Graveland Festival is the place to be if you’re into (underground) death and black metal. This year’s headliners are well worth the 99 euro for a two-day festival. This years’ line-up includes Tiamat, Carcass, Dool, Necrophobic, Tsjuder and Wolves in the Throne Room, besides of course a lot of other bands and even some local legends. Jose was there for us to take some pictures and give us his impression of the festival.
The nice thing about Graveland is that it has only one stage, so you don’t have to choose which bands you want to see. That means that there are bound to be some bands that you’ve never heard of before, but make some pretty interesting music.
Deadspeak
Deadspeak describe themselves as Filthy guitars, rotting low end, pounding riffs, and atmospheric interludes. They make nasty death-metal, which is heard on their latest release ‘Tidal Disruption’. They had the honor to open for Graveland this edition, and the sure made the most of it! Their debut album will drop later this year, and they made sure we are excited for that.
More pictures below.
Deathless Void
Soul-shattering grimy black-metal…those words describe Deathless Void perfectly. Operating more in the black-metal underground, Deathless Void stepped out onto the big stage today to deliver a killer performance during Graveland Festival. The squeals from their vocalist made the hairs on our arms stand straight up, and the fire made sure we could feel a least a little bit of heat, since the weather still wasn’t great.
More pictures below.
After some metal, it’s time for food and drinks. Besides the usual stuff Graveland has some good meat too. We need that with weather like this. It’s a bit hard to find a place to actually eat the food, since it’s been raining a lot all day. After a well-deserved food break a some rest in the tent, we’re back to the festival site for some more metal.
Dool
Dool is an interesting band. Mixing dark vibes with gothic and progressive metal, we’re not sure how to label this band. And maybe we shouldn’t, with their latest album titled ‘Shape of Fluidity’. Being one of the Netherlands most well-known acts, their versatility means that they fit in well on a variety of stages.
They definitely fit the Graveland stage, as they play a very well-balanced set with plenty of crowd-pleasing songs.
Aum Zorion plays instrumental post-metal. That means dreamy riffs, droning, dragging guitar parts, and tracks that seem to consist of endless variations on the same riff. It’s the perfect music to get lost in, to close your eyes and drift away in a lucid dream. Hints of black- and progressive influences jolt you back to reality.
Aum Zorion
Aum Zorion is best enjoyed as a whole, with all the tracks forming one big story. With each track over 7 minutes, you know you’re in for drawn-out riffs and droney beats. The self-titled album starts with the track Hamburg, with the slow intro a perfect opener to this album. The dreamy parts don’t last though; it gets pretty heavy later on in the track. The track ends in an epic crescendo.
Animism picks up where Hamburg left off, with more heaviness and tempo. The tempo change after the first riff feels a bit disjointed to me, however. The second part of the track has some doom-inspired, droney riffs. The third part to the track goes on with a similar riff, but in a ¾th beat, changing the feel and building intensity again. And while this works really well as an instrumental track, I can hear the vocal melodies in my head and I wonder what it would sound like with a good vocalist. At the end of the track, we get a groovy riff, driven by the drums. The track again ends in an epic crescendo.
Zerura
Zerura starts of with a middle-eastern inspired riff and some samples. The main melody is one of the better ones on the album. The moment the drums kick in is quite unexpected, but don’t be fooled, this isn’t heavier than anything else on the album. Well, until you get to the end of the track, really. There are some pretty groovy parts leading up to it, but there is definitely some violence in this track.
Hauer starts with an almost alien guitar sound, bringing back the late 90’s vibe. The song starts off quieter than the rest of the tracks, feeling even more like a ballad. No need for vocals on this track, the guitar tells the story.
The album ends with Geoid. The guitarist’ pedalboard is filled with weird guitar effects it seems, since we start with yet another completely different guitar sound. More doom with this track again. It takes over 11 minutes, so that figures. Not my favorite track, because Doom really isn’t my thing. Too much drone, and even though there are some nice parts, it doesn’t move me as much as the previous tracks did.
Final Thoughts
Aum Zorion plays the type of music that I can listen to all day. It works as background music to drone out my thoughts. At the same time, it’s the type of music you listen to with your eyes closed, feeling all the feels. I got emotional during their live performance in de Flux, Zaandam, and I stil get emotional listening to the album. As we finished this review, we learned that Aum Zorion has parted ways with their bass player. If you dig this type of music and think you’re up for the task, reach out to the band and fill the void. We would love to see this band on stage again.
ENMA is back with a new track, after releasing their debut album Apathy Awakened at the end of 2022. ENMA plays grungy progressive metal, with of course intricated guitar and bass lines and vocal harmonies. Check out their latest track ‘Enchantress’ on Spotify.
Heavy hitting instrumentals, catchy hooks and vocal harmonies – a fusion of subgenres best summarized simply as “Heavy Metal” 🤟🏼
Burning is a heavy metal band from the Northern Netherlands. Founded in 2013, the band consists of founding members Hugo Koch (vocals) and Renee Knegt (guitar), with Harm ten Hoove (guitar), Daan van de Craats (bass) and Mas Prevoo (drums) completing the line-up. Burning has shared the stage with legendary artists like Diamond Head, Uli Jon Roth, O.D. Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang, Vicious Rumors, Holocaust and Picture.
Welkom bij de tiplijst van deze week. Ook in de afgelopen periode waren er weer heel veel nieuwe releases. Zo veel zelfs, dat het ook deze keer niet in EEN playlist past. Dus volgende week zijn we er ook gewoon weer. In deze editie nieuwe muziek van Another Now, die niet alleen op Jera on Air staan maar ook in het voorprogramma van Machine Head. En Deadspeak, die afgelopen weekend Graveland festival mocht openen. Check de tiplijst op Youtube of Mixloud, en tot volgende week!
Tracklist: Resurrect Tomorrow – The Eagle Loyalty Ends Here – Darkest Red Nafearya – Asylum Can Abyss – That Lighthouse Bigmoth – Hazebound Deadspeak – Tidal Disruption Maatkare – War Before Peace The Color Of Rain – And The Abyss Stared Back Another Now – Daydreamers Armed Cloud – Safety Word The Infamous Nameless – Realm of the Fallen
Another Now is a different player in the Dutch metalcore field and in the metalcore field in general. The band released their first album ‘OMNI’ in 2021, which landed them gigs with Asking Alexandria, Beartooth and Ice Nine Kills. Now, the band is back with their second full-length, ‘HEX’. Of course, we had to review it. Also this year, they are playing one of the biggest core festivals in the Benelux, Jera on Air, alongside Electric Callboy and Enter Shikari. And right before this review aird, we learned that they will be opening for Machine Head! Who is this band?
Another Now
Another Now is a metalcore band from Eindhoven. There must be something in the water in Eindhoven, ‘cause it seems every gem in the Dutch metal scene seems to emerge there. Another Now is definitely one of them. This band blends metalcore with electronic influences in the style of I Prevail and Crystal Lake. I’d rather label them electroniccore or trancecore because of that. They’ve been around since 2018 and released their first full-length in 2021. They have been teasing their latest release ‘HEX’ with the release of the singles Would it Kill You, Breathe, Smile and Doubt. The album, HEX, is 45 minutes of club-style metalcore, metal enough to get our heads banging, core enough to get in your crowdkills, and club enough to start jumping.
HEX
HEX feels like the soundtrack to a game, but Another Now really isn’t playing. The lyrics are dark, talking about daily struggles. There are a couple of interlude tracks in between a number of stand-alone songs, to tie them together. The album opens with _VISIONS which, like everything on the album, is heavy on electronic influences. After a soft intro, we get all the elements that are featured on the album, from heavy breakdowns, tight drumlines, deep grunts, melodic vocal lines, and heavy emotions to piggy squeals.
_VISIONS is the opening track, but it’s actually a prelude for DAYDREAMERS, the first real track of the album. After a short synth line, we dive headfirst into the heavy grunts and riffs. All the elements from _VISIONS are present in this track as well. The soft vocals in the pre-chorus parts fit the dream theme well, but the heavy breaks right after are a rude awakening.
DOUBT turns up the intensity to eleven right from the start. It’s also a more groovy track, with a really catchy pre-chorus. I can see some bouncing action during a live show happening there. This track is maybe a bit more mainstream metalcore, at least the chorus is. Another Now show off their versatility with deep grunts and melodic vocal parts really well on this track.
just BREATHE
BREATHE is my favorite track of the album, and it has been since its release earlier this year. BREATHE is heavy on the electronics, and the samples and synths really add to the heavy party feel on this track. The chorus on this track has one of the best hooks on the album, and the toned-down chorus after the break is a really nice change of pace and another example of Another Now’s qualities.
Onto the title track of the album, HEX. Another track that has been released prior to the album. After BREATHE, HEX feels a bit chaotic, and even a bit towards deathcore in some aspects. There are plenty of squeals, and the tempo goes through the roof on this track. The breakdown at the end is one of the best on this album as well.
WOULD IT KILL YOU starts off with a synth line that seems to have been borrowed from the Mass Effect soundtrack. It doesn’t take long for the song to kick in after that, though. Another heavy track, similar to HEX, but with a commercial chorus like BREATHE again. A track like this will do well in a club as well, I imagine. DRIP is similar in that aspect, and it has some hip-hop influences as well. The groove in the verse is hard, but the chorus lets us know we’re still listening to the same album. This is a quieter song, even though there are enough breakdowns, this track would qualify as the ‘ballad’ of the album.
And after a ballad, of course, is a happy song to lift us up again. SORRY definitely begins like that. This track has one of the strongest choruses of the album, and I imagine this being one of the favorite tracks for a lot of people because of it. For me personally, though it’s groovy, the verses feel a little too empty to me.
Smile Back
SMILE! is another hard track, which fits the lyrics. With lines like “Death smiles at us, all we can do is smile back” it makes you wonder about the inspiration for this track. THE DEATH OF EVERYTHING features almost Polyphia-like dreamy guitars in the soft break in the middle, only to kick right back into heavy metalcore again. Again, a very catchy chorus; it seems to be a standard on this album.
Just when you thought we’ve had the ballad with SORRY, we get to MIRAGE, which is even slower, more emotional, and has heavy lyrics like ‘we’re just a mirage of, what we used to be’. It’s more an electronic vibe than a metalcore song, however, the reprise of the track at the end still brings all the vibes. The perfect lead for the final track of the album, another banger, HORIZONS_. Even though I haven’t read all the lyrics for this album, it feels like HORIZIONS_ completes a story. Not just because of the closing underscore that _VISIONS opened with; the song itself feels like the completion of a story.
Final Thoughts
HEX is a solid and coherent album, that feels like one big trip. My favorite track of the album, and has been since its release, is BREATHE. But there are plenty of other bangers on this album. And even the two tracks that are a bit more on the softer side won’t let you down. It is, however, a very unique niche of metalcore, and probably not just in the Netherlands. It might speak to a broader audience, but the people who dislike the crossover genres will probably have a hard time getting into this album. However, Another Now might be a gateway metal band for people who still don’t know if metal is something they’d enjoy. Just listen to BREATHE, and you probably will for sure.
On May 18th, Loyalty Ends Here presented their debut EP ‘Darkest Red’ during an epic party with Crazed, None Shall Fall, Man As Plague and Changing Tides. We made a video to show you what you missed out on. Make sure to give these guys a follow, and have you checked out their EP yet? We did!
The Eagle has landed! Literally, on May 17th, when the latest album from Resurrect Tomorrow took wings on Spotify. After the singles The Light of Treason and Absolution, the full album is finally online, and of course, we had to give it a listen.
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