It was Easter-Sunday in Club Turock - one of the coolest indoor-locations for Metal and hard music in the so called Ruhr-Area. With IMMOLATION - MELECHESH - GOATWHORE - SICKENING HORROR was offered a billing which seemed more likely placed as an competing event to these Christian Ester holidays.

As opening act was a young band from Greece :: SICKENING HORROR :: entering the stage. They were looking a little bit stiff and lost on it. The first songs were sounding a bit out-of-round. At the parts where the drumming was supposed to be progressive they sounded a bit bumpy as well. I was not really sure if it was because of maybe immature songwriting or because of some timing-problems. Last three songs were really cool and tight and the guys from Athens started to loosen more and more in what they did. Vocalist and guitarist George Antipatis convinced the people with some outstanding and fantastic solo-parts on guitar. Though the bassist still was looking like he was clutching his bass-guitar; SICKENING HORROR happily resolved their show. Just in matter of music I have to say they were not that bad! This band with some more experience and more movement on stage can make a name for themselves. We will see what they will offer in end of May on Neurotic Deathfest 2008 in Tilburg (NL)...

:: GOATWHORE :: did not care much about a consistent stage dress – like other Black Metal bands. While vocalist Ben Falgoust only was dressed up with some leathery bracers, the guitarist and second vocalist Sammy Duet and bass player Nathan Bergeron were dressed up to the nines with lots of sharp spikes. Appearance is not everything when you are talking about music and so the guys from New Orleans really would have liked to do their soundcheck a bit longer, but it was abandoned by the technicians very fast. Just a quizzical look then a shrug of the shoulders and the band made the best out of this situation. Promptly and unimpressed they shot their first song into the audience. The spectators were not prepared for that, but with a sound much more brutal than on the record and an expressive show by frontman Ben GOATWHORE pulled the people in immediately. It filled in front of stage while the guys put the heat on the spectators. As for me I can say GOATWHORE was the positive discovery and surprise of the evening. I am pretty sure that metal heads in Europe will soon hear a lot more about these awesome guys in the future – I really hope so for them!

Incense sticks glued with panzertape to the monitors, set fire to it and after that begin to soundcheck... Do you wanna have a guess who is that? Right! :: MELECHESH :: entered stage. We had an evening of surprising beginnings and so the guys ended soundcheck with the back to the audience very abrupt and began to play their set. Lights in the venue still on – lights on stage still dark, but MELECHESH did not care about that and continued. Was it a mishap or just the revenge to the technicians for the short soundcheck they gave to Goatwhore...? Who knows...? ;) The crowd took it with a sense of humor and smiling faces were looking at the technicians trying to switch the lights to get some atmosphere of concert quickly. The band is known for their oriental influenced guitars and they really offered a rock solid show, though guitarist Moloch was not with them. He could not partake in that tour and so Malak Al'Maut was standing in. Malak Al'Maut was prepared and had already proven his talent by performing previously with MELECHESH in Portugal, Switzerland and The Netherlands. When they finally performed my personal favorite Covering The Sun from album Djinn I was really pleased with them. While some girls in the first row were shaking their heads like some Arabian dervishes more than half of the rest of the audience were moshing themselves into trance in the fragrance of the incense sticks. When Rebirth Of The Nemesis was announced at the end of show there was no stopping them any more. Wild and the rolling eyes of bald vocalist Aschmedi were always fun to look at and there is nothing more to say about this good and solid performance...

:: IMMOLATION :: – without any troubles at the start, without any spikes, without any big show and without incense sticks, but in exchange for that with the longest hair in the venue owned by Ross Dolan – played their set branchless. The long-anticipated headliner enthused the people with a musical retrospective through the band's history. Of course they offered a lot of new songs (to say it in number: six if I remember right) taken from actual record Shadows In The Light (2007 Listenable Records). But as well they performed Those Left Behind and Immolation taken from their first release Dawn Of Possession (1991) an by that they made some fans really happy. Some might have heard The Condemned from MCD Hope & Horror for the first time on that evening. As addition they chose Harnassing Ruin from album of the same title. Delight in playing music was visible in the faces of these guys from New York, but I am pretty sure that no one than me has seen it, because really everyone of the round about 200 guests was busy with headbanging and as well the support-bands were watching the show in front of stage.

A successful evening with brutal music for every favour and a great location as usually :) Nevertheless I ask myself why there were not more people around – they really missed something out! Maybe they were still on Ester egg hunt...? ;)

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