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The Dutch Pre Mortem has played before as a support
act of Death this summer and may do so on this tour. The technical
death-metal of these five guys is been received very halfhearted.
The band hardly had a soundcheck and that isn't for the good of
the performance. Their music, with long instrumental passages and
many breaks isn't very friendly for the audience.The bad sound and
bad monitoring are making things worse for the difficult riffs and
breaks in songs as "Post Human Exibition", "Blurred Expiry" and
"Sombred Subsistance". Thanks to the sensational control of their
instruments and a healty kind of self-criticism the respons is good
at last. The gig is closed with the Golden Earring cover "When The
Lady Smiles", well played but unnecassery after the so well convincing
played own material.
I have never seen a band fight
for recognition so hard as the renewed Benediction.
In a musical way considering there weren't that many changes but
with three shaved heads in the line-up the recognation stays out
for a large part of the audience. Dave Ingrams succesor Dave Hunt
presented himself very well to the audience, had a powerful radiation
and didn't sing that bad also, but optically there's something missing
with this British death-metal band. Due to a temporary maternity
leave of bass player Frank Healy, only the two guitarists Darren
and Rewy were present. The two were playing very heavy, but their
attempts were nullified by the dazed "where-the-hell-am-I-look"
of the substitute bass player and again the technical problems,
that seem to be inevitable with Benediction also. They played some
old stuff, but as I see the joy they have, in particular Darren
and Rewy, with the sreamy background vocals on the recent songs
as "Magnificant", "Agonised" and "Shadow World", I realize the "The
Grand Leveller" days are gone forgood. I'm curious wether Benediction
will survive in this way.
The performance of Death
goes way beyond my wildest dreams and expectations.The band fires
with "Suicide Machine" and "Zero Tolerance" some heavy death-metal
"hits" at the audience right away, sounding a hell of a lot better
than the two support-acts. In the following 90 minutes all well
known Death classics pass by like: "Symbolic", "Within The Mind",
"Trapped In A Corner", "Empty Words" and "1.000 Eyes". With "Spirit
Crusher" and the beautiful "Flesh And The Power It Holds" The Sound
Of Perseverance gets introduced.
Even the die-hard fans of the
old days are served with "Zombie Ritual" and "Pull The Plug" (the
encore). The guys are far more selfsecured than at Dynamo Open Air
(festival in The Netherlands/YK) last spring although Chuck, Shannon
and Scott seem to find their technical performance still far more
important than giving away a smashing show.
Halfway the gig there are some
problems with Chucks guitar. The gap is filled in with brilliant
played spontanious solos by Shannon and Richard. On the 25th there's
another Death gig in The Netherlands and one should not miss the
opportunity to see them!
P.S. The day after the gig
we heard that during Deaths show one of the visitors died. The man
had a cardiac arrest. The Noorderligt-personel tried to reanimate
him but did not succeed. This tragedy threw a large shadow on this
great show. Our regards go out to his family.
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