Thread: Cannibal Corpse, October 27th, Zwolle

Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Hedon Zwolle, October 27th

I remember Hedon as a small and smelly youth centre in Zwolle, back in 1993. It was the first Dutch tour of both Brutal Truth and Fear Factory. Over the years many of such youth or cultural centers have been rebuilt (Effenaar, Dynamo) or are totally new (P3, P60) and now, Hedon. The tour was announced just after the Cannibal Corpse / Children of Bodom show in January. We could choose to go on a Monday (Bibelot, Dordrecht) or a Tuesday (Hedon, Zwolle). With the entire Randstad area between Westwoud and Dordrecht I chose to go to Zwolle. Nearly the same distance, but beginning around 7.30 PM would mean loads and loads of traffic jams. Tickets purchased for myself, Tom (big Corpse fan since Graspop 2007), Maarten (CC was sort of his first death metal band ever) and Daniel; I arranged an extra day off and invited the boys to eat at my place. Tom couldn't make it to dinner, we would pick up Daniel in Enkhuizen so it was just me and Maarten enjoying a nice maccheroni and ham meal. I had made a road description and off we went. I had checked the website before going, on the day of the show there were only 20 tickets left. Good choice to order early.

Zwolle is about an hour and a half drive but we managed to miss Obscura by taking the wrong turn off the highway (...). Hedon's old location is filled with houses now, the new Hedon is bigger and not so smelly anymore. Pity the PA system was placed near the bar and near the entrance; with a sold out show that could mean trouble. Before we even heard one live note I already met my colleague Maarten, 'the other' Alex, my former colleague Adriaan and my Groningen buddy DJ. Nice to see old and new acquaintances.

The first band we saw was Evocation, with a dingy sound somewhere between Dissection and Dismember, sometimes even Urgehal. We liked it. Best songs: Feel The Fire and Tomorrow Has No Sunrise. Nice band. The volume was perfect too, the audience reacted with a nice friendly pit. Then Dying Fetus: opinions vary in the group, Tom hated it, I did not really like it but Maarten and Daniel loved it. I felt like it was blunt as frozen shit, but without any feel to it. Another friendly pit, but I had no urge to jump in. Yet. Because the backdrop of the band we were here to see already hung: Cannibal Corpse!! This must be my fourth or fifth encounter with one of the tightest, heaviest and sharpest death metal bands of the world. No intro, just begin to play:
- Evisceration Plague (with half the audience really, really waiting to see what would happen)
- The Time to Kill is Now (with an exploding, friggin'violent pit)
- Disfigured
- Death Walking Terror
- I Cum Blood
- Fucked with a Knife (when Corpsegrinder announced he was going to dedicate this one to the women of the crowd I thought they would play She Was Asking For It, but no...)
- Punctured Wound Massacre (or something ... I don't know ALL the titles; Daniel said there was a set list of the Dordrecht show on the web somewhere, I haven't seen it and therefore don't know if there is a set list to be found from this show)
- Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt (with Corpsegrinder expressing his deepest loathing of a pit member doing a Michael Jackson dance 'I will break his fucking legs'; this song was dedicated to the sluts in the audience )
- The Wretched Spawn
- ... forgot to write it down, it was pitting heavily.
- Make Them Suffer
- Pit of Zombies
- Vomit the Soul
- Priest of Sodom
- Unleashing the Bloodthirsty (Tom got a severe punch to the eyes, went away groggy)
- Skull Full of Maggots
- Hammer Smashed Face
- two encores. I was at the merch stand, the boys were tired and ready to leave so we missed these songs.

Wow! Everybody sweaty, everybody happy, except Tom, he was looking baffled and he told us he saw everything double. I hope you're OK, buddy! I could whine my personal favs Five Nails or Necrosadistic Warning or Gutted were not played, but with these songs everybody was happy, I guess. Nearly two hours of cannibalism! Perfect sound, violent pit, band in top form; banging their heads like machines! What a bunch of animals! Great!!

On the way back home Tom fell asleep and the three of us shared memories of other CC shows. The boys envy me that I was at biking distance way back in 1992, when CC played R17 in Grootebroek. Maarten crashed at my place, to be followed by a day of talking about gore movies and so on...

mmm, nice. hopefully they'll rock that setlist up when they come here.

Cannibal Corpse were very good when I saw them, but I personally think that they play too long. A death metal band rarely needs more than an hour and one song encore before it just gets monotonous. Most of the best gigs I've seen from death metal bands is when they barely have any time and have to TRY to cram as much into 30 minutes as possible like Cattle Decapitation.

@Daniel: just a matter of taste...

this was what I liked too: http://www.myspace.com/evocationswe
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extra information: Tom did not get punched in the eyes, the bloke who 'hit' him had filthy nails; Tom has a fractured cornea. I just called him how he was and at what time I would pick him up tomorrow, but he's at home with a plaster on one eye with some ointment. Ouch. Get well soon, buddy!

I didn't bother to go to either Dutch show. Both venues were at a very inconvenient distance for a regular weekday.

Originally Posted by Dennis

I didn't bother to go to either Dutch show. Both venues were at a very inconvenient distance for a regular weekday.

One of the reasons I rarely go to shows: the city and place. if it were downtown Olympiahippievillesmellybutthole, it might be a different story.

2 hours of CC. That's a bit. But, it also sounds like the fun never stopped during the show. Amazing the band can still play and headbang the same after all these years.

Sounds like fun. Somehow I've never been to a CC show and it's unlikely I should go now cause I don't care much for Corpsegrinder and stuff CC did with him. Unless they play at a festival.

I'm also picky about venues. Aside from the annual Metalmania Festival which takes place ca. 300 km from where I live, I only go to shows in my town, and sometimes even decline to attend when a gig is in a distant part of town on a day before weekday.

Too bad you guys missed Obscura. Though I'm not sure any of you would have like them anyway.

I've seen them when they opened for Atheist, they're not that great live. I don't know how they sound on cd but I never bothered to check the cd's because of the poor performance live...

Originally Posted by Dennis

I've seen them when they opened for Atheist, they're not that great live. I don't know how they sound on cd but I never bothered to check the cd's because of the poor performance live...

They're CDs are also boring