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Summer Breeze 2010

18.-21.8.2010  Dinkelsbühl, GER

What, it´s almost end of August and the festival season is also over? Time flies…
But wait, it wasn´t completely over yet, there was still one big festival waiting and once again the Summer Breeze was the festival for most people, to end the festival season with a big bang.
Two mainstages, one tentstage plus small stage next to it, 100 bands, 30 000 visitors, 4 days of metal – that´s the recipe for a big party.
(In case text illustrations and links no longer work, go to interactive Flickr gallery at the end of the text)

Wednesday, 18.08.2010

Apart from a short traffic jam in Dinkelsbühl on Wednesday afternoon, everything went smoothly. Quickly we set up the tents and started checking the surrounding to see, whether something had changed remarkably this year. However, apart from the Jägermeister Skybar that was unfortunately missing, everything seemd to bei like last year.

Suffocation were the first band that we checked out on the warm-up day. They started with “Thrones Of Blood” an clearly showed, that they´re a damn good live band. Blasting, hard riffs and the typical handwaving during the blastparts, yes, that´s Suffocation. There was no time to take a short rest, brutal stuff from beginning to end with songs like “Liege Of Inveracity” or “Cataclysmic Purification.
The bassist was almost playing on the floor, headbanging constantly as if there was no tomorrow. The tent was absolutely packed and turned into pure Death Metal chaos within a few minutes. Thumbs up!

Setlist:
Thrones of Blood, Liege of Inveracity, Cataclysmic Purification, Catatonia, Pierced from Within, Blood Oath, Entrails of You, Infecting the Crypts

Next were Rage, but since this wasn´t my cup of tea today, I decided to leave and come back for Unleashed. Of course we needed another dose of Metal today, so we came back to the tent for the gig of Unleashed. The Swedes started the gig in not so winterly weather with the song “Winterland”. In the well-known sympathical manner fronter Johnny guided through the gig and made his “warriors” bang their heads to the tunes of “Shadows In The Deep” or “Into Glory Ride”. Banging heads everywhere, the Death Metal machine was working really well and thus there was nothing that could stop the “Death Metal Victory”, which also marked the end of the gig.

Setlist:
Winterland, Blood Of Lies, This Is Our World Now, Shadows In The Deep, Hammer Battalion, The Greatest Of All Lies, Your Children Will Burn, Wir kapitulieren niemals, Into Glory Ride, Legal Rapes, The Longships Are Coming, Death Metal Victory

The only thing, that prevented me from watching the other bands, was that damn tiredness, that made me crawl to the tent almost immediately after Unleashed and also made me sleep like a stone until the next morning…

Thursday, 19.08.2010

Going to bed that early actually proved to be a good idea like we should see the next morning, since the weather was much better than expected and the warmsun was turning the tent into a sauna, even though it wasn´t that warm outside.

Thus we were awake more than early enough to catch Barren Earth on the mainstage. Miko Kotamäki, who might be known better as Swallow The Sun vocalist to most people, started into the gig together with his all-star band and a song called “Curse Of The Red River”. It was a bit strange to see such a band that early, on the other hand, there were really a lot of big bands playing today, so it wasn´t that evil, if you had to play early. Even though I had quite some doubts before, whether this material would really work that early with lots of sunshine and such, but it did!

Setlist:
Curse Of The Red River, Our Twilight, Forlorn Waves, Flicker, The Leer, Floodred

On the Painstage it was time for the Power Metal fans to gather, since Dreamevil were next. Even though, I normally don´t listen to that kind of music, I have to admit that their gig was pretty entertaining. The vocalist was blabbering a bit here and there between the songs, but luckily never too much, so nobody had to scream “Plaaaay and shut up!”. Clichées, lots of them, but hey, it was fun and musicwise surely not bad!

setlist:
Immortal, United, Made Of Metal, Crusaders Anthem, Bang Your Head, Heavy Metal In The Night, Children Of The Night, The Chosen Ones, The Book Of Heavy Metal

In case this had been way too melodic, you could have it in another way right after that. On the mainstage a grindcore commando from Birmingham was waiting to drive the audience nuts. Of course we´re talking about Napalm Death, who kicked off with “Strong Arm of the Law”. Fronter Barney was running and “dancing” ecstaticly as always and this once again made me wonder, whether he receives money for making as much kilometers as possible on stage. Of course the socially critic announcements and explanations during the songs had to be there and if I had to chose a band, whose annoucements make most sense, it would probably be those of Napalm Death. Thanks to “You Suffer” and Co, the grind quartet managed to make the audience go beserk and form mosh and circlepits.
At the latest now, everybody was awake, I´m sure!

Setlist:
Strong-Arm, Unchallenged Hate, Suffer The Children, Silence Is Deafening, Life And Limb, When All Is Said And Done, On The Brink Of Extinction, Scum, Life?, The Kill, Deceiver, You Suffer, Nazi Punks Fuck Off, Siege Of Power

In the meanwhile, the first bands on the partystage had started with their gigs as well. However, I decided to head over to the Painstage once again to check out Ill Nino with their Nu Metal, who made quite a big bunch of people show up here. It was great, that they didn´t only play the new stuff, but some “classics” like the furious “I Am Loco”. It was impossible to escape this energy that was raging on stage. The bandmembers were running from one side to the other, throwing their dreadlocks while headbanging like mad and just in case this was still not enough to make you move, the vocalist asked the audience to go fucking crazy. I for my part was impressed and really happy to see, that they still played such energetic gigs, since the last time I had seen them was in 2004 somewhere in the
Netherlands. So Nu Metal doesn´t have to be that bad, great gig!

Setlist:
If You Still Hate Me, Te Amo…I Hate You, Corazon Of Mine, I Am Loco, Alibi Of Tyrants, This Is War, Lifeless…Life…, Rumba, My Resurrection, God Save Us, Liar, What Comes Around, How Can I Live

Let´s stick to more modern stuff, Parkway Drive took over the mainstage in the truest sense of the word and that from the first second on. After having been something like an insidertip for quite a while, they conquered Europe pretty fast during the last year(s) and made themselves a good reputation
for playing damn good live shows. Breakdown madness and lots of movements on stage and the audience couldn´t resist anymore. “Idols And Anchors”, “Carrion” and “Romance Is Dead” made them go completely off the rails while forming circlepits and singing along loudly.
Another damn good gig.

Setlist:
Intro, Unrest, Idols And Anchors, Romance Is Dead, Smoke ‘Em If Ya Got ‘Em, Sleepwalker, Dead Man’s Chest, Deliver Me, The Sirens’ Song Wreckage, Carrion, Boneyards

Almost at the same time some action heroes (Grailknights) fought their battles on the Partystage. We however decided to stay for the rest of the Parkway Drive gig and go back to the Painstage for a big portion of Finnish Goth´n´Roll with the 69 Eyes. Pretty hard change of genres and a large audience, which mainly consisted of girls, had come to see them. “Back In Blood” was the first song, that the Helsinki Vampire had brought to entertain their fans, followed by “Never Say Die”. Even though they were highly motivated, it took a bit until the audience was warmed up and in the right mood. One reason might´ve also been the choice of songs, which mainly consisted of calm(er) songs. That however changed at the latest when the first tunes of “Brandon Lee” were being played. During the last song “Lost Boys” the Atmosphäre was simply great. Too bad, that they didn´t play more fast and driving songs, that would´ve made the audience dance a bit faster.

Setlist:
Back In Blood, Never Say Die, The Good, The Bad & The Undead, Devils, Kiss Me Undead, Wasting The Dawn, Suspiria Snow White, Framed In Blood, Dead Girls Are Easy, Brandon Lee, Lost Boys

Even though the Die Apokalyptischen Reiter started conquering the masses as usual on the mainstage and the security was facing a huge wave of crowdsufers, I decided to head over to the partystage to witness the gig of a less well-known gig. It was time for yet another Finnish band, that might´ve been pretty unknown in Germany (so far). We´re talking about Tracedawn, who came, saw and conquered. Yes, really, they were jumping and running around, banging their heads like crazy and if their lifes were at stake. In case you remember the crazy, damn energetic fronter of Profane Omen/Enemy Of The Sun, the Tracedawn fronter seemed to be like his twin. Thumbs for being so energetic on stage and for this damn charismatic stage perfomance and even the sound was prefect. No wonder, that they managed to reach a lot of people, and probably also got quite a lot of new fans.

Setlist:
In Your Name, Justice For None, Make Amends, Test Of Faith, Dirt-Track Speedball, Scum

From a young bunch to the “grandpas”. This of course doesn´t mean, that it should be a bit calmer on stage from now on. No, on the contrary, it stayed crazy, since Agnostic Front were the next band. The NYHC legen delivered a flawless and also damn energetic gig, that made it hard to believe, that this band was celebrating its´30th birthday alread. Definitely one of the oldest bands of this years´Summer Breeze. Great gig!

Setlist:
Eliminator, Dead To Me, Outraged, For My Family, Friend Or Foe, All Is Not Forgotten, Peace, Crucified, Victim In Pain, Warriors, Black And Blue, Gotta Go, Take Me Back, Outro, Addiction

It was time for some stage-jumping, cause at the same time, that Agnostic Front were destroying the stage outside, Insomnium were about to play on the tentstage. Great to see, that they´re pretty well-known by now, which was quite different not too long ago. Seems as if touring with Amorphis really helped to gather new fans and get the well-deserved attention here in Germany. Vocalist Niilo was impressing with announcements in German. The gig was started with “Equivalence” and somehow time was flying, because it seemed, as if those 40 minutes of playing time were way too short. Too bad, that they mainly concentrated on newer material, but that couldn´t really destroy the overall positive impression. “Weigh Down With Sorrow” closed a fantastic gig!

Setlist:
Equivalence, Down With The Sun, Where The Last Wave Broke, The Harrowing Years, The Killjoy, The Gale, The Mortal Share, Weighed Down With Sorrow

Let´s continue with funny stage-hopping, which also meant, that it was close to impossible to see a complete gig. Time for groovy Death Metal from America, time for Obituary.
They were grooving and grooving and grooving and this made their fans go completely off the rails. Seems as if somebody really enjoyed the gig, since you could see a grin on the band members face from time to time. But not only they were in a good mood, the audience as well. Thumbs up!

After a small portion of Death Metal, I had to run back to the tent again, since the Finns still kept it occupied. Vocalist Miko was obviously doing two shifts today, since he was now dooming the tent with his mainband Swallow The Sun. Same double-shift stuff also for keyboarder Aleksi, who had just been playing the Keyboards for Insomnium, too. While I arrived, the first tunes of the wonderful “These Hours Of Despair” were welcoming me. Luckily, no one had thought of putting STS on one of the mainstages, since the darker atmosphere of the tent definitely helped to create a more gloomy Atmosphäre for the songs. The audience was concentrating really hard on what was going on onstage and prooved once again, that Death Doom is surely everything but boring. Just watch a whole STS gig and they´ll surely captivate and convince you in their very own way.

Setlist:
These Woods Breathe Evil, Falling World, These Hours Of Despair, Sleepless Swans, Don’t Fall Asleep, Plague Of Butterflies, New Moon, Swallow

And since we love music from the North that much, let´s stay in the north, it´s about time to check out Dark Tranquillity. When it comes to jumping around on stage, DT are at least as crazy as some other bands before. However, there´s one thing, with which vocalist Mikael Stanne beats them all: his broad smile, that seems to be on face all the time. The party started with “At The Point Of Ignition” and “The Fatalist”, on weich Mikael left his very own stamp with his remarkable voice. As soon as the Swedes start to play, you really can´t help it, but you have to start headbanging. The fans welcomed every song and “Focus Shift” or “The Wonders At Your Feet”definitely reached the desired effect. That, in combination with a perfect Sound was definitely one of the festival highlights, of which we actually actually quite a lot this year!

Setlist:
At The Point Of Ignition, The Fatalist, Focus Shift, The Wonders At Your Feet, Final Resistance, Therein, Lost To Apathy, Misery’s Crown, Punish My Heaven, Iridium, Dream Oblivion, Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)

In the meanwhile on the tentstage: The dooming continued, since now Triptykon were up. This was not really a new band – well, the band itself is indeed fairly neu their members however well-known, since they have the Celtic Frost vocalist in their ranks, and also their guitarist. Wow, all over a sudden it had become really dark in the tent – no, not because the sun had gone under, but because of this damn gloomy atmosphere. The audience was totally into the booming sound, that was rolling over them in form of “Goetia” or “Circle Of The Tyrants”. Great gig, that can queue with all the other damn convincing perfomances today on the partystage!

Setlist:
Procreation (Of The Wicked), Goetia, Circle Of The Tyrants, Babylon Fell, The Prolonging

While Subyway To Sally, who were next on the mainstage, weren´t really my cup of tea, I decided to go for a portion of Murder Metal in the tent, since Macabre had been pretty entertaining two weeks ago at Brutal Assault. It should be the same this time again, since the trio from Chicago was leading through the gig in quite a comical way. They presented songs like “Bloody Benders”, “Scrub A Dub Dub” or of course “Vampire Of Düsseldorf”, that all were about serial killers. Soon, they´ll have a new album out, which of course made their fans cheer with joy. Too bad that there was no time for an encore!

Setlist:
Zodiac, Trial, Bloody Benders, Serialkiller, Night Stalker, Scrub A Dub Dub, Burk And Haire, The Wustenfeld Man Eater, You´re Dying To Be With Me, The Iceman, Hitchhiker, Vampire Of Düsseldorf, Ed Gein

After that, it would´ve been time for the damn brutal Behemoth from Poland. They however, had been forced to cancel all their gigs, till at least the end of the year not too long ago. Most fans were of course really disappointed, however, when the reason for the cancellations had been revealed – Nergal had been diagnosed with leukemia – everybody of course hoped, that he´d recover really fast! The fans support the band and we of course would also like to wish him all the best and a fast recovery!

Thus Raised Fist now had to face the difficult task to rock the Pain instead of the Partystage, where Endstille now played. Even though the Swedes weren´t playing in front of the biggest crowd, they really didn´t care and played a damn good show. Absolutely crazy jumps, lots of movement
and action on stage, seems as if this had been the true reason for putting them on the big stage. They played songs like “You Ignore Them All” and “Perfectly Broken” among Otters and managed to gather some more headbangers. Great gig!

Setlist:
You Ignore Them All, Pretext, Perfectly Broken, Running Man, Wounds, Friends And Traitors, Get This Right, Some Of These Times, Tribute, Killing It, Breaking Me Up

 

Friday, 20.08.2010

Friday started rather slowly, since for the first time in years, I didn´t have to/want to be in front of the stage at 11 already, since basically none of tue bands that were playing early interested me that much.
Thus this day “started” at around 3pm, but then in quite a brutal way, it was time for Black Dahlia Murder. Those had, first of all, one of the most colorful backdrops of the whole festival and kicked off with “Everything Went Black”. Luckily not everything went black, cause the weather showed its nicest side with lots of sunshine. Up till now the stage had been in the hand of violin players, Goth and Electro bands and the like, so now it was about time to start some serious circle/moshpit action and some melodic attacks in the vein of good brutal Death Metal. The crowd went off the rails and the security guys decided it was time to try to cool down the masses a bit by wetting the them with a big hose. However it´s questionable, whether it cooled that much, given the fact that the band was firing off songs like “Statutory Ape” and Co. One thing is for sure, the fans were served with a really good gig!

Setlist:
Everything Went Black, Elder Misanthropy, Black Valor, Statutory Ape, Necropolis, Closed Casket Requiem, A Vulgar Picture, What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse, Funeral Thirst, Miasma, Deathmask Divine, I Will Return

A bit later it was time for the first visit at the partystage for today – Pantheon I from Norway entered stage, while a pretty gloomy intro was playing. They had already managed to convince during their last gig at Inferno Festival in Norway and should be able to keep up this good impresssion at Summer Breeze. Apart from the normal instruments, they also had a cello player with the, who, apart from playing some wonderful melodies kept on headbanging her head like crazy. Even though the tent wasn´t completely packed, the band could be sure, to play in front of a bunch of fans, who absolutely enjoyed what they heard and saw. “Serpent Christ” and “Enter The Pantheon” were welcomed warmly – great to see, that Black Metal also works fantastically without cliché corpsepaint and über evil attitude.

Setlist:
Serpent Christ, Defile The Trinity, The Wanderer And His Shadow, Enter The Pantheon, Where Angels Burn

Even though the festival hadn´t been conquered by Finnish bands today, there was another band from Suomi waiting: Ensiferum. However, I only watched this gig from afar, from the campingplace to be exact, but since we had a pretty good view over the stages and also quite an acceptable sound, it was enough to recognize, that they delivered a great gig and pleased their fans with “Afar”, that opened the set and of course also songs like “Token Of Time” or “One More Magic Potion”.

Setlist:
From Afar, Twilight Tavern, Into Battle, Token Of Time, Ahti, Smoking Ruins, Stone Cold Metal, Blood Is The Price, One More Magic Potion, Iron

It was quite a change, when the Brits of Anathema came on stage, who once again, like two years ago, were on the Painstage. Unfortunately damn early this time and not like last time, when they had played at around 11 at night. Anathem at 5pm with bright sunlight, can this work? Yes, it can! They simply started with some faster pieces “Deep” and “Empty” and had the audience on toast within minutes. The fronter was charismatic as always
and somehow they managed to almost make us forget about all the sunshine around. “A Natural Disaster” featured a female vocalist and right after that, they made a big jump backwards in their discography by playing “Sleepless”. The final song, without which of course no Anathema set can be ended was the wonderful “Fragile”, that surely brought tears to some people´s eyes. Even though the atmosphere simply wasn´t the same like at night, it was a great gig!

Setlist:
Deep, Empty, Lost Control, A Simple Mistake, Closer, A Natural Disaster, Sleepless, Universal, Fragile Dreams

After that I tried to catch at least a bit of the War From A Harlots Mouth gig – quite a change of music styles once again, but surely a convincing gig as well. The guys from Berlin were presenting their material in a damn energetic way, the fronter was literally screaming his lungs out and was running around like mad, jumping into the audience, while he continued singing. At the latest, when he did that, he had the audience completely on his side, great!

Setlist:
How To Disconnect, They Come In Shoals, Heeey, Let’s Start A Band!, No Hi-5, Security Werewolves, Crooks, Fighting Wars, Uptown Girl, Copyriot, Keeping It Up, Transmetropolitan, Cancerman, Recluse

Back on the mainstage it was time for some cannibalistic entertainment. Who the hell came up with the idea to put Cannibal Corpse between the gigs of Anathema and End of Green?! It would´ve fitted so much better to put those bands together and let Cannibal Corpse play afterwards, right before Hypocrisy. Or did someone want to make sure, that all those, who went crazy with headbanging and moshing during CC to get a short rest afterwards? Whatever the reason might´ve been, the Americans caused quite a massacre with their music, tight and with a lot of routine – more than 10 songs within one hour of playing time and a joking vocalist, who invited the audience to bang their heads to the next tracks, trying to keep up with his headbanging speed. Sure thing, that nobody won, however, the audience went berserk during “Wretched Spawn” and “Make Them Suffer”. If somebody suffered, it was everybody´s neck! For me personally the material starts getting boring pretty fast, sure, the songs are ultra brutal but it´s surely not the most versatile stuff. However, the fans want to have a great time and that´s exactly what they got!

Setlist:
Scalding Hail, Unleashing The Bloodthirsty, Savage Butchery, Sentenced To Burn, The Wretched Spawn, I Will Kill You, I Cum Blood, Evisceration Plague, The Time To Kill Is Now, Death Walking Terror, Make Them Suffer, Priests Of Sodom, Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead, Hammer Smashed Face, Stripped, Raped And Strangled

I had already seen Kylesa two weeks before at Brutal Assault Festival in Czech and this time I unfortunately only heard their material from a distance, since it was about time to get something to eat. One thing is for sure, in case you haven´t seen /heard them so far, make sure you do when you have the chance for that! Their Stoner/Sludge Metal mix is not only pretty cool live stuff, also the two drummers are serving the audience with a damn nice fat rhythm basis.

Back at the mainstage End Of Green were about to play in front of quite a big crowd. The gothrockers kicked off with “Weakness” and vocalist Michelle Darkness really seemed to enjoy the gig and the great amount of fans that had gathered. The one, who was jumping around the most was the guitarist with his flying dreadlocks for sure! So we had everything we need for a good gig, but the audience still seemed somewhat reserved. What was wrong? Still too hot? Too much action already
during the day? Whatever it was, it was surely not the bands´ fault!

Setlist:
Weakness, Dead City Lights, Demons, Killhoney, Pain Hates Me, Drink Myself To Sleep, Goodnight Insomnia, Hurter, Everywhere, Tie Me A Rope… While You’re Calling My Name,
Die Lover Die, Death In Veins

Ok, ok, maybe the goth stuff was simply to harmless and gloomy for some, maybe it was better to have a look what was going on at the tentstage then. Disbelief were on and they didn´t hesitate for one second and fired their songmaterial into the headbanging crowd from the first second on after an Intro and the following “A Place To Hide”. Even though the band is still quite underestimated, it´s surely one of the best Death Metal bands Germany has to offer and the crowd knew this for sure! No time for boredom or for making a short rest, the setlist consisted of a nice mix of songs through the whole discogrpahy. And “Rewind It All” was drilling its´ way into everyone´s head, so you surely didn´t try to get out of the tent before the gig was over.

Setlist:
Intro (Hell), A Place To Hide, Hate Aggression Schedule, Rewind It All, Navigator, Sick, The One, Misery, The Last Force: Attack!!

Still not enough brutal stuff?! Well, what about jumping over to the mainstage again to catch the Swedes from Hypocrisy, who had just started their ging with “Fractured Millenium”. The guys were in a brilliant mood and thus it didn´t take them too long to make the crowd got completely nuts – sure thing with “Weed Out The Weak” and “Eraser”. 20 years and still rocking loud and proud, that definitely fits to Hypocrisy. Let´s hope, that Peter Tägtgren will tour as much with Hypo as he did with Pain, the fans have been waiting for that long enough! The last song was of course the infamous “Roswell 47” that has to be played at every gig! Damn great!

Setlist:
Fractured Millenium, Weed Out The Weak, Eraser, Pleasure Of Molestation/Osculum Obscenum/ Penetralia, Apocalypse/The Fourth Dimension, Let The Knife Do The Talking, Adjusting The Sun, A Coming Race, Killing Art, Fire In The Sky, Warpath, Roswell 47

After that Gorgoroth could only lose. Even though their Black Metal was of course even more evil…but still. They already lost, when their started their gig almost 10 minutes later, making the audience wait and that of course got quite impatient. That was probably the main reason, why the reactions during the first song “Bertrollets Hevn” were pretty much reserved. I for my part decided, that this was neither what I had expected, nor what I wanted to see right now. As I got told lateron, I definitely hadn´t missed too much.

Setlist:
Bergtrollets Hevn, Satan-Prometheus, Profetens Apenbaring, Aneuthanasia, Forces Of Satan Storms, Ødeleggelse Og Undergang/Blood Stains The Circle, Unchain My Heart, Destroyer, Katharinas Bortgang, Revelation Of Doom

Thus I ran off to the partystage again. What a difference. First of all, the tent was packed, completely packed and what an atmosphere. The fans were already completely going off the rails, when I entered or rather, while I was fighting my way to the photopit during the 3rd song (“Diva Of Disgust”).
Despised Icon were playing their (probably) last European gig before splitting up. Guess the fans really wanted to turn this gig into a truely memorable one. And so they did, they were screaming along whenever possible, did crowdsurfing, circlepits and the band was completely flabbergasted when seeing, how everyone welcomed them there with open arms. Even though the gig two years ago at 2am in the morning had alread been a fantastic one, this one was even better! Definitely one of the best ones, I had ever seen of that band. Maybe they´re gonna rethink their decision of splitting up…or they might at least think over a reunion in a few years.

Setlist:
All For Nothing, A Fractured Hand, Diva Of Digust, Day Of Mourning, Retina, Warm Blooded, In the Arms Of Perdition, Furtive Monologue, MVP

Hope you still had some energy left, since on the mainstage we heard a “Hello, it´s us again!” and yes, loads of people were happy about Heaven Shall Burn being back on the mainstage, headlining this day! They probably all remembered this truly memorably gig from two years ago and thus fans started moshing right after the intro and “Architects Of The Apocalypse”. The band enjoyed being on stage a lot and performed in their well-known energetic way, no wonder, that this energy was being carried over to the audience, too. Of course the audience started doing circlepits really fast, but the vocalist asked them for something different, lots of small circlepits – and that´s what he got! Looked pretty cool from above! This band is growing and growing and this time they had added some more visual effects: Big videowalls and light effects added this special something. It´s not as if it had been really neccessary, but it surely underlined their headliner status. “Black Tears” was marking the end of a fulminant gig, that was ended with a rain of glitter. Both thumbs up, yet another highlight!

Setlist:
Intro, Architects Of The Apocalypse, The Weapon They Fear, Counterweight, The Omen, Buried in Forgotten Grounds, Intro + Endzeit, Combat, The Disease, Voice Of The Voiceless, Return To Sanity, Forlorn Skies, Lie You Bleed For, 7th Cross, Behind A Wall, Unleash Enlightment, To Inherit The Guilt, Black Tears

If you had been playing a similar kind of music afterwards, it would´ve been close to impossible, if not completely impossible to make it even better. However, Gwar were playing some completely different music and their approach of enterainment was a pretty different one, too. Let´s take a look at what was going on on the Painstage. The photopit was quite empty, everybody who didn´t have to be there, wasn´t there and those who had to or were crazy enough to go their, were covered in disposible raincoats from head to toe. Some others preferred to shoot from a safe distance. Why all those safety one might ask? Well…the crazy costumes of the guys were surely not the main problem, it was more because of all the blood and Otter juices that was spilled over the audience. First of all a beheaded guy spilled blood over the audience, followed by juices of various kinds all through the gig.
Quite obvious, that music wasn´t in the center of attention during their show. Without costumes and exaggerated show containing “violence” and obscene stuff, nobody would really go that crazy about this band. That way however, it´s cult for lots of people. I for my part decided it was enough after “Hitler´s” appearance and decided to take a rest before the last gig of the day.

And this was definitely necessary, since we had to stay up and awake until 2 am. Then one of the most exotic bands of the festival were playing: Orphaned Land from Israel. Even though it was already quite late – or early – the tent was pretty full. At the latest after their new album “The Way Of ORwarriOR”, they managed to gather a large following here in Germany. The offered a great mix of various styles, that even contained oriental influences and clearly showed, that they belief and what they sing and talk about. No matter, if they wanted their audience to clap, sing along or jump, the audience followed. During “Sapari” it was of course time for another guest on stage, bellydancer Betül joined them and did a great perfomance, that added the cherry on top of that gig. Too bad, that the perfomance was already over after roughly 45 minutes with “Norra El Norra” and “Ornaments Of Gold”. The screaming for encore clearly showed that this had been a great gig, that made people have lots of fun, even though it had been a long day.

Setlist:
Birth Of The Three (The Unification), Olat Ha’tamid, Barakah, The Kiss Of Babylon (The Sins), Sapari, Ocean Land (The Revelation), Thee By The Father I Pray, Norra El Norra (Entering The Ark), Ornaments Of Gold

Actually I had planned to watch the gig of the wonderful Long Distance Calling, tiredness threw a monkey wrench into my plans, sorry!


 

Saturday, 21.08.2010
Somehow it didn´t really work with my plan to be in front of the Painstage at 11 this morning, to catch the very first gig of Be´Lakor outside Australia. Thus I had to live with the fact, that I could only hear them on the campingplace. However, it was great to hear, that the audience had gathered in a respektable number for that early time to be woken up with “Sun´s Delusion” and “Neither Shape Nor Shadow”. Sometimes even the less well-known bands manage to attract a bigger following. Let´s hope they managed to win lots of new fans with their gig, they surely deserve it!
Setlist:
Sun’s Delusion, Neither Shape Nor Shadow, Tre’aste, From Scythe To Sceptre

After that it was time for Van Canto, who really proved to be shooting stars with their Rakataka-Acapella Metal. So it wasn´t that amazing, that the place in front of the stage was damn packed already, when they started with “Lost Forever”. Sure, there were lots of fans, but most probably also lots of people, who still hadn´t seen them live and simply wanted to see, how Metal without any instruments, (ok, there is one instrument: drums) can work, especially in the metalgenre. They managed to ignite a spark pretty fast and at the latest during “Fear Of The Dark” the choir had grown immensly, loads of people were singing along. One thing is for sure, Van Canto definitely set the bar high for the following bands, who really had to play a great gig to compete!
Setlist:
Lost Forever, Metal Song, Rebellion, One To Ten, Bard’s Song, The Mission/ Master Of Puppets, Fear Of The Dark

In the meanwhile, there was a goody waiting on the partystage, while the sun was burning outside.

Hacride surely didn´t have it easy with their quite complex soundmaterial, however, they were playing as if their lives were at stake. Compared to the fans they hadn´t been hanging around at the festival for the fourth day already, so they had more than enough energy to deliver a great performance. Too bad, that the audience didn´t soak up this energy and go a bit more crazy. Nevertheless a great gig!

After that, it didn´t look much better, when it comes to audience in action. Even though a lot more people had gathered in front of the mainstage, the crowd didn´t seem to enthusiastic (whereas it had gone completely nuts during the Eisbrecher gig before) – apart from the die-hard fans in the front rows of course. Well, one excuse might´ve been, that it was still pretty hot and the sun was burning those, who were standing in fron of stage. But hey, Poisonblack knew how to handle this and presented their Gothic Metal in a pretty good mood. A lot of people will never stop to compare this band to Sentenced and will thus say, that it will never reach them, however, instead of complaining about that, what about being happy that Ville Laihiala is still entertaining us with his pretty unique rough voice? Because there´s surely nothing complain about his vocal quality in songs like “Leech”, “Nothing Else Remains” or “Rush”.
Setlist:
Casket Case, Leech, Nothing Else Remains, Love Infernal, Soul In Flames, Left Behind, Rush, Buried Alive, Bear The Cross

What about more heavy and complex stuff on the tentstage? It was about time for Solstafir from Iceland, who surely don´t play that often over here. They unfortunately only had 30 minutes to present their idiosyncratic mix of Psychedelic Rock/Metal, which led to a very short, the shortest setlist of tue whole festival to be exact: It consisted of only two songs. Starting with “Köld”, the second song was the fantastic “Ritual Of Fire”, which is abtut 20 minutes long. What a pitty, that even such a rare guest, only gets such a short playing time, especially when the songmaterial is that interesting. This or that way, fans really enjoyed this interesting sound experience, which allowed them to dive into different spheres for a while, just like tue band, who didn´t even seem to recognize anything around them.
Setlist:
Köld, Ritual Of Fire

And now for something completely different: Sepultura from Brasil were up next and they to be everywhere this summer! For me at least it was already the 5th gig. As always the crowd was going off the rails, which was impossible to not do with those impellent rhythms. The audience was in high spirits and at the latest when the first riffs of “Roots Bloody Roots” were being played at the end, it had reached its climax. Happy faces on and off stage. Finally, the audience seemed to be awake again!
Setlist:
Intro (A-LEX IV), Moloko Mesto, Alex I, Arise, Refuse/Resist, What I Do, Convicted In Life, The Treatment, Troops Of Doom, Schizophrenia / Escape To The Void, Territory, Innerself, Rattamahata, Roots Bloody Roots

And the party continued with Korpiklaani, who were singing about Vodka, beer and Co and with “Vodka” they started the party and kept the audience going. A sure thing, that the first rows didn´t have to be asked to dance and party and after a while, this good mood music also “infected” those further in the back.
Setlist:
Vodka, Journey Man, Korpiklaani, Cottages & Saunas, Kipumylly, Tuli Kokko, Viima, Juodaan Viinaa, Pellonpekko, Paljon On Koskessa Kiviä, Crows Bring The Spring, Pinewoods, Wooden Pints, Happy Little Boozer, Beer Beer, Let’s Drink

Now it was the time for the not that suprising anymore surprise act. Everyone, who had taken a look at the festival shirt, might´ve been able to find the name Bülent Ceylan hidden between all the bandnames. At the latest, when you had a look at the festival info, you could read “something, that hasn´t been presented at any German festival” and “He´ll rock you, even without hard guitar riffs” – you could be sure, that it was him. The place in front of the mainstage was really packed, everybody was waiting for the German-Turkish comedian, who is probably the only real metalhead among German comedians. “The turkish guy has to sweat” or “Monnem rockt” (Mannheim rocks – Mannheim is his hometown), people were screaming for Bülent and he ran onto stage, headbanging like a maniac. There was no need to worry about how the audience would react on him being the surprise gig anymore. “You´re all completely crazy!”, he screamed, that was the first thing, that came to his head, when he saw this huge crowd, that had come to see him. Impossible to get that broad grin out of his face again. So the next 20 minutes belonged to his various stage characters like janitor Mompfred, who obviously had forgotten to take his anti-racism-pills again. The audience was completely crazy now, starting circlepits and banging their heads, as if a band was playing. And just like he had said at the press conference, he went crowdsurfing and really enjoyed bathing in the crowd. Pretty cool idea!

Not even 10 minutes later, the band programm continued and it was time for yet another legend of NYHC, Sick Of It All. The crowd was now really warmed up, in a great mood and thus SOIA had them on the toast within a song or two. “Death Or Jail” started the madness, the crowd went nuts and the guitarist was jumping and running around on stage like crazy. I guess members of Hardcore bands are simply all hyperactive, who simply can´t stand still for at least one second. Songs following were “The Divide”, “Built To Last” and “Scratch The Surface”. Great gig!
Setlist:
Death Or Jail, Good Looking Out, Uprising Nation, The Divide, America, Built To Last, Clobbering Time, Lowest Common Denominator, Step Down, A Month of Sundays, Busted, Take The Night Off, My Life, Waiting For The Day, Dominated, Injustice System, Machete, Scratch The Surface, Us vs. Them

In the meanwhile it had become darker and this was the perfect atmosphere for Dark Funeral. The Black Metallers from Sweden started with bad news though, telling fans that this was the last gig with their vocalist, who had decided to leave the band after around 15 years. Nevertheless or maybe especially because of that they delivered a really energetic gig, throwing “The End Of Human Race” and “Goddess Of Sodom” into the crowd. Too bad, that the audience didn´t show such a big reaction, as you might´ve expected – falling back into old lazy habits? Well, the great pyro effects surely managed to wake up some people again, since those were really firewalls, that were fired off. Even Dark Funeral are normally not my cup of tea, they really managed to convince me with their great gig.
Setlist:
The End Of Human Race, 666 Voices Inside, Goddess Of Sodomy, The Arrival Of Satan’s Empire, Stigmata, Atrum Regina, An Apprentice Of Satan, King Antichrist, In My Dreams, My Funeral

Well, maybe lots of people had simply been waiting for the gig after that, it was now time for Children of Bodom from Finland and those played almost the same setlist like two weeks before at Brutal Assault. They once again erred on the side of caution and played a set consisting of mainly classics. In contrast to other bands and also in contrast to older COB gigs, they didn´t have any special stage decoration like pyros, cars or barrels and had decided to simply rock with “Hate Crew Deathroll”, “Everytime I Die” or “Six Pounder”. It almost seemed as if the audience had been exchanged complete, since you could see masses of crowdsurfers and lots of clapping and headbanging. Cheers for guitar solos, Alexi and Janne were making the usual jokes while playing keyboard and guitar and “Hate Me” of course was sung by the audience. So we had two pretty amazing things in one gig, the all over a sudden really awake audience on the one hand and Alexi, who didn´t use his famous favourite

f-word that often. Maybe a wildchild is slowly growing up? This or that way, this was a very solid gig, flawless with nothing to complain. Well, maybe it was too flawless?
Setlist:
Follow The Reaper, Hate Crew Deathroll, Bodom Beach Terror, Everytime I Die, Living Dead Beat, Sixpounder, Blooddrunk, In Your Face, Angels Don’t Kill, Kissing The Shadows, Hate Me, Silent Night, Bodom Night, Needled 24/7, Downfall

Slowly tiredness was taking over, however, we still wanted to watch My Dying Bride, who once again had the honor to end the festival (at least on tue mainstages). 20 years of MDB, time for a doom party, no? They started the party with “Fall With Me”, which was already the first highlight. Within a very short time the Britts had hypnotised the audience with their heavy sound and that from the front rows to the back! For once it was good in a way, that the audience was somewhat tired. They didn´t have to move too much, but still had enough energy to follow tue songs with passion. “Wreckage Of My Flesh” and “Vast Choirs” made sure, that the hypnotic atmosphere was being kept up. Especially the latter one was like travelling backwards in time, the fans were happy and MDB got a well deserved party for their anniversary. Too bad, that they were running out of time and couldn´t play the wonderful “Cry Of Mankind”. Too bad, that no exception was being made for the last band of the festival!
Setlist:
Fall With Me, Bring Me Victory, Wreckage Of My Flesh, Turn Loose The Swans, Vast Choirs, She Is The Dark, My Body, A Funeral

One more band and then the Summer Breeze Festival was over, well, not only the festival, the whole summer festival season was over. With mixed feelings we thus went over to the tentstage for one last time to witness the gig of the resurrected The Crown. They had a new vocalist on board and he definitely managed to convince right away, when they played the first song “Deathexplosion”.

Death Metal at its´best and even though the tent wasn´t completely packed, it seemed as if those, who were there, trieb to squeeze out some last bit of energy to party to a solid portion of Swedish Death Metal. “Doomsday King” showed, what we can expect from the new album and it was a great song, that fitted to the rest of the setlist. So the Summer Breeze had now truly reached its´end, at least for us. While we were already sitting in the car on the way home the two very last bands 1349 and Count Raven were playing their gigs.
Setlist:
Deathexplosion, Executionor, Under The Whip, Back From The Grave, Black Lightning, Blitzkrieg Witchcraft, Doomsday King, Crowned In Terror, Tale Of Destruction, Total Satan

Famous last words?
Basically you can say the same as always, and that in a positive way! Even though the partytent has become bigger and there seemed to be more visitors, the festival still has a somewhat familiar atmosphere. The choice of food was good, the band roster really great and thus teere was something for everyone. One of the very few annoying things was the small camelstage next to the partystage. No problem, when bands were playing there during changeover, but why do they have to blast music from a cd-player, while bands are playing in the tent. It was a bit hard to hear what was going on in the tent, when you had stand a bit further away from the stage. Maybe this should be change next year, I´m sure the Summer Breeze doesn´t need a 4th stage.

Text: Cornelia Wickel, Markus Seibel

photos: Cornelia Wickel
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Cornelia Wickel

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