Killfest Tour 2009
date: 21 february 2009
venue: De Pul, Uden (Holland)
pictures: Panzer (www.myspace.com/kruppholland)
Somewhere in december 2008 I heard that thrash metal titans Overkill would be visiting Europe, with as their main support Metal Church. Being a great fan of both Overkill and Metal Church I was really excited and hoping they would visit a venue near me. Unfortunately Metal Church got cancelled due to circumstances, so what would the replacement be? This turned out to be Exodus, them being one of my favorite thrash metal bands made me even more thrilled. When I found out they would be playing in Uden (that’s only a drive of 45 minutes for me) I almost crapped my pants out of happiness… almost. Supports on this tour are Gama Bomb and Torture Squad, I had heard Gama Bomb before and was very impressed by their album, Citizen Brain. Torture Squad I hadn’t heard of before, but that would soon change.
As most of the Dutch readers know, 21 February is the first day of carnaval. Carnaval is a 4 day Dutch holiday, where most of the south of Holland dresses up weird/funny/stupid and drinks epic amounts of alcohol, with no significant reason. Needless to say that, when waiting outside for the doors to open, there were quite a few people dressed as chickens, some other costumes and we had an actual Santa (you read that correctly… Santa not Satan).
When the doors open it’s quite busy already, about 200 people enter the building in the first half hour. One of the very few complaints I have was the amount of bar personnel. It took about 5 minutes, before I could finally order my drinks, because there were only 2 bar keepers at the bar. Just when I order my beer, the pause music stops and the first band kicks in. But holy crap, this is Gama Bomb (I actually expected Torture Squad to play first), so I grab my beer and hurry to the front of the stage. I’m only familiar with Gama Bomb’s latest album, Citizen Brain (which happens to be my favorite thrash album from 2008). Well let me tell you this, Gama Bomb is an amazing party live. In not time the first pit starts, hairs are waving and there are a few stagedivers. Gama Bomb delivers a fun, fast and tight thrash performance with a lot of interaction with the audience during the songs. Unfortunately Gama Bomb only has 30 minutes to play, they fill this time with mainly tracks from their latest album and 2 songs from earlier material. Songs like Hammer Slammer and Time Crime are taken with both hands by the audience and are sung along. To bad the songs Bullet Belt and Global Warming aren’t on the setlist, but these are just my personal favorite songs. The band has fun and so does the audience, a great opener.
Next up is Torture Squad, a Brazilian thrash/death act. They play quite well, nice guitar playing and a good singer, but it doesn’t really grasp my attention. The songs sound a bit alike and although there are good riffs, it leaves me a bit unsatisfied. The response from the audience is good though, it’s clear that not as many people know the words of the songs and the pit and amount of headbangers is smaller than during Gama Bomb, but it’s clear most of the audience is having a good time.
Now it’s time for Exodus. Before the band (well actually the roadies) even starts soundchecking, it’s clear that a lot of the audience is here for Exodus. People gather before the stage, waiting for the thrash onslaught to begin. By this time I believe the venue is almost at it’s fullest, with about 550 people inside the building (the balcony seems to be quite crowded as well). The band comes up and are welcomed by a lot of screaming, without an introduction they start with their first song, immediately a pit starts, the first two rows off the stage are full of headbangers and people, desperately trying to get a good picture of the band, while their backs have to endure the smashes of the pit. There are loads of crowdsurfers and stagedivers. The band is clearly enjoying themselves and play all of their classic songs. Early Exodus songs like The Toxic Waltz, The Last Act of Defiance, Bonded By Blood, A Lesson in Violence and they actually played Brain Dead result into lot’s of stagedivers and even the singer (who isn’t exactly one of the tiniest people of the band) takes a dive and doesn’t leave the audience for the whole song. Offcourse the Exodus frontman tries to piss the audience off, just to get more people in the pit: “You motherfuckers are fucking weak”, but he does it without looking like a dick and well… he get’s what he wants.The classics get the best response from the audience. I’ve only heard two songs from their later albums, War is my Shepherd and Iconoclasm. Clothes people took with them for carnaval are thrown on stage, so we see the singer scream Bonded By Blood, with diving glasses on and that sort of stuff. Also our personal Santa got pulled on stage, to stagedive. It’s a shame Exodus only had to play for 1 hour, because there wasn’t any time left for an encore. Also I want to give huge compliments to Nick Barker, who fills in on drums for the actual drummer, because he’s on holiday in Mexico.The surely teached the audience a lesson in violence.
And finally it’s time for Overkill. People take off their shirt and huge Overkill tattoos show off from their backs and arms. Overkill starts and they make it very clear that they are here for one thing and one thing only. They are here to shred. So that’s what they do, 90 minutes of top notch thrash metal, played tight and with a great performance, especially from frontman, who masters the Dutch tongue surprisingly well. He actually talks to the audience a lot in Dutch and sings the Dutch song, “Brabantse nachten zijn lang”, which get’s a lot of support from the audience. The audience sings, moshes and headbangs along with the classics like Rotten to the Core, Elimination and well actually all classics that scream out Overkill. The only thing that bothers me and a lot of the audience is that the security on the stage starts to prevent people from climbing on stage and throwing them off, quite a shame really, because it really added to the “feeling” from the concert. The audience goes wild and so does the band. There was actually an idiot who jumped off the balcony, luckily no one got hurt except for the moron himself, there was no need for an ambulance or something alike though. After an hour I get a little tired, so I head to the merchandise to pick me up some shirts and stuff. As I look back I hear the singer scream “We don’t care what you say” which get’s the whole audience to scream “FUCK YOU”, they keep this up for about 10 times and then the thrash fest continues. Overkill didn’t outdo Exodus (in my personal opinion, I’m sure a lot of the audience will disagree), but hell these guys haven’t gotten old yet!
This has to be the best thrash concert I’ve ever been to. A huge “hell yeah” to the thrash metal legends, that still know how to thrash and also to the new flesh, who kicked loads of ass to.
venue: De Pul, Uden (Holland)
pictures: Panzer (www.myspace.com/kruppholland)
Somewhere in december 2008 I heard that thrash metal titans Overkill would be visiting Europe, with as their main support Metal Church. Being a great fan of both Overkill and Metal Church I was really excited and hoping they would visit a venue near me. Unfortunately Metal Church got cancelled due to circumstances, so what would the replacement be? This turned out to be Exodus, them being one of my favorite thrash metal bands made me even more thrilled. When I found out they would be playing in Uden (that’s only a drive of 45 minutes for me) I almost crapped my pants out of happiness… almost. Supports on this tour are Gama Bomb and Torture Squad, I had heard Gama Bomb before and was very impressed by their album, Citizen Brain. Torture Squad I hadn’t heard of before, but that would soon change.
As most of the Dutch readers know, 21 February is the first day of carnaval. Carnaval is a 4 day Dutch holiday, where most of the south of Holland dresses up weird/funny/stupid and drinks epic amounts of alcohol, with no significant reason. Needless to say that, when waiting outside for the doors to open, there were quite a few people dressed as chickens, some other costumes and we had an actual Santa (you read that correctly… Santa not Satan).
When the doors open it’s quite busy already, about 200 people enter the building in the first half hour. One of the very few complaints I have was the amount of bar personnel. It took about 5 minutes, before I could finally order my drinks, because there were only 2 bar keepers at the bar. Just when I order my beer, the pause music stops and the first band kicks in. But holy crap, this is Gama Bomb (I actually expected Torture Squad to play first), so I grab my beer and hurry to the front of the stage. I’m only familiar with Gama Bomb’s latest album, Citizen Brain (which happens to be my favorite thrash album from 2008). Well let me tell you this, Gama Bomb is an amazing party live. In not time the first pit starts, hairs are waving and there are a few stagedivers. Gama Bomb delivers a fun, fast and tight thrash performance with a lot of interaction with the audience during the songs. Unfortunately Gama Bomb only has 30 minutes to play, they fill this time with mainly tracks from their latest album and 2 songs from earlier material. Songs like Hammer Slammer and Time Crime are taken with both hands by the audience and are sung along. To bad the songs Bullet Belt and Global Warming aren’t on the setlist, but these are just my personal favorite songs. The band has fun and so does the audience, a great opener.
Next up is Torture Squad, a Brazilian thrash/death act. They play quite well, nice guitar playing and a good singer, but it doesn’t really grasp my attention. The songs sound a bit alike and although there are good riffs, it leaves me a bit unsatisfied. The response from the audience is good though, it’s clear that not as many people know the words of the songs and the pit and amount of headbangers is smaller than during Gama Bomb, but it’s clear most of the audience is having a good time.
Now it’s time for Exodus. Before the band (well actually the roadies) even starts soundchecking, it’s clear that a lot of the audience is here for Exodus. People gather before the stage, waiting for the thrash onslaught to begin. By this time I believe the venue is almost at it’s fullest, with about 550 people inside the building (the balcony seems to be quite crowded as well). The band comes up and are welcomed by a lot of screaming, without an introduction they start with their first song, immediately a pit starts, the first two rows off the stage are full of headbangers and people, desperately trying to get a good picture of the band, while their backs have to endure the smashes of the pit. There are loads of crowdsurfers and stagedivers. The band is clearly enjoying themselves and play all of their classic songs. Early Exodus songs like The Toxic Waltz, The Last Act of Defiance, Bonded By Blood, A Lesson in Violence and they actually played Brain Dead result into lot’s of stagedivers and even the singer (who isn’t exactly one of the tiniest people of the band) takes a dive and doesn’t leave the audience for the whole song. Offcourse the Exodus frontman tries to piss the audience off, just to get more people in the pit: “You motherfuckers are fucking weak”, but he does it without looking like a dick and well… he get’s what he wants.The classics get the best response from the audience. I’ve only heard two songs from their later albums, War is my Shepherd and Iconoclasm. Clothes people took with them for carnaval are thrown on stage, so we see the singer scream Bonded By Blood, with diving glasses on and that sort of stuff. Also our personal Santa got pulled on stage, to stagedive. It’s a shame Exodus only had to play for 1 hour, because there wasn’t any time left for an encore. Also I want to give huge compliments to Nick Barker, who fills in on drums for the actual drummer, because he’s on holiday in Mexico.The surely teached the audience a lesson in violence.
And finally it’s time for Overkill. People take off their shirt and huge Overkill tattoos show off from their backs and arms. Overkill starts and they make it very clear that they are here for one thing and one thing only. They are here to shred. So that’s what they do, 90 minutes of top notch thrash metal, played tight and with a great performance, especially from frontman, who masters the Dutch tongue surprisingly well. He actually talks to the audience a lot in Dutch and sings the Dutch song, “Brabantse nachten zijn lang”, which get’s a lot of support from the audience. The audience sings, moshes and headbangs along with the classics like Rotten to the Core, Elimination and well actually all classics that scream out Overkill. The only thing that bothers me and a lot of the audience is that the security on the stage starts to prevent people from climbing on stage and throwing them off, quite a shame really, because it really added to the “feeling” from the concert. The audience goes wild and so does the band. There was actually an idiot who jumped off the balcony, luckily no one got hurt except for the moron himself, there was no need for an ambulance or something alike though. After an hour I get a little tired, so I head to the merchandise to pick me up some shirts and stuff. As I look back I hear the singer scream “We don’t care what you say” which get’s the whole audience to scream “FUCK YOU”, they keep this up for about 10 times and then the thrash fest continues. Overkill didn’t outdo Exodus (in my personal opinion, I’m sure a lot of the audience will disagree), but hell these guys haven’t gotten old yet!
This has to be the best thrash concert I’ve ever been to. A huge “hell yeah” to the thrash metal legends, that still know how to thrash and also to the new flesh, who kicked loads of ass to.
