Reddingsfest 2022 review

-- Reddingsfest 2022 --

01/01/1970
Stijn Daneels

[INTRODUCTION]

Review & pictures by Glenn Schrijvers.

Knives To A Gunfight held their anniversary event at GC Den Breughel in the town of Haacht. I'd never heard of this town but there live about 15.261 people there so it isn't all that small. Fun fact only one of them was at the gig (Mick asked on stage if somebody from Haacht was here and one guy responded). For being in the middle of nowhere the parking area was decent (everything outside Antwerp is parking). We were welcomed by Mick and Björn for tickets and drink vouchers. The restrooms were delightful! Very clean and big! That’s the way I like to BREE. The bar provided plenty of drinks and even Hotdogs (were amazing). The stage was massive and the room enormous! The P.I. was provided by the one and only BOB The Mixer (Bob Briessinck). He is the sound engineer for bands like Warbringer, Carnation and Off The Cross.

[SUBVERGENCE]


Subvergence opened the show! Subvergence is a deathcore band from Houthalen. The members are Benjamin Van Der Borcht (vocals), Jan Coertjens (guitar), Timo Szyr (guitar), Michiel Vetters (drums) and Matthijs Nuyts (bass). Matthijs was going to play 3 times this evening!!! (aside from Subvergence he also played for Primal Truth & Knives To A Gunfight). You can describe their sound as if Thy Art Is Murder and Whitechapel would've made a child fueled with blast beats, vicious riffs and nasty vocals. They released a debut EP ‘Below Hell’ in 2022. Subvergence unleashed hell right from the start! Benjamin spitting his vierce vocals with blast beats from Michiel. Jan and Timo shredding bonesplintering riffs. Matthijs going all out on his bass guitar! It was a sight to behold. Subvergence played songs like Survival Of The Flawed, False Prophet and my personal favorite Circle of Fire! Subvergence played a solid entertaining set and they even have gained a little fan (my daughter).


[PRIMAL TRUTH]


Next up was Primal Truth and showed us at Nokfest that they were a force to be reckoned with. They've almost finished with the recordings for their full-length album that will be coming out soon! We have Viktor Descheemaeker (vocals), Ruben Roziers (guitar), Vinnie Roofthooft (guitar), Elias Meulemans (drums) and Mattijs Nuyts (bass). No rest for Mattijs as he was heading straight into round 2! Primal Truth unleashing their bone wrecking devastation power on the crowd! The riffs were like Daffy Duck would say filthyyy with all his spit! Mattijs doing his signature move on his bass guitar has always been always fun to watch. Elias wrecking his drums with his blast beats and breakdowns. The vocals from Viktor were so primal and raw that I turned back in a Neanderthaler! Primal Truth ravaged the room with Spineless, Dying Breed and Crown Of Thorns to name a few. They played an unrefined primordial set with lots of enthusiasm.


[WHEN PLAGUES COLLIDE]


Next off was When Plagues collide who recently released a new banger of a track called ‘God Complex’ be sure to check this one out! The bandmembers are Wouter Dergez (vocals), Joris Dergez (guitar), Santy Van der Mieren (guitar), Joshua Kinsbergen (bass) and Siebe Hermans (drums). Siebe played 2 times tonight and on a row! I loved the way Wouter entertained the crowd with his sense of humour. Then a few seconds later the band would be unleashing screeching vocals and disgusting guttorals accompagnied with ear crushing blast beats with a deadly combination of violent riffs. This resulted in the first mosh pit of the night! They play even God Complex and let me tell you something my fellow Shredders, this song slaps even harder live! Some other songs were Tutor of The Dying, Elizabeth and Dictating Violence. When Plagues Collide played their best set yet that I've seen of them live! It was insane! Seeing Wouter going full crabby while doing gutturals that I would never get tired off!


[COFFIN FEEDER]


Now it was time for some grindy death metal with a blend of groovy hardcore. Coffin Feeder consists of Metal Allstars: Sven de Caluwé from Aborted (Vocals), Jeroen Camerlynck from Fleddy Melculy (Guitar), Bart Govers from Fleddy Melcully (Guitar), Jan Hallaert from Leng tch’e (Bass) and Siebe Hermans from When Plagues Collide (Drums). They released a new EP ‘Over The Top’ a few weeks back with the most awesome album art I've ever seen! It is funny, gory, awesome and over the top! They wasted no time and unleashed ‘Plug It In’ onto the crowd! What a stage performance! The dynamic connection between the bandmembers was insane! This resulted in the crowd becoming so intrigued as to mosh like crazy! Sven’s vocals are out of this world, Bart and Jeroen shredding like their life is at stake! Jan delivering head chopping basslines and Siebe delivering the killing blow with his body dismembering blast beats! Coffin Feeder delivered bodybags in songs like ‘Stereo Homicide’, ‘DFENS’ and Dead or Alive. The performance was like their new EP OVER THE TOP! Extra credits for Siebe blasting drums for 2 sets (my legs would have fallen off)!


[KNIVES TO A GUNFIGHT]


Now it was time for the main event of the evening! Knives To A Gunfight features Mick Van Wassenhove (vocals), Björn Berckvens (guitar), Dimitri Maseele (drums), Pieter Robyns (guitar) and Mattijs Nuyts (bass). Knives To A Gunfight blasted off with Thy Rapture and showing that after 10 years they're still going strong! During the show we had appearances from ex-members Ritchie ‘Ricky’ Avons (Bass) and Sam van Geetsom (guitar). Mick gave a speech to the crowd with his flawless jokes and telling how happy the band was for everybody that came out today to celebrate with them and playing therefore the song ‘Forever As One’. Another highlight was the big pillow pit fight during ‘One Shot’! It was one of the funniest mosh pits I had ever done! At the last song Mattijs told us that he was struggling and that he was not feeling all right and that was okay. ‘Big Words Unspoken’ was the last song of the night and Mattijs gave everything he had! Big shoutout to Mattijs for playing 3 sets that night despite feeling not okay!




[CONCLUSION]

{Overall, Knives To A Gunfight is not just a band, it is a family. They gave it their all to celebrate their first 10 years of existence and I'm sure that they'll be going hard for another 10 years! Also cudos to the other bands for providing such great support!
}