Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Vojenska pevnost Josefov, Jaromer, the Czech Republic
Concert date: August 10, 2011
Attendance: 15
Another year has rolled around, and it’s time again to hit one of Europe’s biggest festivals specializing in extreme metal. The Czech Brutal Assault, held at the one-of-a-kind setting of the former Josefov military fortress, a stone’s throw from the town of Jaromer. This year’s sixteenth edition once again lured us in with a killer lineup of extreme metal acts, cheap booze and grub, and the unique experience of a Czech festival. Before the official Thursday kickoff, the organizers put on a warm-up evening for the second year in a row, and it confirmed yet again that the Czechs really can’t play metal. You couldn’t have picked more clichéd, generic, idealess bands than Čad, Stiny Plamenu and Silent Stream of Godless Elegy if you’d tried. Wednesday night was basically relaxation before three grueling days, and after a drive of several hours, all that hit the spot was a beer or two and then the comfort of the tent.
The first day of the festival started early, with the first interesting band taking the stage as early as breakfast time. Instead of scrambled eggs, Nervecell from the United Arab Emirates served us a hefty portion of lively, dynamic and brutal death/thrash metal. And how great it is to see and hear that they can play lively, technically complex and damn punchy thrash in the Middle East too, backed by blasphemous death metal parts and brutal growls from frontman James. You can clearly hear that Nervecell come from the old school of bands like Exodus, Slayer and Morbid Angel, but they bow to those influences with respect and don’t sound like a cheap copy of their godfathers. Nervecell focused mostly on the current record Psychogenocide, which is a solid step forward from the debut, and with good shows like this one at Brutal Assault the guys are only paving the way to a future that, by the looks of it, is promising. Nervecell delivered a proper morning workout and confidently warmed us up for three days of brutal assaults on our eardrums… which we were looking forward to.
The next band, which I only checked out in passing with my eyes and ears (the latter couldn’t take any more), lived up to my low expectations. The Nintendocore metallers Horse the Band put on one of the weirdest (in the worst possible sense) sets of the festival, with their hopeless metalcore, which they “improve” with forced, quasi-8-bit keyboard sounds. My ears haven’t suffered a worse sodomizing in quite a while.
Fortunately, the fierce set from the American band Skeletonwitch did a lot to fix the taste of vomit the Horses had left in my mouth. Skeletonwitch played an unforgettably stormy show that thoroughly wore out the necks of everyone in front of the stage. This time the Americans bet only on bangers, which they fired off like it was nothing, and the band’s energy on stage quickly spread to the crowd, who watched with wide eyes and open ears. In their music, Skeletonwitch expertly blend furious thrash and heavy metal melodies with aggressive black metal attacks, mostly delivered by Chance Garnett’s raw vocals. Skeletonwitch squeezed the maximum out of their three quarters of an hour, played a great selection of tracks and also introduced a few songs from the upcoming record Forever Abomination, which comes out in a month on Prosthetic.
After a few beers and some bramborak, utopenec or langos, a full, contented belly was ready for a decent dose of old-school, classic death metal. The Dutch death metal giants Asphyx took the stage. Even before the full-on death metal blast, Martin Van Drunen strolled around the stage, relaxed, and took care of the sound check… with the obligatory cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, of course. Mr. Martin Van Drunen already wrote his name into metal history with his shrieking on the first two albums by the cult band Pestilence. But his work with the mighty Dutch death metal machine Asphyx is no less brilliant, and they played one of the best gigs of this year’s Brutal Assault. The moment Asphyx played the first note of the classic Vermin, I got the feeling that the clear, sunny sky instantly darkened. Over the course of their hour on stage, the Dutchmen sent the Josefov military fortress back to the days of its full combat readiness, and with apocalyptic riffs, Van Drunen’s sick vocals and cannon-fire drumming, they painted, with their left hand, a picture of an apocalyptic scene laid waste by total war. Bombs fell in every direction as Asphyx rattled off one crusher after another, from the classics M.S. Bismarck and The Rack to the brutal slaughters from the album Death… the Brutal Way, Scorbutics and the title track. The crowd ate out of the hand of the charismatic Van Drunen, who, besides pulling the most inhuman sounds imaginable out of his throat (something only Tardy from Obituary can also manage), is a great frontman too. So much so that Van Drunen happily flipped the bird to the strictly allotted time, which Asphyx went over to close with the classic Last One on Earth. After Asphyx’s set, I felt like the guys had dropped a cluster bomb into the crowd and I’d caught a nice number of pieces of shrapnel in the head. Asphyx themselves describe it best in the song Death… the Brutal Way, and I couldn’t have ended it better: “Die by fucken Asphyx, ultra loud we slay. Skinned alive you humbly beg for, Death the brutal way!!!”
ASPHYX:
1. The Quest of Absurdity (Intro)
2. Vermin
3. Scorbutics
4. M.S. Bismarck
5. Death the Brutal Way
6. Wasteland of Terror
7. Asphyx (Forgotten War)
8. The Rack
9. Last One on Earth
With Asphyx, the real festival atmosphere kicked in, and it only built with the following acts, so it was well worth sticking close to the stage. From old-school death/doom sounds we sailed into the classic thrash metal waters of one third of the holy trinity of German thrash, Kreator. The Germans dragged along a hefty stage set, so the stage lit up in all its glory, and it blazed even brighter when Kreator fired up with the first riff of Hordes of Chaos. The pyrotechnic interplay of aggressive riffs from the Petrozza/Sami duo and Ventor’s brutal drumming drove the crowd in front of the stage into equally aggressive dancing within the first loud moments. All respect to Petrozza and his gang for still being able to spew out so much (creative) energy after so many years, which shows best in Kreator’s guitar work. The Germans offered a setlist they’ve been playing for the last few years, with songs from the new records added in of course, but it’s definitely great to see that the band doesn’t live on old glory alone, since the setlist is generously enriched with songs from the last three albums, Violent Revolution, Enemy of God and Hordes of Chaos, though the eternal classics a la Pleasure to Kill and Phobia are of course not missing. Luckily, Mille didn’t bore us this time with long, pointless monologues in broken Denglish, and the crowd ate out of the Germans’ hands, since this was their first appearance at Brutal Assault. The close of the German legends’ set was of course totally classic, “time to raise zi flag of hate”, and the craving for fierce thrash was satisfied for the first day. Still, Kreator could stand to take a little break already, since European stages have been more than full of them in recent years.
KREATOR:
1. Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)
2. Warcurse
3. Coma of Souls
4. Pleasure to Kill
5. Destroy What Destroys You
6. Voices of the Dead
7. Enemy of God
8. Phobia
9. Violent Revolution
10. Flag of Hate/Tormentor
In my opinion, the festival’s organizers made a rather big mistake this time by lining up all three of this year’s Brutal Assault headliners on the same day, one right after the other. Organizing a festival this monumental can’t be easy, of course, and the organizers are bound by band schedules, since bands often have to step off the stage and straight onto a bus to the next festival. Still, it might have made sense to spread out big, influential bands like the following trio a bit more thoughtfully, but we certainly weren’t going to say no to the legendary crossover band Suicidal Tendencies. The Americans brought to Brutal Assault the freshness of the goofy American “eighties” way of life and the fantastic energy of positive crossover, in which the fathers of the genre have been so successfully mixing punk and thrash metal for decades. With the unstoppable punk banger You Can’t Bring Me Down, Suicidal Tendencies immediately let the huge crowd know we were in for one of the best gigs of this year’s festival. And sure enough, Mike Muir and his boys proved that the tooth of time hasn’t touched them even remotely. Mike’s excellent vocal performance was overshadowed only by Mike himself, with the coolest speeches about brotherhood, unity and social issues, while Cyco Miko wowed with explosive stage energy, since he didn’t stand still for a second. The musicians who make up Suicidal Tendencies today are excellent players who prove that music flows through their veins. Amid the breakneck heavy metal solos, the only thing missing on stage is the wild stage presence of the legendary Rocky George, who has long been successfully replaced by Mike Clark. The well-oiled rhythm section delivered a catchy, fat-as-hell groove, and the loud gang vocals in the choruses showed that Suicidal Tendencies come from the street. The eternal crossover thrash classics created an unforgettable “homie” atmosphere, and during Possessed to Skate I got a serious urge to put four little wheels under my feet again. And all I wanted in the end was a Pepsi… but I sadly had to settle for Czech Coca-Cola, Kofola (not recommended). SUICIDAL!
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES:
1. You Can’t Bring Me Down
2. Institutionalized
3. Join the Army
4. Subliminal
5. War Inside My Head
6. Drum Solo
7. Pledge Your Allegiance
8. Possessed to Skate
9. Two Sided Politics
We were packed in like sardines in front of the stage once the biggest name of this year’s festival took it, the legendary and unstoppable Motörhead. Already during the sound check, and when the giant backdrop with Snaggletooth unrolled on stage, the crowd went wild, and the chants of “Motörhead” and “Lemmy” seemed to have no end. The trio marched onto the stage in the dark, and eardrums were blown away when Lemmy struck the first notes on his mighty Rickenbacker and smashed teeth and jaws with the crushing classic Iron Fist. The foundations of the Josefov military fortress were truly under assault this time, in danger of the whole fortress collapsing in on itself, because we didn’t hear a louder gig all year. And thank you, Lemmy, for that! Motörhead can only be listened to this loud, to the point where blood starts dripping from your ears and your vision starts to spin. Classics rained down one after another, with Lemmy, Phil and Mikkey shaking aces out of their sleeves like it was nothing. Instrumentally the trio is in top form: Phil Campbell fired off mighty riffs and breathtaking solos with feather-light ease, and Mikkey Dee probably made the beer in the nearby breweries boil on its own. Since the guys are no longer spring chickens, crazy stage antics weren’t to be expected, but the trio radiates true rock ‘n’ roll energy even while standing rather stoically, planted deep on the stage. The icon Lemmy commands awe with his mere presence, and with a great execution of a solid selection of songs from all of Motörhead’s eras, he once again justified his place as one of the most respected and influential musicians of all time. It couldn’t be any other way with the man who wrote the most metal and the coolest lyric lines ever: “If you squeeze my lizard/I’ll put my snake on you”. Of course, this is strictly about Lemmy’s herpetological leanings. Despite his status, though, even Lemmy is only human, and this year he’ll turn a more-than-respectable 66. At that age most people are already two meters under, pushing up daisies, while Lemmy marches on uncompromisingly with his unstoppable machinery. But this time, toward the end of the show, Mr. Kilmister visibly and audibly ran low on energy, and he sang his part of the Killed By Death chorus with considerable difficulty. Apparently the Czechs didn’t provide the mandatory Jack and Coke and a carton of Marlboro Reds. But to paraphrase the great, wise words of Chazz from the movie Airheads: Lemmy IS God!
MOTORHEAD:
1. Iron Fist
2. Stay Clean
3. Get Back In Line
4. Metropolis
5. Over the Top
6. One Night Stand
7. Rock Out
8. The Thousand Names of God (/w Guitar Solo)
9. I Know How to Die
10. The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
11. In the Name of Tragedy (/w Drum Solo)
12. Just ‘Cos You Got the Power
13. Going to Brazil
14. Killed by Death
15. Ace of Spades
16. Overkill
Then the legendary death metal machine Morbid Angel sent us on a walk through all nine circles of hell with a top-notch performance. The big unknown was how the death metal elders would fare on stage, since their recently released record Illud Divinum Insanus is more blasphemous than Morbid Angel themselves… or rather, the long-awaited continuation of the alphabet is one huge, hopeless disappointment. There was also worry because the great drummer Pete “Commando” Sandoval was absent due to a spinal injury (or maybe because of the techno rhythms of the new record), with the technically incredibly skilled Tim Yeung filling in for now. But any doubts that could arise about Morbid Angel in 2011 were dispelled in the first moments of the classic Immortal Rites, with which the Morbids skinned us alive! The pioneers of death metal still sound as punchy as a tsunami live, as hellish as LaVey and Crowley together, and as destructive as the stinky songs on Illud Divinum Insanus. Eeeeem… like an earthquake. Led by charismatic vocalist and bassist David Vincent, the Morbids sent us deeper and deeper underground with classic after classic, ever closer to the devil’s embrace. Vincent sounds just as brutal, aggressive and raw vocally as on Altars of Madness, and luckily he ditched the famous PVC shirt and surprised us with ultra-cool speeches between songs and the overall charisma of a real frontman. The setlist was phenomenal, with the exception of the trio of new songs, where only the idiotic I Am Morbid truly stuck in my throat, and there was just enough time in between to run off for a beer. Yeung justified his name as one of the better drummers of the younger generation, and the fantastic Trey Azagthoth proved with his unique, demonic solos why he’s one of the more unique death metal guitarists. I won’t even list the divine, uh, hellish selection of songs. Just look at the setlist on the right and you’ll immediately see it was a true paradise of old-school death metal. If Morbid Angel disappointed with their new studio release, live they live up to their big name, since they’re unstoppable, uncompromising and professional to the limit of human ability.
MORBID ANGEL:
1. Immortal Rites
2. Fall From Grace
3. Rapture
4. Maze of Torment
5. Existo Vulgoré
6. Nevermore
7. I Am Morbid
8. Angel of Disease
9. Chapel of Ghouls
10. Dawn of the Angry
11. Where the Slime Live
12. God of Emptiness
13. World of Shit (The Promised Land)
Thursday night continued with a few more excellent bands, but exhaustion got the better of me. Since Septicflesh, Exhumed and Tyr are all coming to Ljubljana in the next few weeks, I skipped that trio and headed off to a well-earned rest. And at Brutal Assault you can at least get some rest at night, since there are no Czechs around blasting Czech folk songs all night long, the way Austrians or Germans love to do everywhere else.
Photos: Nina Grad
Setlist
I Divine Nervecell Frontside Sworn Enemy Uneven Structure Comeback Kid Hecate Enthroned Sylosis Horse The Band Skeletonwitch Threat Signal Unexpect Asphyx Kreator Suicidal Tendencies Motörhead Morbid Angel Septicflesh Exhumed Týr Tsjuder
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