INGURGITATING OBLIVION's Florian asked me whether I'd like to accompany the band. Why not? It was clear we wouldn't see many bands on Friday as new INGURGITATING singer Uli had to work that day. So it wasn't drummer Dirk's fault who had locked his keys in the trunk: we wouldn't have left much earlier anyway and after a couple of miles we realised that the map was still lying on Florian's desk! The next problem was that we had to travel via Hannover as GALLERY OF DARKNESS bass player Torsten's former girlfriend Sarah had agreed to join us. Although the route via Hamburg is slightly longer, the traffic there isn't as heavy and that night the Autobahn on our way was supposed to be closed due to repairs! But Sarah knew a good route and so we didn't get caught in a traffic jam. I was caught in Dirk's car together with him and Uli who had brought some drum' n' bass tapes. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Mercy! What a pity I forgot my ABBA tapes! In the other car they had Masters Of The Universe tapes! At least that has something to do with Metal! So I guess we had some fun on the way. No other problems until we reached Neuruppin, the town (?) close to Protzen: there were no signs to be seen and when we finally found a gas station that was not closed at that time of night. We found Protzen easily afterwards but somebody had taken down the signs to guide people to the festival. Around 2.00 a.m. we finally reached the festival, parked the cars and took a look at the stage. EISREGEN were still playing and there were quite a few fans still partying with them. Around 4.00 a.m. our tents were waiting for us, but in the darkness and chaos everybody forgot about Dirk who was haunted by somebody with an interest to become a groupie: "take a look at my tent". In the end he went to sleep in the car and woke up with a stiff neck the following morning. So while everybody was waiting for the first band he crept into the tent for some sleep.
Some were taking a nice shit, others had lunch for extremely low prices ­ even cheaper than at the "Fuck The Commerce"! Some had their first couple of beers whereas I took a closer look at the Metal Market. If only it had remained a "look"! As usual I was almost broke before the first band had started playing.
ANENCEPHALUS were not bad at all (I would have remembered) but obviously not too great, either. What I liked was that most of the INGURGITATING members were watching almost all of the other bands making the hangar look a little more crowded: there were only about 350 people around, whereas 5 years ago there had been 1500!
APOPHIS played an energetic gig. Obviously they had a lot of experience: especially their singer didn't look very young anymore. But he was charismatic and their music sounded cool, too. If they played around town, I'd go and see them for sure!
GOMORRHA sounded as if they are influenced by the most extreme bands like MORTICIAN and so there was a lot of action in front of the stage, even though there were not too many people watching. Good one.
LEGACY obviously has a big following already and their singer is an excellent entertainer. Their music didn't really grip me and I'm not sure if I might change my mind after hearing them on CD.
Then, finally, it was time for INGURGITATING OBLIVION and they were literally taking the stage by storm! I have seen quite a few great INGURGITATING gigs, but this was their best by far! If only there had been people watching! Obviously nobody knew the band, so there were only about 50 people in front of the stage. Those who were there experienced something special: after the intro 'La Gitana' the band played all of their new material from the "Cadence And Perspective In Desolation" demo as well as 'Nyarlathotep' from their "Thought-Cathedral" release from the time when they were still called OF TREES AND ORCHIDS. The LEGACY guys later on said they didn't find it very nice of INGURGITATING to play 'Rapture' that damn tight. On stage the band was completely going crazy, guitarist Karsten's head was about to fall off, Florian made his grimaces right at the front of the stage and even bass player Sascha was moving twice as much as usual. Drummer Dirk was blasting in a state of trance and new singer Uli was doing very well at his first gig ever! Cool old-school voice. At the end of the gig everybody in the audience was screaming for an encore and they got another version of 'Nyarlathotep'. By the way, they're leaving out the Jazz part now in order not to confuse everybody. Finally, the band gave away some demo CD-Rs for  free and everybody was happy but Dirk: for his taste he had not been tight enough! There had been no carpet for the drum kit and so it had been moving around all the time. Well, I didn't hear any mistakes at all.
After this killer gig I just wasn't able to understand Black Metal and so I left out FENRIS ­ but there were quite a few people enjoying them.
TYPE O NEGATIVE copycats FROWN started to get on the evil guys' nerves and while I was simply staying away concentrating on my beer, some of the LEGACY guys and INGURGITATING drummer Dirk joined the first row in order to show those poor musicians their dicks! To be honest, I didn't see this happening, but those rumours appear to be extremely persistent.
EMINENZ surprised me. I remember them being a 'nice' band, simply boring ­ but obviously they really developed! Charismatic singer, cool bass player plus a crushing cover! So not only their fans had a reason to be euphoric.
Up next were fun grinders MANOS. In East Germany they're obviously a cult act: the hangar was packed with fans making it one big moshpit! Take a look at their outfit! I guess one has to be drunk to like them and I was ­ but if you ever get the chance seeing them over there in the East: don't hesitate to go!
I remember I watched HYPNOS playing 2 or 3 songs and being impressed by their stage acting: their heads were constantly propelling! The music was cool anyway and there still was a considerable crowd having fun in the middle of the night when I started enjoying my mattress.
The only thing that could have been better was the rather miserable weather. I hope the Protzen festival will continue despite of this year's financial problems. In the end one only had to pay a little more than one Euro for each band. Where was everybody???