CONCERT REVIEW: Chelsea Grin & Carnifex Take Co-Headliner Tour To Den Bosch For Sold-Out Show

Not too long before Christmas, the likes of Chelsea Grin and Carnifex made us travel to a venue that we had not visited before, in a city where we had not witnessed a concert in our lives. The multi-purpose venue, Willem Twee, which during the day serves as flex workplaces in-between the visual art portrayals, but at night, the venue hosts live music of all ranges, including the heavier tastes. Willem Twee has 2 rooms in the venue, and tonight’s event was held in the big room with a capacity of 550, which had sold-out months in advance. With this particular co-headliner bill & 3 incredible supporting bands Bodysnatcher, Varials & The Convalescence, that came as no surprise.

For us personally, the year ended with this show, a sold-out, sweaty deathcore gig, which has been a while! For us, the evening started with Carnifex who have plenty of reasons to be out on tour. In addition to their new 2021 album GRAVESIDE CONFESSIONS, they have recently released a 2022 edition of their song Lie To My Face, which generally is their set-closer.

Having seen Carnifex a few times throughout the years, the band is as consistent as they come. Every few years, they will release a new album within their niche genre, with 1-2 songs standing out and doing better than the rest to gradually replace the live setlist over the years without losing ‘quality’, with of course the classics Lie To My Face and Hell Choose Me forever having a cemented place on the live stage. 

The band plays very well, to an ecstatic audience. With the deathcore demographic, you will never reach as many fans as with other, more melodic genres, but the fans that you do reach are loyal, outgoing and will show up. As a result, 550 fans are screaming their lungs out and moshing as if their lives depend on it. The shout ‘what the fuck’ during Lie To My Face as well as ‘Hell Chose Me’ from the song with the same name will honestly never get old, it’s one of those things that make liveshows the spectacle that they are. Check out some shots from the Carnifex set right below. 

Last but not least, Chelsea Grin were back in the country to support the release of their brand new album Suffer In Hell, which is doing incredibly well with the fans. Having ‘suffered’ a few line-up changes in recent years, Chelsea Grin are here to stay, and this album proves just that. Still making incredible music and putting on a great liveshow, with props to Tom Barber for being able to sing the older Alex Koehler era songs. On this tour, while playing a bunch of songs from the new album, the band also committed to playing their debut self-titled EP, which includes the ever so popular Crewcabanger and Lifeless. Of course the likes of Recreant, My Damnation and my personal favourite Playing With Fire could not be absent tonight.

Just like Thy Art Is Murder‘s CJ McMahon, vocalist Tom Barber does not take himself all too seriously and was often humorously dancing along to the heavy instruments, which added some hilarity to an otherwise serious and tight performance from one of the frontrunner deathcore bands in the scene. I’ve been a Chelsea Grin fan throughout the years, and while they are undeniably a different band now than they were before, their popularity continues to soar and their new music continues to do well and as it turns out, their liveshows also carries on being one of the strongest in their respective field.

Check out some shots of their performance in the gallery below and make sure to catch Chelsea Grin and/or Carnifex on the road next year!

Glenn van den Bosch

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