Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Josefov, the Czech Republic
Concert date: 05.08.2009
Attendance: 10
Ticket price: 47€/54€
What does a metalhead do when a festival with a killer line-up, cheap beer and a one-of-a-kind atmosphere doesn’t come to them? Obvious, right? The metalhead goes to the festival. This time all eyes and ears were on the Czech Brutal Assault, which, unlike most European festivals this year with their pretty pathetic line-ups, offered an excellent selection of bands, from the “smaller” names to the bigger ones, and was especially tempting thanks to a few truly exclusive shows by bands that are almost impossible to catch on stage, at least anywhere near us. The crew was ready for yet another festival adventure, and after a drive of more than ten hours, for which we can mostly thank the superb Czech road infrastructure, headlined by a torn-up Brno (imagine all of Ljubljana’s construction sites crammed into one street – that’s Brno, nothing else!), endless numbers of trucks on dreadful regional roads, countless roadkill (maybe that’s exactly what Czech cuisine is all about, hehe) and dead-boring moments when you roll through villages with names like Horni Jeleny, or when a life-size plastic giraffe greets you by the road, standing there for who knows what reason. And of course a metalhead wouldn’t be a real metalhead if his eyes didn’t light up and his mouth didn’t start watering as he drove through the village of Černa Hora, famous for its excellent beer brewery. The one life goal left after that is, naturally, finding the first open pub that serves you a half-liter of beer for 20 Czech crowns (about €0.70). The rest of the way to the Brutal Assault grounds, the town of Jaromer, was much faster and easier. One of the unique things about Brutal Assault is that it takes place in a part of Jaromer called Josefov, an old military fortress. It was built between 1780 and 1790 on the orders of Emperor Joseph II to defend against an attack from Prussia (which, by the way, never happened). Driving through the narrow medieval streets of Josefov, which turn into parking lots during the festival, is unforgettable. Because of the promised start of ticket sales and pick-up at three o’clock, we ran into what was really the only weak spot of the festival, as it got pushed back by a full three hours. Then there was the culture shock of the Czechs knowing absolutely no English… But that was quickly forgotten too, and after a quick evening look around town came a more than deserved restorative sleep before the first day of the festival.
In the early afternoon hours of the first day the Brutal Assault stages were taken by rather mediocre hardcore and metalcore bands, so it wasn’t worth frying in front of one stage or another under the already scorching afternoon sun. Some attention went to the Dutch death metal outfit The Lucifer Principle, but only because bassist Michael Grunwald doesn’t use a standard electric bass guitar and instead drags a classic double bass onto the stage. But once you shift your attention to the music itself, there’s nothing left to do but retreat to a beer tent, since the Dutchmen offer nothing more than average, even bad and completely generic death metal. That left us a good two hours until the first band we were really waiting for, and at Brutal Assault you can kill time not only by emptying your wallet at the fairly rich merchandise offering, but even by hiding from the sun in the horror tent, where horror flicks were playing all the days of the festival, from early morning till late evening – everything from newer cinematic masterpieces like Zombie Strippers and Dead Snow (Nazi zombies, yeah yeah), through classics a la Candyman, Cannibal Ferox and Ravenous, to Czech clunkers like Kladivo na čarodejnice and masterpieces of the splatter-comedy horror genre headed by Jackson’s classic Braindead (a must-see!). Strolling through the festival “streets” is unforgettable; they’re really just part of the fortress that’s open to the public, with one of its courtyards occupied by the Obsura and Metalshop Stage stages. The fortress streets are filled with countless tents, from two beer gardens and a Red Bull tent to a small sea of food tents offering Czech gastronomic cuisine for all the true gourmets (sarcasm detector on full mode, of course, more on Czech specialties in the coming reports).
Time at Brutal Assault flies while you wait for your favorite bands, and before you can howl Sadus Attack!!!, the first exclusive of this year’s festival is already climbing onto the Metalshop stage – the legendary California thrashers Sadus. A smaller Slovenian crew had the chance to see them at this year’s Thrash Assault, where our own thrash giants Negligence played too, and those of us who didn’t have that honor were looking forward to this show all the more. Mostly because Sadus was founded by Mr. Steve DiGiorgio, one of the biggest names of bass guitar in metal. Autopsy, Control Denied, Death, Quo Vadis, Testament and Iced Earth are just some of the names the great DiGiorgio has worked with. Of course, you can’t overlook his home band Sadus, which in 25 years of activity has grown from a simple death/thrash outfit into fantastic technical thrash metallers. And it’s simply hard to put into words what a pleasure it is to watch DiGiorgio at work – you just can’t get enough of watching his fingers dance across the five-string fretless bass. And of course I can’t skip the little devil Darren Travis on guitar and the devilish, venomous lead vocals, which DiGiorgio generously backs up with backing vocals. Despite the awful sound, which made the bass guitar in particular hard to hear, a good three quarters of an hour with Sadus was a real blast from start to finish and a more than fitting warm-up for the neck muscles, which still had a brutal workout ahead of them. Sadus also remembered their quarter-century career on stage and treated us to classics a la Sadus Attack, Through the Eyes of Greed and Certain Death. All I can say in closing is thanks, Sadus, for 25 years of excellent thrashing, and a reminder that a good three years have passed since the last album, Out For Blood…
Another treat of the first day was the Israeli band Orphaned Land, who haven’t been seen on stage all that often lately. The band is currently recording its fourth studio album, The Neverending Way of the OrWarrior, under the production baton of Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), and used the summer for a short escape from the studio and a handful of festival shows. Surprisingly, a big crowd gathered in front of the stage and welcomed the Israelis with a roar. Charismatic vocalist Kobi Fahri masterfully draws attention to himself by switching between melodic clean vocals and rough growls. But what sets Orphaned Land apart from the sea of bands with a similar singing technique is the strong Middle Eastern atmosphere, hiding above all in Yossi Sassi’s colorful and varied oriental riffs and Kobi’s almost tantric singing in different languages – from English all the way to Aramaic and the native languages of Israel. Too bad the short festival slot didn’t let the band bring along a pile of exotic instruments like the buzuki and saz, plus vocalist Shlomit Levi, but Orphaned Land still created a truly magical atmosphere as the sun went down. The energetic band took us through all three previous albums, but focused mostly on the conceptual masterpiece Mabool, which tells the story of three sons (each representing one of the Abrahamic religions) trying to warn humanity about the great flood. Kobi and the gang gave us The Kiss of Babylon, Norra El Norra and Birth of the Three, among others, and spiced it all up with songs from the upcoming album, which, from what I heard, promises a lot!
On the neighboring stage, the Swedish electro metallers Pain, led by the one and only multi-instrumentalist Peter Tägtgren, were already in with I’m Going In. Unfortunately, the band’s stage routine showed from the very start, even though they came across as lively and energetic. You can’t miss Peter’s increasingly whiny clean vocals, which luckily he won’t need on Hypocrisy’s far-too-long-awaited new album. Pain still warmed up the crowd successfully, especially the fairer sex, and quite a few people happily bounced along to hits like Zombie Slam and Same Old Song, then calmed down a bit during lesser-known songs Suicide Machine and It’s Only Them, which made for a rather strange choice for a festival setlist. Pain are still confident and energetic on stage, but I reckon the nonstop gigging of the last two years is showing, and despite the professionalism you often sense a near weariness and distance from the band. The honor of closing the Pain show went, of course, to the overplayed cell phone ringtone melody that makes up the intro to Shut Your Mouth, and the crowd went wild one last time. But I truly hope Pero the Alien shelves Pain for a while and finally devotes himself to Hypocrisy.
Since I’m personally not a fan of hardcore, I skipped the show by the New York legends Biohazard, but sitting with an excellent beer (you can guzzle the official festival beer Gambrinus for a measly 25 crowns, or one euro, the equally excellent dark beer Kozel too, and the best Czech beer, Pilsner Urqell, cost a euro and a half) I had a laugh at the incorrigible motherfucker of a frontman, Evan Seinfeld, who invited a few young ladies up on stage from the crowd, only to get nothing but Czech babbling from them into the mic. I preferred to mentally prepare for the show by the legendary Florida band Cynic, but was soon disappointed to find out they’d been pushed to a late hour, two in the morning, and consoled myself by dancing to the furry Finnish warriors Turisas. They got the still sizable crowd on its feet more than successfully, and despite a whole day of standing in the heat and countless Kozels, Urqells and Gambrinuses, the crowd happily partied to the drinking-party-warrior folk metal with pompous symphonic bits. You couldn’t get a more typical Turisas setlist, but the Czechs were visibly thrilled by the catchy choruses of songs like To Holmgard and Beyond, In the Court of Jarisleif, Battle Metal and One More (and more, and more… hehe). The band’s commander, Warlord Nygard, visibly pleased, praised the Czech Republic to the skies, dedicated a downed test tube of Jagermeister to the crowd (with a mouth that big, I’d have expected him to knock back at least a whole bottle…) and invited everyone to dance, with afros, platform shoes and awful fashion, naturally, to the Boney M classic Rasputin. “Ra-ra-rasputin”. Woohoo!
More seriousness was brought back to the festival by the British black sheep of death metal, Mithras. Why black sheep? It’s hard to find more unique death metal, because the Mithras duo of Sam Bean (bass, vocals) and Leon Macey (guitar), with the help of session drummer Ben White, deliver an unrepeatable experience live, a show you don’t forget easily. From the ominous intro Port to the… all the way to the end of the set, the trio built a fantastic apocalyptic atmosphere, born above all from the unique mixing of the untamed brutality of death metal, hiding mostly in Sam’s superb growling, and on the other side Macey’s psychedelic, trippy space solos, which at epic lengths are a real feast for the eyes. Several people watching the show were visibly shocked, since they obviously didn’t know what to expect from Mithras, and once the wild, unique soloing backed by crushing blast beats, wild bass playing and brutal vocals hooks you on the album, you want to experience that unique blend live too! Behind the Shadows Lie… Mithras! And for the perfect close to the first day, the long-awaited Cynic!
A lot has already been written about the reunited and very much active Cynic in the reports from Vienna and Zagreb, so check those out for a fuller description, but this time I was waiting for the Americans as impatiently as if I were seeing them for the first time. The reason for the delay was still unknown by the time they played, but despite an almost three-hour delay, a nice crowd was waiting for Cynic under the Obscure stage, ready for a trancey, cosmic journey through Cynic’s joys. The guys started, like at all the reunion shows since the release of the excellent album Traced in Air, with the fantastic Nunc Fluens, which gradually builds up intensity and sets up that unforgettable Cynic atmosphere. Unfortunately, numerous technical shortcomings and big sound problems showed right away; Paul Masvidal’s vocals and guitar especially kept disappearing who knows where, while Robin Zielhorst’s bass was so loud it was tearing up eardrums in the front rows. Well, right after The Space For This, Paul explained that he’d practically stepped onto the stage straight off the plane and that all his gear had been left behind at the London airport. Even so, Cynic carried on bravely and confidently with the phenomenal Evolutionary Sleeper and followed it with another gift to the crowd, the classic from the debut Focus, Veil of Maya. Problems aside, Cynic are always a real pleasure to see live, and if you close your eyes you quickly find yourself in a state like meditation, caressed by spectacular solos, the out-of-this-world drumming of metronome-eater Sean Reinert and Paul’s gentle, meditative vocals. And when you add the wind stroking you out in the open, the moon shining down on you and the arm of just the right person around you, the feeling is divine. Sadly, because of the late hour and serious problems, Cynic played only half an hour, but with loud support from the crowd they came back on stage for an excellent rendition of the classic How Could I. The famous recorded intro was improvised on guitars this time by Paul and Tymon, giving us a version of the song we hadn’t heard yet.
You really can’t imagine a better ending to the first day of the festival than in the company of Cynic, who more than recharged the batteries after the previous day’s long drive and passed on the energy for the day that was still ahead…
Photos: Nina Grad
Setlist
Metal Shop Stage The Luciphers Principle 15:30-16:00 Darkane 16:40-17:10 Sadus 17:55-18:25 Madball 19:20-20:05 Pain 21:05-22:00 Brutal Truth 23:10-23:50 Mithras 0:45-1:25 Obscure Stage Flowers For Whores 15:00-15:25 War From a Harloth Mouth 16:05-16:35 Carnifex 17:15-17:50 Rotting Christ 18:30-19:15 Orphaned Land 20:10-21:00 Biohazard 22:05-23:05 Turisas 23:55-0:40 Cynic 1:30-2:00 ORPHANED LAND: 1. Baraka + The Kiss of Babylon 2. From Broken Vessels 3. El Meod Naala 4. Disciples of the Sacred Oath 5. Birth of the Three 6. Sapari 7. Ocean Land 8. Norra El Norra + Ornaments PAIN: 1. I’m Going In 2. Monkey Business 3. Suicide Machine 4. Zombie Slam 5. End of the Line 6. Don’t Care 7. Nailed to the Ground 8. It’s Only Them 9. On and On 10. Same Old Song 11. Shut Your Mouth MITHRAS: 1. Portal to the… 2. Lords and Masters 3. Under the Three Spheres 4. Tomb of Kings 5. To Where the Sun Never Leaves 6. Wrath of God 7. Beyond the Eyes of Man 8. Worlds Beyond the Veil 9. Behind the Shadows 10. Search the Endless… CYNIC: Nunc Fluens The Space For This Evolutionary Sleeper Veil of Maya Adam’s Murmur King of Those Who Know Integral Birth How Could I
Photo Gallery
