Arriving at Debaser around eight a clock I honestly didn't expect much. The only band that I had actually listened to was Macabre and I've never really been impressed by it. I figured that I would just go to a concert, snap some pictures and go home. The evening ended a lot better than that.... Involving me biting Zach's (guitar, Cephalic Carnage) finger, and bitchslapping him around, having very serious discussions with Haikko (guitar/vocals, Brutus) and of course the always occurring mooning (why do I always get someone’s ass in my face?). I even found some snapshots and movieclips on my camera taken by the drunk members of the two bands. Weird, but in other words a very fun and very metal evening. Anyhow, let's get on with the reviews.

Brutus in action

On the info on Debaser's website it was said that the show was supposed to start at around 21.30 but due to some changes, the first band, being Brutus, started an hour early. I never really understood why, and apparently neither did they. Although the concert was sold out, not even half the people where there when Brutus entered the stage. And the people that actually where there had hardly hung off their coats and bought a beer. Also, the sound was adjusted to more people in the room (or at least so it seemed). The sound bounced of every wall and on the concrete floor, making the drums sound like shit and setting off every microphone on stage to feed back and fuck up our poor ears. As for the music, Brutus is the type of band that you have to actually listen to, preferably before you see them live, mostly because this type of music is hard to mix live, and also because there can't be much happening on stage. That's the bad part about having three vocalists that also play the three key instruments; you can't move around all that much. The good part is of course that you get that variation that most bands lack. The headbanging and the posing was of course in order, so it was still pretty intense. What also struck me was the fact that the guitar player on the left seemed to have so much fun! He pretty much smiled the concert through. Taking the edge of the evilness, but, if you're having fun, you're having fun, what can I say. All in all, considering the lame audience (that didn't move in spite of all the attempts from the band), and the poor sound-quality, I can see myself at another Brutus gig if the opportunity comes up.

It is extremely hard to capture Cephalic Carnage’s energy in a photo. All I could do was try

Moving on to Cephalic Carnage. I must say that it was the best thing I've seen in a very, very long time. The music is twisted, weird with lots of jazz influences and the band really kicked ass on stage. Everything was very humorous and intense throughout every song. The guitar on the left was very close to smashing in some heads, and that's of course very metal. The two guitarist crawled on the floor and the bassplayer screamed his background vocals in a very... eh.. convincing way. In the end the vocalist announced that they where going to play a very satanic song, and apologised for not having corpsepaint. But fortunately the had corpsepaint masks which they put on. I tried desperately to get some pictures of that, but it was so crowded in front of the stage that all I could get was peoples heads bobbing up and down. By this time Debaser was pretty much packed and people where starting to warm up a little bit. And since the performance was so energetic and intense you pretty much had to get in to the program and jump around a little yourself. I could find nothing bad with this performance. Next time they perform I am definitely going to be there.

Do you se the psychotic features in this?

As the main act entered the stage it was virtually impossible to get in the front and take any pictures. Two guys on the left side where kind enough to let me through (thankyou!). I stayed and watched for about ten minutes, and than I got really bored, so I started drinking some beer. Not even that helped. I don't understand why the vocalist had a headset. He didn't really need it since none of them actually moved more than an inch throughout the set. The audience seemed to like it though, so I'm probably going to get my ass whooped when they read this. I have (like I mentioned) never really liked macabre's music. It sounds so very thin with all those melodic (?) bits on the guitar with nothing to back it up. It's a very good concept to try to mirror a massmurderer or a psychotic serialkiller's mind but the music is not that good. And I thought that maybe the live performance would be better. And it wasn't. Although Zach told me that upclose the vocalists has a very expressive face, and almost psychotic. So be it, but unfortunately for me, I am almost a midget so the chances of me actually seeing that, would be approximately zero.

Here’s the bass player of Macabre.

The set included songs as:
Nightstalker, Fatal Foot Fetisch, Vampire of Dusseldorf, Zodiac and Diary of Torture, and many more. And of course, every song started with the vocalist telling a little story about the contents of the song.

After all the performances (when I should have been on the bus home) the party continued. Cephalic Carnage and Brutus chittchatted all the way through the night, until they had do pack all their stuff together. Me, I stayed longer than I thought, drinking more than I had planned, and almost didn't make it to work the next day. But it was worth it.

This is what alcohol does to you… I at least am slightly tipsy, sitting next to Haikko and Zach. And by the way. Zach didn’t actually touch my boob, because if he had done so, I would have slapped him silly!

Many thanks to Frank van Liempd of Petting Zoo Propaganda / Relapse Records.