Gojira @ Biebob 19-4-2009

The French neo death-metallers in Gojira paid a visit to Belgium in their European headlining tour supporting ‘The Way Of All Flesh’ released fall 2008. Unfortunately I dropped by too late to catch opening band ‘Set The Tone’.

Concrete Block - Life Is Brutal

Countdown Records

Hardcore from Italy, it's something else then the power metal or black stuff we're used to get from the boot-formed country. Concrete Block was born out of the ashes from acts like Woptime and Sickhead, who had been around for more then ten years. After the formation of Concrete Block they quickly released an mcd-r called ‘Down With The Madness' (2007), also through Countdown Records.
Together with Stigma and even The Vendetta they should approve the hardcore scene is alive and kicking in Italy... and they do!

Domain - The Chronicles of Love, Hate and Sorrow

Roxxcalibur - NWOBHM for Muthas

Limb Music Products

Germans and British heavy metal, it always was and always will be a powerful combination. If you look at the success of festivals like Keep It True and Swordbrothers, where the celebration of old (and new) traditional heavy metal are held, it’s not a surprise this country also gave birth to a band like Roxxcalibur.

These boys from the Rheinland area present themselves as the ultimate NWOBHM tribute band, covering songs from the late 70’s and early 80’s.

WARRIOR SOUL, Motorcity Angels, The Stoned

08/03/2009 @ Negasonic, Aalst

This gig was announced only a good two weeks and a half before the show. So when entering the club, a good five minutes before the show should start (7.30pm), the crowd counted approximately 25 people.

Because of this, the first band called The Stoned (ft Korey Clarke on drums!) decided to start a little later. A good move, since when the band started the crowd had doubled. Nobody knew the Stoned was gonna play, since the posters only mentioned Warrior Soul. Nevertheless the band gave their best on this last gig of the tour. And although they only played a short half an hour, they convinced the Warrior Soul fans with their set. A band worth checking out!

Metallica 5 march 2009 @ Sportpaleis Antwerpen

For this sold out show (20 mins!) Metallica brought bands The Sword and Machine Head with them. For these two bands the sound was just terrible and they both deserve a better show in Belgium. The songs The Sword were playing were quite technical and I’m sure this is not a show to grade this band, so please let The Sword come back to Belgium. The same holds for Machine Head, a band with a great live reputation but the sound was just terrible. But Machine Head did what they had to do and warmed up the ‘Tallica crowd to the fullest.

Setlist Machine Head

1. Clenching The Fist Of Dissent

2. Imperium

3. Halo

4. Beautiful Mourning

5. Descend The Shades Of Night

6. Davidian

Pictures can be found here.

Sara Lee – Damnation To Salvation

Firebox Records

 

A good two and a half year ago, this Finnish band released its first full length ‘Darkness Between’, also through Firebox records. A year later the band released a split EP with Gotham O.D. and Velvet Cut. And now, they decided time was there to release a second full length, again through Firebox Records. They named it ‘Damnation To Salvation’.

Eldritch - LiveQuake

Limp Music Products

17 years after the birth of the band, the Italians from Eldritch decided it was time to release a live 2cd + bonus dvd, with a career spanning overview of the band. There for they recorded a show in Pisa. And not just a normal show, but a special one, with 24 songs, extracted from the 7 records they released so far.

Of course, that's not bad at all, but to be honest, Eldritch isn't a big band at all. But does one has to be a big player to record a good live-cd? They deliver the goods in Italy, played on big fests in Scandivia, Czech Republic and headlined the Chicago Powerfest. That's some credibility, not? Well, let me tell you some more about LiveQuake now.

Iron Fire - To The Grave

Napalm Records

The career of this Danish band has been one of ups and downs. After the great response on the debut ‘Thunderstorm’ Iron Fire seemed ready for a promising career. But merely a year later the same people that praised Iron Fire, nailed them down when reviewing the bands second epos ‘On The Edge’. Even their own label lost faith in the band, so needles to say, they fell apart. Only vocalist Martin Steene stayed and he found a new band.

 

Heavens Basement

Self Financed

It’s quite a discovery, this five piece rock band. Totally unaware of their existence, I went out to see the Belgian part of the Thunder farewell tour.

Of course there was the obligated support band playing when entering the venue, but damn: what a sound they had! So instead of ordering the first drinks I walked a step forward to see what was going on.