ArchiveFestivals / EventsLive

Summer Breeze 2007

16.-18.8.2007 Dinkelsbühl, GER

Happy birthday Summerbreeze! This year it was the festival´s 10th birthday, and as every year, it presented a colourfull mix of bands from different genres, such as Black, Death, Gothic and Industrial. So probably everyone got his money´s worth.

Criticism about problems with the navigation or water provision were taken to heart. Only illumination on campsides and pathways needed improvement. Besides that I (and some other photographers) were wondering, why you needed a headliner-photopass for the last 3 bands on both stages. Because of this there are only few pictures taken, from the audience viewpoint.

(Interactive festival photo gallery at the end of the text)

Otherwise the party started this year already on Wednesday on the new partystage, where some newcomer competed for the opener slot on the following day. Regrettably I missed Breschdleng, who announced “Metal with Swabian lyrics”, what sounded amusing. Unblest had like every other band only 25 min to convince the audience of their music: Good, forcefully modern rock that showed the skills of those really talented guys (no suprise, because 3 of them are music students). Regrettably there were not that many metalheads, because the music was relatively quiet. Good gig, wrong audience, however: thumbs up, keep it going!


Stitch

Glaring change of style, it turned black with Might of Lilith from Stuttgart, which had a bunch of fans. Within a short time, the party tent was full of people. A perfect Black Metal show, obviously because of those loud “We want more”- cries. The hyperactive Stitch jumped around on the stage as if there was no tomorrow and presented intensive music which fascinated the audience. They deserved to get the opener slot on the Painstage. Hopefully there will be more to be heard of this guys!

After a longer break Justice entered the stage to start their 4 (!) hour concert, with coversongs of e.g. Judas Priest, Slayer, Pantera, Slipknot and Sentenced. In the end there was Amon Amarth´s “Death in fire”. Usually I´m no fan of coverbands, but Justice could convince me and the broad party tent.

Impious
What should one say? The Swedish Death-Thrash band showed, despite of the late hour – nearly 2 o´ clock – no mercy, as usual they played with joy and were absolutely sympathic. Once all over the whole discography, forceful riffs and neckbreaker en masse. This is the way how a festival day should end. People who did not want to stand in front of the stage the whole time, could sit comfortably in the grass and enjoy brought along drinks (at this place there were no controls). A very relaxed extra day, which will hopefully retained.

Thursday, August 16 2007

Swallow The Sun
I overslept the newcomer-contest-winner Stitch, but no matter how sleepy I was, I might not miss this band! Already the third time I saw finest Death-Doom! It´s a pity that these Finns had – like at Wacken – only ridiculous 30 min – just not enough! The Doomsters around singer Mikko Kotamäki made the best of it and convinced -despite of the very early hour – many people with the heart-rending finnisch melancholy. Besides “Out of this gloomy light”, “Don´t fall asleep” and “Hope”, there was also “Swallow” of the debut album. Short, but convincing! I can´t get enough of this band, so go and catch them on their November tour with Amorphis!

Fear My Thoughts
showed Metalcore at it´s best, I have to admit – really not my music – but these men could convince. Suprisingly many people were at the place at this early time, and there were fantastic vipes: Circle pits and even a Wall of Death. Wonderfully aggressive show!

Immolation
Not less brutal but more old-school. The band is now already 15 years old, what one wouldn´t expect and they played a best of from the band history. The vocalist (who had btw the festival´s longest hair) thanked the audience and enjoyed their good vibes. This is the way a comeback has to be!

Lacrimas Profundere
A sylistic change and ironically with these gloomy rockers the sun came out. As expected, the female fraction in the first rows increased. Solid gothicmetal, very catchy, but I found it a little boring after a while, because the special something was missing. Nevertheless – a solid show!

After Forever
Although I´m not a big fan of bands with female vocals, the Dutchs belong to the few bands I like to listen to. Together with a shouter for the aggressive vocal parts, the sympathic vocalist Floor Jansen had a walk-over with the audience. Epic-hymnal, instead of croaking-annoying like other bands with female vocalists, they gave a intoxicating concert. For the Song “Who I am” Doro Pesch appeared as guest vocalist.

Krypteria
And again female vocals, Metal of totally different colour, but also with a very charismatic front woman. Within almost three years of playing they have gained their good reputation, and certainly many males came to the stage because of the vocalist. Musically in my opinion it´s a bit weaker then After Forever and the vocal-style also is not my taste, but the guys and the girls fascinated the people.

Rage
were not for the first time at the Breeze, but the first time without their drummer Mike Terrana and with new drummer Andre Hilgers. The three men gathered a big crowd in front of the stage and were a nice alternation. For Rage you don´t even need to like Heavy Metal, because this music is just capable for party. In the end there was of course the hit “Higher than the sky” and “Straight to hell” and then regrettably a little bit of rain.

The Black Dahlia Murder
I saw them from the distance, but on the new breeze festival area the food and drink stands are placed in a circle around the stage, so you can drink and eat without missing something.

Doro
is the only Metal queen, you can´t miss her and she just understands how to fascinate a crowd. So there was a best of programme and of course the sing-along song “All we are” wasn´t missing. The fans were just amazed and after the show you could hear “We want more”-cries.

Suffocation
Seeing them is always a pleasure. Wonderfully brutal, right in your face, joy to play and a hyperactive, sympathic vocalist, who always fidgets wild during the blast parts and showed his tongue. In front of the stage heads were banged and people moshed. Oldschool Death which fulfilled every desire. The drummer certainly had some people gazing open-mouthed. Great gig!

Nevermore
Fiiiiiiiiinally! I had waited the whole day for this band, after more then one year finally live again! But, where is Warrel? Probably some people where wondering, too, until the guy with the shorter and now dark hair plus baseball cap started to sing. THIS was unmistakeable Warrel Dane! On the bass not Jim Sheppard, but backup man Tim. But let´s leave the unusual things aside, with the music everything was good as always. Since the vocalist stopped to drink alcohol, his voice is even better, the stage presence even more agile and intensifying. There was “I voyager”, the sing along song “Born” and two not often live played songs of “Dreaming Neon Black” (“Deconstruction” and “No more will.”) – What more can one desire?

Amon Amarth
Ok, these guys play on every outlet and there´s probably hardly no one who hasn´t seen them yet. After six times live they got finally boring, though their Viking Metal is really suitable for party and headbanging. But I was surprised in a positive way. This time there was even a Viking ship on stage, which stunned people and made a longlasting impression, combined with the lightshow. And no matter how often you have seen them, with “Death in fire”, “Pursuit of Vikings” and “Victorious March” you gladly join those synchronous headbanging Swedes on stage. Moreover, there was fire rain and fire columns and you could feel the heat in the audience. After the gig there was a crowd of satisfied fans, which shouted out loud for more.


Nightrage

Dornenreich
After 12 it was the time for the last band of the first real festival day. Dornenreich recorded this concert for a DVD, but still there was a smaller audience then before. Maybe because most people felt already burnt out, or maybe because this music has not a lot of mass appeal. I have to admit that I didn´t like the music this time, though I usually like listening to Dornenreich very much. But they turned out to be a good liveband, their songs sounded good.

Nightrage
The Swedes played after Deadlock and co at the party tent. Who missed them should be annoyed, because this guys really made everything right. The new vocalist has assimilated perfectly in the band and was so happy about playing the gig that he jumped off stage and hugged the stunned people first row. At the end I was burnt out and I didn´t see War From A Harlots Mouth and Fall of Serenity.

Friday August 17 2007
Karkadan
While some people had trouble with arriving at the show in time, but the band seemed to be quite fresh and came on stage nearly ten minutes earlier. Despite of smaller technical problems, the gig was good and woke up many people. I´d like to see them again!

Dagoba
Holla, the fairy from the forest! What did they put into the morning coffee of vocalist Shawter? I´ve seen the band already two times, but in the evening, therefore I´d expected something more quiet. But no, he came on stage and shouted his lungs out. Just sick, how the guys thrashed 30 minutes through their set without any breaks to take breath. And then he even said, they had never played that early! No matter when Dagoba plays, they destroy everything and everyone at every hour of the day. And there was already a circlepit!

Eluveitie
were there with even 8 musicians and were filling up the mainstage. I had a bad feeling when I saw them entering the stage with hurdy-gurdy, violin, flutes, bagpipe and so on. But I was surprised in a positive way, because they added powerful guitars and somehow it didn´t sound boring. Visually the brothers Rafi and Sevan were highlights, because there tattoos were impressive. The band had obviously as much fun as the audience and considering the still relatively early hour, there were in the meantime many people in front of the stage.

Koldbrann
On the Painstage it got veeeeeeeery black, when the Norwegians unleashed a little Black Metal inferno, but blurred by a strange sound. It was a pity that they had to play in bright daylight. A Black Metalband just belongs to the evening. Many fans certainly felt the same, and so there were not many people except in the front rows.

Illdisposed
Genre change to the “swulen eierlosen Nutten aus dem Norden” (“The gay whores from the North without balls”, pronounced with a lisp), how Illdisposed like to present themselves: Groovy Death Metal with stupid announcements in German. The latter alone was very entertaining! Vocalist Bo and his men had the fans under control. So it wasn´t surprising that the crowd loudly shouted for more.

Disillusion
were really progressive, and with their new female bassist in the lineup they certainly convinced everyone of their live qualities. Also the ones who had thought until then, that their music live doesn´t rock at all. It does! Despite of the bright daylight the atmosphere was intoxicating and the masses in front of the stage were impressed and satisfied. That´s how it has to be.

Eisbrecher
Hm, I have to admit that I don´t know what I should think of this band, which has got some former Megaherz members in their lineup. The music after best Rammstein-manner was fitting for party and so many people partied with the band.

Hevein
I´ve seen the last time two years ago in Finland, they are one of my favourite bands and I was curious how they had progressed. What should I say? With as much energy and joy to play as it is their habit, they convinced with their Melodic Thrash Metal, which not least stood out in a crowd because of the violin and the cello – played by former Apocalyptica cellist Max Lilja. Additionally there was one until then unreleased song, called “Bullsrun” and a cover-version of Pantera´s “Walk”, which was which was absorbed enthusiastic by the fans. A really successful gig which hopefully made them gain many new fans. In Germany they are actually still way too unknown.

Sirenia
Well, compared to the shows before Sirenia declined much, above all they not really stand out of the crowd within the genre of bands with female vocals. And here – on stage only the two guitarists, the vocalist, the drummer, bass, keyboards and the rest of the bombast came from tape. This was accompanied by a vocalist who often waved about with her arms a little helplessly. All in all solid, but certainly only for fans, the rest was probably rather bored.

Necrophobic
from Norway on the Painstage had a harder way. Good that there was already a verypowerful start with “Blinded by light, enlightened by darkness”. They seemed to like playing and moving and the fans thanked it with eager moshing!

End of Green
After L´Ame Imortelle were a victim of my taking-food-break, I was right in time back for the show of End of Green on the Painstage, which were there as a short-dated backup for Crematory. The Crematory fans were probably annoyed, but everyone else was certainly more than happy with this backup, so that vocalist Michelle Darkness could sing the songs with much support of the audience.

Finntroll
The people who still grump in Finntroll-reviews, that vocalist Vreth is too beautiful to be a troll, or too serious or to static, probably make the mistake of not moving enough themselves. But not many people on the Summer Breeze festival made this mistake. Most of the crowd remember probably more seeing their hair, then seeing anyone of the band, though they partied much on stage and did a good job! Songs like “Trollhammaren” are of course permanent burner, but also the new stuff like “En mäktig här” was accepted brightly by the audience. (Aziza)


Eisbrecher

Volbeat
Help! Just survived the party at the Finntroll gig, maybe burnt one´s body totally out, because you can´t stand still on the typical Finntroll sound, then already the Dutch go on without mercy and unleash party in front of the stage as always. And they even recorded the show for a DVD. From the first song the vocalist Poulsen had the audience under control and talked always to the fans, asked them to do singalong-games and jumped also into the photopit to shake hands. Soon the crazy Dutchmen are on tour! Go and get them!

Bolt Thrower
Death Metal at it´s best of one of the Death Metal primary rocks. With habitual brutality the Bolt Thrower tank rolled above the masses and destroyed everything, which crossed it´s way without compromising. On top of everything this was the only gig in Germany this year, which caused a big rush in front of the stage. The band counts in the meantime 20 years, but they got not a bit calmer, far from it! I´d like to see them again!


Necrophobic

Poisonblack
Some would say they sound like Sentenced. No surprise, because there´s former Sentenced-vocalist Ville Laihiala on the microphone and some of the Poisonblack-hits could very well be found also on a Sentenced-album. They presented a very solid gig with many hits, which animated to sing along and brought for a while a little piece of Finland and Finnish mentality to Germany.

After that the party continued in the camping agea, therefore I enjoyed In Extremo and Dark Funeral from a distance. Again the Partystage invited to stay longer, with Black Messiah, Squealer (the A.D. was removed from the band name, and also singer Gus Chambers was replaced), Absolute and President Evil playing until the early morning.

By the way, for those who know Summerbreeze and the Bambi-cult : Several tipsy visitors resurrected, or better created a copy of this beer-can statue, carried it to stage and shouted with Oomph-haters: “Bambi on stage, replace Oomph!” (aziza)

Because of several problems we both could not attend the Saturday, therefore our report ends here. We hope that you still got an impression of this year´s Summerbreeze – very relaxed, with great bands and fans. CU at Summer Breeze 2008!

Text: Cornelia Wickel, Aziza Schwenke, transl. A.Schwenke
photos: Cornelia Wickel
afterforever (1) Kopie

Cornelia Wickel

(no longer active) - reports, photos

Leave a Reply