This autumn, Finnish doom/death metal masters SWALLOW THE SUN will hit the road with direct support from their countryman, doom/post-metal group OCEANWAKE and Sweden's melodic death/doom outfit OCTOBER TIDE.

SWALLOW THE SUN with OCTOBER TIDE and OCEANWAKE:

31.10.19 Thu (DK) Copenhagen, Stengade
01.11.19 Fri (D) Flensburg, Roxy
02.11.19 Sat (D) Osnabrück, Bastard Club
03.11.19 Sun (NL) Rotterdam, Dutch Doom Days
04.11.19 Mon (FR) Paris, Backstage
05.11.19 Tue (CH) Pratteln, Mini Z7
06.11.19 Wed (IT) Retorbido, Dagda Club
07.11.19 Thu (IT) Rome, Traffic Club
08.11.19 Fri (SLO) Ljubljana, Orto Bar
09.11.19 Sat (PL) Krakow, Zaścianek
10.11.19 Sun (SVK) Bratislava, Randal Club
11.11.19 Mon (HU) Budapest, Dürer Kert
12.11.19 Tue (CZ) Plzen, Pod Lampou
13.11.19 Wed (D) Munich, Backstage
14.11.19 Thu  (D) Berlin, Cassiopeia
15.11.19 Fri (D) Weimar, Uhrenwerk
16.11.19 Sat (D) Würzburg, Hammer Of Doom*
17.11.19 Sun (D) Hannover, Bei Chez Heinz**
*only Swallow The Sun
**without Oceanwake

I was pretty surprised when I arrived at 7.30 PM in Bochum and nobody was queuing in front of the club. So I was the first visitor this evening and pretty confused about that. The good thing was that I got to know the promoter and we had a nice chat. The bad thing was that the fans did not show up that evening (in my humble opinion the bands had deserved more than 24 people who came on that Thursday evening). Very disappointing and I must confess that I've never experienced such a thing in all these years of going to concerts.

However, the Swedes from Repuked opened the concert and didn't show any disappointment about the few people in the hall. The played really sick old school death metal which is heavily inspired by Autopsy and co. The guys rocked the stage and vocalist / bassist Robin "Rob the Slob" Westlund did a very sick performance with rolling eyes and uncontrolled moves. The guys had lots of fun playing and they searched for a contact with the audience which made the show likeable. I really had to laugh when he asked "Hey Bochum, are you drunk? No? Oh, maybe later…". The songs were played really tight, and the sound was good and everybody who loves stinking death metal completely got his money worth.

Set list: 'Livers Bleed' / 'Fuck Your Fucking Corpse' / 'Vodka Till The Grave' / 'I Wanna Puke On You' / 'Kick Fuck' / 'Fuck You, Fucking Whore' / 'Pervertopia' / 'Shitfister' / 'Up From The Sewers'

After this slightly vulgar gig, the Brazilian guys from Nervochaos entered the stage. Their show (and music) was quite different from the Swedes. No beer, no obscenities in their songs. Their new vocalist (he's in the band since 2020) Brian Stone reminded me of some HC bands and made a very impressive figure on the stage. He acted very intense and he and his bandmates also didn't show any bad reaction about the audience. They performed very professional and the technical death-thrash mixture got a good resonance from the "crowd". They didn't focus too much on their latest output All Colors Of Darkness but played a fine cross-section of their career with songs from almost every album (and they have released 10 albums so far).

Set list: 'Whisperer In Darkness' / 'Dark Chaotic Destruction' / 'I Hate Your God' / 'For Passion Not Fashion' / 'Mind Under Siege' / 'Feast Of Cain' / 'Dragged To Hell' / 'The Devil's Work' / 'The Urge To Feel Pain' / 'Pazuzu Is Here' / 'Beyond The Astral' / 'Moloch Rise' / 'Pure Hemp'

Around 10 PM the time had come for Demonical. I was pretty curious about the band because I had never seen them before and was absolutely blown away from their newest release Mass Destroyer which is one of the best old school Swedish HM-2 albums within the last years. The guys were received very enthusiastically and did a really cool death metal firework. Like Nervochaos they presented a lot of old songs and also some from their latest release. Vocalist Christofer Säterdal did a fantastic job and he is the most eye-catching person on the stage since he is about 2 meters tall. But also the other band members did great stage acting with a lot of guitar posing and running around. The sound however was a little bit too loud so it was sometimes a bit tricky to find out what the songs was. They closed the set with a fantastic Entombed cover of "Wolverine Blues" and so the evening was too fast over, and everybody went home. At least the roads were not too crowded after that event….sorry guys for that lousy attendance!

Set list: 'Towards Greater Gods' / 'My Kingdom Done' / 'All Will Perish' / 'The Order' / 'Fallen Mountain' / 'Unfold Thy Darkness' / 'World Serpent' / 'Cursed Liberation' / We Conquer The Throne' / 'March For Victory' / 'Sun Blackened' / 'Aeons Of Death' / 'Wrathspawn' / 'By Hatred Bound' / 'Death Metal Darkness' / 'Vålkommen Undergång' / 'Wolverine Blues'