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Having been active for a number of years it was finally time to present Vidarr to the world with the release of their debut EP. Every reason to throw a party at the Hedon in Zwolle. And when you throw a party, you invite friends over. Ruben Baar was there to see the guys from Menschwalch, Man as Plague, and Vidarr celebrate.
Walking into the venue smoke is already pouring out of the door to the concert hall. This will be our portal to an evening full of stomping, heavy-hitting metal. The room gradually fills up with about a hundred people and we are off to the races.
Menschenwalsch
Menschwalsch, who funnily enough published their debut album through Vidar Records, no further relation, gets to open the stage with some dry introductions and proceeds to blast our socks off with a mean drum intro. What follows is 45 minutes of grindcore with apparently Dutch lyrics, but I don’t speak pig squeal and neither does anyone else, so that shouldn’t hamper your listening experience too much.
The instruments receive quite the beating and need to be tuned every two songs. A moment the vocalist consistently uses to joke around and make witty puns. His performance is characterized with little dances and miming, along with some exaggerated facial expressions.
During a track that supposedly had some German verses in it the guitarist’s strap breaks and he barely manages to fix it in time for a solo. The remainder of the song he has to kneel down to hold his instrument. A quick fix later we get to move on to their song ‘Botrot’ which suddenly has a groovy melody during the chorus. It sort of gets the crowd going, but most people keep clear from the stage for the entire evening.
Man as Plague
To the frustration of Man as Plague who get to follow up as second act of the evening. Their frontman is trying desperately to force some energy into the crowd to the point where he walks multiple rounds through the gathered onlookers. Unfortunately, most of the people here seem to be family and friends of Vidarr who aren’t used to spending their Saturday nights in a fogged-up tomb with a man screaming in their faces.
The band makes the best of it, playing their hardcore death metal as best they can. It is a completely different experience from how they sound on their albums. Where on the compact discs you can really hear the death metal with switching screams and growls, live it sounds more like hardcore with only one mode of vocals.
After taking a moment to wish their sound technician a happy fiftieth birthday they continue giving it their all. During their last song ‘Chronos’ the singer makes one last effort to get the crowd going and starts performing in front of the stage and pulling guys in to force a moshpit but when only one guy is eager to participate that quickly dies out.
Vidarr
Which leaves only the men of the hour, Vidarr. I last saw these guys during 2023’s Metal Battle and I was impressed by this outfit. They got the whole room going and rightly won that first round. Now they are back to present their first album: “Tormented to Rot”. Well they call it an album, but it only has five tracks on it and doesn’t even clock in a thirty minutes. So it’s more like an EP, but we’re here for it none the less.
They start out with ‘The Raid’, one of their new tracks. A song about vikings coming to pillage a town. The Norseman and Pagans are a recurring theme for this band and this is a strong start. As a geyser of smoke blasts around the vocalist he screams out to the audience announcing their presence.
This gets followed up by ‘Hel Awaits’, an older track that’s been out for a while and isn’t featured on their new album. Which makes it still unavailable on physical formats. It does a have a discernible chorus though, so we can shout along with it.
Blood Eagle
‘Blood Eagle’ is up next, a dark song about being captured in battle and executed. This is definitely more in line with their black metal influences as this track has a more droning and melodramatic feel to it.
Followed by the longest song on the new EP, ‘Traitors’, which is about hunting down a group of traitorous men. But despite it’s length, it remains a consistent track witch does not let up throughout.
That leads us to ‘Fields of Decay’, about laying in wait in the woods to ambush your enemies. Which brings the energy up again. But no-one’s been within three feet of the stage yet, nor will that happen tonight.
Eternal Suffering
The last song of Tormented to Rot is ‘Eternal Suffering’ which is the darkest song on the new release. It’s about being tortured in hell, the fiery one. Not the cold Hel from Norse mythology strangely enough.
Vidarr isn’t done yet though, because they have yet another song to play that isn’t on their new album, nor was previously released. ‘Facing the Gallows’ is a brand new song that they’ve apparently worked on since recording this CD late last year. And it’s definitely in line with the rest of the songs this evening. It seems they’re favoring the black metal influences more than the hints of melodic death metal I got from them last year. But they remain a solid band that could do really well now that they have enough material to fill a 45 minute time slot.
These guys delivered some thumping, heavy songs and with this album out for the masses they’ve definitively announced their presence to the world. Let’s hope they can get some bookings, because I can certainly see them playing Stonehenge Festival or make for a good supporting act while they continue to develop their sound. Their new record is out now through DOC-Records by mail order, or go see them live yourselves. The full record will be on Spotify soon enough, sadly the band is experiencing some delay. In the meantime, you can listen to one of their older tracks!
You can find Vidarr on Facebook or in our database.
Menschenwalsch
Man As Plague
Vidarr
Ilaender is a new alternative metal project from the East of the Netherlands. On May 3rd, they played as the opener for Grey Daze in Metropool, their second gig ever. The band also just released their debut single ‘I know nothing’. MetalFromNL was at Metropool to take photos, and we asked the band some questions about their music and their story so far.
See all pictures below the interview. Pictures and interview by Jose Ferreira.
As a new project, your artistic vision is continuously evolving. How would you describe the essence of the band’s sound, especially in terms of the emotions you aim to evoke?
When we started the band our vision was pretty clear. We all have a huge heart for the late 90’s, early 00 rock/metal period and a common love for the band ‘Deftones’. Due to that, it was pretty easy to start writing the first few ideas. But indeed, it is also a long process of getting to know each other musically and as individuals. As soon as we felt that we were all on the same page, it got easier with every song to dig deeper into our own sound too. I (Martin) prefer to write lyrics about personal topics I have dealt with in life so far. It will probably evoke a certain melancholia, a feeling of frustration but also hope. Everything you deal with inside your head and heart is worthwhile to put on a piece of paper.
What brought the band together and what inspired you to embark on this project? Was there a specific event that sparked the formation of the band?”
As said before, one of the elements was our common youth companion ‘Deftones’.
I myself come from a rather pop/rock-based band Ten Times A Million, but always had the dream to start a much rougher project. When talking to my good friend Karel (Guitars + vocals) about starting this sort of band and Michiel and Oscar (Guitars + Drums), they had the same idea independently. I didn’t really know them much by that time, but how fate miraculously works sometimes, all of them play in the band No Gods No Master where they started talking about that idea.
We met after their rehearsal randomly at our all-time favorite pub ‘Cafe Rocks’ in Enschede and that’s where it all began. We finally asked Frank (bass/Cryptosis) if he wanted to join the party and ILÆNDER was a fact.
Apart from music, are there any other artistic or conceptual elements that contribute to Ilaender’s identity? This could include visual concepts, like graphic style’s, photography, stage presence, and so on.
ILÆNDER is the last name of my grandfather. He stood for things such as integrity, family and friendship, eagerness, his passion for making music together and he was, and still is, my definition of a superhero. Everybody in the band could identify with these values easily. It’s like a code to live by. The band’s logo artwork is the engraving of a signet ring I inherited after he passed away.
In your latest single, the lyrics express: ‘Give me a chance to understand what I’ve become.’ Taking this into consideration and looking towards the future, what does Ilaender aim to become?
In simple words: we just want to play as many shows as possible and have a good time with each other. Besides that, we surely want to leave our footprints in the (heavy) music scene.
Now is the time to finish our first record and drop a few singles along the way until the record release at the end of this year. We further want to summon people around us that share the same passion of music and keep on growing with every step.
Could you talk about the creation process of the recently released single? What is the message behind the music and what was the inspiration for it?
It’s funny to me because the first idea of the song was the drum groove during the riffs, which is btw. still my favorite element of the song. With that groove, the rest of the song almost wrote itself. Everything fell in the right places naturally.
‘I Know Nothing’ is a song about not giving up, even if no one else believes in you anymore; about a new start and leaving everything behind, as hard as it might be; It’s about taking your fate into your own hands. I’m still working and fine-tuning lyrics together with my good friend and lyric-writer Jim Irvin (Nothing But Thieves etc.) After I’d sent him the first draft of a lyric, he answered this:
“…but what if the song were about someone who was once called Nothing, as in
“They said I was nothing..”?
So, I Know Nothing means, “I was this guy and came through it….”
“It’s over when I say” is therefore empowerment, not suicidal (!)
but “My nothinghood ends now…”
I loved this idea so much and used it as a guideline throughout the whole song.
Music is a beautiful and powerful art form, capable of conveying profound messages and evoking intense emotions. How do you believe metal distinguishes itself from other musical genres in terms of emotional and creative expression?
Wow, this is a deep question. To me, metal music is the element of chaos I need to stay sane in today’s life. It’s a place where you can leave and scream out your anger, frustration, panic and pain. You can easily share these moments with fellow metalheads by just screaming together and without knowing taking each other’s weights off one’s shoulders. I really don’t want to miss this in my life.
At the second concert, held at the mystical Metropool with a significant opening act and a full house once again, how does partnering with Metropool impact the band’s growth and the music scene in the Oversjisseel region?
It is always important to partner up / become friends with people who organize festivals or concerts. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small rock pub like Cafe Rocks or larger venues like Metropool, every stage is important!
We have the obligation to deliver a show that justifies their trust in giving us these unique opportunities.
But yeah, Twente is our home, and especially Metropool has a special place in our hearts. We are extremely grateful for their massive support.
Thank you so much Ilaender for your answers!
You can find the band on their socials.
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Deadly Alliance
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Deadly Alliance
nHailing from: Enschede
nGenre: thrash
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Links to other sites:
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nInstagram
nYoutube
nSpotify
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nSpotify playlist:
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Deadly Alliance
nHailing from: EnschedenGenre: thrashn
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Bio:
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Thrash from the East of the Netherlands, this is Deadly Alliance from Enschede.
Feeding the audience with the needed energy, they are bringing back the Thrash scene like it used to be.
In 2013 the Brothers Snijder started the band and they are still the main members.
Played in most of the Netherlands and also in Germany the band wants to expand their voyage.
Discography:
Deadly Alliance EP | 2013
Dehumanization CD | 29th April 2018
Into Depth EP | 31th January 2024
Members:
Ramon Van Den Bosch (Rhythm Guitar / Backing Vocals)
Arjan Snijder (Lead Guitar)
Jesse Noordhuis (Drums)
Richard Snijder (Vocals)
Max Droste (Bass Guitar)
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Upcoming Gigs
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Metal Night
10/01/2025 at Metropool Hengelo
10/01/2025 at Metropool Hengelo
Categories
MetalFromNL Tiplijst #14
Guess who’s back? Back again? Playlist’s back, tell a friend! It’s not the best podcast episode I’ve recorded, there were some mistakes as I tried to rush it (lesson learned there). However! Ten brand new songs for you all to to enjoy in this extra edition, because there were way too many releases.
Tracklist:
The Infamous Nameless – Realm of the Fallen
Sayas – There where the Light Remains
Seven Spirits Burning – Kill the messenger
Ecocide – Cloak & Dagger
Officium Triste – Behind Closed Doors
Salvage – Covenant
ENMA – Enchantress
Sietse de Krieger + Mees Stevens – Zenith
Stalk – Tenfold
Aum Zorion – Zerura
Everything Decays – The Creation: The monster that you made of me
#metal #dutchmetal #metalfromnl #deathmetal #alternative #metalcore #dutchmetalcore #deathcore #progressive #progressivemetal #hardcore #doommetal #newrelease #newmusic #newtrack #band #bands #localband #supportyourlocals #music
@theinfamousnameless @sayasmetal @seven_spirits_burning @ecocide_official @officium_triste @salvagebandofficial @enma_band @sietse.dk @aumzorion @everythingdecaysnl
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Vanaheim
nHailing from:
nGenre: epic folk
nn
Links to other sites:
nWebsite
nFacebook
nInstagram
nYoutube
nSpotify
nBandcamp
n
nSpotify playlist:
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Vanaheim
nHailing from: nGenre: epic folkn
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Bio:
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Pagan/folk metal from Dutch ground. Raging primal violence alternates with danceable, heavy and uplifting melodies. The energetic mix between epic pagan metal and the typical, catchy folk metal creeps deep under your skin, and makes you want to move whether you want it or not!
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Upcoming Gigs
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Last Friday night the metalheads from Hilversum and far away gathered for the fifth edition of Metalcafe Live in The Vorstin. MetalFromNL was there once again to report on the recurring event. This time with pictures by Nicky van der Schaaf and a write-up by Ruben Baar.
The theme of tonight is folk metal, a personal favorite of mine. So I’m very excited to see what the Dutch scene has to offer in that regard. I walk in right as tonight’s host Niels bellows out his welcoming words. The room is already packed and the crowd is rearing to go. Good thing that the first band of the evening stands ready to deliver.
Mourning Wood
When you think of folk metal, you think of bagpipes, violins, and flutes. But the guys from Mourning Wood take a different approach. Dressed in Hawaiian shirts and leis, these guys are clearly taking a page out of Alestorm’s book and are profiling themselves as a party band perhaps best suited for later in the evening rather than an opening act. Their music is somewhat chaotic and the seven members don’t always mesh well together, but they are clearly having a lot of fun.
In front of the stage, there’s immediate audience participation, a moshpit breaks out as soon as the band starts playing and it only takes three songs into the set for the singer to don a pirate hat and tell the willing crowd to start rowing. His vocals and grunting are good and lend the band a heavier sound to offset the many cheerful notes being played on the keyboard and guitars. These come to the forefront after the pirate-themed song switches over to ‘Redneck Redemption’ which has to be a play on the videogame title ‘Red Dead Redemption’. There’s a thumping chiptune beat throughout this song that never shows up again.
It’s a whirlwind of different styles and themes made all the more apparent when the set continues without the bells and whistles and the band starts playing more traditional death metal. Only to kick it back to the more silly vibes with ‘Heathen Hoorah’ which features a classic circus medley. It’s quite a thing to behold as I’m still not sure what exactly it is that saw, but the audience is eating it up and happily dancing and moshing away. To close out with the band plays an English cover of a classic Flemish children’s song ‘Dwarven Dance’ which the millennials in the crowd can definitely appreciate. I couldn’t help enjoying it myself.
Alvader
After this whirlwind of a party starter, the stage gets set for Alvader. On paper these guys have the highest pedigree in the folk metal genre, having three former Heidevolk members in their ranks including their singer. Heidevolk has always had characteristic vocals and these are present in Alvader as well.
Unfortunately this band is so poorly mixed no one can make out a word he’s saying. The vocals get completely drowned out by the other instruments, especially the drums. Which is a shame because a track like ‘Midwinternacht’ starts off strong with such fast passed and heavy drums, you’d think it’s the start of a Motörhead song, but it just devolves into a barrage of noise due to the poor sound quality.
Guitars meant to bring the folk melodies completely disappear in even their self-titled song and with what’s left of the baritone vocals we end up listening to a droning wall of sound that’s more like blackened noise metal than anything else. The crowd, presumably still on an energy high from the previous band, do try to enjoy themselves. And in such a community, who couldn’t? But with every passing song, there’s less and less movement.
Our MC Niels does push for one more song at the end and they play a cover of ‘Ostara’, which is a Heidevolk song. So the gathered folk metal fans know how it goes, so they can fill in the missing words for themselves. It serves as a strong signal that Heidevolk is still clearly the better band and to add insult to injury, as soon as the band stops playing the house music kicks in with more of their music.
Alvenrad
To close out the evening Alvenrad takes the stage. Though it seems about half the people from the start of the evening have already left the venue at this point. Had they stayed, they’d have seen an impressive handlebar mustache on the bassist and felt some heavy blast beats.
The people that are left have no quit in them, they are determined to keep that pit going all night long. Even if it doesn’t always align with what’s being played on stage. The vocals are distinguishable again, but besides the lyrics there’s not a lot of folk in this band. It feels more like melodic death metal.
Every song is about The Netherlands most well-known woodland region and we get plenty of songs off their latest album ‘Veluws Ijzer’. As well as some of their latest singles like ‘De Verborgen Beek’. What’s left of the crowd does seem to enjoy it and after a disappointing second act, it is a step up.
Despite it not really having a folk tone, the band does work together really well and delivers some pounding melodies. It could be a nice prelude to the next edition of the event on October 4th. That night the theme for Metalcafe will be melodic death metal bands from The Netherlands. When the last notes are played the room rapidly drains of people, which leaves a DJ playing requests for only a handful of people. Barely half an hour later these final stragglers are being shown to the door. Start of the evening definitely being Mourning Wood for their sheer display of insanity and though it was too bad we didn’t get to see Alvader at their best, we had a strong finish. We’ll definitely be back here in October for more metal from the Netherlands.
Want to keep updated on the Metalcafe events? Follow them on Instagram.
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.
Pictures by Jose Ferreira (@foto.morfose)
Deadspeak
Deathless Void
Dool
Releasedate: 01.06.2024
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.
Tracklisting
Hamburg
Animism
Zerura
Hauer
Geoid
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