Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Vojenska pevnost Josefov / Jaromer / Czech Republic
Concert date: 08.08.2013
Attendance: 15,000
Czech Republic. The land of beer, sausages and our former comrades behind the Iron Curtain. But the Czech Republic is also home to one of Europe’s biggest extreme metal festivals, Brutal Assault, which this year hit its eighteenth edition. Yep, the grounds of a former Prussian military fortress deliver an unbelievable lineup year after year, and for that reason alone the pilgrimage to a tiny Czech town is unavoidable every summer.
For the past few years, the official Brutal Assault program has been rounded out by an equally official »warm-up« night, which at first offered only Czech and Polish acts but soon widened its menu with bigger-sounding names. Last year, for example, Anaal Nathrakh did the warming up, and this year none other than Bay Area thrash metal veterans Testament. Before them, Wednesday evening was marked by sets from American death metal outfit Jungle Rot, Croatian groove metal band E.N.D. and Czech heroes Malignant Tumour.
The latter hit the stage at nine in the evening in front of an almost packed site. If nothing else, the Czech crowd is truly loyal, which proved true in the following days too, when even bands playing early in the morning already pulled crowds of several hundred. Well, Malignant Tumour are obviously local Czech metal bigwigs, since few bands later in the festival had a more devoted crowd. But like everything else in the Czech Republic, Malignant Tumour are… well, Czech. Their version of »grind« sounds like a cheap, generic Motörhead knockoff, and the songs are monotonous and as alike as two peas in a pod. On top of that, frontman Bilos ignorantly babbled in Czech the whole time (or rather, like 95% of Czechs, he doesn’t know a word of English) and strung together three hundred shouts of »Kurva!«, obviously the Czech and even more annoying version of our Marjan. The only truly exciting thing about the Malignant Tumour show was the pyrotechnic display the four-piece treated themselves to, as if they were a stadium band of the Metallica sort.
But the real reason to turn up for Wednesday’s warm-up was American thrash heavyweights Testament, who since their »come-back« album The Formation of Damnation have been leaving the (self-proclaimed) big thrash four eating their dust. Proof of that is the excellent, still current record Dark Roots of Earth and the energetic, explosive shows Chuck Billy and his thrash buddies rattle off like it’s nothing. The Brutal Assault show should have been like that too, but our high expectations burst like a soap bubble with the very first notes. Not only was the sound so bad you could easily mistake Testament on the big stage for some lousy Czech grind band in a local dive, what was even sadder was that the band seemed like they were at a bad rehearsal. The biggest letdown was »chief« Chuck Billy, who sang really badly and unconvincingly, swallowed his words, and on top of it all forgot the lyrics. If the band still sounded instrumentally worthy of its name, you could feel that Testament took the whole gig with their left hand, or that because of the bad sound they couldn’t even be bothered to play it the way it should be played (even the proverbially infallible atomic clock, drummer Gene Hoglan, fumbled). With a worn-out setlist that, apart from the songs off the new record, Testament have been grinding out for years, only the brutal Eric Peterson really convinced, not just with a solid rhythm foundation but mainly with the varied black metal vocals he evidently carried over into Testament from his side project Dragonlord. I hope the same goes for Testament as for everyone else: even the greats flop sometimes…
After a warm-up that, mostly thanks to the dreadful Testament, was best washed out of memory as soon as possible, Thursday finally brought the real, official start. Brutal Assault is a festival that, unlike most comparable ones, serves up interesting, sometimes huge, and definitely exclusive names first thing in the morning. So there wasn’t much time for a (liquid) breakfast on Thursday, since at noon Tokyo death/doom metal Godzilla Coffins took the stage. Despite a hefty delay, the Japanese brutal four-piece walked out to roaring applause and in half an hour ground Josefov into dust with a primitive but devilishly punchy mix of hellish death metal and deranged doom slowness. Coffins sounded like old-school Swedish death metal on steroids, mostly thanks to the inhuman vocals of frontman Ryo. He didn’t talk much (and what he did say was in broken English à la Jackie Chan, before his Hollywood career), but he growled all the more, which came out even more monstrous backed by the double backing vocals of bassist Koreeda and guitarist Uchino. Pleasant surprise of the day!
The next set was tailor-made for death metal fans too, only this one sounded less primitive and more technical. The neighboring stage was taken by Americans Decrepit Birth, led by frontman Bill Robinson, whom we saw in Slovenia a few months ago with Suffocation, where he fairly (un)successfully filled in for Frank Mullen. Robinson obviously feels much more at home in his main band, since he owned the stage and successfully worked the crowd with funny banter, and he also convinced with a good, brutally varied vocal performance (Robinson brutalized vocally the way his movie namesake destroyed everything mechanical in Stephen King’s cult B-movie schlock Maximum Overdrive). Above all, it’s nice to hear that Decrepit Birth aren’t one of those »technical« metal bands that rely mostly on guitar masturbation and have sprung up like mushrooms after rain in the last few years. The Americans are first and foremost a death metal band, one that enriches its death metal with plenty of rhythm and tempo changes and unpredictable, dynamic song structures. Decrepit Birth were the icing on the cake for fans of technical death metal, and you had to keep your jaw from hitting the floor mainly because of Samuel Paulicelli’s fantastic drumming. He offered not only technically impressive transitions and blast beats but also plenty of breathtaking nuances, and he proved his mastery above all at the end with a phenomenal rendition of the Death classic Crystal Mountain, during which he jokingly stepped into Gene Hoglan’s boots.
Sweden’s Dr. Living Dead!, masked as skulls with »gangsta« bandanas, went on to surprise us with an energetic, bouncy and lively mix of thrash metal and hardcore. The hard-hitting crossover got the ever-growing crowd under the stage on its feet, and interestingly, behind the kit, hiding behind the alias Dr. Dawn, sits Thomas Daun, former drummer of Dismember and Insision (where Daniel Ekeroth, author of the book Swedish Death Metal, also sawed away for many years).
Chicago veterans Novembers Doom undoubtedly delivered one of the most musically thrilling and unforgettable moments. With them too, Brutal Assault proved it can land total exclusives, since it was the band’s only European show of this period; on top of that, the American death/doom metal elders played an exclusive acoustic show on Saturday as well. But their first festival appearance since 2009 went down in a more brutal spirit, as in three quarters of an hour Novembers Doom touched mainly on their current studio masterpiece Aphotic. The terrifying, dark and melancholic violins of the intro to the eight-minute epic of darkness, The Dark Host, ushered us into the set. Novembers Doom were one of the few bands at the whole festival to get a pretty optimal sound, and despite the blazing sun the guys spectacularly wrapped the fortress courtyard in a cloud of depressive darkness. Novembers Doom are fantastic at building an atmosphere of doom, thanks mostly to the brilliant build-up of the songs and the clever alternation of pure death metal parts with calm, sensual and morbid slow parts. Iconic frontman Paul Kuhr is, with his presence, undoubtedly the central figure of the stage, but Kuhr is no mere puppet, since with his deeply personal lyrics and a moving yet at once raw and aggressive vocal performance, he’s the main culprit behind the band’s excellence. Only names like Dan Swanö and Mikael Akerfeldt come close to Paul’s combination of animal growls and tender, almost siren-like clean vocals, and it’s truly unbelievable how well both worlds of Novembers Doom work and complement each other. Of course, it wasn’t without the reliable backing vocals of guitarist Larry Roberts either, and young drummer Garry Naples also shone, convincingly stepping into Sasha Horn’s shoes. The charismatic Kuhr led the heated crowd through the records Into Night’s Requiem Infernal with the epically heavy I Hurt Those I Adore and The Pale Haunt Departure with Dark World Burden, and Novembers Doom brought a far too quick end with the classic Rain (they didn’t summon rain that day, though, but we got properly soaked the next day). The Americans undoubtedly put together one of the best and most beautiful performances of the festival, and you really have to ask how a band like Novembers Doom stays so unjustly overlooked. It’s a great shame the band can’t afford longer European tours, also because of the singer’s serious illness, but on the other hand that makes a show like this one stick in the memory even more strongly.
The gorgeous Thursday weather was made for lounging at the several »relaxation« spots the festival offers, and thirst was clearly quenched with Budvar Budweiser (sadly, with the new sponsor the beer selection at the festival itself is no longer as varied as it used to be). We quickly threw a glance and an ear at American trio PHILM, led by the legendary Dave Lombardo (Slayer). That’s where the band’s interest ends, though. PHILM is some weird, experimental attempt that just doesn’t go down well in the ears. It’s nice to see Lombardo in action, but that’s all.
Late in the afternoon we were driven back to the stage by a yearning for mommy-murder and doggy-sodomy, or as the classic by legendary Maryland death metal band Dying Fetus puts it – Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog. The Americans, who’ve lately been on an unstoppable touring rampage, delivered one of the festival’s better shows; the trio simply doesn’t know how to show signs of fading. The band is nearing its 20th anniversary, and that’s solely thanks to the tireless will of John Gallagher, the only original member left. So many members have rotated through the lineup over the years that you’d run out of fingers counting them, and today Dying Fetus perform as a trio. Which doesn’t show one bit on Gallagher, Sean Beasley (bass) and Trey Williams (drums). Last year the band put out one of the best records of its career, Reign Supreme, and the stage exploded under the weight of violent riffs from the very first notes, proving that just three individuals can produce the noise of the Big Bang. The band’s tightness is phenomenal; there’s simply no room for mistakes with Dying Fetus, even though the guys can get seriously complex. The band’s sound was perfect! Williams’ inhuman drumming was pushed to the front, with the whole palette of meticulously crafted transitions and devilishly fast kicking on the bass drums. Gallagher meanwhile took care of the chopping and slicing with fantastic riffs and hellishly good solos, which Beasley followed with ease and incredible skill with “blunt force” bass, and the two also provided a demonic vocal duet. By filling in for Frank Mullen in Suffocation this year, Gallagher has evidently improved his frontman game too, since he no longer just stands there like a statue, moves around a bit more, and is better at talking to the crowd. Still, Dying Fetus didn’t waste time on excess chatter; they came, they played, they left.
As day turned to night, in a fantastic atmosphere, one of the best newer metal bands of the last few years “did their thing” in one of the festival’s better sets: the French band Gojira. The guys made themselves noticed with their very first demos, back when they still performed under the name Godzilla, then were forced to change it for copyright reasons to the romaji rendering, Gojira. Under the new name they released their debut Terra Incognita and got people’s attention, then with The Way of All Flesh two years ago they planted themselves on the throne of modern metal and justified their reputation as one of the most promising young bands. The new album L’ Enfant Sauvage has only cemented their status. Their show at this year’s Brutal Assault was so fierce and uncompromising that it looked like the legendary Japanese monster had really mingled with the crowd and kicked off a proper apocalypse in the mosh pit. Gojira blew the heads off all the doubters with the opening crusher Explosia, when in the very first moments guitarists Joe Duplantier and Christian Andreu casually started trading breathtaking tapped arpeggios with a ton of incredible guitar wizardry in the form of unique hammer-on and pull-off tricks. When the pair were joined by the technically flawless drummer Mario Duplantier and bassist Jean-Michel Labadie, Gojira stomped the stunned audience one last time and flung the space in front of the stage into a devastating earthquake. The mix of unbridled brutality, built by the crushing drumming of the brilliant Mario (who’s not for nothing one of the biggest “modern” names in metal drumming), apocalyptic riffs and brilliant melodies, the work of the guitar duo’s nimble fingers deftly roaming the guitar necks, was behind some truly unforgettable moments. The new songs from the current album already went down well with the crowd, and with Oroborus, Flying Whales and Toxic Garbage Island, Gojira drove home the themes of their lyrics with incredible effectiveness. The deep message about the destruction of the environment, which humanity takes for granted, took on an even deeper meaning in the setting sun… that humanity will have only itself to blame for its own zenith!
The festival really didn’t go easy on its visitors on day one, lining up gigantic names one after another. Right after Gojira, the stage was taken by New York thrash metal giants Anthrax, whom the record Worship Music, released two years ago, brought back among the living. The veterans played one of the festival’s best shows, and with this kind of work in the future they’ll easily win back the name of the biggest, which they completely wiped out with their (in)activity in the nineties. Worship Music is a true studio comeback for the band, and Anthrax are an energy bomb live too. Credit goes mostly to hyperactive frontman Joey Belladonna, who also delivered an outstanding vocal performance. Belladonna can boast a truly well-preserved voice, and the instrumental four weren’t slouching either. Guitarist Jonathan Donais (Shadows Fall), who replaced the departed Rob Caggiano, has settled into the band, it was great to see the stage energy of Frank Bello, whose headbanging and running around the stage seemed to have no end, and Jon Dette, who fills in for Charlie Benante on drums, did well too. All fine and dandy up to here, but Anthrax’s setlist deserves one big minus, since a band with such a catalog shouldn’t allow itself such misfires. OK, Got the Time and Antisocial have already become household Anthrax anthems and nobody even remembers they aren’t the band’s own songs. But why they had to cram in the pointless T.N.T. and Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll, which don’t differ much from the originals, is beyond me. Despite a slightly bitter aftertaste from the minute-padding, Anthrax were a nice surprise and a proper thrash lesson.
I skipped Fear Factory because of Burton C. Bell’s dreadful clean vocals and caught them right between the closing classics Replica and Martyr, and I have to say Bell actually surprised me for once, since the clean vocals weren’t completely botched. But the main reason for one of the last stops of the evening was Canadian thrash oddballs Voivod. With the current record Target Earth, the Canadians proved they can work great even after the death of their main musical creator, Piggy. From the very first notes the four sank their teeth into our necks like the cyber-vampire Voivod, and like the waves of the band’s music, sometimes gently nibbling at necks, other times rawly and mercilessly slurping blood. Despite losing nearly all their gear at the airport, the Canadians got probably the best sound of the whole festival, and since they didn’t have the necessary equipment with them, they surprised us with a pretty brutal setlist too. The band exploded no less powerfully than the crowd under the stage. The foursome used every inch of the stage, with the explosive and energetic Jean-Yves “Blacky” Thériault (bass) and Chewy swinging up onto the monitors several times and nearly jumping into the front row. The energy erupting from Voivod is incredible and instantly contagious, and the music and the hyperactivity of the members onstage, who keep headbanging and running around nonstop, easily pull you in. But the real master of working the crowd is charismatic vocalist Denis “Snake” Bélanger, whom we were truly eating out of the hand of, laughing our heads off at his unmistakable Voivod grimaces. Snake and his band of ice warriors established truly genuine contact with the crowd. It was wonderful and almost moving to watch, under Chewy’s fingers, how he confidently and with great respect for Piggy’s work placed and fired off dissonant chords, solos from the “outer limits” and a, to put it mildly, weird but brilliant game with chords, which in Voivod’s case you can only fall in love with. Voivod himself woke from a coma and, through Away’s hands and feet, gave us a proper thrashing. What Michel Langevin manages to squeeze out of a minimalist drum set is incredible, since the double-pedal torpedoing and crushing transitions sound like they were drummed by at least three drummers! The material from the new record proved itself live too, and there’s nothing to fear for the future of one of the boldest and most unique bands in the world. After Piggy’s death Voivod are entering a new phase of their creative life, and whichever phase the band is in, Piggy’s spirit will live forever, and with it thrash outside every mold, progressive in the true sense of the word and a bold defiance of established musical directions. Voivod Lives!
To close out Thursday, Swedish death ‘n’ roll monster Entombed sank their teeth into us too, followed by well-deserved rest and gathering strength for the rest of the festival.
Setlist
TESTAMENT:
1. The Star-Spangled Banner / Rise Up
2. More Than Meets the Eye
3. Burnt Offerings
4. Native Blood
5. True American Hate
6. Dark Roots of Earth
7. Into the Pit
8. The New Order
9. The Preacher
— encore —
10. D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
11. 3 Days in Darkness
12. The Formation of Damnation
NOVEMBERS DOOM:
1. The Dark Host
2. Harvest Scythe
3. I Hurt Those I Adore
4. Six Sides
5. Dark World Burden
6. Rain
DYING FETUS:
1. Grotesque Impalement
2. Your Treachery Will Die With You
3. Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog
4. From Womb to Waste
5. Killing On Adrenaline
6. Second Skin
7. One Shot, One Kill
GOJIRA:
1. Explosia
2. The Axe
3. Backbone
4. Flying Whales
5. L’ Enfant Sauvage
6. Toxic Garbage Island
7. Remembrance
8. The Heaviest Matter of the Universe
9. Wisdom Comes
10. Oroborus
11. The Gift of Guilt
ANTHRAX:
1. Worship / Caught In a Mosh
2. Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)
3. Got the Time
4. Hymn 1 / In the End
5. Deathrider
6. T.N.T.
7. Indians
8. Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
9. I Am the Law
— encore —
10. Antisocial
11. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll
FEAR FACTORY:
1. The Industrialist
2. Shock
3. Edgecrusher
4. Powershifter
5. What Will Become?
6. Archetype
7. Demanufacture
8. Self Bias Resistor
9. Replica
10. Martyr
VOIVOD:
1. Kluskap O’Kom
2. Tribal Convictions
3. Mechanical Mind
4. Overreaction
5. Corps Etranger
6. Chaosmongers
7. Ripping Headaches
8. Nothingface
9. Voivod
ENTOMBED:
1. Living Dead
2. Like This With the Devil
3. Out of Hand
4. Revel In Flesh
5. To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth
6. I For An Eye
7. Stranger Aeons
8. Damn Deal Done
9. Eyemaster
10. Supposed To Rot
11. Left Hand Path
12. Chief Rebel Angel
13. Demon
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