18-05-2024 Achterhoeks Metalfest

In our headquarters’ hometown area some bands starting out to make waves and one of them was opening the festival today. It is Cannibalistic Sqvirrel, an enthusiastic bunch that bring a good dose of energy to entertain the early birds here today. Some of the songs are targeted at a national annoyance. “Wielrenners Zijn Kut” is a track that addresses everyone, or at least starts some conversation amongst the audience. Some entertainment comes with them, a guy with a chainsaw and a chain of (pluche, no real animals were hurt) squirrels are getting by to visualize their performance. Nice to start the day with!

Behind Bars is here to present their Hardcore Groove. They are based in Belgium and made their way up to Eindhoven for a show here today. Musically the band seems very clear in what they want to bring, they have a solid sound that brings some vehement atmosphere to the place. However the performance was not felt as heavy as other bands bring this kind of genre. The passion behind those words did not feel as strongly as it could be and that makes the impact just not there. It did not really awaken the audience either who mainly found their seats. A pity, for musically they certainly caught our attention.

When Bismut send us their debut album back in 2019 we wrote that we hoped the drummer would get some more shine. Now, five years later we were watching the show thinking back of this comment and coming to the conclusion that they really brought it up indeed. Here at AMF we were watching a set from this trio that is in good balance. they all go back and forth having some moments to shine and thus creating a psych feel to their set. The guys are having a lot of intensity and while we would love to see it in a dark bar or a small venue for us it worked also on the theater stage. The audience responded rather mellow to their set though, clearly needed some more time to get into their sound.

Now we recently saw a great set of Confess at Willemsfest, of which we did a gallery on this site and now they are here to set things in motion at the Achterhoeks Metalfest. The band has been founded in Iran, now operating from Norway, and make some Thrash Metal. Their groove hits well here today for they are the first ones really energize the crowd. Their energy is contagious and even though it took a bit longer due to some technical issues the band goes all in. A little circle pit starts to take place.
Their last album called “Revenge at All Costs” is from 2022, making us curious what will be next for them. Surely one of the highlights today!

Now Vengeance has a long history, they celebrate it is 40 years since they founded right now and thus we’ll see them around a bit this festival season. Here they are headlining and it is obvious that they have a bunch of dedicated fans around today which came specifically to see them.
The joy of seeing a band with so many years on the counter is that are well aware of how to please their audience. A long discography to draw from surely helps as well and they picked some crowd pleasers here today. At some point during their set front man Leon puts a beer upside down on his head, keeping the beer in it. Now this goes very well with the fans who give him a large round of applause.
At the end of their set they are called back for an encore. They have 40 years down, but seems like they have many more to go if they please.