01-07-2007 Pitstop

Location: Utrecht (Netherlands)
By: Wouter van de Kamp

A new initiative by Tivoli made me go out on a Sunday evening. A free metalband evening called Pit Stop in my hometown is an idea that I like very much. I cannot find any news on whether this is going to be a returning night, but seeing the number of visitors that would not be a bad idea at all for Tivoli de Helling (especially seeing the low attendance at other metalconcerts I went to lately).
Anyways, enough about this. Contrary to what the flyer says, Schimmenrijk were not to play this gig. They cancelled. When I entered the hall I thought I arrived at a last school day party or something like that. All present visitors by then were younger than 20 and there was a lot of ID-checking by the bouncers. But fortunately the average age had risen when the first band started out.

Since this more a sort of meet up and having fun with friends, I actually didn’t pay much attention to the bands and their specific styles and so forth. So this review will have to do with a general idea about the evening and the things that struck me. This was supposed to be a metalnight with local starting bands.
But the first thing that struck me after seeing three bands is that they were all technically very gifted. Covers of Rage Against The Machine and Metallica came across through Risk. The Gangbang Devils (what’s in a name) performing in white shirts covered with fake blood stains and performed their mix of bands like Rob Zombie and Murderdolls. And furthermore we were treated on hardcore
and black/death metal. The bands that stood out that evening were Strike First. Although this evening was anounced as a metalnight, they didn’t play much metal but were more the oldschool NY hardcore type of band. Though I am usually quite easily bored by listening to hardcore, bands in this genre know how to entertain people most of the time. Jumping and running all over de stage added a lot of extra energy to their music.

The other band that stood out for me was Hymir. Not necessarily because of brilliance, but more because they presented themselves as being a band that has made it already. Admittedly this band has some potential, but playing the Tivoli de Helling isn’t that big of an accomplishment and definately not the top. But I guess these guys just have to learn through practice. They also like to present themselves as a black metal band, but that’s not even close to being sufficient to describe this band. You’ll hear a lot of death influences as well. Adding the every now and then very prominent keys and you’ll know that comparisons to Cradle and Dimmu are inevitable. But you’ll hear some thrash and dark metal influences too. It was also clear that this band took a lot of fans with them. Seeing their dresscode (besides the Hymir shirt) was a mixture of all alternative styles ranging from skate and alternative to gothic and metal, they probably invited a lot of classmates that are into the not commercial music. Nevertheless this added a lot to the atmosphere and there was a lot of moshing. In conclusion this had been a very nice evening for me and I think all others enjoyed themselves as well. Great atmosphere and interesting for our Dutch wallets. I really hope this will be a returning event.

Links:
Hymir official
Hymir Myspace
Strike First official
Strike First Myspace
Gangbang Devils official
Gangbang Devils Myspace
Distora myspace
Risk official
Risk myspace
Tivoli de Helling