After Defilementory it was time for the equally Danish band The Cleansing to support Gorguts on their Copenhagen visit at Pumpehuset.

Compared to the first band, The Cleansing was at least a name I had heard of before, even though I had not actually heard them play, with two full-length albums in their back compared to the first bands zero, I had a preconception of going into something more professional here.
Indeed, the members were a bit older (not that this was so hard), and without a doubt more secure and professional on the stage. Especially bassist Martin Leth Andersen was rocking out in a big way, but both of the guitarists, Jeppe Hasseriis and Andreas Lynge (whom I recognized from Corpus Mortale) weren’t far behind him in making the stage look lively. My prior investigation had led me to believe I would recognize the drummer tonight as well as one Morten Løwe Sørensen (Mercenary, Amaranthe etc.), but found my info to be outdated, as the current drummer was Mads Lauridsen (Konkhra, Panzerchrist etc.) instead and the switch had been made already back in 2010!
The only thing I could really remark on as being annoying I the performance was that vocalist Toke Kristof Eld stood with his back against the crowd whilst growling much too often, thus giving us an impression that he didn’t really care about being here…

“This is fun, you’re allowed to laugh!”
- Toke Kristof Eld (vocals)

The crowd had grown a bit since the doors had opened, and also since Defilementory had played, but even though they were playing the downstairs smaller stage at Pumpehuset, the room was still painfully empty looking as The Cleansing was delivering their dose of death to the Danish population.
Still, there were still a few die-hard headbangers in the front (probably the same ones as before), and one of them was even invited to the stage at one point to scream along in the intro to one of the songs. Other than that though, the audience participation was surprisingly smaller than it had been for the last band! Well, surprising compared to my preconceived image of the band at least, but judging from the delivery I wasn’t that surprised when it comes down to it.
You see, even though this band was more used to handle a stage, the music they delivered was painfully (you know it’s not good when that word is used twice in the same review) bland and insignificant. There was nothing there that told me it was The Cleansing I was listening to, it sounded just like all the rest of the death metal bands of the post 2000 style. It’s wasn’t badly made, there was just not any personality.

To be honest, this show was something of a letdown and one of those shows that are forgotten almost as soon as the band-members have left the stage. The Cleansing have received love from the Danish metal media though, and thus I hope for their sake that this evening was a one-time fluke; either way, I have no further interest in them.

Setlist:

Ghost Lights
The Promethean Promise
Your Flesh, Your Curse
Law Of Reciprocity
The Domino Of Phantom Effects
Hour Of Decadence
Crossroads
Architectural Infinity