First of the last, so to say, for us was American old-school death metal act Suffocation who were celebrating their 20th anniversary (15th if you count out the split between 1998 and 2003), and they were making sure this would be remembered as one hell of a birthday.

“We took an oath twenty years ago; we want to play brutal fucking music, that’s all, and you all took it as well when you listened to it!”

It was easy to see that the band was excited about playing, and they were a lively bunch to behold as well, what with all the headbanging and all they were up to.
What was also easy to see was that the audience at Brutal Assault was certainly up to the task of taking this sonic beating; the headbanging off stage was at least as wild as the one on it! During Infecting The Crypts a large and brutal circle pit started out; luckily the place wasn’t too packed even with the large amount of people, so those who hadn’t saved up their energy for this final sprint could easily enough avoid harm.

As I mentioned, the band delivered a strong concert, and main-man Frank Mullen did a great job entertaining us between songs.
The show wasn’t without faults though; during one song (sorry, can’t recall which one) they had to stop the show because Terrance Hobbs had some serious problems with his guitar. Mullen commented that this felt like a déjà vu, as they had had the exact same problem in the exact same place last time they played.

Admittedly, I’m not a big death metal fan in general, and I didn’t know much more about Suffocation than that I had heard their name before, but they had such a good vibe going during their I ended up liking the concert even though I was outside the so-called target audience. It’s great when bands manage to do this in my opinion.