Brutal Assault 2013 (Day Two) – When Even the Sky Gets Scared of the Headliners

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad

Location: Josefov Military Fortress, Jaromer, the Czech Republic
Concert date: 09.08.2013
Attendance: 15,000

Believe me, nothing’s worse than being dragged out of a crumpled sleep by a cheap Russian banger and a horde of drunk Russians singing along to it. I still can’t get that annoying »opa-opa-pa!« out of my head. And just when you think a cold shower will clear your head, another blow. The Czech showers this year knew nothing about human-friendly temperatures. You got two extremes only: a freezing mountain-stream blast or water so hot it might as well have been heated in pressure cookers. The only consolation left was some excellent vanilla donuts and grabbing a spot in front of the stage early.

So from the Russian banger we switched to Russian death metal on Friday morning, courtesy of Katalepsy. It was easier on the ears, sure, but you’ll struggle to find brutal death metal that’s more generic. Still, thanks to the many Russian festivalgoers, the Moscow band pulled a really good crowd and got loud support at the crack of dawn.

The technical death metal of German heavyweights Obscura went down much easier. They’re no strangers to the Brutal Assault stages, and the Germans are already a well-known band, which showed in the crowd’s response. There were several hundred heads in front of the stage who didn’t leave Obscura hanging, and the band marched out to the sounds of the crushing opener from their current album Omnivium, Septuagint, and with the first notes hurled us into a vortex of first-class technical death metal grown from the roots of bands like Cynic, Death and Atheist. Despite a somewhat poorer, muddy sound, the Germans proved they’re currently at the very top of progressive death metal, and with their constant live and studio form they’ll easily conquer that peak too. After so many shows in the last few years, Obscura have become a well-oiled, tightly drilled stage machine with no room for mistakes. The eyes and ears are fed above all by the spectacular solos from the fingers of the brilliant Christian Muenzner and the fantastic, dynamic, varied riffs he trades with the band’s boss Steffen Kummerer (in a hopeless new hipster hoodie). Steffen proved even more than before that he’s becoming an excellent frontman who knows how to rouse the crowd and tie the set together. The rhythm section did no worse, quite the opposite: Hannes Grossman showed with an innovative drum solo that he’s one of the best modern extreme metal drummers. The bassist who stepped into Jeroen Paul Thesseling’s shoes, Linus Klausenitzer (Noneuclid), is technically superbly equipped, did his job with distinction and has already fitted into the band perfectly, but at moments I badly missed the phenomenal sound of Jeroen sliding along a fretless bass. This time Obscura played a stormy setlist made up of masterpieces from Cosmogenesis and Omnivium. What stuck in memory most were the crushing Incarnated, the total Morbid Angel »worship« of Ocean Gateways and the closer Centric Flow, which with its long instrumental finale always makes for an epic ending, and this time was no different.

A similar technical death metal treat was promised with French band Misanthrope, but sadly the promises stayed empty. If Misanthrope sound bold, experimental and at times even avant-garde on their studio albums, live they’re something else entirely. Not only did they have awful sound, but the frontman Phillip’s grating vocals, his obnoxious theatrical approach and the whole look, sunglasses included, wrecked the dynamic, varied instrumental side. There was clearly no sun out, though. Despite his persistent straining, Misanthrope didn’t convince with much beyond a few devilishly good instrumental parts that recalled the best moments of bands like In Flames and Opeth, but the whole thing, partly because of the annoying keyboards that just don’t fit in, was quickly forgettable.

Luckily, right after that failed French revolution, hardcore veterans Pro-Pain took the neighboring stage and delivered one of the best and most convincing shows of the festival! I hadn’t seen such an uncompromising show, with no »bullshit« and no needless ballast, in a long time. The legendary Gary Meskil simply knows how to serve things up: clear, aggressive, loud and with a raised middle finger! What a sound the New York veterans managed to dial in! Every single note was perfectly distinct, and so was every word of Gary’s angry preaching. On top of that, Pro-Pain (probably a new thing, since I’d never seen them in this form) leveled Josefov with the thunder of eight-string guitars that roared like a jet exhaust alongside Meskil’s bass. It wasn’t just the sound that was unbelievable, the energy erupting from the stage was too, with the two guitarists flying around like epileptics the whole time, while Meskil, like a great leader, only had to raise his hands and the crowd loyally and loudly joined in. The band’s outstanding performance quickly carried over to the pit, where the moshing and circle pits seemed to have no end. Phenomenal! Make War Not Love!

Next up, much anticipated, were Israel’s Orphaned Land, who returned to Brutal Assault for the first time since 2009 with the new album All Is One under their belt. For my taste the band has lately been overdoing the emphasis on their goal of calming the passions of all three Abrahamic faiths, and sadly they’re also drifting quite far from the excellent blend of Middle Eastern ethno/folk music and death metal, though you can’t really blame them for any drop in quality. Orphaned Land greeted Josefov with The Kiss of Babylon (The Sins), frontman Kobi Farhi in his by-now obligatory robe, and guitarist Yossi Sassi with a new toy: he’s the first and only guitarist in the world who can boast a double »guitar« combining a classic electric guitar with the ethnic instrument bouzouki. So Orphaned Land successfully, and more faithfully, present their folk metal side live too. And just as Orphaned Land were really getting warmed up, the sky opened and sent a proper flood down on the crowd. Because I was completely soaked (down to my underwear), rained on and chilled to the bone, the rest of this report will sadly be rather cut short, as I only managed to catch the bands from a distance and for a short while.

American death metal elders Malevolent Creation carved out some proper death metal carnage despite the rain, French shoegazers Alcest cast a spell with a fairytale/mystical atmosphere, Meshuggah and In Flames delivered a standard solid-to-good set, and the mighty Carcass completely ruled Friday, surprisingly without playing a single track from their upcoming »come-back« record Surgical Steel.