I've been to 2 shows this week, the first was a Royal Blood concert in Amsterdam and the second was Fortarock in the City in Nijmegen (indoors 1-day festival):
Royal Blood: Vocals actually sound perfect live, exactly like the studio version (for better or worse), but I really enjoyed it. The mosh pits weren't too aggressive or anything but definitely exhausting as fuck. Especially during the end of Figure It Out and Loose Change, those were pretty much made for a live setting. They played 4 songs from the upcoming album (I think) and it sounded pretty solid, but mostly not as good as the debut material.
Fortarock in the City: There were 10 bands, I saw 7 of them in full and 2 of them partially.
Destrage: Did not disappoint, they played pretty much all the fan favourites (which are also my favourites for the most part. They were the first act however, and there wasn't much of a crowd.
Pelgrim: I stayed for the entire duration but wasn't a big fan. Mostly stayed because my brother is more into this sort of thing (djent-y core-y metal with constant breakdowns) but it was alright for the type of music I guess.
The Contortionist: Even though I was already aware that I am not a fan of Language, it surprised me how much I disliked the clean vocals live, I thought it'd come out better. The moments where he bursted out into harsh vocals were awesome though, and the last song (which apparently was the closer off of Language) was fucking amazing, one of the best endings to a concert I've experienced.
Ulsect: Only caught the last half unfortunately, but this band did not disappoint. When I listened to their debut which got released 2 weeks ago I thought it was kinda going nowhere, but their music was much more dynamic live and I might appreciate it more now.
Batushka: Probably the band I was most hyped for besides Periphery and Destrage, and they were just amazing. The concept they have going on for their live shows is definitely the selling point though, they make some fine black metal-ish music, but without the whole robe-wearing incense+candles-lighting portrait-holding shit they would not be as interesting. One of the best shows I've seen this year though, for sure.
The Charm the Fury: Least favourite show of the day. It was kind of like Arch Enemy with more breakdowns, not my thing. Not sure why but I sat through the entire thing.
Decapitated: I expected some crazy death metal and that was pretty much what I got. It was pretty awesome live but I wouldn't listen to it at home. Eventually it got kind of one-sided and decided to leave for a bit to get some rest.
Dool: I skipped this because Periphery was next and they didn't seem too interesting, so we just waited in the room where Periphery was playing next.
Periphery: I've waited a pretty long time to see this band live and man, it was worth the wait. Of course they've released 2 new albums since I became a fan and I was a bit disappointed that they only played 1 P2 song (Masamune) and no songs from P1, but the setlist was spectacular nonetheless. Prayer Position followed by The Bad Thing is possibly my favourite two-punch in a concert I've ever seen, so much energy. They encored with Lune which I thought might've been a bit boring, but in a live setting it was amazing, especially the chants in the end.
And in the end, I caught one of Matt Halpern's drum sticks. Since I was in the mosh pit and my brother wasn't we were separated so I walked back to him and he turned around with a huge smile on his face, and apparently he too caught a stick
Upcoming: There's a lot of concerts in Patronaat (Haarlem) I'm thinking of going to. I will probably start volunteering there soon which also allows me to go to concerts for free, so I will likely go to all of them: The Faceless/Humanity's Last Breath, Animals As Leaders, Intervals/Polyphia, Leprous/Agent Fresco, And So I Watch You From Afar, Electric Wizard, Cryptopsy (don't know these guys but I'm gonna check them out and see if it's worth it)