Eindhoven Metal Meeting 2012 – December 14, 15 2012, Eindhoven, Holland – Day 1

Marking the beginning of our 2012 holidays in Germany, we decided to swing by Holland and visit one of the premier indoor festivals: Eindhoven Metal Meeting. Having seen the line-ups from previous years, we jumped at the opportunity to see bands like The Devil’s Blood, Sodom, Dark Tranquility, and Brujeria among many others.

Arriving in Amsterdam early on December 14th, we made our way to Eindhoven via rail and check in on our hotel. The Effenaar venue is perfectly located next to the train station, making it very convenient for people arriving from closer towns and cities. We decided to stay at the Park Plaza Eindhoven hotel, one of the places recommended by the festival’s website. We figured out that it is actually quite far from the Effenaar venue when we walked carrying our gear there. However, we saw Dark Tranquility checking into the hotel as well as other fellow festival attendees.

After leaving our luggage and resting from our long flights, we made our way to the venue and checked out the opening band: The Amenta. This Australian outfit did a pretty good job on their 30 minute set, and left the stage warmed up for fellow countrymen Psycroptic. Being big fans of Technical Death Metal, we particularly enjoyed their set of highly intricate Metal music and hits from their latest release “The Inherited Repression”.

Refueling on some tasty food sold at the venue, we made our way to see Dutch heroes Herder. Playing some energetic Sludge/Stoner Metal and wearing some super tight pants, this band was entertaining for a bit but nothing really to write home about. Next up we had Dark Tranquility, one of our all-time favorite bands and a band that always delivers an excellent live show. With a set-list featuring plenty of songs from their 2010 release “We are the Void” and all of their timeless hits, the band led by Mikael Stanne had the crowd going crazy and headbanging to most of their set.

In order to satisfy our Black Metal needs we made our way to the smaller stage to checkout Enthroned and Taake. Crushing their set from beginning to end, Enthroned delivered a savage performance with powerful guitars and hellish vocals. The smaller stage really helped the band set the mood and sound more imposing than in a bigger stage. With the room almost to capacity, we managed to get a good spot on the second level overlooking the stage just perfectly to enjoy the band. Not wanting to lose our spot, we stayed in our same spot to fully enjoy the majesty of Taake’s old school Norwegian Black Metal. Hoest is one of the weirdest and most intense vocalists in the scene, and on EMM 2012 he delivered another one of his pummeling performances.

The most awaited performance of the day was undoubtedly Satyricon. Being Black Metal royalty, we haven’t seen them in many years, making this occasion quite special. With an excellent light and fog show, the band gave a pretty intense performance. While they focused on playing more of their recent music from their Black’n’roll transformation, the band can still give one hell of a show without having to dance around the whole stage.

Closing the night we have Mexican outfit Brujeria and their crazy Death Metal. Being able to understand Spanish, I always find their music quite amusing and hilarious. With Jeff Walker and Shane Embury in their ranks, this band gets crazier and crazier by the day. However, all their songs are at least 12 years old, the date of their last release, so they are starting to get quite old. For the first day, we have to say that the venue was perfect, the beer well priced and everything under a roof, not having to deal with the rain outside.

Visit our gallery of day one here.

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