A cold, drizzly Thursday evening, somewhere in a small town named Aarschot. We drove through kilometers of typical Flemish roads. We passed discotheques, shoe-stores and hifi-shops. We drove by a large warehouse with the weirdest statues, from Roman columns to Buddhas to odd pieces of plaster-erotica. But eventually, we arrived at De Klinker, an excellent and perhaps underappreciated venue. 

We were among the first ones in and saw a mostly empty room. Although that would change in the hours to come, I can't help but think the organization had expected some more people to show up. I hope they weren't too disappointed. After all, they did deliver a highly enjoyable evening with a great sound and with three interesting bands. Eventually, Wanheda climbed on stage for a handful of people.

Some months ago Leuven based quartet Wanheda debuted with a promising album, titled 'The Cenozoic Implosion'. In my review (read), I wrote that Wanheda is a classic Dunk-band and guess what: with the band playing their music on stage, there was a small Dunk-festival feeling present. The guys picked a few tracks from 'The Cenozoic Implosion' to convince the audience and it did seem to work. Heads started nodding and there was a friendly applause. 

It looked like most of the band was rather nervous for this performance, except the bass player who must have had a history in the hardcore scene. He is clearly the "metal"- part in the post-metal tag of Wanheda. While the guitarists were fully occupied with the technical pluckings, he walked round as if he was a Halloween version of Henri Rollins. I didn't mind. This was a decent post-rock gig from a young, skilled band.

Give time and plenty more gigs, Wanheda surely has the potential to become a serious player in today's Belgian post-scene. Sure I can still see them at Dunk! in the following years but they will have to obey to the golden rule of rock 'n roll: play, play, play, play and play again. Of course I bought the CD afterwards.

If that previous paragraph sounds somewhat criticizing, it's mostly because of the performance by Astodan. When these guys climbed on stage, I saw a different level of bandship. Here, there was more action, more power, more confidence. Astodan delivered an extremely solid set with immersive guitar passages and in-your-face post metal parts. Although I had seen them before, they had never impressed my like they did here in Aarschot.

Here, the drummer was the powerhouse of the band, furiously pushing forward his bandmates. Those bandmates did an awesome job as well. The stage was packed with activity. You didn't know where to look first. Oddly enough, the only point of critique I could write down is the volume level of the electronics and samples. Put them up, make them a full-fledged part of the performance. They fit perfect, just a little louder.

See, if I have to comment on the volume level of one tiny but not unimportant part of a post-rock performance, it must have been good. This was good. No wonder Dunk! Records signed these guys. In contrast to the somewhat shy performance of Wanheda, Astodan proved that they're ready for the big stages, the world tours and the post-rock history books. This was impressive.

After two intense gigs in Antwerp Music City and one earth-shattering passage at Dunk! festival, Telepathy was about to occupy a normal stage in Belgium. How they did that? Well, let's just say that Telepathy is one of those bands who do not just obey the golden rule of rock 'n roll, they live by the golden rule of rock 'n roll. From the very first second, Telepathy felt like one of those 16 ton megaweights Monty Python often used.

By now, there was a decent amount of people in the room but for Telepathy it doesn't matter if there's two people or twenty thousand, they just blast. Not only have they written stunning pieces of post metal, they also have an evincive stage performance. It's almost a choreography, legs wide, body moving along with the music. Of course, it's not rehearsed or anything, this is just Telepathy being a well oiled post metal powerhouse.

I saw the bass player in the lavatory after the gig. He even pisses in that same posture. How metal can you possibly get? They're nice people but on stage they will fucking kill you. So naturally, Telepathy pretty much won this evening, but it was a close call since Astodan was so impressive as well. In all, this was a near perfect evening of instrumental heaviness. Kudos to the organization and thank you.


​Serge

Italian blackened post-math-sludge band Hungry Like Rakovitz had the opportunity to kick off this evening. Apparently, their vocalist and bass player couldn't make it to this show but that didn't harm the performance. A friend took over the vocal duties while the core of the band (guitars and drums) blasted the doubt out of their minds. Before we realized it, we were headbanging along with the complex and intense blend of pretty much everything that is heavy and distorted.  
This was a perfect opener for what was about to become an awesome night. The sound was great, the ambiance was joyous and friendly and Hungry Like Rakovitz were in the zone, so to speak. Although this is music I very rarely listen to at home, at gigs I can't get enough of it, especially when it comes with such massive flashes of pure energy and aggression. So yeah, I was a little disappointed when they stopped after thirty minutes. Nonetheless, it was already quite impressive so I wonder what these guys are going to sound like when they return with their complete line-up.

Two minutes and thirty three seconds into the Lambs-gig, I found myself thinking "if all lambs would sound like that, I'd become a vegan in no time'. This was an extremely intense blend of sludge and crust, something the nice people at AMC seem to like a lot. This gig too was finished after mere thirty minutes but in that time Lambs slaughtered everything they could get their instruments on. Even I stayed inside the whole gig, something that doesn't often happen with this kind of music.

Lambs performed with a heap of aggression, brutal vocals and harsh guitars, reminding me a bit of some hardcore gigs I've seen in the past. It also brought back a feeling I had been missing. Something was different tonight. It felt like one of those awesome concerts in my late teens and twenties, before all kind of stupid regulations took most of the fun out of these things. But this was fun, this was adrenaline, pure, harsh and relentless. 

Before the English quartet would start their set, they built up a light show, seemingly taking everything extremely serious. A bit too serious for me, to be honest. I mean, I've seen several bands focusing on their light show and background projection so much that they forgot to play their music decently. So I found myself thinking "is that really necessary?". Well, to be frank, it wasn't but it added something to the whole show, driving it closer to perfection. Yes, perfection, because I could never have expected a show like this from Telepathy.

​Perhaps it was my scepticism about the light show or the fact that it was getting pretty crowded, but I wasn't "feeling it" in the first few minutes. It was ok, and "professionally" it would give these guys a decent rating for their performance but nothing more. But then it happened, Gradually, Telepathy started climbing my "best-gigs-of-2016" ladder. They easily surpassed Dopethrone, left 65DaysOfStatic behind them and started pulling the legs of Russian Circles. Goosebumps formed on my arms and it was hot in there. Halfway through, I decided that this was a perfect gig.

The sound was crystal clear (or clear enough for a post-metal/sludge/... concert), their performance was pure energy and the audience was -rightly- ecstatic. This was a highly immersive trip. Even people who had seen Telepathy before were in awe, like me. I knew it was going to be a decent evening but I really didn't expect things to be as majestic as it was. Right now, Telepathy are somewhere on top of that ladder. The bands at Desertfest have to be damn good to surpass this...

After the gig, I did some shopping, introduced myself to some of the musicians and wished them good luck at Incubate. Exhausted but highly satisfied I started walking towards Antwerp Station. Arriving there, I was surprised to see that the whole building was closed down and surrounded by heavily armed policeman and women. There was a van from Dovo (the Belgian bomb squad). They were keeping everyone at bay, no one was allowed in the station or any of the metro stations because of an apparent bomb threat. 

There were also security people from De Lijn (bus & tram company) who, much to my delight, provided me (and other people) with the information they needed, calm and friendly. They would guide people towards other travelling possibilities, which made me decide to start walking to the nearest overground tram stop. Eventually, that would turn out to become an eight kilometer walk, including a chat with some people who had no idea what was going on. Shortly after midnight, everything in Antwerp went back to normal. 

It was weird to see how people were still drinking, laughing and having fun, mere twenty meters from a station, occupied by heavily armed men, trying to find a possible bomb. In the end, they arrested two guys who were acting suspiciously and the threat was lifted. For me, the situation was a bit surreal but it didn't spoil the awesome evening I had just experienced. During my walk, I often found myself thinking "damn, that was good". It was. If you weren't there, you should pack your things and head to Tilburg as all three acts will play Incubate as well.


​Serge