Tonight we’re at the Trix Club in Antwerp for a sold out show of Counterparts, Paleface Swiss, Dying Wish and Kublai Khan TX.
The evening starts with the Americans from Dying Wish. The group led by Emma Boster, will heat a still scattered pit. The musicians are square and rock very angry rhythms. If the songs are pretty well done, the vocals lack a bit of power on the growls.
The clean vocals are solid, but as the set goes on for 30 minutes there will be some signs of weakness on the growls. But the main thing is there: the young team has done the job, the heat is starting to rise from the pit and the first stagedivers arrived. Only when the band went towards the end of the set with “Torn From Your Silhouette” did Boster’s voice seem warmed up and present. The public is ready for Paleface Swiss up next.
Setlist: Fragments of a Bitter Memory – Until Mourning Comes – Severing The Senses – Now You’ll Rot – Cowards Feed, Cowards Bleed – Enemies in Red – Torn From Your Silhouette – Hollowed by Affliction – Innate Thirst
The second band on the list tonight is Paleface Swiss. These gentlemen have recently returned from their tour in America and are now in Antwerp for the first time. They recently released their latest album “Fear & Dagger”. the Swiss beatdown/hardcore band is opening their set with the singalong of 666. With great heavy riffs they continue their set with ‘Pain’ from their latest album that came out last year. The crowd is getting heavy and moshpits and sides to side are finding their way into the venue. Paleface Swiss’s music tasted like more and when the last notes of “Best Before: Death” were used, a ‘we want more’ sound came from several throats of the fans.
Setlist: 666 – Pain – Nail To The Tooth – Deathtouch – The Orphan – My Grave / Lay With Me – Curse Us – Best Before: Death
And we go on with the third support of the evening. After Paleface Swiss what’s next for the Texans of Kublai Khan TX. From the first notes of “The Hammer”, the Texans set the tone for the rest of the set, which was packed with an explosive and uncompromising sound. The group managed to keep up the energy that Paleface Swiss had put down and also managed to impress almost as much as its progenitor.
The spectacle that took place on the front stage was extremely harsh and violent. Also one-liners from the frontman “Have fun put your nuts out baby!”. Kublai Khan TX had hit after hit including ‘Swan Song, Antpile, Self-Destruct, Taipan and We Are Not Here To Let You Sit On Your Nutt Sack’. They also played their latest single ‘Theory Of Mind’. With the closing song ‘Antpile’ the band fully prepared the audience for Counterparts.
Setlist: The Hammer – True Fear – Swan Song – Taipan – Resentment – Theory of Mind – Loyal To None – Boomslang – Self-Destruct – Antpile.
It’s the moment everyone’s been waiting for, it’s now up to Counterparts, the headliner of the evening who immediately wrecked things with their opening track ‘Whispers Of Your Death’ where you thought it couldn’t get any wilder. An invasion of stagedivers and a monstrous moshpit kicked off their brutal set. Getting on with ‘Bound to the Burn’ The stage divers flew around us.
The music was intense, so the emotional sound and profound lyrics hit a chord here and there in the audience. The performance during ‘Wings of Nightmares’ gave us far from nightmares but an amazing time with sing a longs and ‘No Servant of Mine’ created a circle pit with a circumference that was larger than the room around the piles.
When Murphy turned to the audience during a quiet moment, we noticed the gratitude in his voice, he described the current tour as one of the best weeks of his life. With a mix of songs from their albums ‘A Eulogy for Those Still Here’ that came out in 2022, ‘Nothing Left to Love’ (2019), ‘You’re Not You Anymore’ (2017) and The Current Will Carry Us (2011) they set the whole place on fire. The venue changed in a sea of crowdsurfers, stagedivers, huge moshpits and circlepits for far 90 minutes.
With the last and encore number ‘The Disconnect’, there was one last loud singing along, huge moshpit, a sea of stagedivers and crowdsurfers. Counterparts closed the evening with a bang.
Setlist: Whispers of Your Death – Bound to the Burn – Wings of Nightmares – Monument – No Servant of Mine – Witness – Stranger – Flesh to Fill Your Wounds – Love Me – Unwavering Vow – Your Own Knife – Paradise and Plague – A Mass Grave of Saints – The Disconnect
Each group created seas of crowdsurfers and hordes of stage divers, leaving the clubroom devastated. The explosion of energy they unleashed tonight was unreal. This one was for sure one of the best Club shows we ever saw from Counterparts