16-05-2019 Dark Mental Festival

On the first day of the festival we would see Demolizer as the opener. In our pre-festival research we came across our material and figured the guys would be quite starting, the recordings did not impress us too much. How things can see when you see an act live. The Thrash formation perhaps fooled us with some old material as what we were seeing live was a very energetic and powerful act. They appear to have a vision of what they want to bring, and while bringing it live in its most passionate form the guys are definitely the surprise of the evening.

Get those amazing riffs together, have that with you and record an album we would say. They could do themselves justice by having a release out equal to the live material. We saw a single was actually released earlier this year, so perhaps we don’t have to wait that long.

Also the second band of the evening could be fooling you, the name Wasted would hint to a rather different genre than the horror themed metal we get to see. But, the band is a joy to watch, their frontman is charismatic and knows how to put accent on the details. Not to forget the that he enjoys a solid backup from his band, the guitars are vivid and with some decorage on the stage the setting is complete.

Towards the end of the set they tried to have some audience participation by bringing a young fan upon the stage, an adorable gesture but the little girl is not so sure yet of being a rockstar herself. Just enjoying it from the audience point of view will be more like it for now and that is all fine! Nevertheless the guys have entertained us well, certainly a tip for when the name pops up on the bill of your local venue.

(We will not post recognizable photo’s of minors)

Up next was Pectora. The Heavy Metal formation seems enthusiastic and have a certain eagerness to show their audience some Happy Metal as well. No impressive tough looks, just contagious smileys on a good dose of Red Bull or whatever their drink of choice. Hyped up the guys play their music which seems quite in the line bands like Dragonforce, having that speed on their hands and the performance is certainly in that same ideology of striking the poses.

One’s got to like it or hate it, but you can’t miss on the fact that they are quite up to par with it. The band is maybe a bit unlucky as the fans of them and the other bands are just calmly observing it, but we think when seen in an environment with more fans of their genre, the Heavy and Power uniting, the guys would be able to leave a more lasting impression.

Eciton had their tempo on to it as well, yet the guys are more like one of those trains in the movies… they go on and on, faster and faster. Won’t stop and you have no idea where they are heading to. Brutality coming towards you on quite some speed. With the vocals being not the main thing in that they are not restraining it either.

The band stated that this is maybe their only show this year and we could not detect too much activity recently either so we don’t know what they are up to. What we do know that in the show of today we did not really found a defined logic in their songwriting. Is there a start and an end? The songs are quite alike while others in their genre are more creative with it. They brought it quite ok, but there certainly is some to win. Not the highlight tonight.

The band Evil disappointed us a bit, the guys are having a classic sound, say Judas Priest or Solitaire. But, watching this live was more like watching a book reading. Now it is not that they are the only ones having lyrics in front of them, but the whole big book full of words and the eyes barely leaving the paper makes us wonder a bit if the guys are even caring to get their music rehearsed?

Whatever was the reason for this, we don’t quite know but it was bit of a turn off for us. They are existing for quite some years, started in 1983 the guys have quite some years on the counter, so we simply expected a bit more of them. Good, besides the vocals the guys were doing an ok job. Instrumentally it seems to be together but without attention onto how the performance comes across it simply won’t charm many.

Ending the first night with some proper vehemence is something you can leave up to the guys of Crocell. The Death Metallers are around since 2007 and have a quite uncomplicated approach. Straightforward in their compositions, the band is not dragging you along the trics but gives a gutty performance with allure.

At first it seem the two guitarists who easily take the spotlights during the set by throwing their riffs out in such a way that you can’t ignore, but actually the raw vocals mr Steffensen is something one cannot go around either. They guys show us how a good team works and leave the remaining audience with a smile on their faces when their set is over. The crowd was living the energy as much as the band and one could say they seem the perfect ending of this first night of the festival.