It’s Saturday January 27th and I am on an early train. In an hour and 30 minutes I will get to what will be my destination for a while today, which will be Lucky in Rijssen. Luckily Lucky is only a few minutes’ walk from the train station. Once inside I see that this venue is a lot bigger than it seems to be from the outside. A big wardrobe, a pretty big hall, a pub with a stage, a mainstage, a snackbar and a disco (I’ll talk about this later). A great place for a long day full of metal!
One hour after the doors opened, the first band of today starts playing. This opening band is the, since 2015 resurrected, Dutch band Dead End. With their death/doom metal they deliver a strong show to the already present audience. Especially the extremely deep grunts of vocalist Bryan Boorsma are very intense and perfectly fit the heavy death/doom the other band members play. Dead End also shows that they are very attuned to one another. An example of this is when the backing vocals of guitarist Jeroen Gijsbers didn’t come through, bassist Alwin noticed this and took care of it. A nice opener for today.
The second band is Misanthropia. They are the first band to climb the mainstage. Misanthropia plays black metal, but they do give it their own touch for sure. Something that is very present in their music is the guitar and we even got quite a few solo’s. Misanthropia also has a lot of rhythm changes in their music, which makes it far from boring. In my opinion some of their tracks ended a bit abruptly as well as their set. Vocalist/guitarist Bram Koller also said the set ended quite abruptly, but the reason for this was that time was up.
After Misanthropia it was time to go back to the pub section of Lucky where the show from stomping death metallers The Lucifer Principle just started. These guys played a very tight, heavy set with a huge load of energy. The energy kept coming from the stage. The center of this energy on stage is frontman Earik. Besides a huge dose of energy, he also has quite a dose of charisma and humor which he uses for a lot of interaction with the audience. Besides this humor it is nice to see that everyone in the band has a lot of fun during this show.
After this set full of energy and humor it is time for the second band on the mainstage. It is time for the death metallers from Brazil, Rebaelliun. Their death metal is death metal in an extremely heavy, ramming way. The performance of this band is very static, but this is logic because of all three band members also have an instrument to play with besides two of them also doing vocals (the other being drummer). Musically Rebaelliun crushes your bones. They delivered a good set for sure, but this wasn’t my kind of music.
After a quick break to eat something, I quickly went to Lucky’s pub because Altar was about to unleash their set. Now, the venue was getting more crowded and the audience was about to receive the next big dose of energy from a death metal band in the pub. The band shows to have a lot of fun during their gig and Janneke de Rooy shows she is a great frontwoman for Altar. She gives a very powerful set with her enormous ability to grunt but also with her interaction with the audience. The band changed their positions a few times, but because of the stage being pretty small, it sometimes seemed to be a bit uncomfortable. However, this didn’t harm their musical performance.
The next three bands are the bands that performed in Iduna, Drachten one day earlier and in 013, Tilburg at January 10th. These three bands, Schammasch, Trepaneringsritualen and Batushka are on tour together and this is their last Dutch show of that tour. First it is time for Schammasch. Once arrived again at the mainstage, the air is already filled with a lot of incense. The stage is completely decorated with a lot of candles, skulls and other occult decorations. The music these Swiss play is mostly a slow, mesmerizing kind of black metal, but it also has its faster parts. Vocal-wise Schammasch mixes Gregorian-like vocals with black metal screams. Due to the fact that the vocalist is wearing a black mask in combination with the lightshow, it looks like he has no face. This gives an extra mysterious touch to their set.
Trepaneringsritualen is next on the schedule and music-wise this performance is probably the most unique from all other bands today. Looking at the stage through the air full of incense one person is on stage wearing a bag over his head. On one side besides him is a little mixing panel, on the other side a small table with a skull, some candles and the sticks of incense on it. The person standing there is Göta Länder, the sole member of Trepaneringsritualen. Musically Trepaneringsritualen can be described as a mix of industrial and ambient with very intense vocals. This for sure isn’t just a performance to watch, this is an intense experience. After I saw a Trepaneringsritualen show on YouTube, I immediately knew that I had to experience this. I was already looking forward to this moment for quite some time. From the moment Trepaneringsritualen started the set the intense, almost hypnotic music immediately gets you in some sort of trance. This is intense, ritualistic and misanthropic. Apparently, there were only a few people who could appreciate this show, because when the set was finished there were only a few people left. At one moment Göta dropped his microphone, stepped from the stage and walked away through the venue. This abrupt ending of the show perfectly fitted this intense performance.
Still in trance of the perfect performance by Trepaneringsritualen I walk towards the mainstage where Batushka is about to start their set. Just as with the set Schammasch played, Batushka also got a really well-thought and well-decorated stage. Batushka delivered black metal with the logic screams but also, again, the more rarely Gregorian vocals. Batushka also got a three-way choir on stage which gives an extra dimension to the vocals.
After Batushka, Heretic is taking care of the next show in the pub and they deliver quite a good show. With their extremely energetic horrorpunk show full of groove the band went full-speed. Besides the band, the audience is also going crazy. There are some crowd surfers, but there also is a gigantic moshpit. Unfortunately, there are also some people who don’t know how to behave in a moshpit. Because of this it isn’t that much fun for everyone. Of course, this isn’t because of Heretic. They deliver a great, perfect show.
After Heretic it is time for the last band at the mainstage for Lucky Rocks Metalfest. This band isn’t just a band, it is the legendary death metal band Pestilence with a special old school set. They deliver the soundtrack for the battlefield in front of the mainstage for the last time today. With their tight, energetic show they do this in a pretty great way and they crush you for one more time. Pestilence shows why they are the closing the mainstage and why they are the legendary band they are.
The last band of today is Distillator, but unfortunately, I had to miss them, because otherwise I wouldn’t get home.
A very successful edition of Lucky Rocks Metalfest!
However, it was a bit weird that at the end of the night when leaving the mainstage and walking into the hall, the local youth was also there going to the earlier mentioned disco.
Photos by Tim van Velthuysen
Read our preview about Veghel Blackfest with Misanthropia included in its lineup here. We also reviewed Rebaelliun’s The Hell’s Decrees here and Batushka’s Litourgiya here.
Read our Promoting Bands-part which included Trepaneringsritualen here.
Pestilence Official Website
Pestilence Facebook
Heretic Official Website
Heretic Facebook
Batushka Official Website
Batushka Facebook
Trepaneringsritualen Official Website
Trepaneringsritualen Facebook
Schammasch Official Website
Schammasch Facebook
Altar Official Website
Altar Facebook
Rebaelliun Official Website
Rebaelliun Facebook
Rebaelliun Twitter
The Lucifer Principle Official Website
The Lucifer Principle Facebook
Misanthropia Official Website
Misanthropia Facebook
Dead End Facebook
Hi!
I’m Tim van Velthuysen and I started DutchMetalManiac back in 2014. I’m 29 years old and I live in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Of course, I like metal, but I can also appreciate other musical styles.
In addition to DutchMetalManiac I also have a personal website on which I’ll post various things that won’t fit on DutchMetalManiac, but might be interesting for you as well. It’s in Dutch though.
[…] which was last year at Lucky Rocks Metalfest III. You can read my live review of that festival here. Before the show in Tilburg I sat down with Trepaneringsritualen’s Thomas Ekelund for an […]