By Jase Walker
Summer is starting its death rattle and in the last few days of warm weather in the Netherlands, I’ve decided to pass it off in favour of getting screamed at by a bunch of blokes in a small room at 120dB, as ya do. Patronaat welcomes back To The Grave for a headline show on the same stage they opened for on the Faces Of Death tour last year and along for support tonight are Braces and Gallamesh. I won’t lie to you, the sort of crowd response that To The Grave provokes is pretty terrifying and I still have to turn up to my day job tomorrow with a full set of teeth so I’ve got myself a spot on the balcony so I can video the chaos instead.
Gallamesh open with an intro song that wouldn’t go amiss on the ‘Miami Vice’ soundtrack before rudely interrupting it with some groovy riffs. Within seconds the guy is picked out of the crowd that looked to be a definite put gremlin starts bouncing and swinging, even catching some of the crowd by surprise, clearly a big fan! It doesn’t take long before the others finally get the hint and decide to join in, it’s a heavy night so either throw down or get the hell out of the way. Leading with big grooves that err between older metalcore of the 2000s and newer, more polished hardcore along with some disgustingly low gutturals, Gallamesh aren’t going to leave this stage without making sure everyone’s done their warm-ups.
Gallamesh aren’t afraid of adding in the odd bit of avant-garde nonsense in there now and again and switching up the grooves a bunch. These guys definitely aren’t your average middle of the road core band, there’s a lot more to them beneath the surface level growls and riffs. There’s a lot of subtle brilliance to their songwriting and can be subtle at times and overt in others, especially the smashcuts to jazzy moments that jump back into filthy breakdowns. I do kinda hope they continue on with adding more zany and bizarre elements to their songs while maintaining the heaviness, I think they’re really into something with it.
Braces suddenly go from a quiet intro into unbelievably loud noise and it’s time for a bit of two-stepping, the bass player is wearing a windbreaker on stage so you know they mean business. People are already trying to show off who spins the hardest and the central ground immediately opens up as the people less keen on catching a knuckle to the eye socket quickly shuffle off to the sides.
I’m guessing people are probably a bit more careful on your average Tuesday night but there’s a solid core of about 10 people who are visibly unbothered and want to get their pit action fix. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tambourine being used in a band that’s essentially hammering out beatdown but I’ll be damned if I said it didn’t work, just that little bit of class to a big groove. No stranger to guest vocals either, a duelling pair of equally filthy vocal styles flashing against each other drives a horrific breakdown and finally rammed down your throat with drums going like hell on the double bass pedal.
As we get to the latter half of Braces’ set, people have clearly warmed to them a lot more and the more intense moments are getting people repeatedly opening up the middle to charge at each other as well as breakdowns seeing the expected pit-ninja displays of spinning around like a marionette across the floor.
On the band’s own merits, they sound absolutely fucking fantastic, big meaty low end and drums, fat groovy riffs and fronted by a vocalist that looks like he wants to reach out to scream directly in people’s faces. You can add Braces to the list of fierce Dutch -core acts alongside the likes of Sugar Spine, Distant, Another Now, the list goes on but the Netherlands definitely has its gems waiting to be discovered and Braces are absolutely one of them.
If there’s any doubt over what To The Grave are particularly passionate about, seeing their backing spread of “Kill Your Local Animal Abuser” probably would probably put that straight. This band are extremely passionate about veganism as a lifestyle and ideology and make zero excuses for being violently opposed to the use and consumption of animal products and deliver that righteous fury through some of the most horrific riffs and lyrical content. Their singer not only does some insane pig squeals but launches himself onto stage wearing a crude pig mask to match. To The Grave are not a band for subtlety. This is in your face and you can deal with it. After a somewhat lukewarm crowd response to start, the energy properly picks up soon after the singer starts laying into the crowd to start fucking shit up, now it’s showtime!
The moment those breakdowns hit, people are immediately responding with flinging their arms around so hard you’d think they’d fly off. To The Grave consistently batter the room with a sonic barrage of grooves and gutturals, the sheer apoplectic rage they have at the systems that condemn animals to abuse in the face of human consumption is felt with every single wretched word, every single pounding riff, it’s felt in your chest, ears, legs, stomach, everything.
Admittedly I feel like the crowd response is lacking a bit, definitely not on the band’s part though but the action explodes for a brief moment then dies down fairly quickly. I can sense To The Grave are getting a bit frustrated with it as their singer is really putting in a ton of work to keep people engaged and moving.
Admittedly I didn’t have a cover of Bullet For My Valentine to come out of these guys but it was an interesting take although I genuinely can’t seem to remember which song it was, so that’s my Millennial core cred in tatters. As we draw to a close of To The Grave’s headliner set, the band themselves have put on a stellar performance that to me personally has been the best I’ve seen them by far.
I do feel a bit sad for them as the crowd themselves clearly wasn’t quite giving the response they were hunting for but it still didn’t deter them from going all in for the whole set. There’ll be those that were here tonight that’ll be recalling this show when To The Grave are fully leading the way in Aussie deathcore, there’s little doubt in my mind that they’ll be doing that before long.
Absolutely disgusting, I loved it.