Live review: Hate, Beheaded, Storm Upon The Masses at Little Devil, Tilburg, The Netherlands, August 17th, 2019

Friday’s shows by Oceans of Slumber and The Devil’s Trade, of which you can read my live review here, were quite calm compared to the bands that are entering the stage of Little Devil tonight. Tonight’s headliner is Hate and they brought Beheaded and Storm Upon The Masses as supports.

It’s up to Storm Upon The Masses to kick off this evening around nine o’clock. Once inside the venue guitarists Jurgen Hondshoven and Sandro Di Cairano, bass player Tom Swinnen and vocalist Brecht Putteneers are standing very close to each other before drummer Arnau Martí on the very small stage, today being extra small because the amps being on the stage instead of besides it. Drummer Arnau Martí from Noctem? Yes, he especially came over from Spain to drum this show with Storm Upon The Masses. He sure knows how to deliver some very powerful drums and he does a great job for sure. That he never played with Storm Upon The Masses before definitely isn’t something you’ll notice during this show. Due to his drums, as well as due to the guitars and bass Storm Upon The Masses creates an constant wall of sound that sometimes sounds quite chaotic, in a good way. On top of that vocalist Brecht convincingly spits his brutal vocals over the audience. At some moments it seems that there’s a bit of a squeaking sound coming from the speakers. To be honest, I don’t know whether that’s intentional or not, it looks like it’s coming from the fingers sliding over the guitar strings. Whether it’s intentional or not, it surely gives an extra filthy effect, which is very fitting to this show. During this first show it’s not very busy, but the present audience is quite enthusiastic.

It became quite a bit busier when Beheaded is about to start their show, something they do in a very tight way. However, their show is a bit more straightforward than Storm Upon The Masses’ show, which makes Beheaded’s show a bit easier to go crazy on. So, that’s something that is actually happening. Many people are headbanging and a moshpit also rises. Beheaded delivers a very powerful show that pounds really heavily and it seems that it also makes the audience unleash their power. On stage vocalist Frank Calleja is showing the most of that power, by his very powerful vocals as well as his powerful attitude and performance. Just as Storm Upon The Masses’ session-drummer Arnau Martí, Beheaded’s Davide ‘BrutalDave’ Billia is also drumming like a beast. Guitarists Omar Grech and Simone Brigo are playing their guitars very tight and they both also deliver some very nice solo’s in this bulldozering show.

Where Beheaded’s show overtopped the show of Storm Upon The Masses, the show by tonight’s headliner, Hate, is in turn overtopping Beheaded’s show. The power coming off of Hate’s show is immense, something that’s also passing onto the audience in an even more extreme way than before. Even more heads are getting up and down and the mosphit is bigger and more constantly present. The very heavily pounding drums of Pavulon are surely contributing to this immense power. Hate also shows a bit more black metal influences compared to the other two bands, in terms of appearance by their corpse paint, the skulls at both sides of the stage, as well as musically, by those same drums and the at some moments atmospheric sounding guitars of Sinner and Domin. Besides that vocalist/guitarist Sinner and guitarist Domin also play some nice solo’s. Hate clearly shows why they are tonight’s headliner with this very powerful show that’s headliner-worthy for sure.

This was a very powerful evening you wouldn’t want to miss if you’re a fan of bulldozing drums, vocals that go through marrow and bone and a constant wall of sounds. A very nice evening for sure!

Here you can read our review of Storm Upon The Masses’ The Ones Who Came Back.

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