Thu 14 Aug – Brutal Assault XIII - 2008

Brutal Assault, the festival with 80 bands and I went there to see one. A very good trip with Jhessail , Morrigan_le_Fay and theriel_night. We've met a few familiar faces more at the place :)

The place itself was interesting - an old military fort from XVIIIth century, now filled with metal fans. As folks called it - a little metal city. Pity parts of the festival weren't located in the tunnels, that would give more to the atmosphere. But I guess bands had some fun going through them for they appeared out of nowhere in the place, I guess they drove to another side of the walls. Double stage, bands were playing alternatingly, so no band could be missed while listening to another as it happens on some festivals, very good idea.

Now regarding sound itself most of bands sounded flat to me, but it was hard to state if the sound was set wrong or they just sound this way given I've herd them for the first time. Also most of them sounded to me the same... But given I'm no brutal/death/black metal fan I should not really judge the bands that harsh.

Ok, some memories to note down.


Thursday

We arrived at the festival around 5PM judging on the program, but I can't remember why that late. We decided to walk around the place and with theriel_night I spent a lot of time on the marketplace searching for T-shirts she wanted to buy.
I arrived to the stages in time to see Samael, one of the names I wanted to check. In their case I've heard them before (not live). Not my music anymore, but I liked the performance. Front man talking with natural voice between songs, no unnecessary screaming on the public. In contrast later I've learned again I don't like bands who call audience "mother fuckers".
Next the highlight of the evening to me - Fintroll, the band I really enjoyed. Never heard them before and I admit I still prefer Hedningarna when I think about the word folk, but this kind of heavier and as I expect humorous approach to folk sounds interesting, too. Got to check them and get some troll hammers: Trollhammaren at YouTube.
We went out of festival during Mayem's performance, so I have no idea what way Harmony Bay sounds, an interesting name on the slaughter catastrophe corps names like list.

Friday

We entered when Novembre was on stage, quite a nice band, worth checking later. Behemoth, a good moment to take places close to the Obscure stage where one band was tuning in ;) Cradle of Filth. Yeah we were going to see them, at least for the legend's sake, but we needed to find a less noisy place that time.
Neurosis. A big surprise to me, for unknown reason I was expecting some noisy hard core I will not like. I was impressed by the music itself right away, though I would prefer it instrumental. But I was told vocals on studio versions are more in the background, more like another instrument adding to the mood (I admit I treat vocals like that recently, lyrics stopped to be the most important, while I used to pay the most attention to them in the past). A band to remember, creating mood both with sound and black and white visualizations. To me a mood like swimming in deep waters. Definitely one to check later.
1349 confirmed us we really want to go back to our room, so we skipped the last bands again.

Saturday

We were eating breakfast too long so we missed Arkona. As Sorvali told us that was really interesting band with a female vocalist who was singing a bit like a witch - with neutral voice, growling and strange screeches or whispers. That would be something, but we arrived after um...4 PM?
Now funny stuff. Zubrowska. I went to check who is playing and when I got to the stages I thought someone put on the telebim a video of a different band to the music from the stage... Totally unexpected look compared with music: short hair, white shirts (ties?), I'm sure they had fun with breaking the convention of the expected metal band look.
Next a cabaret - Sebkha-Chott, the craziest band ever. They sounded to me like broken mirror Bregovic got into metal with techno and jazzy twists. Check for your self, just two examples: the crazy music (I want that saxophone!) and the final scene with a chicken (both vids not from BA, the one from BA is in poor quality). I was impressed the most by their drummer's huge bunny ears ;) People on audience had fun, even dancing. Unfortunately I haven't seen the whole gig - we were sitting most of the time away from the stages hiding from rain and then went to meet and greet tent where Paradise Lost supposed to be, but it was cancelled (as most of meetings that day).
Arch Enemy. I was told a girl sings there and when I'll hear her screaming then...! (I don't remember what would happen then, I think it was ended by a meaningful face expression). So I was expecting someone with a strong voice, screaming loud with power. Will she beat Diamanda Galás? I had too high expectations, the girl from Arch Enemy was growling and if I haven't seen her I would think it was man's voice. I guess it was great within the convention, some people were so impressed that a girl can growl like that. But I see no reason for a girl to growl, at least not to growl the whole songs, it could be useful in some moments to stress something more or just amaze the audience. People all around were wondering if she can sing with a natural voice, we wondered that, too. Which must be sad for her if she hears this question over and over again. But apart that I expected totally different voice she made a very good impression on me - a beautiful woman with positive energy, looking great on stage and performing lively with charisma. I think they were one of the bands gathering the biggest audience. Well deserved.
Paradise Lost. I'm sorry, but it was the greatest disappointment of the festival to me. No, I'm not a fan, I know only several songs but I've never saw them live and I was really awaiting that gig. Is it the way they sound today or was it a bad day? I felt the singer was as unenthusiastic as the audience was quiet. He even asked us why we're so quiet. I was sorry for that, indeed I could not hear people, the public was really apathetic. Paradise Lost didn't fit to the brutal metal festival, the same as Anathema, but I don't think it was a reason. Perhaps people expected a stronger, heavier performance form them. Perhaps standing in the rain for the whole day and tones of beer gave the fall of form in the audience. Perhaps both. Well, I'm Forever Failure song fan and the way the singer's voice sounds there. It sounded different that night, very soft, but I guess as well I could expect Anathema to play Serenades if that's fitting comparison (ha, but they did in some way!). I didn't expect Paradise Lost would play Small Town Boy cover either, which I like a lot and where the voice is different to the old times, too, but stronger than it was during the show. I was sorry for the fact that things went wrong with the audience and the mood, but as I said the same time I was greatly disappointed. Yet there were people who really liked the show, heard the band for the first time and decided to get to know them better, so maybe it wasn't that bad.
This last day we stayed long enough to see the last band - Esoteric - and again as with Neurosis this is something I need to check. Not that impressive, but the mood of floating in waters was there. We saw just a glimpse of their performance and walked back to our room, tired and the same time sad it's the end of the festival.

We've had a little Anathemaniacs+PL group meeting before Arch Enemy came on stage, very short but we've finally managed to gather in one place :)

Metal fan or not in spite of my grumbling here I really enjoyed the festival, the place and the people :)


What? I have missed something in my review? No, not really, I just left the best to the end. So - yes - Anathema, Saturday's night. The main reason why I travelled to Jaroměř. And it was worth it, Anathema gave a great performance!

From the beginning we had some fun taking our places in front of the Obscure stage Anathema got while Behemoth was performing on the Nosferatu stage. Pity, we would prefer they got Nosferatu, wouldn't we Vlaaaaads? [Oh, an internal joke of my companions I can't explain, it had to do something with Dracula.] But let's come back to Anathema. So, Behemoth on Nosferatu (they had great public), Mr Danny Cavanagh on the Obscure stage tuning guitars laud till they sounded right. A big plus for that, I was afraid some random festival technician will do the job and Anathema will loose much sounding flat as some of bands sounded to me. That tuning was quite loud comparing to for example to Samael's instruments tuning (they sounded flat), I wonder if Behemoth have heard anything? For sure they didn't but we've had some fun they are like "WTF? What's the noise out there!? Who's that guy disturbing us!?" and so on ;)

The concert. A really good performance with songs I loved to hear. But they didn't want to play Eternity part I, traitors! More, they didn't play Lost Control I was sure someone said they will ;) But I have finally heard the beautiful voice of Lee Douglas. That was a magic moment when after all the noisy music we expected during the day came out the beauty of A Natural Disaster's melody and Lee's voice. A moment to stop, slow down, but not for long. They played A Dying Wish, another of my top songs to hear live and in the end a cover of Metallica's Orion, a song I never knew till I stepped on Anathema's gig from Dynamo'99 on YouTube. I loved it, had to check why they were playing it to memory of someone (who was that guy?) and what was that song at all, so finally I've red the whole story about the tragic bus accident Metallica had in Sweden. But I've never expected I'll hear it live, that was highlight song of the evening for me. Well, I know and own only the black album of Metallica and Orion is to me "that rare song Anathema played" and now I've heard it live :) Ah, well yes - they played Sleepless, a song I was waiting to hear one day in the past, it was nice to hear it again. I like this song, but I believe that the guys have got enough of it. The screaming audience could hear one day "We're not sleepless anymore" ;)

The set list (after comparing with notes of others):
Parisienne Moonlight (playback intro)
Fragile Dreams
Empty
Closer
Deep
A Natural Disaster
Sleepless
A Dying Wish
Orion

Great evening, filled with not only concert memories, a one to remember :)

Pictures from the gig and BA in general - by Morrigan_le_Fay:
http://samainnight.deviantart.com/gallery/

A question - what is Vincent saying in the end of Empty? Jamie said the same when they entered the "meet and greet" tent, but I can't understand it, apart the last sentence (and it doesn't make sense to me).


Greetings to all the people I've met at Brutal Assault and special hugs to my great companions, hope to see you in October :)