Supports: Stoneman, Morphium, Dame Tu Alma
Location: Willemeen, Arnhem (Netherlands)
Dame Tu Alma
Dame Tu Alma was opening the evening. The band comes from Switzerland and plays what they call Horror Metal. Now Horror Metal we have seen in a wild variety of styles, so to give you something to come close, look towards the melodic Death direction. The band has a quite heavy approach to their sound, bringing their themes of Horror with a good, heavy backing and steady sound. The whole set was quite in one line and thus they performed a solid show. At this time the venue was still rather empty, but they formed a nice start of the evening.
Morphium
Morphium is a Spanish formation, and they are a bit of a strange duck in the lineup. Heavier than any other and a genre that is rather different from the others. The band blends Gothic and Death metal and this year the band released a new single after fours since their latest release. The show of this formation as quite intense and energetic which made it interesting to watch. The band easily connects to their audience and makes them go along with their set. The response to this formation was rather mixed. A few metal heads were headbanging and going wild for it, the more Gothic oriented audience seem to watch it in a calmer matter. What we did notice that towards the end of the set we feel like all became too much alike. Not one song that sticks in mind longer or jumps out more. This results in losing interest towards the end. A pity, but something that the band can think of when putting their set list together the next time.
Stoneman
Stoneman is a band we have seen around since the good old Trashfest days. The Swiss have made way to the Helsinki festival back in the days and were also hitting the stage in the Netherlands during their tour supporting Tiamat. After that we noticed the band remained more in the GAS countries, so we were interested how the band is performing nowadays. Today’s set was fully in German, leaving some of the older tracks in English out of it. Arnhem is located near the German border, so the band was lucky to see quite a bunch of German faces in front of them. With some minor outfit changes, jacket on, jacket off, sunglasses on, sunglasses off (repeat), the band finds a way to bring their tracks. After not seeing them for quite a while it is clear the band have grown a lot. Songwise you still hear their signature touch to it and it was clear they had some fans along here today which helped the band gathering the attention of the rest in the venue. A fine show for the Swiss.
Gothminister
Gothminister have been around the Netherlands for quite some years, and we have seen them last at their show in Zoetermeer about a year ago. The band has brought their signature décor style along but for the show tonight the focus was mainly on the songs and having these shine, rather than the theater that accompanied the show a year ago. Both have their purpose and charm and tonight we were seeing about fifteen tracks that have enough to entertain us here tonight. Pandemonium II was released about a year ago and together with the first part of that album it formed the majority of the set. Towards the end we were told that a new edition of the hit “Monsters” to celebrate its twenty-year anniversary is out (but we were served the original tonight). Just a small reminder how long this formation is already along. Looking behind us we see a rather full venue, people have flocked in a bit late it seems, so we can safely say the audience is still loving Gothminister and with a well-performed set that has the focus on the songs here tonight.
Links: