborn Waste’. ‘King Drive’ gave the audience one of the tightest played sets I’ve to this day. They gave everything they had in this gig and you could see that. The atmosphere they created was amazing to say the least. The audience felt the same and gave the band great credits after the show.
After ‘King Drive’ the band ‘Xeno’ was up next. The band is located in The Hague. They’ve been working their way up since 2008 and is one of the ‘oldest’ bands from Anthologyfest. They take inspiration from Lamb Of God, Meshuggah and Xerath. They create a whole atmosphere on its own which is amazing to see.
‘Gorged’ is up next. They have been formed in 2016 from members of Ecocide, Spartan and several other projects. They played a completely new set on Anthologyfest which means they have an album coming out very soon (I hope at least). They’ve been working a lot behind the scenes and the older songs were ditched for the new songs. The new songs were really good and the crowd really liked them as well. Gorged play a style of blackened death metal like Behemoth, Emperor, Edge Of Sanity and Rotting Christ.
‘Illusionless’. The most known underground progressive death metal band in my opinion. After two strong releases, ‘Illusionless’ took the stage. However, since the original vocalist couldn’t make the gig, several other vocalists took the stage. Like John Ruiter (3rd Machine), Janneke De Rooy (Paper Doll Decay) and Jesper De Kruyff (Purest Of Pain). I think they did a very great job on vocal duty. The band gave a strong performance and they played some new songs of their latest record ‘Age Of Kali’.
‘3rd Machine’. The oldest band on the bill. Founded in 2000, the Haarlem based band created their very own sound. Throughout the years, they’ve released several releases and the latest one is called ‘Quantified Self’. The band gave an energetic performance and the crowd enjoyed their performance a lot. Also ‘3rd Machine’ loves some guest vocals, so they’ve asked Jeffrey Rademakers of ‘Gorged’ and ‘Spartan’ to perform their last song on the set list which went well.
‘Shade Of Hatred’. They took the stage after ‘3rd Machine’. They are a melodic death metal band with influences of Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Carcass, Death, Kreator, Testament, Kataklysm and God Dethroned. ‘Shade Of Hatred’ gave everything they’ve got in their locker. The crowd went wild and that gave the band even more energy. ‘Shade Of Hatred’ is a worthy band on the Anthologyfest line-up.
‘Tragacanth’. The band behind the whole Anthologyfest. Themselves they play a blackened death metal style. The band played some songs of the ‘Anthology Of The East’ record which appeared on the 12th of December 2015. They took the stage but sadly there wasn’t that of a big crowd. However they are willing to do another run of Anthologyfest because they really loved to organise it. They produced a great set and played very good.
‘Purest Of Pain’. Probably the biggest band on the line-up. The band has been founded in 2008 and produced two EP’s. In this year (2017) the debut full length will be released. A few of the people left before ‘Purest Of Pain’ began, which was a shame to see. However, they put on a great show and left a great impression on me. The band gave the audience what they wanted and the crowd loved every single second of it.
‘Vanaheim’. A folk/pagan metal band from Tilburg. The band has influences taken from Equilibrium, Finsterforst, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow and Finntroll. The band has been formed in 2015 and known a lot of success on their short path to success. ‘Vanaheim’ were the last band and they do made a party. The rest of the crowd enjoyed their set and the guys thanked everybody that stayed.
Anthologyfest was a blast to be here. A shame is that there wasn’t that much of a crowd but every band gave a great show. The organisation was spot on and I must give a shout out to ‘Tragacath’ for organising the whole fest. I show that ill will intend to visit more often if they will do multiple editions of it.
Review by Dirk Kremers