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'In Death We Trust'-festival, praiseworthy and mournful at
the same time. Praiseworthy because the 'death metal command
Rhein-Neckar' planned this festival to raise funds for Chuck
Schuldiner, to help finance his cancer therapy. Mournful though
because the help came too late, he died December last year.
Yet the money will help the Schuldiner family to pay some
of their bills. Five raw bands, who just got their travelling
costs payed, reported themselves. No wonder there was an old
ambulance in parking lot of the former House of Youth in Ludwigshafen,
which was converted by means of black paint into a real death
metal monster. |
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The
fist band STIGMATIZED
from Cochem, climed the stage. They were the replacement for
the initially planned Violation. After the intro -Carl Orff's
'Carmina Burana'- died out, Stigmatized showed themselves
to be skilled musicians, who presented their technical death/thrash
very well. Besides they showed over and over they're certainly
influenced by Death. As conclusion to the show they played
two Death pieces, 'Leprosy' and 'Genetic Reconstruction'. |
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With
FRAGMENTS OF UNBECOMING
the spin-off of the local cracks Veneral Disease followed,
who also offered very appealing melodic death metal. They
played fast without getting sloppy. Which was unthinkable
anyway because they showed off strong, well thought out guitarparts.
Obviously the band felt obliged to At The Gates and Dissection,
from whom they played the covers 'Blinded by Fear' and 'Nights
Blood'. |
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HARMONY
DIES, specially flown in from Berlin, sent their
singer, Christoph Carl, with a monster mask on stage for the
first songlines. Although a grin could not be surpressed there
was no denying that Harmony Dies is a very professional band.
All band members got to the front of the stage right away,
throwing themselves into the vents. As a result causing already
from the first song a substantial mosh-pit, and it soon showed
that you only need three submissive friends to surf the crowd.
Harmony Dies played a convincing show and ended with the Chuck-tribute-cover
song 'Defensive Personalities'. |
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Then
the sound system was turned up and some more lights were
put into position. Although it must be said that all bands
at this festival played under the same, very good, conditions.
Only with the two main acts just a little more was added.
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OBSCENITY
knew how to take advantage of it. They fully played out their
experience from their six studio albums and the matching gigs.
They let their double-flying-V-squadron scream over the stage,
played tight and soon proved to be the grooviest band of the
evening. Unfortunately the crowd already seemed to be a bit
tired, because only in the frist few rows there was some physical
metal activity. Yet the Oldenburgers came back for an encore. |
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The
Dutch HOUWITSER turned
up in Ludwigshafen when the first act was already on stage,
so they couldn't do a soundcheck. Therefore rebuilding the
stage took forever. During the gig the band had huge technical
problems, and no one tried to shorten the long intermissions.
It was not very professional. They'd better start throwing
their frustrations into their stage act, Houwitser came across
as very boring and compared to the other bands they were definitely
the weakest. Yet the fans enjoyed themselves and were very
occupied with crowd surfing. In the light of the current world
politics it can be questioned whether their military outfit
was a good idea. The Houwitser set was a disappointment, so
it wasn't too bad they could only play for half an hour because
of the venue's closing time. |
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Yet
the last set can't cloud the 'In Death We Trust'-festival
at which the fans peacefully remembered Chuck for over 5
hours and hopefully gathered a considerable amount of money
for Chuck's family.
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