Dark music at it’s best

Little Devil in Tilburg, ‘The best Metal/Rock’n’Roll/Punk bar’ according to a review, had a nice surprise. A band that play before at main stage of the big 013 (capacity 3000 people) played at their tiny stage. Ok, they were not the main act. Anyway, the biggest disappointment was that the show of Oceans of Slumber wasn’t sold out. Although it was close. Good for the fans because they still had some space.

I never checkout the band(s) playing when they are new for me. I prefer the surprise. In this case a big surprise. Expecting a band, named The Devil’s Trade, however just one guy showed up with an electric guitar. The music is ‘classified’ as doomfolk (checking FB) and it kind of fits. The slow melancholic songs with distorted guitar were good. The emotion was real and brought with passion. Usually it’s hard to keep the attention as a one man band and being support. The Devil’s Trade was able to do it and with that a pleasant opener of this evening.

Oceans of Slumber hit the small dark stage which didn’t allow that much movement. Nevertheless Semir Ozerkan (bass) was the one, being positioned more or less in the center of the stage, that used the tiny space to headbang on the square meter he had. During the show Cammie Gilbert (vocals) took more space and started to move a little as well. The others were more or less ‘fixed’ on their spot. The performance wasn’t influenced by that, the dark progressive metal worked out very well in this setting. The band opened with ‘Winter’, the title track of the second album “Winter”. Followed by two other songs from that album. The popular cover ‘Nights in White Satin’ was a kind of natural break to move to the latest album “The Banished Heart”. Amongst others, ‘The Decay of Disregard’ and ‘No Color, No Light’ were played. The title track ‘The Banished Heart’ was the closing of the set.

It was a nice evening with dark melodic music. A great opportunity to get so close to the bands and to enjoy music in an intimate setting. Shows in small clubs do have an atmosphere you can’t get in halls or on a festival.

Full Set Photos: Oceans of Slumber, The Devil’s Trade