By Jase Walker
A bit of a rainy day to start again unfortunately and I’ve had to make my way through Maastricht in the middle of a running event that’s made the route to the venue a bit awkward to navigate but I’ve made it on time to catch the opener for today, German metalcore outfit, Tenside.
The turnout at this time seems a bit sparse but that’s always the risk of being the openers for a new festival when it’s pissing down. Definitely a rough start for them considering the rain and wind intensifies which causes a number of people to seek shelter over watching the band. They soldier on and show real professional chops while still putting on a high energy show that makes me even more interested to see them again as soon as I can.
Sadly, I’ve had to throw in the towel to seek some shelter from the rain too as I can feel my jeans are soaked through. Although before long the rain breaks and suddenly everyone who was hiding away floods to the front of the stage to show the band the crowd they’ve not seen until now and I can see clearly they’re surprised by the sudden crowd that’s now visible. Honestly, I can’t give enough credit to Tenside still giving it both barrels when things weren’t looking great and that is a true testament to a band that just wants to play as best they can regardless. Rain or shine, Tenside put in a great set to kick the day off.
Next up is a band I’ve wanted to see almost entirely just for the silliness, Gutalax. Considering they ended their soundcheck by blasting out the ‘Ghostbusters’ theme and doing their intro with Jimi Jamison’s ‘I’m Always Here’ which is bloody hilarious considering what Gutalax actually sound like. Their backdrop image with various toilet tools all sprouting from a gigantic turd probably gives a good indication. Suddenly toilet paper starts getting thrown about, a man with a toilet seat charges into the pit and someone is flinging confetti around.
“You’ve heard the first song so you can fucking leave because the rest sounds the same”, I love it, the humour of these guys is great. I mean they’re not totally wrong but I’m not exactly here for refined music taste, I just want some silly music while people do mad shit in the pit and I’m seeing exactly that. Sadly, it looks like the full size portaloo isn’t available in this instance, but they’ve dropped a lilo into the crowd with a portaloo print on it while they play a song that lasts.. uh, three seconds. “This one is called ‘Vagina Vocalist’,” then a dialogue plays with a woman shouting out “Yes that’s my vagina!” and then devastates the crowd with riffs. Outstanding, honestly.
Next up is one of the biggest draws of the weekend for me, Dutch prog metal group, Textures. The moment their intro track starts I get chills up my spine, I said it at ArcTanGent and I’ll say it again, I’m so happy they’ve decided to reform! Pure rhythmic genius mixed with beautiful melodic hooks, admittedly they don’t sound quite as strong as the other bands over the weekend but when you need to mix so many elements I can understand the restraint on the volume.
They take this moment to unleash a brand new song and something about the mad heavy grooves and beautiful layered vocals signals a massive step forward that this reformation wasn’t just performative. A glorious mix of Meshuggah, The Contortionist, Animals As Leaders, all that djent led loveliness. Looking around I could see that the crowd here loved them every bit as much as I did, no special tricks or gimmicks here, just good proggy goodness.
After a bit of a break, it’s Sylosis up next, probably one of the loudest soundchecks I’ve heard but indicates a far better sound than I remember in Nijmegen last year. They kick things off and this confirms it for definite, their sound is crisp, heavy and loud as fuck. This is the sort of tech metal you wanna hear from a band like Sylosis.
Each riff cuts through the air like a razor sharp knife, every tapping melody rings clear and the response from the crowd is electric. I’m blown away by how much better they’re sounding today and how much more I’m engaged in their live show.
Sylosis sound brutal as fuck today at South Of Heaven, thunderous and aggressive, there is nothing else to do except hang off every single riff they smash through. Massive circle pits, walls of death, people generally just losing their minds, every hallmark of a show enjoyed by the masses. Not so for me personally but undeniable that they’d smashed the set and the crowd loved it.
We’re in the home stretch for the final day of South Of Heaven and what better way to roll in the final trio than with Carcass?! Truly incredible technicality right from the start, high octane riffing, growling vocals and relentless drumming. Admittedly this is my first time properly listening to these guys despite seeing them on many lineups that I’ve gone to or shows that friends have attended, and I cannot overstate just how much I’m kicking myself over it.
Carcass are absolutely smashing the shit out of their set, the band sounds incredible, and I’m absolutely blown away by them! The right amount of raw death metal technicality and tone mixed with just straight up brutality but never straying far away from a straight tasty riff that hooks you in and keeps you fully engaged. Weirdly I do get the impression that the singer is a bit frustrated with the crowd response? Some off the cuff comments come off as less “provoking the crowd” and a bit more toward just being pissed off at the response which is a little weird. Overall though the set was a phenomenal presentation of brutal metal that has fully opened my eyes to Carcass. Great set.
It’s finally time for the subheadliners, In Flames! It’s been a damn long time since I’ve seen these last so I’m pretty damn excited to catch them again after so long!
Opening with ‘Pinball Map’ is immediately getting this off to a good start! With three massive screens behind them with animations matching the intensity of the music, we’re getting an almost headline set in all but name! Following up with ‘Deliver Us’, the lead single from their ‘Sounds Of A Playground Fading’ album, I’m quite glad that we’re getting older material covered in this set so far. While I’m not familiar with the ‘Foregone’ album material, it’s clear that it landed well with the crowd down the front as people clamour to get themselves on top of the crowd to surf their way to the front.
Diving back into older material though, ‘Cloud Connected’ is a welcome entry in tonight’s set, followed by their golden oldie ‘Only For The Weak’. I had fears that In Flames would drop a lot of the older stuff given the length of their career, but even with dropping ‘Alias’ in, I feel very comfortable with this set. The title track, ‘The Mirror’s Truth’ is another big banger that I’m quite happy to scream my lungs out with.
Before ‘I Am Above’, Anders challenges the crowd on the crowd surfers and the response to him is mind-blowing, within the first minute of the song we got easily 60 odd people going above and I’m having to actively watch my head at this point. Finishing with ‘Take This Life’, this puts the final touches on an immense set that has done the diligence of newer material while keeping older fans (me) very happy.
Finally, it’s Meshuggah time! Time for the second wave of incredible Swedish metal to destroy everyone’s faces. Opting for a bit of an extended intro, they finally walk on to the screams of the audience. Meshuggah are in session, witness them. The lightshow that Meshuggah has carefully curated over the years continually produces some of the most intense lighting I’ve ever seen at a show. Nets of lasers constantly shift about in all directions while the backing strobes and flood lights blind you in polyrhythms. The high-powered lasers that dance around form what feels like a tube of sorts overhead and quite far back behind me, like being sucked into a vortex of heaviness. There really is nothing quite like the intensity of a Meshuggah show, it’s absolutely incredible how a band that doesn’t really move on stage or interact with the crowd that much can still fully get across that they want people to go nuts but that’s how they roll.
“We’ve reached the most important part of the show, it’s my fucking birthday and we won’t move on until you sing happy birthday to me!”, We get the normal happy birthday song as you know but after the Dutch one kicks in, it’s time for ‘Bleed’! This probably means that we’ve already hit the end of the set and it’s passed by quicker than I thought it would! I’ve been so enamoured with the light show and relentless onslaught of noise that I genuinely feel like I’ve blinked a few times and the whole set happened!
But, of course, what Meshuggah set would be complete without ‘Demiurge’ to finish off? The riffiest, most brutal, most intense song they’ve arguably done. Amongst a back catalogue of incredible music, a short but incredibly strong setlist finishes off the first edition of South Of Heaven in the lovely city of Maastricht.
Absolutely fantastic weekend despite the rainy weather.