Neurotic Deathfest // 013, Tilburg, Netherlands // 02-04.05.2014

Neurotic Deathfest 2014 has arrived. After spending a day at my normal day job just waiting for it to end and drooling at the prospect of a 3 day show, I finally meet up with my fellow photographer and get to the 013 Venue in Tilburg, Netherlands for one of the biggest extreme metal festivals.

Where to begin with? Well, in a few words, you wished you were there. Great venue, huge crowd of fellow metalheads, tons & tons of beer and more than 40 bands to metal your brains the fuck out.

Friday 2nd May (Day 1):

Unfortunatelly due to my working hours, we missed the first two bands and arrived just in time for Aborted. You gotta love these guys, some fucking pure energy. With a new album out, they played both new and old, making sure to give us a great kickstart for the fest.

And we’re off to the second stage to watch Spasm, gore grind while wearing a huge dick mask on their face, definitely one of the most amazing on-stage appearances of the fest.

The fest continued with Massacre, Kraanium, Pungent Stench and God Macabre. Combining the old-school with the new death metal, they all made sure to keep everyone on the edge for the anticipated headliners of the night, Terrorizer. One hour of pure fucking headbanging, with a setlist covering almost everyrhing such as “Fear of Napalm”, “World Downfall”, “Hordes of Zombies” and even a cover of Death’s “Infernal Death”.

Finally, there was a local band on the second stage, Prostitute Disfigurement. Honestly, I wasn’t very familiar with the band but from what I heard from other metalheads there, they were really anticipated and provided a good show to end the first day.

Saturday 3rd May (Day 2):

There are from now on three stages opened in the venue, with Funerus, Cytotoxin and Abnormality sharing them to open the day. The only problem with having three stages and wanting to check out all the bands, is timing. You can’t give the attention they should have and we were really running from stage to stage to watch everybody.

Next in line are Brutal Truth, Cerebral Bore and Beneath. Really nice shows, getting the even bigger crowd existing today a nice metal warm-up for the big day ahead.

Following up on the main stage were Despised Icon. Reunited for a few shows, they showed us they still got the thirst for brutal metal. Second stage, Hour of Penance, they kept up to the tag of one of my personal favorite bands and also gave us a taste of their upcoming album with a few new songs.

Due to the aforementioned timing problem, I missed Epicardiectomy on the small stage to go check out Lock Up. Big crowd gathered, songs like “Brethren of the Pentagram”, “Detestation”, “Afterlife in Purgatory” and a shitload of beer running in our veins, made it one of the day’s highlights. Malignancy, Anthropofagus followed delivering some of their brutal stuff. Skinless on the main stage came next, seeming vigorous and really up for the show.

We had then some time to relax, drink beer of course, check out Dehumanized and go back to the main stage for the 2nd day’s headlining act: Suffocation. No comments. The American brutal opened with “Catatonia”, some new stuff like “As Grace Descends”, my personal favorite “Pierced from Within” and ended with “Infecting the Crypts”, making sure our heads wouldn’t stop going up and down.

Final act for the day, Gutalax. Never heard of them honestly, but they were really amazing. Great show, great on-stage apperance with those uniforms, gore stuff and the crowd going up and down. Priceless.

Sunday 4th May (Day 3):

Having stayed in the after-show party the previous night, we are gathering our hangover pieces and hit the festival once more for its last day. Opening acts Cephalic Carnage, Fleshless and Warpath warming us up for Swedish old-school death metalers Grave. Next bands Meathook, which I really enjoyed and Skullhog on the third stage.

Misery Index were next on the big stage with their devastating deathgrind. Then followed Severe Torture, a band I always wanted to see live and most definitely didn’t dissapoint, Lucifericon on the small stage, to get to Pestilence. Nice show from these guys, something more musically technical and songs ranging from their entire discography.

Pentagram from Chile were next on the second stage. Having traveled half the world to play here, it didn’t seem to having absorbed the energy from them. Some more beers, Bloodtruth on the small stage and we get to watch Gorguts on the main stage. In my opinion they were one of the best performances I saw on this fest. Old stuff, new stuff, death metal combined with the lighting made an amazing psychedelic atmosphere which I’m pretty sure will remember for years to come.

At this point of the festival I think everyone was getting a bit fatigued and exhausted, but there was a nice “suprise” waiting.

After Cancer, which honestly I was really tired to watch their whole gig, was the final headling act: Dark fucking Angel. Old-school thrash metal, something different for this festival, but wow.

Having reunited a while back, they showed the swarming crowd their thirst for returning to play live. Amazing performance, the guys were in a great mood being there for the show and provided the perfect dessert for this three-day course of pure fucking brutal metal. “Darkness Descends”, “We Have Arrived” (indeed you have guys hehe), “Burning of Sodom” and “Perish in Flames” were some songs from their kickass show.

We had the last festival beers, said goodbye to the fantastic people there and dragged our asses back home. To tell the truth, we are not the biggest fans of this genre of metal. But when we got back, we had a big smile in our faces: we had a hell of fun time there.

In conclusion, the Neurotic Deathfest was a great experience, everything was well planed and right on schedule, the sound quality was amazing and the people working there were really nice and helpful. It was a perfect opportunity to check out bands, meet, chat and drink beers with many new interesting people and we surely did enjoy our time there.

If you are an extreme metal fan, I strongly recommend you Neurotic Deathfest in the future!

Report: Thanasis Gatz
Photos: Stergios Andreadis