Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Vojenske pevnost Josefov, Jaromer, the Czech Republic
Concert date: August 10, 2013
Attendance: 15,000
After Friday’s cloud-ripping and extreme downpours, Saturday’s morning sky looked just as threatening. But apparently, even the heavens were looking forward to a death metal breakfast that early, served up at eleven sharp by the legendary Master (these days practically a Czech band) led by eternal »underground« warrior Paul Speckmann. Master jumped onto the festival at the last minute, replacing the (sadly) cancelled British death metal drunks Benediction. Speckmann and his buddies hit early with proper death metal that roared like Motörhead on steroids. The rhythm section thundered like mad, the guitar chopped off limbs, and Speckmann’s furious vocals came across clear, brutal and convincing. The excellent sound pushed the trio up another notch, with Speckmann effectively commanding the crowd, and the cherry on top was a great setlist and a closer with a song by Death Strike, the band that kept things going in the interim in place of Master.
That fine taste was ruined by a musical abomination with the dumbest name in the world, We Butter the Bread With Butter, and the Germans pulled off the impossible – during their set even the porta-potties seemed more inviting.
The aftertaste of butter-flavored horror was thankfully washed away by Norway’s Vreid, who rose from the ashes of the cult Norwegian outfit Windir after the tragic death of its frontman Valfar. But over the years Vreid have become much more than a Windir »offshoot« and grown into an excellent band with an identity of its own. The band recently released its sixth album, Welcome Farewell, which marks a step away from their black metal roots and only confirms the colorful evolution of the band’s already rich music. Vreid marched onto a stage effectively decked out with vignettes from the new album’s cover to the epic sounds of the single The Ramble, which painted a picture of Norwegian folklore right from the start. Charismatic frontman Sture stepped into the spotlight with ease and, in the obligatory uniform bearing the Norwegian flag, commanded his Vreid army fiercely and effectively. The newer Vreid have a strongly emphasized melodic side that colors their take on black metal with heavy rock influences, deepened even further by almost folkloric, »polka« moments; a fine example was the excellent The Reap that followed, with infectious riffs and spine-chilling solos. The Norwegians have found a great niche of black metal mixed with rock ‘n’ roll rhythms and the occasional thrash metal influence, which is unique and damn infectious at the same time! On stage, led by guitarist and vocalist Sture, Vreid were the pure definition of their name, which translates as wrath!
Irish heavyweights Primordial played a typically excellent show that didn’t differ much from their MetalDays triumph, but the standard nihilistic closer, the mighty epic Empire Falls, always gives you goosebumps.
After the Irish pagans, Swedish death metallers Vomitory opened the gates of hell for us – their name literally means an entrance to hell. Vomitory is also the name of this Swedish outfit, which, together with the other big names of the Swedish death metal scene, has been shredding the world with devastating death metal since 1989. Their set at this year’s festival was something special, as it was one of the very last chances to catch the band live. Vomitory are saying goodbye at the end of this year and, after twenty years of brutalizing, are (sadly) heading off into well-deserved retirement. The Swedes threw themselves into a three-quarter-hour massacre with their current (and sadly, apparently last) record Opus Mortis VIII, and it was pure bliss for the ears to hear real death metal, Swedish-style, backed by sawing guitars run through the cult HM-2 Heavy Metal and DS-1 Distortion pedals, which make the riffs cut like a circular saw. Brutal riffing, an unbelievably solid rhythm section that came down like cops on hippies in the seventies, and deep, demonic growls went down like sausage in vinegar (=utopenci, the Czech »culinary specialty«). It was a real pleasure to get another dose of proper death metal from Master, played by proper dudes with bierbauchs and chest hair, who know nothing of pretty, catchy, gentle choruses and would grind tattooed, waxed, anorexic veggie pretty-boys in tank tops into a bloody heap with just a few riffs (and then spread We Butter the Bread With Butter on bread).
Brooklyn hardcore veterans Biohazard returned to Brutal Assault after 2009, this time without longtime vocalist Evan Seinfeld, who got the boot last year and was replaced by Scott Roberts (who had already scratched at six strings in the band in the past). Biohazard undoubtedly played one of the more energetic shows of the festival, and Roberts fits the frontman spot like… well, sausage in vinegar, heh heh. The Americans, with energy practically erupting off the stage, had nearly all of Josefov jumping, and they played an excellent setlist that included songs from the current record Reborn In Defianca as well as the legendary Urban Discipline and State of the World Address.
The combination of Leprous and Norwegian icon Ihsahn disappointed live again; the genius of Ihsahn’s studio masterpieces just doesn’t come through on stage, even though neither he nor his backing band can be blamed for a poor live performance. Apparently Ihsahn’s is simply music that works on record but not live, especially when avant-garde/progressive metal gets stuck on a festival like Brutal Assault (or MetalDays, while we’re at it, since Ihsahn had the same problem there). It would be interesting to see how Ihsahn works at a solo club show, though.
The follow-up was musically on the poor side too, as American pretty boys Trivium, playing the festival for the first time ever, decorated the neighboring stage with waves. So the stage evoked waves, in line with the title of their current record In Waves, and the musical impression of their set was fully in keeping – kind of like catching musical seasickness. The Florida boys did prove to be a very energetic band on stage, and their playing is no joke – they’re technically extremely skilled, the double solos and duels between guitarists Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu really rip, and the rhythm section is no slouch either. But it all sounds dry and generic, and the technically astounding playing borders on guitar »wankery« that would suit some Nintendo game. The music is thus completely unoriginal: when the guys shine at writing crazy supersonic solos, they don’t stray far from the thrash guidelines set by Metallica and the melodics represented by Iron Maidne, they just wrap it all in a more modern costume. On the vocal front too, Trivium could forget about today’s metal trends. Alternating growling with clean-sung choruses has been heard and chewed over a hundred times, and Matt and Corey’s double vocals are downright laughable »cookie monster« vocals. Not to mention the clean vocals, which sound like Caught In the Act. In a good hour, Trivium also played Brave This Storm and Strife from the upcoming record Vengeance Falls, which sound like everything else. Crap. The best part of the Trivium set was the intro lifted from the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children soundtrack, and anyone who claims Trivium are worthy successors to bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica should do the following: 1. Stop listening to metal, 2. Take something sharp and jam it deep into their eardrums.
The worst was still not over, as Swedish »rap metallers« Clawfinger had already taken the other stage. Just a few weeks after the festival the band announced it was ending its career, so their Brutal Assault show was in fact their very last. The Swedes had a few mega hits in the early nineties, and you surely remember songs like Nigger and Biggest & the Best, but in the last few years only a handful of diehards have remembered them. Even so, and despite sticking out from the festival’s concept completely, Clawfinger drew an indescribable crowd in front of the stage and probably couldn’t have wished for a better send-off. Energetic frontman Zak Tell held the crowd in his fist from start to finish, with angry rapping flying out of his mouth, backed by boring riffs, an average rhythm section, and electronics and samples that were nothing special. You can’t fault Clawfinger for anything, as they played a good show and Tell proved by climbing to the top of the stage that he’s a frontman of the real stuff, but if we’re being honest, »rap metal« has only one name. Rage Against the Machine.
With American hardcore giants Hatebreed, the curve finally turned in the right direction. The Americans fully lived up to their reputation, their metallized hardcore mowed down everything in its path, Jamey Jasta is a fantastic frontman who knows exactly how to animate a crowd and win it over in an instant, and the band, alongside his aggressive barking, roars like a raging hurricane. With a solidly executed version of the Slayer classic Ghosts of War, Hatebreed nicely paid tribute to the recently departed Jeff Hanneman and successfully pushed the festival in the right direction after an average afternoon.
The big Saturday headliners were, in fact, Poland’s Behemoth, who returned to the festival for the first time since Nergal’s recovery, and you could really feel a certain tension and big anticipation in the air. Behemoth stepped onto the stage theatrically and mystically to an epic intro and masked roadies lighting big torches, and then the Poles plunged us into a merciless vortex of pompous death/black metal. With relentless gigging over the past year or two, Nergal has regained his vocal power, the stamina is back, and he no longer runs out of steam between songs. Behemoth came across the way they should – epic, evil and gloomy – only the sound, as with the vast majority of bands, was bad again, which is the festival’s big weakness. The band did present the new song Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel from the upcoming record The Satanist, which sounds classic Behemoth but also quite promising.
Our farewell to this year’s Brutal Assault came courtesy of Swedish heavyweights Opeth, and I was truly curious what the Swedes would serve up this time, after the progressive rock record Heritage and Mikael’s statements that he’s tired of death metal. As expected, they opened the show with the current album’s single The Devil’s Orchard, which sounds truly demonic live, and then dropped the only really crushing song on the setlist, Ghost of Perdition, which Akerfeldt announced as something louder. Pretty much as expected, Opeth then offered songs that aren’t the greatest representatives of death metal in their discography, and the acoustic version of the classic Demon of the Fall came across as truly strange and ineffective. It’s easy to understand a band evolving and changing over a career, but even though Opeth are still synonymous with quality, it’s not nice to see a band so obviously and ever more deliberately distancing itself from the material that made them what they are. Still, the closer with the epic Blackwater Park was delicious and a fitting end to this year’s odyssey.
With its phenomenal lineup, Brutal Assault remains one of Europe’s better festivals, but it still has plenty of flaws. One side of the organization deserves praise: every visitor gets a neat booklet full of useful info, plus a lanyard with the times of all the performers, the film schedule (I strongly advise against Hellraiser dubbed into Czech) and the meet-and-greet timetable. On the other hand, there are almost too many bands, as even the biggest headliners get no more than an hour, an hour and a quarter at most. Worst of all is the hygiene: you only stumble onto a clean toilet if you’re really lucky, and the showers are downright dreadful. But maybe I expect too much from a nation that has a festival called Fekal Party, heh heh. In the end, though, it’s precisely the exceptional band selection that makes it worth returning to Josefov every year.
Setlists
PRIMORDIAL:
1. No Grave Deep Enough
2. The Coffin Ships
3. Bloodied Yet Unbowed
4. Empire Falls
TRIVIUM:
1. Throes of Perdition
2. Down From the Sky
3. Becoming the Dragon
4. Brave This Storm
5. Watch the World Burn
6. Strife
7. Capsizing the Sea
8. In Waves
9. Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
10. One Winged Angel
BEHEMOTH:
1. Ov Fire and the Void
2. Demigod
3. Conquer All
4. Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel
5. Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
6. At the Left Hand Ov God
7. Slaves Shall Serve
8. Chant For Eschaton 2000
9. Lucifer
OPETH:
1. The Devil’s Orchard
2. Ghost of Perdition
3. Atonement
4. Deliverance
5. Demon of the Fall
6. Blackwater Park
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