Last weekend I visited Steenwijk in the Netherlands for my personally second edition of the country's oldest Metal festival
after 2023, when I mainly went there to finally see
Autopsy live. And them being on the billing again - plus a couple of other groups I hadn't seen for decades - was a big pull factor again this time.
Since the fun started as early as 10:00 AM I already arrived in m hotel a couple of minutes outside town the day before.
For people who love to experience as much music as possible (=me) and people who intend to review the event afterwards (obviously also me) Stonehenge Festival is quiet a challenge. Watching all twenty-five bands with no breaks inbetween - before each show the musicians and the announcer literally waited on stage for the group on the other stage to finish and immediately went on - just is as good as impossible. And even if you really like most of what you've seen, it's hard to write about most of it, because it is a stylistically very heterogenic festival and most bands play rather short sets. So it's really hard to remember the specifics of all the bands you didn't know before. I also don't ever put down any notes, which doesn't really help.
Speaking of the Dutch announcer: I could alway understand three things: "Stonehenge!!!", the band's name and "Old School Death Metal". And on both stages on the parking lot close to Steenwijk's train station (Stage Station and Stage Noord, which for some reason was all in black and white judging - at leastfrom my pictures) Old School Death it was indeed! Except where indicated.
Another rule - at least for the first half of the day - was that most bands also came from the Netherlands.
With that being said it shouldn't come as a surprise that the morning began with a Dutch band playing Old School Technical Brutal Death Metal. And
Anchillys were good at, so the first twenty-five minutes of music flew by fast.
The trio Hamerhaai - a name I probably wouldn't have to translate if this post was in German ("Hammerhai"; in english it's Hammerhead Shark) - played their Death Metal a little straighter and dirtier, also mixing it with some Hardore/Punk influences. Not bad!
Yes, I remember it was Old School Death Metal (what else) with some Thrash infused. Like most earlier bands I also enjoyed Bloodmoon, but there was just too much input afterwards - and too much time has passed since then - to really say something informative about the quintet now. Sorry.
The crowd was getting more active now with the first mosh pits popping up. So at this point, still before noon, it certainly was a good idea to feed the audience with some classics performed by a cover band of seasoned musicians called Rotten Remains. Their show started with Death's "Pull The Plug" and Sepultura's "Inner Self". And I'm seriously annoyed with myself for not remembering what the last song was, because I definitely recognized it... No, I'm not getting there now. However the band had fun and it spread to the audience.
Old School Death Metal is my generation's Dad Rock, no doubt. I could have said that at any point during this whole post, but why not do it at one of several bands with members sporting a Santa look? From The Crypt were another nice and guttural steamroller for fans of Bolt Thrower and Obituary.
Formed in 1989, released a demo in 1990, disbanded soon after... returned decades later. Condolence certainly isn't the first Dutch band with a history like that to ever have played at this festival. No, stories like that are actually quite typical. Sadly their show suffered under a less than ideal sound with a way too dominant bass. And wasn't this also the show, were one guitar had technical problems for half of time? Honestly I'm not sure, I could confuse that with another performance.
I'm not sure if I'd liked the show much better under different circumstances though. Not that a little clumsiness wouldn't be part of the Old School Death Metal charme, but this didn't click with me much. Even the female guest vocal part musically came completely out of nowhere and felt very disjointed from the rest.
Maybe I was also a little bit oversaturated with Death Metal at this point. Enter over twenty-five years old Gore/Porn grindcore band Stoma! Admittedly I found their performance a little bit underwhelming, too. Not bad, but in this genre and with two vocalist you somehow expect more madness to unfold on stage. Still appreciated to get a different and joyfully primitive direction though.
While it might read as if half the day was already over, actually only three hours of Stonehenge had passed so far. Time for the first band not from the Netherlands, but from France. Merrimack certainly fit the old school premise, since they've been doing their thing since 1994. The thing isn't Death but Black Metal though. And that was absolutely fine, not only for further variety, but because they delivered one of the most convicing shows of the earlier hours.
The clear highlight of this first phase however was the full-on Death Metal trio Invictus from Japan. Finally a show where everyhing sounded right! From the drum sound with the killer snare, over the mighty and chunky guitar to the sick double vocals this was an absolute blast.
As most groups here these guys also didn't attempt to invent anything new, but boy, they know how to write and perform some great Death Metal smashers. Loved everything about this show!
After that I needed a break for an ice cream in town and some other small snacks. Also bought a little meal for later in the car. Speaking of that I also went to the train station's P+R near the festival area to sit down in my car for a while. And even though you were on the other side of the tracks there (and had to cross that damn pedestrian bridge with the long stairs everytime), the sound from the stages was carried there and being reflected by various buildings in a way that you could very clearly follow what was happening on site. Damn, this town is cool for letting this Death Metal onslaught happen!
It felt like I was away longer, but I actually only missed Divine Defilement and Destinity. And my first absolute must-see show was still over two hours away.
Meanwhile the announcer packed out his highest Halford scream voice to hype Maceration from Denmark. But no worries, the quintet - whose only studio album, which they released before a long hiatus, is already thirty years old - left no doubt that they were all about Old School Scandinavian Death Metal, haha. And damn, this wasn't too far from Invictus in quality. Cool frontman - and special props to the bassist for the permant stank grimaces!
Back to Dutch artists - yet with an even more Swedish sound - and the second band of the day with "Remains" in their name! Burial Remains turned out to be another entertaining Brutal Death force. Admittedly not much to remember in detail one week later, but nothing to complain about when I saw them either. The crowd was happy, too.
Ah yes, that's why the guitar player looked so familiar! Berzerker Legion consisted of members (among other bands) Asphyx and Hypocrisy. Quality pretty much ensured, even though I must admit that this could be the show I have the least clear memories about, because I went through a tired afternoon phase at that point.
Master certainly weren't the first band emphasizing the Old in Old School Death Metal in Steenwijk, but with a history reaching back to 1983 they definitely won in this category. Paul Speckmann's trio is still hungry and has fun doing this, so their raw performance brought a great energy to the crowd.
I didn't watch the whole show though, because as the playing times gradually got a bit longer (we were in the forty minutes zone now) it became more important to secure your spot at the next show early...
And said next show was one I had to witness from the front row. While I was alrady tempted by the possible prospect of seeing
Autopsy a second time after
Stonehenge 2023 it was the announcement of
Disharmonic Orchestra just while I was at
last year's Prophecy Fest, which tipped the scale and made me order my ticket. My last encounter with the Austrian Avantgarde Death Metal trio dates back to over thirty-one years ago in June 1994, when they toured for "Pleasuredome", in my humble opinion one of the most important Metal albums of the decade.
Yet since as I myy have mentioned everything here was about Old School, there was no place for any tune of that album here. Six of the eight songs they performed were from the earlier first two albums "Expositionsprophylaxe" and "Not To Be Undimensional Conscious" instead. Which was fine with me too. The quirky grooves and harmonies still stood out as something special.
If I could have just one more wish it would be a viscious fish... maybe fifteen minutes more to include a couple of "Pleasuredome" tracks like the one I just referneced as well. Interestingly though one song each from "Ahead" (2002) and
"Fear Of Angst" (2016) - of which I wore the t-shirt - were played, so the later stages of the band's discography were actually covered at least a bit.
However it was a more than welcome blast to experience this one of a kind take on Death Metal live again and I wish there would be a not too far away opportunity to see
Disharmonic Orchestra perform a proper full headliner show.
Wow, this review is more and more becoming a brutal reminder of how mercilessly time flies! So has it already been twenty years ago since my former band
Das Rote Universum played a Friday night show at a certain
Kuhle Festival, where I also was an official photographer - and which was headlined by none other than Murder Metal icons
Macabre.
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| Macabre at Die Kuhle 2005 |
And yes, that was the last time I saw the trio, which exclusivly writes funny songs about real-life serial killers. Fast forward to today and
Corporate Death,
Nefarious and
Dennis the Menace are still absolutely killing their insane mix of Death Metal, Grindcore, Thrash and occasional clown music. For half of the songs a crew member came on the stage with a rubber mask of the murderer the band was singing about, which added even more delightful silliness to this party.
Unfortunetaly
Macabre had to scrap their last song from the the setlist, simply because the singer/guitarist took too long explaining the details of how all the murdering took place. But that's an integral part of the show, so I guess it was worth it. Excellent!
I had to take a another break, so I only listened to Massacre from afar on the parking lot (where I parked, not where the festival took place).
I came back in time to see
Malevolent Creation, who probaly were a completly different band when I saw them the last time, which was even longer ago than
Disharmonic Orchestra, when they played a show at the long gone
In Town just around the corner in Itzehoe in March 1994.
Funnily enough I met an old familiar face at the fantastic
Ministry show in Hamburg last Friday, who not only had been to
Stonehenge (where I somehow didn't see him) to finally see
Autopsy (same reason I had 2023), yet had also been to all the shows from back in the day I've mentioned before:
Die Kuhle with
Macabre,
Disharmonic Orchestra at Hamburg - and also
Malevolent Creation! What a coincidence... he even remembered more details from the show than me and who they toured with. Crazy.
But back to last weekend: Even though they performed as a trio with one member being in hospital, it was still a more than respectable Death/Thrash inferno.
Anaal Nathrakh from Birmingham, England certainly were something different. While I didn't hear too much of the Industrial influence in their Death Metal sound, the clear Power Metal vocals over their blasting sound were hard to miss - except for the beginning, when the microphone wasn't properly plugged in, which lead to a couple of funny moments. Even though the energy was definitely there and I wouldn't claim I seriously disliked it, I couldn't really connect to their style either and was way more keen to see another group also from Birmingham...
Even considering that "You Suffer" doesn't really count, no other band came close to the quantity of Napalm Death's seventeen track setlist. And of course the quality is never a thing to worry about with Barney Co.. They also absolutely knew what the premise of the event expected from them. So the second half of their show was a glorious Old School Grindcore (and a bit of Death Metal) parade of hits from "Scum" and "From Enslavement To Obliberation" plus classics like "Suffer the Children" or the Dead Kennedys cover "Nazi Punks Fuck Off".
But even before all that noone complained when they played newer material, including bringing down the tempo to the Killing Joke groove of "Amoral" from "Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism". What else can I say? Hard working legends never-tiring in delivering their socially conscious message. You can always count on Napalm Death. Even though once again around without Shane Embury on bass it was the great show which was to be expected, spectacularly culminating in "Unchallenged Hate".
And here we go again! When the back of the tour shirt only lists three dates for the whole year - in Steenwijk, Detroit and Bucharest - you know it's a pretty exclusive occasion. And if you were lucky enough to see one of their rare European appearances before you also already know that Autopsy are just the fucking best. From the banter to the the sick songs to the killer sound, noone beats them at Old School fucking Death Metal.
If you read my last Stonehenge review, where I extensively unearthed every possible thought I had, you will rightfully assume that they were once again my highlight of the day.
Not with such a great distance to the rest of the line-up this time though - which says more about the other bands than about their own performance. It being my first Autopsy show 2023 certainly had a little more magic for me, they played on the more intimate stage and of course had that hilarious break due to a festival crew member accidentily pushing over two speakers and a guitar amp...
And then there's of course the one critique I have: This year's show was a little too similar - with a huge focus on the 1989 debut "Severed Survival" -, especially given that there's such a huge discography full of wonderful sickness at hand.
Of course Autopsy just sticking to the eldest old school hits - even more than last time - still guaranteed an awesome show. So this it what growling, gurgling and screeching drummer Chris Reiffert and his companions on rumbling bass and killer twin guitars did:
After the intro they first started with a goosebumbs moment, paying homage to the legendary main riff of Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath", then they completely got the crowd on their site with "Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay" and my personal all-time favorite "In the Grip of Winter" (both from "Mental Funeral").
And after that they just played as much of "Severed Survival" as time would allow. Simple as that! Well, they made it to the title track and the following "Critical Madness".
So depending on which version of the album you own only one or two tracks were missing...
...which brings me to the general observation that noone would complain if "only" twenty bands played at Stonehenge and the remaining bands would get more time. But I guess it's better to leave people wanting more than boring them, so yeah, of course Autopsy absolutely won the festival again.
The audience went absolutely wild and there was one moment of crital madness, when a crowd surfer landed on my glasses, but luckily I survived unsevered to tell the tale!
After Autopsy one final show was left, but I just didn't have the attention and stamina for it left in me, even though Dismember surely did a great job and provided me with a great soundtrack on the walk back to my car.
There would be moments in traffic on the way back home the next day - which more and more felt as if I would travel to the Wacken Open Air - where I felt momentarily regrets for this trip while I was sweating and "gasping for air" in traffic, but all in all Stonehenge 2025 was a great experience. And it also had way better weather than Wacken. The rain was laughable and I even got fucking old school sunburned.
Next year's edition (featuring Grave, Immoliation, Asphyx and Rotting Christ) by the way is already ninety percent sold out!
