Brutal Assault 2018 - 08.-11. Aug. 2018

[The Corrosion]

Will denn keiner für die daheim gebliebenen berichten?

 

[Danzig]

Wie war Glenn? Würd mich z.B. interessieren

 

[Jebator]

Will denn keiner für die daheim gebliebenen berichten?

OK, if no one will, here's a few thoughts on this years BA...

After two years of PSOA, we are back in Czech Republic for the 8 time.

What’s new? The food&drinks selection is even more varied. Beers – everything was covered from nonames, til well known Czech brands (Kozel, Radegast, Pilsner urquell) and lesser known craft beers. Foods – the soup on Saturday saved my life, while the Romanian sandwich with pulled pork and hot mustard wasn’t too shabby either. Prices extremely affordable – you could get 0,5 L of dark nonwatered down Kozel for 1,5 EUR (38 CZK). Haven’t seen a beer more expensive than 2,5 E (60 CZK).

Concerning music – this year it was four full days of music with 130 bands. I’m not a fan of overcrowding of schedule due to the huge number of bands playing because it takes toll on how long some bands can play. For example, I was extremely pissed seeing Akercocke got only 30 minutes of play on Saturday early afternoon, or Wiegedood getting airplay on 2 am on Saturday. But ok, to each their own.

One more thing. Comparing the line-ups from 2009 onwards, one can easily recognize the expansion of extreme (metal) music genres included. From death metal/grindcore/hardcore oriented festival they slowly including more bizarre hardcore, rap rock/metal, avantgarde, punk, even instrumental prog rock/metal. On one hand I’m not too fond seeing Wardruna in top time slots, and some stupidly annoying hardcore (Nasty) but it gave me the opportunity to see for example Green Carnation and Pain of Salvation this year, something I never hoped to see in BA.

One more thing #2. Because of the huge number of bands, we decided to skip watching all of the big (mostly boring by now) names you can see almost every year in Europe. Meaning, we gladly skipped Gojira, Paradise Lost, The Black Dahlia Murder, Moonspell, Behemoth, At the Gates, Sepultura etc. for lesser known or lesser performing bands.

So, a few thoughts on the bands we saw this year:


Mittwoch:

Toxic Holocaust - by the numbers thrash metal. Saw a few songs and moved on. 5/10

Oraculum – less interesting on the record, more interesting live. Nice breaks between the deathblack metal onslaught. Not too blasty though. The crowd loved it. We did also. 7/10

Cannibal Corpse – for some reason, I’m not a fan of the latest album and this tour was a promotion of the mentioned album, so was waiting for the second half of the show. Was not disappointed, ”Gutted” ruled. Standard classic CC. 7/10

Whoredom Rife – As years pass by, can stand less and less black metal bands that are taking themselves too serious. Somehow, Im including WR on that list. The sound was not good, and the rhythm too steady. Didn’t like it, my friend loved it. 5/10

Ratos de Porao – Accidentaly stayed and watched their show. Energetic combination of fast thrash, hardcore and punk. Enjoyed the hell out of it. 8/10

Tormentor – Well, I expected nothing from this show and got everything. Old school, fast, no blast black metal with perfect sound, amazing Attila on vocals and motivated band. Perfect headbanging stuff. First real highlight! 9/10


Donnerstag:

Broken Hope – lots of people gathered to see them. Third rate death metal for my taste, the forcing of breakdowns in every song didn’t help either. Still, competent and enjoyable. 7/10

Diabolical – well, this wasn’t good. Meaning, the band did everything right concerning the execution, but those songs, the clean vocals, lyrics (We are Diabolical), just no. 4/10

Persefone – technically outstanding, but hard to headbang to. The vocalist was really, like too much really into it. they loved the positive crowd reaction and were grateful for every shout from the audience, what was nice to see. Was a bit disappointed not to hear anything from “Shin Ken” album and the clean vocals suck as much live as on the record. 7/10

Exhorder – not much to say – tight and furious thrash as on the albums. Was glad to see them, but for some reason didn’t do as expected for me. 7/10

Blood Incantation – love the band and everything they do (Spectral Voice). Complex music but flowing perfectly live. those long growls before slow parts always get me. Would enjoy even more if it wasn’t on a bright daylight. 8/10

Green Carnation – one of the reasons why you got to love BA crowd is they are really thankful. Doesn’t matter how much a band seems unfitting for the name of the festival, enough people will come and support the band. For sure, Green Carnation were a bit stiff in the beginning not knowing how the audience will react on their music, bit after the first song, everyone was relaxed. Great performance, beautiful songs, all of them from “A Blessing in Disguise” and “The Quiet Offspring” albums, plus a new one. Refreshing to see after all the extreme metal bands. Almost cried on “Crushed to Dust” 9/10

Pallbearer – huge sound, huge riffs, huge melodies. For some reason, didn’t tick the box for me, not because of the band performance. 6/10

Bolzer - for some reason, sound technicians tend to fuck up the sound on this two man band with two instruments (2016 PSOA, Im looking at you!). Not this time. The 12string guitar was massive, the “Hero” songs amazing live. If one is not acquainted with their songs beforehand, I guess it could sound disjointed and confusing. Loved it. 8/10


Freitag:

Inhume – lovely death metal/grindcore as a rude awakening but 30 minutes is just enough for these guys not to sound tiresome. 7/10

Sadistic Intent – great lesson in atmospheric old school death metal. detailed, notwanky guitar work, lots of varied tempos. Those leather jackets are starting to be too small around the bally but none the less, really really good! 8/10

Neocaesar – looked forward to seeing Mike from ex-Sinister on vocals again. Better than on the CD, doing Sinister better than Sinister. Crowd reaction was a bit meh for some reason. 7/10

Pestilence – quite a positive surprise. Playing songs from first three albums exclusively (you know their names), band in the mood. Mameli with those staring eyes was either cocked up or is generally insane. But you got to handle to him, he FINALLY learned that second beautiful solo from “Twisted Truth” again. Jesus, thank you, that song is a monster. 8/10

Eskhaton – well this was strange. Half an hour of chaotic death metal and the sound people fuck the sound in a major way. All you could hear was furious blasting in various speed. It could be saved if just the solos were audiable but they weren’t. So you had a quite a shy band on stage playing infernal racket no one could recognize. In the end it sounded as it was supposed to I guess – chaotic. 7/10

Aluk Todolo – looked forward to this a lot. Expected at least a few songs from “Occult Rock” but didn’t get a single riff in 20 minutes we endured their set. The definition of pretentious. The drummer rules though. 4/10

Dragged into Sunlight – this was fucking evil. Evil and hateful. just red lights and candlelight. and inhuman screams, varied tempo and amazing music from the pits of hell. More, please! 9/10

Misthyrming – not as good as previous year on PSOA, cannot pinpoint why. oh well. I still love you guys! 6/10

Dead Congregation – huge sound in 1 am, the crowds started thinning out, which is always good. without too much drama, the band played really good. Would give a point extra if their last mega song “Teeth into Red” wasn’t overlapping with Malokarpatan in the tent. We went to see the mighty Slovaks of course. 8/10

Malokarpatan – beautiful sound. beautifully crafted heavy metal, songs with catchy melodies. the atmosphere was just as Slavonian as on the CD. Kinda tipsy but extremely likebale. the atmosphere of old rural places and times. Perfect… 9/10


Samstag:

Akercocke – one of the reasons we went to BA. and how they slayed! started with two songs off the latest proggy album and then blasted their way with nasty stuff off “Choronzon” and “Goat of Mendes”. no suits, no talking too much, just furious music. A thousand times yes! Later went for meet&greet with them. Jason Mendonca is such a loveable “im so happy to be here” guy. 9/10

Plini – well, in theory and in practice this is relaxing instrumental prog rock. the dudes know how to play. bored us to death. and they play after Akercocke? 5/10

Origin – love Origin. Technically above 95% of metal musicians. Played without the bass player for some reason, and Jason Keyser is always a funny guy who puts up a show which you cannot see to often in a death metal show. This time he pulled out a random dude from the audience to play air bass on stage as a replacement for Mike Flores. This time the forced shrieks and screaming was a bit too much and was a bit disappointed they didn’t play anything pre “Antithesis”. 7/10

Unleashed – well, when they play something from first three albums, it sounds right and good. When they start playing songs from “Warrior” onwards, you can easily spot the lacking in musical ideas. goddamit the “repeat the name of the song in chorus ad nauseam” gets annoying pretty soon. and the forced black metal tremolo riffs and blasts really do not fit into the band. 6/10

Arkhon Infaustus – all the evil posing, namecalling the audience and playing above everybody else aside, it was a damn fine show! Got to hear the best songs off “Perdition Insanabilis” and “Orthodoxyn” and I was happy as a Swedish boy! (im not Swedish btw. Seinfeld reference, doesn’t matter) 8/10

Nocturnus AD – well, somehow they managed to pull it off live. the guitar craziness. and you could see Mike Browning didn’t improve too much as a drummer from “The Key” times, but again, they managed. the 2 new songs played sound almost exactly as from the mentioned album which is good I guess. 7/10

Belphegor – Jesus Chirst, the posing. the faces. the zillion inverted crosses, the latin expression between songs. Laughable really. But they have some really good songs in the repertoire and you gotta respect that. 6/10

Pain of Salvation – looked forward to seeing them. Were humble on stage and really tight. Played some songs I didn’t expect they would play (“InsideOut”, “Ashes”) and generally were focused on heavuer stuff. really good overall. 8/10

Claudio Simmonettis Goblin – well, this was unexpected. the soundtrack of some cult Italian horror films arranged for rock, metal, prog. sounded advanterous, and the crowd was crazy for it. The band was very surprised to see the positive reactions. 8/10

Dodechaderon – if I cant understand a single riff and don’t know the discography, im out. so I was out pretty early on this. 6/10

Full of Hell – surprise of the festival. Knew almost nothing about these guys but they slayed on stage. grindcore with noise interludes. Breaks and general hardcore posing reduced to minimum. just red lights and strangely, evil and somewhat unsettling. the vocalist is a beast and a man possessed. you could see him physically wasted after 35 minutes of this audio madness. perfect ending of the festival. 9/10


We wanted to see Aura Noir and Wiegedood too, but it was too late and we were wasted. Damn you, running order!

Bought 27 CDs and two shirts. that’s about it.


tl dr:

Best bands in no particular order:

Tormentor
Full of Hell
Malokarpatan
Akercocke
Green Carnation
Dragged into Sunlight

 

[Barabas]

^ beer has been varied for the last 3-5 years

Glenn war wie das Ende von Braveheart: Am Anfang will das Publikum ihn leiden sehen und dann wünscht es sich nur, dass es bald vorbei ist Nee, im Ernst, ich fand es okay. Seine Stimme ist ziemlich im Arsch, außer er schreit die Refrains, dann passt es. Selbst bei Ansagen hat sich seine Stimme allerdings manchmal überschlagen. Er tobt aber mega authentisch rum und mit Back-Up von den Kollegen klingt das eigentlich ganz ordentlich. Die neuen Songs sind und bleiben aber Murks. Die meisten Headliner haben mich, wie immer, eher zu den Duschen gezogen.

Persönliche Highlights:
- Sadistic Intent (einfach nur gut, trotz der Uhrzeit, tight, geiles Riffs, etc. besser geht DM für mich nicht)
- Hirax (totales Thrash-Armageddon aus heiterstem Himmel, hätte nie damit gerechnet soviel Energie von denen zu sehen)
- Misthyrming (guter Sound, viel Energie)
- Tormentor (10/10 Black Metal)
- Malokarpatan (s.o., wobei am Anfang nicht besonders tight, KURWA)
- Goblin (Schwer zu sagen aber vom Konzept her klang das für mich langweilig, und dann fühlte es sich an, wie 5 Sekunden, mega sympathische Leute, tolle Kompositionen)

Kleines Highlight: Stromausfall in der Stadt und auf dem Gelände. Auch Grave Pleasure mussten unterbrechen. Kvohst sang dann mit dem Publikum noch ein paar Zeilen Death Reflects Us - Gänsehaut. Am nächsten Tag wurde dann ein völlig anderes Set nachgeholt. Seeeeeeeeehr sympathisch.

Positiv:
- Klobasa
- Piwo
- Hasici-Einsätze
- die Talks über underground Metal mit Messiah
- allgemein bessere Toiletten-Situation finde ich
- Duschen wenn Nuclear Blast-Bands spielen

Negativ
- morgens in der Schlange zu den Duschen stehen
- Trinkwasser auf dem Gelände zu teuer. Ich finde da sollte die EU eingreifen und bei +25 Grad Veranstalter zu bringen kostenlos was zur Verfügung zu stellen
- heftig heißes Wetter. Nächstes Jahr probiere ich das mit den Wärmdecken auf dem Zelt
- die zunehmende Anzahl (deutscher) Dauercamper ausm Dorf, die Techno/Schlager pumpen und Leuten, die möglichst viele Bands sehen wollen, die Entspannungsmöglichkeiten nehmen
- der fucking Bahnhof ist jedes Mal Stress, hoffe der Umbau ist in 12 Monaten abgeschlossen

 

[Fates Warning]

Negativ
- Trinkwasser auf dem Gelände zu teuer. Ich finde da sollte die EU eingreifen und bei +25 Grad Veranstalter zu bringen kostenlos was zur Verfügung zu stellen

Zu teuer?? das Wasser hat doch 25 Kronen gekostet also nicht mal 1 Euro für ein 0,5L, ausserdem gabs Kranenwasser umsonst

 

[Barabas]

Bin mir recht sicher, dass es vor 1-2 Jahren noch 0.5 Zetons, also circa die Hälfte, gekostet hat. Und ich bin, wie gesagt, der Meinung die sollten Trinkwasser kostenlos zur Verfügung stellen oder erlauben, dass man nen Liter mit aufs Gelände nehmen kann.

 

[Fates Warning]

Bin mir recht sicher, dass es vor 1-2 Jahren noch 0.5 Zetons, also circa die Hälfte, gekostet hat. Und ich bin, wie gesagt, der Meinung die sollten Trinkwasser kostenlos zur Verfügung stellen oder erlauben, dass man nen Liter mit aufs Gelände nehmen kann.

Kostenloses Trinkwasser gibt es mittlerweile so gut wie nirgendswo, aufm RHF verlangen die sogar 3,50 und ausserdem gabs kostenloses Wasser aus dem Hahn

 

[Henna]

^ beer has been varied for the last 3-5 years

Glenn war wie das Ende von Braveheart: Am Anfang will das Publikum ihn leiden sehen und dann wünscht es sich nur, dass es bald vorbei ist Nee, im Ernst, ich fand es okay. Seine Stimme ist ziemlich im Arsch, außer er schreit die Refrains, dann passt es. Selbst bei Ansagen hat sich seine Stimme allerdings manchmal überschlagen. Er tobt aber mega authentisch rum und mit Back-Up von den Kollegen klingt das eigentlich ganz ordentlich. Die neuen Songs sind und bleiben aber Murks. Die meisten Headliner haben mich, wie immer, eher zu den Duschen gezogen.

Persönliche Highlights:
- Sadistic Intent (einfach nur gut, trotz der Uhrzeit, tight, geiles Riffs, etc. besser geht DM für mich nicht)
- Hirax (totales Thrash-Armageddon aus heiterstem Himmel, hätte nie damit gerechnet soviel Energie von denen zu sehen)
- Misthyrming (guter Sound, viel Energie)
- Tormentor (10/10 Black Metal)
- Malokarpatan (s.o., wobei am Anfang nicht besonders tight, KURWA)
- Goblin (Schwer zu sagen aber vom Konzept her klang das für mich langweilig, und dann fühlte es sich an, wie 5 Sekunden, mega sympathische Leute, tolle Kompositionen)

Kleines Highlight: Stromausfall in der Stadt und auf dem Gelände. Auch Grave Pleasure mussten unterbrechen. Kvohst sang dann mit dem Publikum noch ein paar Zeilen Death Reflects Us - Gänsehaut. Am nächsten Tag wurde dann ein völlig anderes Set nachgeholt. Seeeeeeeeehr sympathisch.

Positiv:
- Klobasa
- Piwo
- Hasici-Einsätze
- die Talks über underground Metal mit Messiah
- allgemein bessere Toiletten-Situation finde ich
- Duschen wenn Nuclear Blast-Bands spielen

Negativ
- morgens in der Schlange zu den Duschen stehen
- Trinkwasser auf dem Gelände zu teuer. Ich finde da sollte die EU eingreifen und bei +25 Grad Veranstalter zu bringen kostenlos was zur Verfügung zu stellen
- heftig heißes Wetter. Nächstes Jahr probiere ich das mit den Wärmdecken auf dem Zelt
- die zunehmende Anzahl (deutscher) Dauercamper ausm Dorf, die Techno/Schlager pumpen und Leuten, die möglichst viele Bands sehen wollen, die Entspannungsmöglichkeiten nehmen
- der fucking Bahnhof ist jedes Mal Stress, hoffe der Umbau ist in 12 Monaten abgeschlossen

Malokarpatan waren schon mal tight? *wegduck*

 

[Barabas]

Kostenloses Trinkwasser gibt es mittlerweile so gut wie nirgendswo, aufm RHF verlangen die sogar 3,50 und ausserdem gabs kostenloses Wasser aus dem Hahn

Jo, ist mir klar. Aber auf dem WOA und WFF kann man Wasser mit reinnehmen, oder? In deren kleinen Wasserbeuteln. Ansonsten sind die meisten Punk-Festivals ähnlich aufgestellt. Dennoch, und ich meine das ernst, finde ich, dass die EU da mal was machen sollte. Wer 10k Leute hostet muss in der Lage sein denen wenigstens etwas Wasser zu Verfügung zu stellen. Ich kriege ja auch im Restaurant kostenlos welches, per Gesetz.

Malokarpatan waren schon mal tight? *wegduck*

Also ja, für deren Verhältnisse. Aber die Songs klangen in der 2. Hälfte schon ordentlich wie vom Album. HOH wird gut.

 

[Dominik2]

(Teil-)Bericht:

https://www.metal1.info/konzerte/brutal-assault-open-air-2018-teil-1/