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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
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MOSH IT UP X 2005
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Aachen (D)
April 9th, 2005
http://www.scornage.com
On a certain Saturday night in April, we went to the close-by Aachen to mosh it up at the 10th edition of the Mosh It Up Festival in the Musikbunker. Our main reason to go was Dew-Scented (thanks for hooking us up Leif!), but as a bonus we saw a whole bunch of cool, good and/or interesting bands :) On the main stage (Mosh Stage) there were 5 metal bands playing, ranging from classic heavy metal to brutal thrash or death metal, and in the small extra room (Stage Of Core) they had 4 hard- and grindcore bands lined up. That room was so small that it was pretty much instantly full once a band started to play and then we couldn't get much further than the door, from where you had no view on the stage. Since those bands weren't really our thing anyway, I just listened briefly to each band and took a few notes - Nico didn't take any pics there. We focused on the Mosh Stage and that was fun. The bands on the two stages alternated and because of the short but powerful sets, no band nor change over break could be boring for the audience.
STAGE OF CORE
LA KRANIO ("old school hardcore thrash") was the first band to play on the small Stage Of Core. The sound was bad as far as I could hear (maybe it got better later on?) but the music was driven. Short, mid-tempo songs from what I heard. When I looked around the corner I saw the singer standing in front of the stage in the audience and during "Fist Of Fury" there was a small moshpit.
CAUSE OF DIVORCE ("grindcore for the unloved") are from Aachen and sounded pretty cool! Maybe a bit extreme for my taste, but I'd be interested to see them again some day in a "normal" hall, in this small pit I didn't stay long.
REDRUM INC ("doom core") from Hilfarth/Hückelhoven have been around since 1999 and have played with bands like Crowbar, Hatesphere and Pro-Pain. The band around Michael „Mighty“ Dohmen play doomy but infectious "heavy core" (as they call it) with dragging and very heeeeaaavy riffs. No way you could stand still there ;)
MINDGRAB ("new school hardcore") sounded more straight forward, not as fast or aggressive as some of the other bands, and no very extreme vocals, so their metalcore was easier to get into, more accessible. A good "headliner" of the Stage Of Core.
MOSH STAGE
EX ("thrash core") from Alsdorf were first on the Mosh Stage and they impressed me well enough to go and buy their demo after the gig. Cool band, heavy Machine Head influenced stuff with groove but also technical and with German lyrics. Cool presence, and Frank Döhla is a great singer, what a powerful voice! Funny detail was the torso of a window dummy or something, that was attached to his microphone standard ;) Only title I remember was "Zustand".
CHAINSAW ("thrash 'n roll") was clearly a favorite in the heavy metal fanclub scene, as there were several 80's fans / heavy metal fanclub members (from Holland as well as Germany) headbanging and cheering in the front row for these crazy Dutch "thrash 'n roll" guys (think Tankard style). Not the best band musically, but a lot of fun! They had a sort of Lady Justice on stage, with a chainsaw and a gong instead of scales, oh and unnatural big tits hehe! Singer Aike came on stage with a chainsaw and he enthusiastically growled songs like "Heavy Sex Maniac", "Route 66" (I think it was in this song where the singer and drummer switched places for a while), "The Butcher Of Bagdad" (with Aike going through the audience) and "Lay Down And Die" (with guitarist Yanni playing while laying down on the floor). Aike's German announcements in 
between went down well too :) Good old fashioned metal fun - hell yeah!
HATEFACTOR ("brutal death metal") wasn't as brutal as it was described, I'd say it was too slow to be brutal, but don't get me wrong, it was good! The dragging rhythms and good deep death growls made you propellor your hair ;) The guys from Krefeld played a.o. "Grown In Anger" and "Fight The War".
SCORNAGE ("pure aggressive thrash metal") were much more brutal! Extreme thrash with a hardcore-ish singer, not my favorite but definitely energetic and good! The whole band was enthusiastic and as it was their home base (and their festival I believe), so was the audience. There was a moshpit and a lot of response, singing and hey hey chants during songs like "Age Of Scorn", "Suicity Kills" and "Pain Collector" (for download on their website). The climax was a Motörhead cover ("Ace Of Spades") where really everybody sang along and singer Guido finally surfed over the crowd as well. What a show!
DEW-SCENTED ("brutal thrash/death") were invited to be the headliner. These well known German (technical) thrashers really ripped it up! Although it has a tendency to get a bit monotonous on CD (to me), it was mind-blowing live! I just could not stop headbanging and I saw Nico trying to take pictures on the other side, but he was headbanging most of the time as well hehe! The whole band was intense, but most of all singer Leif Jensen, who screamed his way through the songs as if there's no tomorrow! Twice he had to announce that there were items found on the small stage that someone lost during crowdsurfing or stagediving, once a cellphone and later on a hoodie or something hehe. Visually it was metal to the bone as well, four longhaired dudes headbanging all the time :) A nice detail for us Dutchies: guitarist Marvin Vriesde from The Hague (also in Blo.Torch and Severe Torture) is their new guitarist (replacing Flo). The crowd went insane and crowdsurfers worked their way to the stage and back from the very first song - Leif was a bit worried and constantly watching the action as the ceiling is very low there ;) But it 
all went well and Dew-Scented was definitely the icing on the Mosh It Up cake! Wooh!!! I don't know if it's a coincidence, but all songtitles that I wrote down are from only two albums: "Cities Of The Dead", "Soul Poison" and first encore "Acts Of Rage" from "Impact" and the fast and amazing "Turn To Ash", "Out Of The Self" and "Never To Return" from the upcoming CD "Issue VI", out on June 20th. The crowd didn't let the band go after one encore and because Marvin didn't know more songs than they had just played they had to repeat one. I was surprised they chose a new song for it, but also very happy because "Turn To Ash" was my favorite song of that night!! That promises a lot for the new album! The audience kept chanting "ihr habt die Haaren schön!" (translation: "your hair is so nice!" LOL) but it was time to go, after a very satisfying performance - and festival!
submitted by Marlies 05.05.2005
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