14/11/2016 13:09
Rotterdam Deathfest 2016
1: Pighead (DE)
Being the opener of a festival is always a guess if people going to show up Especially if you are playing at 13:45. But Pighead drew a decent crowd and could play for a decent sized audience. They started off strong and stayed like that throughout their whole set list. They played a lot from their latest record ‘Until All Flesh Decays’ and a good portion of old songs from their previous releases. They had a very good stage presence but sadly couldn’t get the crowd moving. Nonetheless a great begin for Rotterdam Deathfest.
2. Nervo Chaos (BR)
The second band of the first day of Rotterdam Deathfest. Nervo Chaos took the stage with their material known as Death Metal. Bands that play just Death Metal could go good or bad in my opinion. Nervo Chaos is in the middle of that. I didn’t know what to expect but they played some decent tunes throughout their whole set. Their stage presence wasn’t what I call attractive but the guitarist was decent to see. Overall a good performance for Nervo Chaos.
3. Inhume (NL)
The old but experienced grinders took the stage around 15:45 and started off very strong. After a few songs, the band started to loosen up. They began to enjoy t heir set even more than they already did. The energetic 40-year olds began jumping around the stage like it was made from trampolines. The stage presence was amazing, they had everybody’s attention and they didn’t fail to impress a lot of people. Well executed and well performed grindcore by Inhume
4. Pentacle (NL)
Again, an experienced Dutch band just like Inhume. But Pentacle plays a different genre. They play Old School Death Metal the Dutch way. It took a while before they were ready to play but they absolutely killed it. When they started to play, it reminded me a lot of Procreation which is a Dutch old school death metal band. The same type of groovy riffs and the vocals could be switched and no-one would even notice. The band was pounding through their whole set and where are amazing to see live for the first time.
5. Blood (DE)
Blood. A band where I haven’t heard that many of but they were a big name on the bill so yeagh couldn’t miss out on them! The first few songs were great to see but after like I said a few songs, the whole set was cut and Blood played on after an interruption of like 10 minutes. It was a shame to see because they had a great stage performance and the music wasn’t that bad either. Better luck next time!
6. Ares Kingdom (US)
Sadly, I haven’t seen anything by Ares Kingdom because they played around dinner time so I went out and grabbed some foodies at a local snack bar, which was good :)
7. Rectal Smegma (NL)
The band where I was looking out for the most. After being with some friends of mine, which brought some party animals and beachballs, I immediately saw that after the first notes were played, those party animals were thrown into the crowd/mosh pit. This was going to be an epic set for sure. After a few songs, the vocalist told the crowd they’re on a tour together with Gorgasm, Pighead, Nervo Chaos and that this was the last tour date. So, they ask the audience if they wanted to go nuts and they audience listened very closely. The whole Rectal Smegma grindcore set was just amazing to see live for the very first time. They let Rotterdam know that they’re one of the biggest names in Dutch grindcore.
8. Gorgasm (US)
The last band for day one of Rotterdam Deathfest. The band didn’t appear in The Netherlands for that many times but they drew out a decent crowd to begin with. Sadly, throughout the set, Gorgasm ask the crowd many times to mosh but weirdly none were responding. Besides that, the whole live set was intents. Every note was spot on. Everybody which was there, knew the status of Gorgasm in the Brutal Death Metal genre. Just amazing to see the respect to Gorgasm. Before the show I was with my buddy Jan talking to Gorgasm (well, Jan was) and I overheard that they were extremely tired of the whole tour. But on stage I would’ve not noticed that they were tired. They blasted all the way throughout the set and had a great amount of headbangable moments in their songs.
Written by Bonno Zwaan for