By Jase Walker
It’s a rainy Friday, it’s early doors, and one of the biggest metal shows Amsterdam has seen this year, it’s the return of Thy Art Is Murder with one of the most stacked tour lineups of 2023. Whitechapel, Fit For An Autopsy and Spite in tow and I’ve joined one of the longest lines I’ve seen at a gig outside of Manchester’s Academy 1… it’s like every metalhead in the Netherlands has arrived for this show.
Amazingly despite the massive queue I’ve made it in for Spite, announcing their arrival with the dirtiest chugs, the already full venue eager to fuck it up big time. There’s nothing subtle about these, it’s heavy, fast and absolutely goddamn filthy. Setting the tone for tonight, if you want some dainty ethereal melodies, you’re at the wrong show, tonight is all about gutturals and gut punches. I mean what better way to spend your Friday than having a bunch of big sweaty men hammering out the meatiest riffs you’ve ever heard while screaming at you and thanking ‘em for the pleasure?
Spite are destroying it right from the first hit and demand you pay your tithe which the crowd here gladly stumps up. Nothing quite signals the brief moment of impending doom quite like the silence followed by a brief “ting“, the following breakdown induces complete mania as the centre of the crowd savagely slams into each other. Getting tonight started right has been Spite’s job and they just played like they own the stage and rightly so, pure unadulterated rage.
After squeezing out of the crowd for a quick break, Fit For An Autopsy opens with’Higher Level Of Hate’, what an incredible opener! Crushing riffs, massive presence, and a commanding aura is on full display right now, the crowd appears to be very much here for FFAA as well as Thy Art, as am I. The bustle of people I’m surrounded by is overwhelming, this is a veritable collection of devoted Metalheads that are going to take every single moment for everything it’s worth.
The sound so far tonight is bloody excellent as well, every single chug has grit to it that can be felt in every single part of my body, not only that but it’s so incredibly crisps. Their opener of their second most recent album, ‘Sea Of Tragic Beasts’ goes down a storm as well, and the chorus with its pounding rhythm and oddly catchy lyrics inspire violence. The ideal finisher for their shorter set though, ‘Far From Heaven’, the Gojira-esque epic is absolutely what I wanted to hear from this set and clearly everyone else agrees, the centre of the the pit is a quagmire of arms and heads moving at speed, what a way to finish up.
- ‘The Aggression Sessions‘ is out now.
Given the sheer amount of people I’m sadly in the queue for a pint as Whitechapel takes the stage but it shouldn’t be long before I’m redeemed with a biertje. This is a band I’ve been super keen on catching for a while now, time to see em tear Melkweg a new one and with their meteoric levels of heavy they’re already tearing into the crowd. With some riffs bordering on djent, Whitechapel hit Melkweg with cindering energy, in keeping with the theme of tonight, it’s all about going as hard as possible and laying waste to the stage.
I really can’t get my head round how unbelievably raw Whitechapel are, they have a very distinct brashness to their sound, similarly riffy to the rest of the acts on tonight but their style is less atmospheric and more straight to the jugular. There’s so much about their style that revolves around being so direct that’s quite hard to describe in words but it translates so well in a live setting like this. Whitechapel epitomises unbridled intensity, there’s barely a moment to catch your breath other than the scant seconds between songs, seldom a moment where they talk much throughout the set, Whitechapel have one mission here and that’s to smash out as much brutality as they possibly can within a short space of time and they have undoubtedly delivered that.
- ‘Kin‘ is out now.
Thy Art Is Murder are not without humour using The Vengaboys as a walk on tune, this is a death metal show after all. Anyway, time for the headline act. Oddly the massive bass seems to have tailed off for Thy Art which is a bit disappointing, hopefully this gets fixed later in the set but it puts a bit of a damper on the delivery of what’s been a pretty solid metal show so far. It’s essentially lowered the energy of the show and what is supposed to be a super heavy show doesn’t really feel like it because the bass drum and guitar feels super weak.
Don’t get me wrong, the clarity overall is great, you can hear the riffs and the vocals fine but I can’t get away with how the low end and the driver of the force is unmistakably absent, I can barely feel anything in my feet or chest, it’s so thin. It’s clear that a lot of the crowd doesn’t really seem to mind the sound as they’re getting lost in the show but I do wish I was with them on it but I can’t help but feel disconnected from the show as even towards the end of the set, the sound is still paper thin.
On the whole, tonight’s show has been pretty fantastic and seeing the Dutch crowd bring such energy as a crowd has been brilliant but I’ve not been able to connect with TAIM’s show as the sound for their set just didn’t deliver what they’re capable of as I’ve seen in previous shows. Sometimes it’s like that I guess!