Unknown. Zwarte Cross was unknown territory. When arriving there first thing was to walk around, see where we could find everything. When entering the gates very fast, even though it was crowded., we got a little program booklet. Always nice to have a map and time schedules. This booklet was more then that and already gave an insight in this festival. The press have written about this festival that it is THE festival for insane nut heads. Only crazy people and drinking farmers go there who love drinking and big talk. Well over the years this has changed. It did all started out as a farming festival. A little cross and get together for the local farmers to drink a lot of beer and have a good time. This year the festival has grown to something almost absurd. Massive without feeling massive. Okay not totally true, because the main stage was very crowded. Around other stages or tents it all seemed less big. And there were a lot of stage and things to do. The booklet we got was telling us a little history about the festival and why certain things are the way they are. The festival has a lot of humour. There are weird signs with quotes on it. There was one with “Finding Emo” at the Metal Stage and “100% Kane free” (a band not everyone seems to like. Although it was aimed at the band which refused to play at Zwarte Cross). On Sunday there was even a power priest and an American gospel band. Days of motor cross competitions and stunts by stuntman. If you cannot get entertained on this festival. You will never.
As said the festival organisation has thought of everything. Church, free water for those who are driving. The drivers could collect a stamp on their wrist when parking the car, and with that they were able to get free water. When leaving people could do tests to see how drunk they were and if they were still able (by law) to drive the car. Locker for your stuff and even for your helmet (if you are driving a bike or motor). The Festival has music to everyone’s liking. There is a cover tent where bands cover other bands. Iron maiden, van Halen, Nirvana, Prince, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and many more. There was a reggae stage, a disco tent, a stage for kids, pirate cafe, campfire and so much more we did not even get to see it all on one day. My suggestion would be go to Zwarte Cross even if you have never been to something like this because it is a full day out experience. And if you do not like to camp in a tent there is the possibility to go only one day. The price is cheap and there are so many things to do and bands that perform.
We missed out on Kudra Mata on the Metalweide, playing aardschokpodium. The beauty of this immense festival is that when standing at a stage it does not feel that big and the metal stage was not as crowded as around other stages. Revamp is a band founded by singer Floor Jansen who you might know from After Forever. She takes her singing a step further leaving more room for using her voice in different ways like raw screams and whispering sounds. If you are not a fan of the genre metal with female vocalist who sing in an opera kind of way. This is a little broader but it still has a lot of bombastic sound with that singing. On the album she collaborates with different male singers like George Oosthoek (ex- Orphanage), but you do miss that on stage. At least I do. The crowd was not that big as it was still early but Floor was very good in getting the crowd ready for the rest of the day. Talking about the other bands that were playing later that day. Floor showed that there is a life and a new band after After Forever and she sings with a lot of joy and enthusiasm.
Sonic Syndicate was next up and large group of fans had gathered in front of the stage. Who have seen them before know they know how to play an energetic show and the audience was ready for that. The sun was shining bright and the crowd was enjoying beers and energy drinks while watching the band. Sonic Syndicate is a Swedish band that has already delivered six albums. However they get more fans these days they still seem to stay a bit less out there for the masses. You have band that are promoted big by a label, hyped which is not always good. Bands get forgotten while the label find something new to focus on. Sonic Syndicate did it all themselves by performing. It does not matter if they play in a small venue with 100 people or when they play at a festival like today. They always put a lot of effort and energy in their show. With two vocalist these is immediately more happening on stage. Today the sound was not that good. It was hard to distinguish the sound of the bass from the other guitars, sounding like one clump. The band did a great job in entertaining the audience and it seemed they played rather short on a stage that was fully turned into their style with a big backdrop and panels.
Forbidden from California appeared on stage while the crowd has seem to change to a slightly older audience. Throughout the years Forbidden has had many great players contributing to the music. The band saw a reunion tour in 2008 after 12 years when the band was founded. A few of them decided to continue as the new Forbidden. Steve Smyth joined the band for this new adventure. Russ Anderson, Craig Locicero, Steve Smyth, Matt Camacho, and Mark Hernandez form Forbidden from that day on. The music was nice but somehow people seemed to lost interest half way during their gig. The guys bring raw and evil metal but it lacked a bit of excitement. The tracks started to sound more of the same, like if they already played something almost the same. The singer got the crowd to mosh around and the first pit was build. The tone was set for the rest of the Zwarte Cross Metal Area. For us it was time to walk around a bit as I had seen enough of Forbidden halfway during their performance. We walked around the festival grounds and there are so many many people. It is weird that when you are at the food corner or watching some crossers do stunts you do not get that overwhelming feeling that you are there with thousands and thousands more. It feels smaller and overall very friendly. From where we were sitting down we could see the lights on the metal stage and the ending of Forbidden and decided it was time to go back and get ourselves a new beer.
With the sun burning hot on my face, this “Zwarte Cross Metalweide” already had all the ingredients for a good time. There was a gigantic skull in the middle, some gripping evil (idle)hands, a bar right next to the stage and to top it all off, a band that was both deliciously aggressive as well as tight. This band was of course DevilDriver. Playing with a whitish backdrop I did not recognize, only to discover later that this was the cover of their new album, “Pray for Villains”, and was being released that same week. Devil Driver did exactly what their name implies, namely give you a wild, fast ride you will not soon forget. Dez Fafara, giving out a clear message with his vocals throughout the show, makes this performance a reliable set with what the band likes to do best: to blow you out of your shoes and get you moving. Remarkable is that throughout the show, there is hardly any time other than to mesmerizingly watch this band perform. That’s why there are several attempts of getting this crowd to move,walls of death and circle pits included (“Make it go around that tower there”). Pretty soon, too soon actually to my liking, the last song is started and finished. This was one insane hour I would have wanted to have lasted much longer.
Then it was time for a band that seemed like they had to play, not like they wanted to play. From the start on they had this sort of boredom on their faces. They moved a step and continue playing, sigh, and a new track. Come on a few more to go. This was at least the way they came across. What happened to this band to be known for inventing the gothic sound. What I remember from years ago, was something different that what they did on stage now. They were simply said amazingly boring. The sound was maybe dull, but their sound on the CD is much more layered. More groove. The drums that are there so you can nod your head on the music. The growls were more deep and dark but today on stage it seemed like the band had a big hangover or something close to that matter. They were not convincing. Doom and gothic can have great melodies and groove in a dark and sinister way but somehow this was missing. Like a toy you have to wind up before it starts. This band was not at their best, hopefully they had a bad day.
Savatage. There. I said it. Anyone not familiar with that at least the name of that 80’s band would not understand the angle of entry into Jon Oliva’s Pain. Together with his brother Criss( who co-founded Savatage), we were up for a sincere, easy listening sound that reminded me of the heavy days of Meat Loaf, combined with some extra heavy low riffs. The show is well dressed and nicely diverse with heavier and slower tracks, each telling a exuberant story of their own. The tribute to the recently deceased Ronnie James Dio “Rainbow in the Dark” was well appreciated and recent work like “Festival” from the same titled album were respectfully absorbed by the audience. Notable thing was during one song, where right through a dramatic brigde some fireworks erupted, turning a lot of heads away from the stage. Jon Oliva gave it some extra juice to get those heads looking back to him again, which was a great way of letting everyone know this versatile performer is not going to retire soon. Also, the dry ice coming out of the piano helped, concluding a dramaticcally clear and once again sincerely honest gig. Now go buy a Savatage album!
Lights? check. Camera? check. Action? plenty. With a three panelled backdrop of a man with a gigantic eye on his forehead and two open palms of his hands, lots of smoke and an extreme tight lighting behind them, there was one band who got the crowd silent in amazement. The Dutch saying “I’m good, but not crazy” obviously needs to be rephrased just for this mind blowing band to “I may be good, but I’m still not Meshuggah”. Whether there was an overdose of stroboscopes, hardly any light on the stage at all, or so much smoke on stage that nothing was even visible, none of these would have mattered during this performance. The sheer sense of otherworldly reflected well, so well in fact, that vocalist Jens Kidman and the audience had multiple awkward stare downs, just to try and reconnect to the crowd again. Of course, playing hits like “Bleed”, “Combustion”, “Future Breed Machine” also does the trick. I might be mistaken, but I could have sworn that guitarist Marten Hagstrom was smoking something mind blowing of his own while playing as if nothing was happening. It is still the best mystery, how did this band get so insanely good making music not for the masses? It can be only concluded that these musicians are so well played onto each other, are not allowing themselves to routinise and are constantly reinventing themselves. And THAT is what makes Meshuggah so inhumanly perfect. I’ve now seen a few shows of them, every time when you think they cannot get any better, they nearly throw it in your face by playing tighter, more emotional and having more fun on stage than the show before. And this show on Zwarte Cross was definitely no exception. Although they were probably expecting a more wild crowd, it’s still hard to focus on one instrument at a time, guys. Let alone if five of them are each playing in a different groove. Still, after Meshuggah’s impeccable performance let me realize that it was pitch black with night already and it was time to go home again. Sadly, with me still craving more from this unique quantum mechanically quintet.
The band that was headline-ing the Zwarte Cross Saturday Metal stage was Kamelot. A band Tempelores had seen two weeks before at Tuska. Somehow this show was completely different as this was when the night was fallen and the sky had turned dark. The band still sounds the same, bringing a type of metal mixed with an musical like vocalist Roy Kahn. Other members of the band are Thomas Younghblood, Glenn Barry, Casey Grillo and Oliver Palotai. They blend different metal styles together like gothic and powermetal. A band who is not shy to bring a lot of ballads on stage but mostly mid tempo songs. The Crowd got insane when the lights started to fade and it seemed time for the performance of this band. The audience was screaming and cheering so loud. Have not heard this at a festival before, not that insane. I really got the point when Roy said it was always so amazing to back in Holland as the fans were so supporting. Hell Yeah. I mean sure I have been around bands where the crowd is singing along…and cheering but when standing in the photopit I sometimes did not even hear the singer because so many people in audience were singing along. Not just a few but the first couple or rows where singing every word. It was fun to hear a conversation about who was going to be the female singer this day. Was it our Dutch Simone Simmons or maybe someone else like on previous tours. It did not really matter because they crowd welcomed her with cheering. I am not a huge fan of the singing style, but I must admit the band plays some great music. They are very skilled and play tight and know how to make their bombastic sound a lot more groovy. Amazing is however how they build a show. Front man Roy is really an entertainer it is great how he stands there in front of so many people doing his thing, looking fierce. They do own the stage and give the audience what they want. An exhilarating show.
We missed out on Kudra Mata on the Metalweide, playing aardschokpodium. The beauty of this immense festival is that when standing at a stage it does not feel that big and the metal stage was not as crowded as around other stages. Revamp is a band founded by singer Floor Jansen who you might know from After Forever. She takes her singing a step further leaving more room for using her voice in different ways like raw screams and whispering sounds. If you are not a fan of the genre metal with female vocalist who sing in an opera kind of way. This is a little broader but it still has a lot of bombastic sound with that singing. On the album she collaborates with different male singers like George Oosthoek (ex- Orphanage), but you do miss that on stage. At least I do. The crowd was not that big as it was still early but Floor was very good in getting the crowd ready for the rest of the day. Talking about the other bands that were playing later that day. Floor showed that there is a life and a new band after After Forever and she sings with a lot of joy and enthusiasm.
Sonic Syndicate was next up and large group of fans had gathered in front of the stage. Who have seen them before know they know how to play an energetic show and the audience was ready for that. The sun was shining bright and the crowd was enjoying beers and energy drinks while watching the band. Sonic Syndicate is a Swedish band that has already delivered six albums. However they get more fans these days they still seem to stay a bit less out there for the masses. You have band that are promoted big by a label, hyped which is not always good. Bands get forgotten while the label find something new to focus on. Sonic Syndicate did it all themselves by performing. It does not matter if they play in a small venue with 100 people or when they play at a festival like today. They always put a lot of effort and energy in their show. With two vocalist these is immediately more happening on stage. Today the sound was not that good. It was hard to distinguish the sound of the bass from the other guitars, sounding like one clump. The band did a great job in entertaining the audience and it seemed they played rather short on a stage that was fully turned into their style with a big backdrop and panels.
Lights? check. Camera? check. Action? plenty. With a three panelled backdrop of a man with a gigantic eye on his forehead and two open palms of his hands, lots of smoke and an extreme tight lighting behind them, there was one band who got the crowd silent in amazement. The Dutch saying “I’m good, but not crazy” obviously needs to be rephrased just for this mind blowing band to “I may be good, but I’m still not Meshuggah”. Whether there was an overdose of stroboscopes, hardly any light on the stage at all, or so much smoke on stage that nothing was even visible, none of these would have mattered during this performance. The sheer sense of otherworldly reflected well, so well in fact, that vocalist Jens Kidman and the audience had multiple awkward stare downs, just to try and reconnect to the crowd again. Of course, playing hits like “Bleed”, “Combustion”, “Future Breed Machine” also does the trick. I might be mistaken, but I could have sworn that guitarist Marten Hagstrom was smoking something mind blowing of his own while playing as if nothing was happening. It is still the best mystery, how did this band get so insanely good making music not for the masses? It can be only concluded that these musicians are so well played onto each other, are not allowing themselves to routinise and are constantly reinventing themselves. And THAT is what makes Meshuggah so inhumanly perfect. I’ve now seen a few shows of them, every time when you think they cannot get any better, they nearly throw it in your face by playing tighter, more emotional and having more fun on stage than the show before. And this show on Zwarte Cross was definitely no exception. Although they were probably expecting a more wild crowd, it’s still hard to focus on one instrument at a time, guys. Let alone if five of them are each playing in a different groove. Still, after Meshuggah’s impeccable performance let me realize that it was pitch black with night already and it was time to go home again. Sadly, with me still craving more from this unique quantum mechanically quintet.
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