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| Asagraum |
No, this day wasn't a textbook example of perfect planning. Since I had extended my stay to also include the show of Sumac and Patrick Shiroishi the night before, but couldn't book another night at the same hotel, I had to change beds within Tilburg. Two places ten minutes apart from each other, but four hours between check out and check in.
I explored some corners of the city I didn't know yet (see pictures here), but didn't have any elaborate tourist plans for the day, because I had been terribly lazy in the preparation for this whole trip. Usually I start to sort out clothes, films, cameras, maybe look for some interesting spots days before... but this time I've had back issues messing with my motivation, so that I didn't even start packing until nine in the evening. But that was Wednesday and now it was Friday and a headlining show of Neptunian Maximalism was awaiting me in Tilburg. Or it wasn't, because that gig had been postponed to February. Damn. Well, at least I would still see them playing a festival show on Saturday.
Looking for alternatives for this night I unsurpringly didn't find anything of equivalent relevance for me, but at least there were a lot of options. In the end I narrowed it down to three, all out of town, but not too far away. Ultimately it was just a mood for black metal which made me choose the fourty minutes drive to Oss.
The Groene Engel is a nice culture centre with quite a big stage for this kind of show. Luckily for me it was far from being sold out, since lacking a credit card or Dutch bank account I couldn't preorder my ticket, but there were still enough fans attending to not let the place feel empty.
Of course it costs a little more this way, but come on, what does it matter when you've already paid a murderous 10 cents (arrived just before free time) for parking?
I explored some corners of the city I didn't know yet (see pictures here), but didn't have any elaborate tourist plans for the day, because I had been terribly lazy in the preparation for this whole trip. Usually I start to sort out clothes, films, cameras, maybe look for some interesting spots days before... but this time I've had back issues messing with my motivation, so that I didn't even start packing until nine in the evening. But that was Wednesday and now it was Friday and a headlining show of Neptunian Maximalism was awaiting me in Tilburg. Or it wasn't, because that gig had been postponed to February. Damn. Well, at least I would still see them playing a festival show on Saturday.
Looking for alternatives for this night I unsurpringly didn't find anything of equivalent relevance for me, but at least there were a lot of options. In the end I narrowed it down to three, all out of town, but not too far away. Ultimately it was just a mood for black metal which made me choose the fourty minutes drive to Oss.
The Groene Engel is a nice culture centre with quite a big stage for this kind of show. Luckily for me it was far from being sold out, since lacking a credit card or Dutch bank account I couldn't preorder my ticket, but there were still enough fans attending to not let the place feel empty.
Of course it costs a little more this way, but come on, what does it matter when you've already paid a murderous 10 cents (arrived just before free time) for parking?
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| WESENWILLE |
Hey, the opening band at least had one thing in common with Neptunian Maximalism: I had already seen them before during last year's streaming version of the Roadburn Festival.
Wesenwille from Utrecht played black metal with great precision and technical chops, some proggy and gazy influences and midtempo dissonant death metal parts. Visually they belong to plain black suit Auðn school, which fits to them dealing with rather real and modern than mystical themes. Not that you would understand enough of the lyrics to get that, but it's sold by the presentation. The songwriting isn't otherworldy spectacular, but still quite good. The whole direction of their sound reminded me at least of older Wiegedood. Not quite there yet, but this band was by no means bad. There's still potential to flesh out a more memorable identity though. I wouldn't rule out that these guys have a truly spectacular album in them if they take the right steps. Until then you'll surely do nothing wrong by watching them live.
Wesenwille from Utrecht played black metal with great precision and technical chops, some proggy and gazy influences and midtempo dissonant death metal parts. Visually they belong to plain black suit Auðn school, which fits to them dealing with rather real and modern than mystical themes. Not that you would understand enough of the lyrics to get that, but it's sold by the presentation. The songwriting isn't otherworldy spectacular, but still quite good. The whole direction of their sound reminded me at least of older Wiegedood. Not quite there yet, but this band was by no means bad. There's still potential to flesh out a more memorable identity though. I wouldn't rule out that these guys have a truly spectacular album in them if they take the right steps. Until then you'll surely do nothing wrong by watching them live.
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| ASAGRAUM |
Things got a lot more traditional with the international quartet Asagraum, who depending on what continent they're performing seem to have a certain fluctuation in live members. This was very Nineties, quite raw and feral, sometimes leaning into chaos, but then coming out of it with some strong lead guitars and blut aus nordy atmospheres.
They obviously use femininity as a selling point, referring to themsleves as a black metal coven, but from a musical point of view in truth there probably isn't any subgenre of metal where gender matters less than in trve cvlt shrill screeching corpsepaint black metal. At times the ave satanas shtick got a little corny, but that's just the number ehm... nature of the beast and part of the fun. And yes, this was an all around nice evil blast.
Towards the end it began to feel a little samey to me, but that could have been me getting impatient, because my back pain was returning again. I just keep getting punished for crouching badly for that damn ant video back in August.
Was this a night I would drive six hours for? Nah, not gonna lie. That one still lay ahead on the weekend. But given the circumstances this black mass was worth the little detour for sure.
They obviously use femininity as a selling point, referring to themsleves as a black metal coven, but from a musical point of view in truth there probably isn't any subgenre of metal where gender matters less than in trve cvlt shrill screeching corpsepaint black metal. At times the ave satanas shtick got a little corny, but that's just the number ehm... nature of the beast and part of the fun. And yes, this was an all around nice evil blast.
Towards the end it began to feel a little samey to me, but that could have been me getting impatient, because my back pain was returning again. I just keep getting punished for crouching badly for that damn ant video back in August.
Was this a night I would drive six hours for? Nah, not gonna lie. That one still lay ahead on the weekend. But given the circumstances this black mass was worth the little detour for sure.
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