By Jase Walker
So, 2025 is here and I’m wasting absolutely no time in getting back into the thick of things by hopping on a train to the other end of the Netherlands to Tilburg’s 013 for a pretty stacked show. Tonight is featuring five bands, topped off with Infected Rain headlining on 013’s NEXT stage. People might still be letting the dust settle from the holiday activities but this restless metalhead absolutely bloody isn’t.
The full set of bands from start to finish is Skin On Flesh, Miruthan, Elyose, Semblant and, finally, Infected Rain. The headliners blew me away on their last stop in Utrecht and I’ve been keen to see them again but I’m not going to lie, I’m super buzzed about Elyose who I came across a few years back. I don’t doubt that every band is going to make sure that getting out to a show so bloody early in the year isn’t going to be a waste.
I’ve intentionally stayed more or less ignorant of the bands I didn’t know tonight to get stuck into an entirely new experience and admittedly I didn’t expect Skin On Flesh to be a punk band given the styles of Infected Rain and Elyose. They’ve got some fantastic raw energy to them, rolling with bouncy riffs and aggressive shouty vocals, punk in a nutshell but done damn well. Looking around though I get the impression that most people here lean more into the metal side of things and Skin On Flesh have a real tough sell being a punk band as an opener. The crowd reaction seems a bit indifferent which is a shame considering their solid performance, probably not the best fit on this tour by the looks of things. I feel like this has gotten off to a bit of an underappreciated start sadly, Skin On Flesh were great to watch but the stoney faced crowd didn’t exactly make them feel welcome.
Miruthan up next and seemingly they’re keeping within the bounds of speedy 15 minute changeovers. In a pretty extreme departure from the initial punk openers, we’re now greeted with several masked and robed members going all in with a symphonic death metal style reminiscent of Dimmu Borgir. This is a pretty mad switch in styles and little wonder Skin On Flesh may have had a hard time working the crowd with people turning up for this. As far as stage performances go though, I’m surprised it’s actually taken until now to see someone actively paging through some sort of battered book while screaming into a microphone. I’m a real sucker for this sort of thing though so I’m really enjoying this sort of filth so happy to bop my head along to big riffs and screaming. Admittedly it does take me by surprise that they say they’re from Australia and not something like Finland.
It seems that there’s not quite a decent amount of room on stage for the band to move around much either as the drums are super close to the front of the stage and they’re clearly having some issues getting past each other to keep the visual part of the performance interesting. I’m sure they take their performance integrity extremely seriously but I do find the campiness of being horrifying pretty funny, it only adds to a pretty good performance that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed though.
Next up is my personal main anticipation, Elyose. Time for some synthy riffy goodness! Their singer’s vocals are absolutely bloody fantastic live and everything I could have wanted them to be, all the while underpinned by delicious fat riffs, the synths could be a bit louder I guess but I’m properly buzzed to be seeing them live finally! A double whammy of the first night of this tour and the release date of the new album (which I’ve listened to four times already). Their guitarist isn’t messing about with the amount of energy he’s putting into his performance either, running around the stage and flinging his guitar around his neck is a ballsy move. I’m super happy that ‘Vendredi Noir’ is part of the setlist too with its Northlane meets Nightwish sound that ticks so many boxes for me! Nothing really scratches that itch quite like a techy meaty riff, atmospheric synths and operatic vocals, just hook it up to my veins! Some of the dialogue between songs is a little bit awkward but it’s probably a mix of urgency of a 30 minute set and a bit of a tough crowd for any real feedback outside of clapping after each song.
Elyose sound absolutely bloody fantastic though despite a fair amount of the sound being backing (guitar leads, bass, synths) but I get that they probably want to keep the band project itself quite small. I really hope I get to see a headline show from Elyose before long but I get the feeling I might have to suck it up and get on the Eurostar to Paris at some point. Bottom line is that this set alone was worth the trip down to Tilburg, there’s still two acts and the pain in the arse train ride home to go but Elyose were fantastic!
For the penultimate band of the evening, it’s time for Semblant who get to enjoy a marginally longer set compared to the initial three. The moment the start though the low end from the bass and drums legitimately makes my hair vibrate all over my arms and head. They might struggle a bit with the stage room considering there’s bloody six of them! I’m quite interested to see what sort of journey they take me on with the dual and mixed gender vocals! The guy on vocals has a pretty ridiculous vocal range that goes from low gutturals all the way to strained screams that sound like 3 Inches Of Blood.
They’ve got a style that leans very heavily towards symphonic metal but with a heavy dose of somewhat Dream Theater proggyness in there too. Considering how much is going on with the band it’s good to hear the keys so loud in the mix too as often they end up fairly buried, that being said the guitars definitely need a chunk more presence as he seems to be using a tone similar to Dimebag which suffers a bit in the mix.
I think overall I’m not totally sold on Semblant though as some of the songs feel like they’re leading up to a peak of sorts and then don’t really seem to go anywhere with it. I think musically they’re pretty solid and the performance itself is great to watch too but something about the songs themselves feels like they meander a lot and don’t quite deliver a satisfactory end. Not for me this one unfortunately.
Finally with the rest of the bands’ equipment cleared away the full estate of the stage is now open for Infected Rain to stomp around it. Sadly looking at train times it’s unlikely I’ll be able to stick around for the full duration of their show as Tilburg is just that little bit awkward to return from. Somewhat puzzling that they’re doing line checks for the band just minutes prior to them kicking their set off when they’ve had half an hour to do so.
Infected Rain still started on time okay though at least! Still a bit bummed that I’ll probably only catch about half of the headline set overall though but with five bands and a curfew time of 11pm, this is running a fair bit later than normal. Anyway they get things started and that familiar meaty as fuck sound shakes my legs and puts me firmly back in comfortable territory of Infected Rain’s experience. The massive screen behind them is a great touch as well that adds a ton to the dynamics of their lighting as if the strobed floodlighting wasn’t already enough! To digress from the great band show for a moment though, the crowd here tonight has been absolutely piss poor and I feel really bad for the bands trying to drag some sort of interaction out of them.
One thing I really love about Infected Rain is this style they have that pays homage to the late 90s/early 2000s alt and nu metal scenes while putting a modern spin on it with really technical riffing that dances between hard chugs and bouncy melodies in-between. They’re absolutely fantastic on the visual level too, there’s seldom a moment where they’re not jumping around the stage while the lighting makes it seem like stop motion animation. Every part of their performance demonstrates the cumulative experience they’ve cultivated and now finally the crowd explodes into life and we’ve got a proper moshpit going, which took bloody long enough for everyone to wake up.
Truly a bundle of energy on all accounts, zero subtleties barring a couple of ambient moments here and there. These are all about delivering a super aggressive show and basically blowing your face off and making damn sure that you’ll be back again for more. Seeing Infected Rain amp a crowd up that until now has been pretty boring is testament to how much of a bloody great band they are though. Not only that but you can see they’re trying to step up their production and I can only see them clawing their way further up the stage size podium over the near future and I will be there every time if I can. Sadly I can’t stick around for the full show much to my disappointment but I’m happy I got to catch at least some of it.
Absolutely fucking monstrous.
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