By Jase Walker
Sunday night in the Netherlands has brought a weirdly warm day with pretty extreme wind thanks to errm.. Storm Bert? Anyway it’s time for a night of ear splitting metal courtesy of four rather angry bands. Sadly Veil Of Maya have imploded and left a gap that has seen Signs Of The Swarm take the main slot and Cabal jump in as supports along with Varials and To The Grave.
As I approach the venue it’s pretty stark that the queue is a bit smaller than expected and in addition to this, the Patronaat site stated it was the big Stage One for tonight but the sign at the doors says Stage Two. I think this might be a bit of a sad indication that ticket sales may not have been as strong as they intended or refunds might have really hurt the attendance as this is a pretty sizable downgrade for this show, which is a shame.
To The Grave kick off with the singer sporting a rather freaky looking pig mask who motions to us on the balcony to come down but ehhh, think I may pass on that. They kick off and there’s already plenty of movement but nobody quite kicking fuck out of each other just yet but holy shit those riffs are going hard. No sooner did I type that someone grabs their mate and literally flings him across the room and suddenly all hell breaks loose! It’s time for a bit of casual Sunday night violence courtesy of some angry vegans. Not just pig squeals here but pig snorts as well.
This might be the last date of the tour but they’re still focused on causing chaos, provoking everyone to go apeshit and they’re getting just that. “Ruin someone else’s fucking night”, what a call to lose your shit in the crowd to, not quite Callous Daoboys level but a hell of a good one too! Honestly with a lineup like this, To The Grave have kicked things off in the best way possible. That’s the first of four disgustingly heavy bands down, three more to go!
Cabal gets off to a weird start by singing an AI generated song about their driver, with loads of random people on the stage in addition to Cabal waving their arms about. Last date of your shenanigans are always a bit bonkers but this certainly a new one for me!
Anyway back to our usual scheduled programme of face melting riffs and horrific screaming! The stage lighting is a bit odd because I can barely see the band out despite them being so close, oftentimes being little more than shadows. People clearly have the adrenaline pumping now as they smash into each other in the pit with great enthusiasm. I’ve seen these guys a few times now and there is nothing subtle about their approach, big riffs, pure aggression drenched vocals, exactly the sort of stuff worthy of a tour like this. Their singer invites people to get up on stage to sing a song with them and one brave dude immediately gets up and to be fair does a good job of it right up until he forgets the words.
Keeping up the trend of provoking the audience into a mass of smashing bodies, they order the room to be split and somewhat casually mention that everyone knows the drill, and the moment it drops it’s time to let loose and they do just that. Another seemingly random dude gets up to sing along with them and we end up on some incredible singer duet, absolutely fucking nuts! And yet more extra singers with the guitarist and vocalist from To The Grave jumping up as well! This has been an incredible show so far tonight and we’ve still got two more to go!
Varials kick off suddenly and it’s ear splittingly loud and I’ve scrambled to get my earplugs in. Yet more disgustingly heavy brutality on display here, no space for any delicacy or the like. Someone launched a glass into the stage that barely missed their singer and clearly pisses him off as he shouts abuse at someone in the crowd between the lyrics, fucking hell. Looking down at the crowd though, everyone’s pretty engaged with two-stepping and smashing into each other like it’s active hysteria.
Varials are brilliantly energetic, the fact that bands like these can do this for six weeks straight and keep this level of fierceness up all the way to the last date is a show of incredible endurance. Another glass gets thrown at Varials and it’s clearly getting beyond a joke now and the band’s now calling for whoever it is to get thrown out, thats shit behaviour.
Sadly I think that’s spoiled the band’s want to chat to the audience between songs as they’re probably in “just get the set done” mode which is a bit of a shame. Either way they still sound brutal as fuck and every single riff hits hard and bounces around in my chest and legs. The crowd is fully beating the hell out of each other as well, so nevermind that one guy being a dick, the crowd is fully engaged and going wild. Their drummer is really standing out to me tonight though, this guy is a legitimate groove machine and given how stripped back the kit is, does an incredible job of keeping that thunderous rhythm going. More guest vocal shenanigans with the Cabal and To The Grave singers getting up for a spot as well… if this is what they’ve been doing all tour I can’t wait to see what Signs Of The Swarm have in store as well! Another big entry for tonight, pure pit violence and disgusting riffs, excellent.
And finally, it’s time for Signs Of The Swarm, or as my mate Ricardo succinctly puts it, “The Toilet Man”. Time to tie off a night of absofuckinlutely outrageous metal with delicious tech deathcore courtesy of these lot. They kick off and finally I discover where the light production has been kept all evening as it seems it’s been kept exclusively for the headliners. As described though, the vocalist for these is pure filth, gutturals are the main dish being served tonight and the crowd eagerly devours it without hesitation. There’s little doubt about it, although Veil Of Maya are not with us for this show now, Signs Of The Swarm are more than deserving of headlining this tour with the show they’ve brought. Nobody does a breakdown quite like these guys too, the vocals matching the downtuned to pure grit guitars. It’s also great to see a live show from bands like this that don’t end up having almost muting the bass guitar either, because holy shit is it present and shaking my legs!
And finally we’ve got crowd surfers and stage divers, I’d have expected that earlier in the night but it’s good to finally see the crowd energy getting even more hectic. Honestly this really is something to behold, it’s far from the first time I’ve seen these but first time seeing them headline a show and they’re not taking this for granted. It’s the last night of this tour and they’re clearly putting everything they can into it and fully loving it.
This whole set is just pure grit, you wouldn’t believe this is the end of such a long tour considering they’re bouncing around like this. Of course we’re not missing chances for random mic grabs for guest vocals from other bands either, this is why last date tours can so often be great just for this sort of stuff. But as with all good things, they must finally come to an end and being here for not just the end of the show but the end of this colossal tour and witnessing Signs Of The Swarm absolutely fucking kill it has been an incredible moment. The crowd on the last song pulls out every single last bit of energy they’ve got left to truly let loose and even guys from the other bands have joined in the pit as well.
What an immense show of insane metal this has been on a Sunday night. As always with the colder months, it may be chilly outside but it’s always hot in a sweaty room full of greebos wherever you go in the world. Bring your mate along and then punch em in the face in the pit, it’s just the done thing.
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