Live review: Fit For An Autopsy, Venom Prison, Vulvodynia and Justice For The Damned in Willem Twee, Den Bosch, The Netherlands, May 26th, 2019

May the 26th, 2019, it is a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The sun is shining, the temperature is nice and Den Bosch is shaking. It’s shaking because of the brutal package of four bands that will be on stage in Den Bosch’ venue called Willem Twee. The headliner in that package is Fit For An Autopsy. As support acts they brought Justice For The Damned, Vulvodynia and Venom Prison on their tour.

Around half past two the doors of the venue are opening, half an hour later it is time for Justice For The Damned to kick off this brutal afternoon. During this half hour before they enter the stage people are slowly entering the venue, resulting in quite some people in the venue when Justice For The Damned starts. It isn’t packed, but it surely isn’t very quiet either, especially not at this point of time. Then Justice For The Damned enters the stage and in case you weren’t fully awake at this moment, you will be in a few moments. Justice For The Damned immediately starts pounding very heavy and by doing so the audience is already getting quite enthusiastic. The audience isn’t going completely crazy but, especially for an opening band, many people are already headbanging to their music. Something that isn’t very strange of course, because of the immense energy Justice For The Damned shows on stage, which is also passing onto the audience. However, there is one, partly, downside which are the vocals. Partly, because I don’t mean all vocals. The most important vocals however, those of vocalist Bobak, are the downside here. It seems that his voice breaks at some moments and at other moments his vocals aren’t very audible. However it can surely be seen that he gives everything he can. Guitarists Nick and Kieran and bass player Ben regularly take over his vocals or support Bobak with their vocals. Kieran doesn’t succeed in this very well, but Nick and Ben surely do succeed in this. After a few songs Bobak says something what probably is causing the aforementioned downside, he is very sick at the moment. However, he is standing on stage performing, putting everything he can in his vocals as well as going crazy as hell. Despite this downside Justice For The Damned still delivers an extremely crushing opening show in those twenty minutes they are on stage.

Around half past three it is time for the second band of this afternoon, the South-African slammers of Vulvodynia. According to the many Vulvodynia-shirts and shorts it seems that quite some people especially came to see this band and personally I also was looking forward seeing them perform. During a short soundcheck it’s a bit weird to see vocalist Duncan Bentley walk around the stage pretty relaxed. The contrast between that and the moment Vulvodynia starts their show a few moments later can’t be bigger. Right from the start he has his microphone in his hand and spreads his vicious, gory vocals in many different ways around the venue like a boss. That Vulvodynia is a band many people enjoy seeing is pretty clear as many people in the audience are going completely crazy. That can also be seen at the end of Vulvodynia’s set, when many people are hurrying to the band as soon as they stopped. This however isn’t only from audience to the band, but the band also seems to be very happy to be here. They are high-fiving the people that came towards them, but they also are interacting with the audience quite a lot during their show. Personally at first they overwhelm me a little bit with their extremely heavy pounding show full of breakdowns, but soon it becomes clear that this is a show I wouldn’t want to have missed for sure. In between all the brutal violence Vulvodynia delivers, including those breakdowns and Duncan’s very brutal vocals, guitarist Kris Xenopoulos mixes some very well-executed solos. There is only one small downside about Vulvodynia’s show and that is the bass during some intro’s, which is way too loud, something that however also seems to be partly how it’s meant.

Around 45 minutes after Vulvodynia started their set, the third band of this afternoon is already entering the stage. This band is Venom Prison, coming from Wales. They also deliver a show that’s a bit overwhelming at first. In this case that is especially due to the extreme intensity Venom Prison puts into their show. Their music is a bit more complex than the other bands of this package, especially because they use a bit more rhythm-changes and guitarists Ben and Ash who bring a bit more depth in the show while going crazy on their guitars, apart from each other. However, Venom Prison combines this with the same brutal pounding the other bands also displayed. There is one thing I didn’t mention and that is the vocals, which definitely aren’t just some vocals. Fucking hell, vocalist Larissa Stupar really spits out her vocals in an extremely phenomenal and intense way! Besides that she also shows an extreme dose of energy on stage. However that isn’t something that passes onto the audience at the beginning of their set, probably also due to the a bit more complex music of Venom Prison, compared to Vulvodynia’s slamming. A bit later the enthusiasm in the audience is growing for sure. Maybe some people needed some moments to get used to it, but it seems that in the end many people enjoyed Venom Prison’s show for sure. To me, Venom Prison stands out the most this afternoon, they really surprised me with their show!

However, the other bands surely played great shows as well and so does headliner Fit For An Autopsy, a band most people seem to be waiting for. In the meantime it is much more crowded inside the venue and many of the people inside are going fully crazy as soon as Fit For An Autopsy starts their show. At the front of the venue, right in front of the stage a moshpit starts that constantly remains there, moving from the first notes Fit For An Autopsy plays until the last ones. Fit For An Autopsy’s show is very well executed, tight-played, heavy and of an extremely high level. They clearly show why they are the headliners of this package. For many people their show seems to be the highlight of this afternoon. Personally it gets me a bit less at first, probably also due to Venom Prison really surprising me a lot. After a few songs however Fit For An Autopsy also gets me enthusiastic, what a hell of a show! It is pretty clear: in case you had some energy left after today’s three support acts, then Fit For An Autopsy will shake your last energy out of your body for sure!

It almost is a miracle that Willem Twee, or Den Bosch for that matter, still exists after such a crushing package. This was an extremely brutal Sunday afternoon, that’s for sure!

We also interviewed Venom Prison afterwards, we’ll post that soon!

Here you can read our earlier review of Vulvodynia’s Psychosadistic Design, while you can read our seventh part of Promoting Bands, which also includes Vulvodynia, here.

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Justice For The Damned Facebook
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