Live review: Fight The Fight and The Invict at Little Devil, Tilburg, The Netherlands, September 5th, 2019

On September the 5th I was, again, in Tilburg’s Little Devil. Tonight’s headliner is the Norwegian metalcore band Fight The Fight and it is up to the death metallers of The Invict, coming from The Netherlands, to kick off this evening.

As soon as The Invict kicked off their set two things are standing out especially: Tim Driessen’s drumming and Bas Peters van Nijenhof’s guitar work. Tim drums like a beast, sometimes it even sounds like there are two drummers present, especially during the end of their closing track when he fires his last powerful drum salvo for this evening. On the other hand are Bas’ guitars that sound almost atmospheric, which gives a very special and nice combination together with the very heavy pounding pace of the rest of The Invict’s music. This combination sounds special and nice, but it also sounds a bit confusing and chaotic, something that’s also intensified by tonight’s lightshow. Due to this confusing and chaotic effect it needs a bit of getting used to. However, as soon as you get it, you know that The Invict is delivering a very nice show. Unfortunately, it’s not very busy tonight and the people that are present mainly don’t seem like they are going to get completely crazy, except for a few headbangers in the front. Frontman Teun van den Boom, who brought his raw vocals in a very powerful way, thanks these headbangers by promising them a free EP.

Then it’s time for the Norwegians of Fight The Fight. Just as on their self-titled debut they start with their self-titled track. This is a perfect opener of the album, as well as a perfect live-opener. Unfortunately at first it seems that there are even less people watching the show compared to The Invict’s show. However, later on during their show some people probably became curious or convinced by Fight The Fight, resulting in a bit more people watching the show. This isn’t very strange, because there’s a lot of energy coming from the stage. Fight The Fight delivers, just as The Invict, a very powerful show. Fight The Fight does this in a bit more straightforward way though, which is also a little bit easier to follow while headbanging on it. Especially frontman Lars Vegas delivers a very strong show, vocally as well as performance-wise. Vocally especially his raw screams and growls sounds very abrasive. Performance-wise he puts on a very powerful show due to his poses and the way he looks out of his eyes, especially during the start of Deliverance, one of the new tracks that Fight The Fight is playing this show, when he only shows the white parts of his eyes, gets his, quite large, tongue out of his mouth and moves like he’s possessed. Guitarist Amok’s show is a bit less strong. Maybe he enjoyed the Dutch weed, which he said he liked, a bit too much, maybe not, but his focus and timing seems to be lacking for a bit on some moments. Sometimes he is a bit late with his backing vocals while on other moments he needs some help from fellow guitarist Lord. On the other side he also has moments that it all seems to go very well, like during his solo in Fight The Fight’s closing track. He’s also the one, together with Lord, who takes most care of the fun on stage, something that’s present very clearly. When Fight The Fight played the last notes of their closing track, Lord ends their show with playing the intro of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck that gets both band and audience shouting “nanana… Tilburg!”

Both The Invict and Fight The Fight played a very nice and powerful show this evening, while there was quite a difference between the music of both bands, but that of course doesn’t have to be a problem. Fight The Fight as well as The Invict are both bands that are worth checking out live and, to be honest, both bands deserve more audience than there was tonight.

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The Invict Facebook
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