Live review: Decapitated, Beyond Creation, Ingested, Lorna Shore and Viscera at Doornroosje, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, March 11th, 2020

On Wednesday March the 11th the Faces of Death tour landed in Doornroosje, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Headliner of that tour is Decapitated and they brought four supports with them: Beyond Creation, Ingested, Lorna Shore and Viscera. So, this can’t be anything but a very brutal evening!

There are already quite a lot of people inside the venue to check out the first band of this evening, Viscera. This is just Viscera’s sixth show, it’s their first tour, but that isn’t something that is noticeable in this brutal show. Viscera’s band members, for as far as I could find with the only exception being guitarist Adam Bell, already have quite some experience in other bands, something that of course helps. They all execute their job very tightly and are well attuned to each other. Frontman Jamie Graham leads all this, as a true frontman. His vocals, which include screams, grunts as well as clean vocals, sound very powerful and, when looking at the stage, this power only gets strengthened due to his posture as well as the poses he delivers his vocals with. As you can read in my, here readable, review of Viscera’s recently released debut album Obsidian, a specific part of Alex Micklewright’s drums, the cymbals, to me sounded a bit monotonous but still quite loudly mixed. Live this is much less noticeable. Bass player David Archer didn’t come with Viscera on this tour, because of him becoming a dad recently and wanting to be with his family because of that, while taking no risk with the corona virus circumstances, as guitarist Adam Bell explained in the interview I had with him and frontman Jamie Graham after Viscera’s show, which you can read here. That there is a lot of energy coming off of Viscera’s show can also be noticed by the fact that there already is the first circle pit of this evening.

As I just mentioned I had an interview with Viscera’s guitarist Adam Bell and frontman Jamie Graham after their show. Due to that I didn’t see that much of the show that followed, which was Lorna Shore’s. However, I did saw the latest song of their set, be it in the back of the venue which was already quite crowded, so I didn’t have a very good sight on what was happening on stage. The brutality of their show, combined with its somewhat symphonic sound, could still be experienced very well there though. It sounded really nice, with Monument of a Memory’s Will Ramos, who temporary fills in Lorna Shore’s vocal spot for this tour after they splitted with CJ McCreery, standing out very nicely.

Next it’s up to Ingested. These slammers also know how to deliver a very brutal show. Compared to Viscera and, at least as far as I saw, Lorna Shore, Ingested shows less variation in their show, but that definitely doesn’t make their show less strong. There is a huge wall of sound coming off of this show, with the filthy vocals by frontman Jason Evans, combined with the brutal vocals of guitarists Sean Hynes and Sam Yates, sounding the most impressive. With that huge wall of sound there also is a lot of energy coming off of the stage and because of that a lot of heads are going up and down, while there again is a big moshpit going on.

The show that follows, by Beyond Creation, brings a lot more variation. There are many complex, proggy rhythms and lengthier instrumental parts to be found in Beyond Creation’s set. While this contrast takes a few moments to get used to, Beyond Creation delivers a very strong show for sure, that doesn’t only include complex, proggy rhythms and lengthier instrumental parts, but a lot more: Hugo Doyon-Karout’s fretless bass sounds very nice, we’ll hear quite a lot of high quality technical guitars by frontman Simon Girard and Kevin Chartré, just as a few solos and there is the quite complex, but very tight drumming by Philippe Boucher, this all while Beyond Creation also knows how to pound heavily. The only point of criticism is that the clean vocals by Simon Girard and Kevin Chartré are on a very low volume, in contrast to Simon Girard’s other vocals.

After that show it’s time for tonight’s headliner Decapitated, the only band that I already saw perform live once before this evening. That was when they played on the FortaRock festival last year, of which you can read my live review here. Back then they delivered a very crushing show and due to that I was really looking forward to seeing them perform live again. Tonight they again delivered a very crushing show, what an immense power this band has! The fact that there again is a constant, huge moshpit going on, that only seems to grow during this show, isn’t weird at all, due to the enormous power that’s coming off of this show. In addition to that there also are a lot of heads going up and down during this neckbreaking show. Frontman Rafal “Rasta” Piotrowski’s vocals are sounding so intense and deep that they can almost literally be felt in your bones. This show, that already is very intense and crushing musically, becomes even more intense and crushing due to the accompanying very well-fitting, chaotic lightshow. I already experienced it during their show at FortaRock and now I experienced it again: a Decapitated show isn’t just a show, but an experience that is difficult to completely capture in words, but can only be explained completely by undergoing it yourself. They are definitely showing why they are this tour’s headliner here.

It promised to be a very brutal evening and that for sure was what this evening was!

Here you can also read an earlier interview we had with Beyond Creation’s Simon Girard.

Decapitated Official Website
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Beyond Creation Official Website
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Ingested Official Website
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Lorna Shore Facebook
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