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Aardschok magazine - Metal Bash Finals 2005 |
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Wednesday, 30 November 2005 |
A total of Six bands battle in Zoetermeer for the highly coveted Igor. Next to the four winners of the pre-rounds the line-up consists of the public favourites The Difference and Non-Divine, which, because of heaps of bad luck but great potential in the pre-round, was added by the jury later. In a well-filled venue Gemini sets the ball rolling. Whether it's the hour or the somewhat hard-to-swallow music (think of Dream theatre and Symphony X), is difficult to say, but the band hardly gets any response from the audience. Musically it's all very good (especially the guitarists are in good shape),
the stage act is even quite professional, but still the audience blows neither hot nor cold. Shadowlord however does manage to shake- up the audience. Damn, that band gets rough on stage! And that with a fairly cramped stage with the seven of them (!). The bands absolutely proves to have potential, but unfortunately this is not brought out entirely well today. The female grunter can hardly be heard and the drums sound fairly powerless. No, things look a lot better with the difference. The Belgians are musically even the best band of the day. In an experimental, original way they prove to be good musicians and writers. By fits and starts the music is very beautiful and emotional, but unfortunately meanwhile the men forget to think about the stage presentation, that looked rather dull.
It's just that that looked great with Non-Divine. The men in white (copied from in flames?) show they have a lot of experience. The songs from the now recorded 'Asylum 45' are well made and the groovy metal proves to be fairly catchy in a live situation as well. The only demerits are the vocals, that sometimes come across dubious, and the lukewarm audience response.
Since Forcefeed initially also causes nothing with the fairly tame audience, the singer decides to do something about it himself. "If the people don't come to me, I'll go to them", he must have thought, after which he jumps off the stage en strides about the venue for the last couple of songs. Musically speaking the band has it?s ups and downs (the last song truly is very good!), and the bending-down-over-guitar-Korn-pose of one of the guitar players is really really not done these days. Noticeably, the last band Portall brought their own audience. From the first note a moshpit is formed, which will not disappear for the rest of the gig. The excellently played (thrash) metal with modern influences and Gorefest-vocals more importantly also appeals to the non-fans. The anti- nu metal remarks from the front man ("Get lost with that crap, man!") also harvest approving glances. A convincing end to a metal bash that was pretty good anyway. To next year!
The results:
1. Non-Divine (35 points)
2. Portall (34)
3. The Difference (32)
4. Forcefeed (22)
5. Shadowlord (13)
6. Gemini ( 11)
De evening is closed in style by Holland's best cover band Stormrider featuring among others an excelling Marcel Coenen.
Robbie Woning / Rudi Enge
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