A diabolic smile grinned over my face when I read the announcement that Shogun Concerts was going to promote one of my favorite war black metal bands, Antichrist Siege Machine, and Ascended Dead would deliver a gig in my neighborhood instead of Cologne. A must-watch and hear, so to speak. So I quit the soccer Nations League (Germany vs. Netherlands) with a heavy heart and drove over to my neighboring town Bochum. I have never been to "Die Trompete" before and was pretty surprised to see a very small location. Small but really nice. So I sat on a bar stool and attended the gig from about two meters from the ehhh…..stage.

7.30 PM Antichrist started their inferno after they sold their merch at the entrance themselves. Unfortunately, there weren't any old albums to buy, would be nice to get them somehow. So I just got a shirt, but okay, don't wanna bug you with my shopping tour anymore. Musically they left no cross unturned and kicked off with "Piled Swine". The sound was quite fine and they did a really cool blast that evening. Only the comments were a little bit hard to understand but they also didn't care too much about talking with the audience. After about 35 minutes they were through with their set (no surprise when you consider that each album has a total running time of about 29 minutes). I personally really love the groovy blast beat parts in their not-too-sophisticated songs, they really fucking rule!! If you don't know the guys and like stuff like Archgoat or Blasphemy, you gonna have to check the Americans. One of the best war black stuff these days, especially their latest album Vengeance Of Eternal Fire!

Setlist: Setlist: Piled Swine / Morbid Triumph / Only Evil / Purifying Blade / Led By Fire / Unleashed Hostility / Vanquishing Spirit / Defiled In Iniquity / Sisera / Storm Chariot / Vacant Cross

After that Satanic Inferno Californian nightmare, Ascended Dead entered the stage. Decorated with spikes and bones vocalist JR did a very cool job, just like the other guys in the band. Moving was a little bit tricky that evening because of the stage size (they seemed a little bit like chicken in cage keeping, but at least for Deicide, there would have been enough space still. Their moldy and relentless death metal was quite chaotic and sinister and pleased a lot in the audience (I guess around 80 people attended the show). They mainly focused on their latest output Evenfall Of The Apocalypse which is truly a masterpiece in the domains of brutal (no, not the stylistic description, I mean REALLY brutal) and sick death metal, not un-similar to bands like Teitanblood or good old fuckin Angelcorpse. They also were done after about 45 minutes because the show only lasted until 9.15 PM. We all don't become younger and Joe, the promoter, told me that it was planned to last that long. I mean, we all got pummeled a lot during the show and so I came home in time to watch the second half of the soccer match which was very boring and turned out a lame 2:2.

Setlist: Ungodly Death / Bestial Vengeance / Nexus of the Black Flame / Subconscious Barbarity /Fissure of Chaos / Inverted Ascension / Visceral Strike / Evenfall of the Apocalypse / Ensnared for Eternity