Midtjysk Metal Mayhem is slowly but surely turning into a sort of tradition. The focal point of the one-evening event is, as it was the case last summer, death metal troopers DAWN OF DEMISE.
Around them, they have gathered a small handful of young hopefuls for an evening of crushing metal and raised horns in a wee provincial town that is otherwise not exactly known for its metal events.
Sadly, Scamp, who left the Danish Metal Awards in November with the award for Best Debut Album have cancelled due to a death in the family, but DESTROYERBOY have been kind enough to replace the technical thrash wizards.
The scene is set in the fine, new venue called Performer’s House in the centre of Silkeborg: Impeccable sound throughout the evening, a decent show-out of young and old, let’s see what the bands have on offer for us!
NEMBIENCE are first off and it’s safe to say that they’re approved for the opening slot. At first, their death metal/metalcore doesn’t seem much more than the standard run of the mill, but there are a few surprises hidden in there, most notably when guitarist Jose Cruz throws in a clean vocal piece out of nowhere. Not bad.
Rating: 69/100
DESTROYERBOY features former As We Fight fronter Jason and stylistically, his new outfit is not far from what he came from. The gig starts out with intro music of the lighter kind (It’s gonna be alright by someone I forget the name of…) but after a bit of silence, Bjørn from Dawn of Demise enters the stage and proclaims that there’s going to be a slight delay due to the fact that the singer is taking a leak.
We go through the light-hearted intro yet again, and this time there’s a band as well. DestroyerBoy heads off on a hard note and gets the attention of the crowd from minute one. What emerges is a good metalcore band who use the grateful elements of the genre and pound them at us – the breakdowns are extremely efficient live, but, oh, blimey, we’ve heard them so many times now, haven’t we?
After Dawn of Demise’s Kim, Jeppe from DestroyerBoy has the best take on the drums this evening. Interesting and cool style.
Rating: 71/100
Metal Talent of the Year. Not a bad award to win, eh? CROCELL had the honour at the Danish Metal Awards in 2008, and it is no coincidence. There’s definitely talent on display as the quintet take us for a convincing round of death metal.
Crocell have in my ears not entirely found their own style and sound yet, but their strength would seem to be the more down-tempo heads-down heavy material like Winter is Coming and In the Age of Iron and Rust – both ultra-cool tunes.
Rating: 79/100
The headliner of the evening have, on the other hand, a strong sense of defining their sound and style. DAWN OF DEMISE have become one of the prime movers in Danish death metal with an overall mark of quality branded all over their music. If there is any justice to be found, this band is just one small step away from the stages of Europe.
The trademark laidback style of front man Scott and the contrast of the tightness the band purports is as always present on this evening as Dawn of Demise tear through Hate Takes It’s Form, Within the Flesh, Intent to Kill, Malice - Kill to Conform, Domestic Slaughter, Beyond Murder, Regain Your Masochist, Extinction is Imminent, …And Blood Will Flow and finally Impurity.
There can be only one complaint: More songs, please!
Rating: 89/100
Attending: Thomas |
Nembience - approved for the opening slot
Jason from DestroyerBoy has gone from metalcore to...metalcore
Crocell - solid death metal talent
Dawn of Demise - in your sodding face, mate!
All Thomas' pictures from the evening can be found here!
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