Around the World: Nederland

 

  

SWITCH TO POLISH

As someone said. Netherlands is made of tofu, windmills, and wooden clogs. Let's open the box and see what this country gave the world over decades.

For such a small country, they have a disproportionate amount of Metal bands compared to population. According to wikipedie & Metal-Archives, in the '90, for each 15k people there was 1 band. For comparison, in Poland it was for 27k folks (almost twice less frequent), and taking into accound that there were ~15 mil of Dutch people, while Poles were 38 mil (over twice the number)

Not only they had a huge amount of Metal, there is also a high mark of quality. I'll be straight, even the most obscure band from NLD is taken by me as a priority, as I know, I will never be disappointed.

To the oldest bands which were pioneers in things extreme belong Future Tense (harsh Heavy Metal) and the EP "Condemned to the Gallow" (1984), and really manic Mysto Dysto "The Rules Has Been Disturbed" (1986). The latter morphed into a more conventional Thrash as Mandator. There was also Thanatos, but I wrote about them here, so I'm not going to repeat myself. Genre-wise, Netherlands developed not unlike the rest of Europe, but seemingly, since their beginning, they laid serious foundations for Death Metal, a genre for which they should be the most known.

First two serious players, were of course Pestilence with their Brutal Thrash debut in 1988, and Sempiternal Deithreign with their sole album "The Spooky Gloom", released 1 year later, and which would be the progenitor of a Deadly Metal's offshoot, namely Doom / Death. As yes, the dutch ways are divided between two camps: continually more extreme Thrash, like Usurper, Disabuse, Messina, Mystrez, Nocturn, Occult, Perpetual Demise, Decision D, and Dead Head, and the second, more atmospheric, tasteful morbid tunes courtesy of Asphyx, Beyond Belief, Etherial Winds, Acrostichon, Mystic Charm, or even Orphanage. One can clearly see which group had more examples, though.

But to be fair, the two most known bands from NLD, namely The Gathering & Within Temptation, which evolved in some strange ways, were indeed starting as Doom / Death. So in a way, it was quite a succesful spin-off. Oh, and there is Officium Triste, but I don't really like them.

I do hope that every band I named is known to all, as it's a little embarrassing to not know, no matter how long one listens to Metal. And obviously, everyone will have their own fave obscure classic. For me, it's Stentorian "Gentle Push to Paradise" (1996).

The bands that always deliver are God Dethroned (congrats for longevity), or Sinister, kind of dutch Vader*, only they had a lot of lows, and the sadly defunct Gorefest, which was experimenting with the formula. Yeah, because while Death Metal is the go to genre there, it was pretty common for the bands to expand the recipe and have fun with the genre, while at the same time playing effortlessly. Phlebothomized, Nembrionic, Consolation, Ulcerate Fester, Solarisis - one-hand Death Metal, but somehow very catchy.

Grindcore scene was relatively smaller, and I would mostly invoke Brutality Reigns Supreme, Extreem Eczem, Fondlecorpse and the bands mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph, a the aforementioned creativity went along with Grindish noise (after all, early Gorefest did have some Goregrind in their sound).

If we talk about Death Metal, we have to discuss its arch-nemesis too, which is Black Metal. This scene was more modest, and the bands not quite accepted worldwide (especially by forever jealous Norwegians), but imo unfairly so, as they were quite often also genius. Let me show ya - Necro Schizma, Bestial Summoning, Unlord, Cirith Gorgor, Funeral Winds, and Deinonychus (co-creator of Depressive Black). About each one of them can say that it's a music for connoisseurs. From the more odd side, there was also Exmortes - a strange project of Black / Noise experimentation - for some it will be crap, and a rarity for others.

And last but not least, what about the Singin' Metalem? Even less than Black Metal and Grind and it's kinda funny, because bands Sacrosanct (formed by Meinharda after leaving Pestilence), Donor, or Osiris , had to have a little bit of extremity in them in order to get some minimal attention. Maybe only Elegy broke-through against all odds, but then again, they quickly evolved into Prog Metal and more advanced music. The rest (of the few Power Metal already) went straight into dumpster.

At the end of century, Netherland also added few cents to the development of the Brutal (but in their version, still catchy) Death Metal (Disavowed, Inhume, Houwitser, Severe Torture) and still had some unusual projects, sometimes hard to classify (ie. The Monolith Deathcult), but always worth a spin. I mean, I could go on and on, and there will always be an abundance of material.

To sum it up: ALL HAIL NETHERLANDS!!!

*similarly with Centurian, whom I could swear they were from Poland, especially that one of their album had typical Polish DM cover art done by studio G-R-A-A-L (one with computer effects), who were responsible for early Behemoth, Damnation, Devilyn, Dominium, Hate, Lost Soul, Nomad, Vader, and ironically enough Sinister as well