Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Josefov Fortress / Jaromer / Czech Republic
Date: August 11, 2016
Attendance: 15,000
Thanks to better weather, Thursday got off to a much more promising start than the first day of the festival. Despite the clouds, there were plenty of sunny spells, which made it ever so nice to lounge around in the comfort of the “natural stand”, the hill opposite the main stages with a perfect view of both, with a cold glass of one of the five Budweiser brews in hand.
When we got to the grounds, we caught the last few notes of Australian prog rock outfit Plini, who didn’t sound half bad, but what followed was a lot more brutal: Polish death/grind four-piece Antigama, who pulled a pretty decent crowd in front of the stage for early afternoon. The Poles delivered a perfectly solid genre stroll that reminded me mostly of Brutal Truth and newer Napalm Death, and they were confident on stage and had the crowd in their fist without any trouble. Beyond that, though, not much stuck, thanks to the simple, uninspired riffing, the nonstop blast beats and the rather monotonous vocals.
The German heavyweights Obscura, on the other hand, left a much nicer memory. With their current album Akroasis, they proved they’re still at the top of modern technical/progressive death metal. After the recent lineup changes and the friction between band founder Steffen Kummerer and the by now former guitarist Fountainhead, who helped record the album (and who reportedly isn’t credited for all of his songwriting contributions), there were plenty of doubts about how Obscura would sound now that the outstanding drummer Hannes Grossmann (Alkaloid, solo) and Christian Münzner (Alkaloid, Spawn of Possession, solo) are no longer in the band. Steffen and the other three crushed those doubts from the very first moments of the opening banger Ten Sepiroth. Obscura leaves nothing to chance and still comes across as an unstoppable tank. Drummer Sebastian Lanser stepped brilliantly into Grossmann’s shoes, Klausenitzer’s bass once again moved mountains, and the biggest wow was the until recently totally unknown guitarist Rafael Trujillo, who played parts of both Münzner and Fountainhead with surgical precision and incredible confidence. In great spirits, Kummerer faithfully presented mostly new songs to Brutal Assault, and Obscura dipped back into the past with The Anticosmic Overload before bidding the crowd farewell with the epic Centric Flow. Rating: five out of five, so don’t miss Obscura with Revocation, Beyond Creation and Rivers of Nihil on October 31 at Orto bar!
The technical vibe continued with the next act, as Animals As Leaders took the stage, a real treat for guitar nerds in particular, since the stage was graced by the eminence of modern guitar, Tosin Abasi. The American trio, which besides Abasi also includes guitarist Javier Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka, delivered without a doubt the most technically perfect and flawless performance of the festival; Abasi’s fingers simply don’t know what a mistake is. The constant tempo and rhythm changes were downright stunning live, and even more so the emulation of bass lines on guitars, played sometimes by Reyes and sometimes by Abasi. Animals As Leaders aren’t for every ear, but live, these modern-day prog/djent wizards were pure pleasure.
After the technical onslaughts of Obscura and Animals As Leaders, it was time for something “slightly” more brutal, as Belgian death metal butchers Aborted took the stage beneath the great cover of their new album Retrogore, which looks like the poster for some eighties horror flick, led by the psychotic frontman Sven “Svencha” de Caluwe. We had already completely forgiven the band for the dreadful deathcore attempt on the album Strychnine.213, since their last three albums proved they’re back on the path of good old Goremageddon-style carnage. Aborted focused mostly on that album and the current Retrogore this time, and above all proved they haven’t been in such good form in a really long time. Svencha filled the whole stage, since he didn’t stand still for a second, and the new guitarist Ian Jekelis really shone, having had to fill the big shoes of Danny Tunker (Alkaloid, ex-God Dethroned). Even though we’ve seen Aborted on our stages countless times, you have to admit these crazy Belgians are enjoying a second spring.
New York’s H2O took care of the first dose of hardcore, of which there was quite a lot at Brutal Assault this year. In three quarters of an hour, the Americans threw a proper hc/punk party full of moshing, clichéd hc speeches about brotherhood and friendship, and short, three-minute, punchy punk anthems that found just the right place among the Brutal Assault crowd. Even more so when H2O kicked off their song 5 Year Plan with a War Pigs intro.
Detroit’s The Black Dahlia Murder steered things into more traditional metal waters, still promoting their well-received studio album Abysmal from last year. The band was rocked this year by the departure of guitarist Ryan Knight, one of the main culprits behind their success, so there was some worry about how The Black Dahlia Murder would recover live. Those worries were forgotten from the very first song, What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse, as Brandon Ellis (Arsis, Cannabis Corpse) took to the band like a fish to water, and together with the rest of the members the band put on a top-notch, stormy show, topped off as always by the energetic and charismatic Trevor Strnad with great banter and workout-style (see photo) crowd hyping.
We continued Thursday afternoon in darker and more serious tones with the Norwegian master Ihsahn, who knows no breaks: in a good ten years of solo work he has already put out six albums, the latest, Arktis., in April of this year. It may even be his best album so far, so it was really nice to hear as many as five songs from it, led by Pressure. With his solo work, Ihsahn has clearly found his true musical voice, because he came across brilliantly on stage too. Even better news, though, is that Emperor have already confirmed their appearance at next year’s Brutal Assault, where they’ll play the cult classic Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk in full.
New York death metal giants Immolation sadly had no luck with this tour, as guitarist Bill Taylor had to leave mid-tour over family matters. But the legendary Yonkers crew didn’t give up and are continuing the tour as a trio without him. Brave and commendable, but it’s a shame Immolation couldn’t find a replacement guitarist, because live the absence of one guitar was pretty noticeable. Dolan, Vigna and Shalaty didn’t let it rattle them, though, and played the set like an F5 tornado; Vigna is a god on guitar anyway, and Dolan once again rattled our internal organs with his thunderous vocals. Since the cult debut Dawn of Possession turns 25 this year, Immolation played three songs from it this time, besides the title track also the rare Despondent Souls and Immolation, and despite the slightly hollow sound they earned all the praise.
From the other side of the American continent, straight out of San Francisco’s Bay Area, thrash veterans Exodus stepped onto the Brutal Assault stage and pulled off a devilishly good set. Sadly, Gary Holt’s duties, since playing in Slayer evidently brings him more cash than his home band, are still handled by the otherwise excellent Kragen Lum (Heathen, Psychosis), and Exodus live still aren’t quite the real deal without Holt’s animalistic presence. Regardless, the show I saw was one of the best I’ve ever caught from Exodus, since the band is evidently unstoppable after Zetro’s return. With their typical “exo-crunch,” Exodus mowed the crowd down for fun, and the moshing in the audience just didn’t seem to have any end. An excellent setlist full of old classics and the best picks of newer material (the opening The Ballad of Leonard and Charles sounds much better coming from Zetro’s mouth than from Dukes’) put the cherry on top of it all, and the toxic waltz only fizzled out with the last note of the beastly anthem Strike of the Beast.
Gojira played the festival in the early afternoon just three years ago, but this year they (deservedly) took one of the headliner slots. The French giants played probably one of the most hurricane-force sets of the festival’s second day, marked above all by a technically flawless performance, loud, crushing and clear sound, and the communicative frontman Joe Duplantier. Gojira recently released an album that’s rather atypical for them, Magma, which is far from the progressive complexity of The Way of All Flesh, yet keeps all the band’s trademarks, which came gushing out in the Czech Republic too. We got mighty walls of guitars, melodic passages and masterful moves from the Duplantier/Christian Andreu guitar duo, plus the inhumanly precise and phenomenal drumming of the extraordinary Mario Duplantier (we sat down with him to talk about the new record and plenty more, which you’ll be able to read on our pages soon). In a good hour Gojira played both well-received singles from the new album, Silvera and Stranded, and strung together a pile of brilliant bangers such as The Heaviest Matter of the Universe, Flying Whales (during which an inflatable whale usually swims over the crowd), Wisdom Comes, Oroborus and the closing Vacuity. Another concert triumph for one of the hottest bands of the moment.
After Gojira’s farewell, American “bad boy” and industrial veteran Uncle Al Jourgensen and his Ministry took over the neighboring stage, aptly named Jägermeister. Jourgensen has put the band to rest a few times and then revived it again, even though after the death of guitarist Mike Scaccia he swore on everything holy that Ministry was done. Live, thanks to Al’s unique presence, it’s always a pleasure to watch, and this time was no different. Al and his gang greeted Brutal Assault with Hail to His Majesty from the still-current album From Beer to Eternity, then kept jumping back and forth across the sprawling discography, especially the album Rio Grande Blood, with the title track, Señor Peligro and LiesLiesLies. Ministry live are always boosted by disjointed video projections, and they were there this time too, and, totally in Al’s style, neither Trump nor Clinton was missing from them.
While Australian metalcore giants Parkway Drive put on a fiery show on the main stage in front of a packed-to-the-brim field, the Metalgate stage was waiting with an obscure treat in the form of Mithras. The English experimental death metal outfit already played Brutal Assault years ago, presenting what was then the relatively fresh album Behind the Shadows Lie Madness, after which the leader and only constant member of the band, guitarist and vocalist Leon Macey, put his activities on hold for several years. A few months ago Mithras finally announced that things are moving toward a new album, released a promising new track and finally moved their dusty Cthulhu-esque tentacles onto the stage too. Sadly, this time the opportunity was completely botched for Mithras. The soundcheck alone dragged on for a good ten minutes, and when Macey played the first of those otherworldly-sounding solos so typical of Mithras, the power cut out, and the show was over after just half a song. The gig resumed only after nearly half an hour, but by then the next attraction was already standing on the main stage. Shame, looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer for Mithras; I just hope a tour follows the album release.
With heads hanging, we walked over to the main stage to dance to the retro sounds of futuristic synthwave from French master Perturbator. He’s not the only one making electronic music today in the manner of cult horror (especially Carpenter) and sci-fi movie soundtracks from the eighties, but he’s definitely one of the most prominent, which he confirmed with his new album The Uncanny Valley. Retro is “in” right now in film waters too, as the fantastic Netflix series Stranger Things proved, with its lovely nods to Goonies, It, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. and plenty of others, while on the music side Perturbator revives the eighties in his own way (the guy’s name is actually James Kent, and before his electronic career he played in several black metal bands). In a little under an hour, Perturbator presented the lion’s share of the new album with tracks like Neo-Tokyo (directly inspired by the cult anime Akira), Weapons For Children, and She Is Young, She Is Beautiful, She Is Next, which more than effectively rattled eardrums with bass synths and hypnotic ambient parts. Perturbator was a different but very bold and successful move by Brutal Assault, as a packed-to-the-brim field danced off into the night to him.
Setlists
ANTIGAMA:
1. Intro/Waking the Fear
2. Reward or Punishment
3. Foul Play
4. Flies
5. Collapse
6. The Key
7. Meteor
8. Stop the Chaos
9. The Signal
10. Eraser
OBSCURA:
1. Ten Sepiroth
2. The Monist
3. Akroasis
4. The Anticosmic Overload
5. Sermon of the Seven Suns
6. Ode to the Sun
7. Centric Flow
ANIMALS AS LEADERS:
1. Wave of Babies
2. Tempting Time
3. Ka$cade
4. Physical Education
5. The Woven Web
6. CAFO
ABORTED:
1. Divine Impediment
2. Cadaverous Collection
3. Meticulous Invagination
4. Parasitic Flesh Resection
5. Necrotic Manifesto
6. Coffin Upon Coffin
7. Expurgation Euphoria
8. The Holocaust Incarnate
9. Sanguine Verses (… of Extirpation)
10. The Saw and the Carnage Done
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER:
1. What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
2. Statutory Ape
3. Vlad, Son of Dragon
4. Malenchantments of Necrosphere
5. Threat Level No. 3
6. Abysmal
7. Everything Went Black
8. Miasma
9. Deathmask Divine
IHSAHN:
1. Pressure
2. Until I Too Disolve
3. Hiber
4. Pulse
5. Frozen Lakes on Mars
6. My Heart is of the North
7. Mass Darkness
8. Celestial Violence
IMMOLATION:
1. A Spectacle of Lies
2. Majesty and Decay
3. Despondent Souls
4. Epiphany
5. The Purge
6. Dawn of Possession
7. Father, You’re Not a Father
8. A Glorious Epoch
9. Immolation
10. All That Awaits Us
EXODUS:
1. The Ballad of Leonard and Charles
2. Blood In, Blood Out
3. And Then There Were None
4. Exodus
5. Body Harvest
6. War Is My Shepherd
7. Blacklist
8. A Lesson in Violence
9. Pleasures of the Flesh
10. Bonded By Blood
11. Toxic Waltz
12. Strike of the Beast
GOJIRA:
1. Toxic Garbage Island
2. L’Enfant Sauvage
3. The Heaviest Matter of the Universe
4. Silvera
5. Stranded
6. Flying Whales
7. Wisdom Comes/Drum solo
8. Backbone
9. Only Pain
10. Terra Inc.
11. Oroborus
12. Vacuity
MINISTRY:
1. Hail to His Majesty (Peasants)
2. Punch in the Face
3. PermaWar
4. Rio Grande Blood
5. Señor Peligro
6. LiesLiesLies
7. N.W.O.
8. Just One Fix
9. The Missing
10. Deity
11. Stigmata
12. Thieves
Photo Gallery
