RAGINPIT MAGAZINE

It is Belgium versus The Netherlands this afternoon with the black metal violence of Enthroned, Emptiness and Lost God from Belgium and the thrashers of Izegrim from Holland.

I know this is a strange combination, but this package has done already two gigs last Friday and Saturday in Luxenburg and Belgium so it might work today, despite the fact that thrashers and black metal worshippers have a completely different view of the world.

The problem with the Baroeg are the facilities. They have excellent beer (Hertog Jan from the city of Arcen in Limburg), but a horrible light and sound system. Not to mention the total absence of any form of air conditioning. Sometimes things go well, like with the Throne of Katarsis gig last year and sometimes the visitors have to flee the venue in search for fresh air when the light engineer is too enthusiastic with the dry ice machine (like with the Shining gig this year).

While this contributes to the underground image of the venue one might ask if it is smart to let a band do a gig under such barbaric circumstances. Going to concerts costs a lot of money these days and you might offer the audience something more than ear shredding sound and red light vs. darkness for their expensive money.

Another problem is the total collapse of the public transport system in the Rotterdam region this weekend so the odds of a sold out venue are slim.

For some reason people have started to compare Izegrim with Arch Enemy. Perhaps because Marloes is also blonde and grunts rather than sings. However, Izegrim is still a band while Arch Enemy has become more and more the Angela Gossow show. And the biggest difference: Izegrim did not sell their soul to the devil and does not compromise their music.

The openers of today were the boys from Lost God. This band was formed in 2003 and they are the Benjamins today. While most black metal bands try to make something special of their gigs – think of corpse paint, the rotten blood of Waitain or fire breathing. We even had a pig’s head on a cross a few years ago at a gig here. Lost God are just standing there as if this is their rehearsal room. Live music should have something entertaining, otherwise you can better watch a Coldplay gig. The music itself is not that bad, but it won’t irritate any Christian soon.

This brings us to Emptiness. This band is much longer active than Lost God, but they have not learned much more. Black metal must have something self destructive, but these are just a bunch of friendly guys making not really interesting music. Belgium is much stronger in hard-, metal- and whatever core music. Think of After All, or electro stuff like Front 242 or Vive La Fête and you should leave black metal to the artic regions of Scandinavia.

As suspected it was not very crowded during the Lost God and Emptiness gigs. Most people were outside the Baroeg enjoying the sunny afternoon, but, being honest, the first two bands were just fillers (a nice alternative for ‘wasting your time’) Lost God was slightly better than Emptiness, but both were pretty boring when it comes to music and performance.

The ugly red light did not help much. I guess this is the Baroeg’s way of reducing its ecologic footprint.

Izegrim was totally different (except for the red light that gave the show the appearance of a brothel. But Marloes is a cool chick who does not wear girly stuff or kinky gothic outfits. She is more likely to be seen on a big fat Harley Davidson. Unlike the first two bands, people were really interested in Izegrim. I did not see their last gig at the Baroeg (some idiot jumped for the train during rush hour), but even at these barbaric circumstances Izegrim managed to give us a good show. The band has a lot of experience and fans.

Even the Jägermeister tour buddies of Sin7sinS showed up to support the thrashers from Zutphen, but Rotterdam is Sin7sinS home base after all. I even managed to have a little chat with singer Lotus and squeeze a photo shoot (see first picture) with her while waiting for Izegrim.

After Izegrim it was time for Enthroned. This is the eldest active band today. Enthroned was formed way back in 1993. In Germany they call this ‘Panda Metal’ so you can expect a lot of corpse paint. With more than fifteen years of experience you would expect a good show and they gave a good show. To quote AC/DC: "Let there be light!" (the light engineer woke up from his hibernation and gave us light) "Let there be sound." (yes, we got a good sound!) "And let there be rock." (We got metal!)

They started with Radiance of Mordacity, Pray and Tellum Scorpionis (classic latin, the language of the Roman Catholic Church always gives your lyrics something extra). There was no moshpit because black metal fans are not into that and singer Normagest did not need to cut himself with razors like that weird guy from Shining to convince the audience. The other songs, like Vermin, Spheres of Damnation and Through the Cortex did give the show a nice cold Scandinavian feeling. The real stuff and not the black metal lite from Cradle of Filth.

After an hour the show was over. We had two good performances today, from Izegrim and Enthroned, but I doubt that Lost God and Emptiness made new fans today.