What an odyssey – first of all Ramon had to cancel the festival and no one from Germany seemed to go to the SUMMER BREEZE, so finally I decided to go there by train, spending a night in Marburg in-between and sharing the rest of the journey with the “womaniser” Gunnar from Black Metal Art / Hammer. Well, what dare I say? We have not even been on a festival and I didn’t already have enough sleep. Additionally, all my beer had gone the next morning when we finally arrived at the station in Aalen. So, getting a ticket, building up the tent, a quick look around and we already had reached the late afternoon with HYPOCRISY to start within the next minutes, after BELPHEGOR were delayed until the next day. Everything okay? Unfortunately not!!! When heading to the front-row I suddenly realised that my fistfucking a-million-dollar camera didn’t work. So sorry that there are no exclusive pics here.

HYPOCRISY started with ‘Roswell 47’, followed by ‘Pleasure Of Molestation’. Remarking something? The more often one sees HYPOCRISY the more routine it becomes. They are playing many festivals from year to year but there is no surprise-moment. Just their ordinary best-of collection every gig again and again. Okay, probably many bands would be lucky if they had such a good repertoire but on the other hand they must do something to not become the second VADER of festivals. For all those who didn’t see HYPOCRISY before, this was a marvellous gig anyway, but meanwhile you can even predict when which song will be played and that they will end with (logically) ‘The Final Chapter’ and if they are allowed to play an extra-song, they’ll probably play ‘Fractured Millennium’, but is this something a band with artistic skills like HYPOCRISY is aiming for – routine and predictability? Take a year or two of ALL festivals perhaps…

TIAMAT headlined the Friday. This festival became somehow a retro spectral event and the first to have a closer look at were the boys around Johan Edlund. No one would ever expect that they return to the glory of “The Astral Sleep” or “Wildhoney” but have you ever thought that TIAMAT might end up with a Johan Edlund just in a rip-shirt and the second guitar-player costumed like Ace Frehley? I didn’t… okay, it was already 1995 when I saw them the first time but back then and especially when I saw them Dynamo 1997 they had still an aura and made a live-gig something special. Today they try to be as rock as possible – and probably that is the point: there is no darkness and / or no Metal in their appearance. That is probably also why a large part of the audience went away after a few songs... The setlist didn’t include songs before “Wildhoney”, and even those songs – as an example ‘Whatever That Hurts’ and ‘The Ar’ were torn from each other into different shapes although they are logical components of one thing. I mean, back then he claimed about the deepness of ‘Wildhoney’’s content and now this? Strange. My personal highlights were nevertheless a rather cool version of ‘Gaia’ and ‘Cold Seed’.

The SUMMER BREEZE included a lot of younger bands which had the possibility to play for 20 minutes in the morning in front of a festival audience. This only worked partly. I personally think that 20 minutes is far too less to get an impression of a band, but on the other hand when do bands have the chance to play on a festival of this size? And playing for 20 minutes at 12:00 on the mainstage is still a better chance than playing half an hour in tent which lays outside the festival-area like in Wacken. MOURNING CARESS were one of those bands playing for about 20 minutes on the mainstage and those 20 minutes were definitely enough to say that I would have liked to see more of them: great melodic Death Metal with an aggressive appearance of the vocalist and a tight guitar-duo. The fact that already a larger audience watched and enjoyed them only proved that they were really good. Obviously their music is nothing revolutionary but does anyone care at lunch-time, I don’t and I hope I will have the chance to see them in club sometime again.

MIRROR OF DECEPTION with their rather doomy sound didn’t really fit into the sunlight that we had all three days. I have nothing against Doom Metal and I like a band like SHAPE OF DESPAIR a lot for instance, but I really was bored by the band. Thus in this case 20 minutes were enough really to say that they unlike their predecessors didn’t need more time. Perhaps just a matter of taste as some people liked it.

It was finally time to update my beer-reserves so I did and returned in time to see the Austrian masters of BELPHEGOR. Take them seriously or not, like their humour or not, but you cannot deny one simple thing: they rock in the most positive meaning of this description. Short intro, and then (only because of their late arrival yesterday) six songs of brilliant Death / Black Metal, far more destructive and far more evil than some of those painted forest-wankers from Scandinavia. I don’t know how  the symbiosis of the other more-or-less always drunk musicians and the MASTIC SCUM - drummer works but on stage it is perfect and tight and despite their image they are likeable persons. I hope they’ll find a better label for their next official release.

I don’t want to waste too many words on MYSTIC CIRCLE – just one thing: they are becoming even more mediocre the longer they exist. Nowadays they are no longer laughable as there are no clowns-costumes, no spikes, no corpsepaint nothing that made them so silly in the past. They are just mediocre. Mediocrity in its best form. Three mediocre musicians playing mediocre music and trying to pretend they are something special.  At least some people (no names here) were recognized throwing tomatoes. As there is nothing positive left to report...

…switching over to VADER. Something positive? Well, if you like their Death Metal and have not seen them at least 666 times during the last three years it might be. Is there really any town left they have not toured or any band that they have not shared the stage with? While other bands are or were far too seldom on stage, these Polish guys should be taken the license to play away for at least the next three years. Same goes for the possibility to release ten albums a year. Even if one bears in mind, that Metal (except for Black Metal) obviously is a way of entertainment in a way I nevertheless expect something like spontaneity and freshness from the stage – Vader themselves come further and further down their spiral of routine. This is even worse than the routine HYPOCRISY is trapped in. This is the routine of posing the same way, the same gestures and the same announcements for the songs – that some people already can predict what is coming next. Don’t get me wrong: as a band of its own they obviously have their class and this is nothing about technical or songwriting skills but for some bands this trap can be deadly, and for parts of the audience it is at least deadly boring.

Deadly boring is nothing I would mention in regard to DIMMU BORGIR. I’d preferably say that if one is not referring to what Black Metal actually is about – and DIMMU BORGIR is obviously the complete opposite of what Black Metal is about – one only can enjoy the SPINAL TAP of Norway. I mean, I at least am still impressed of the drumming skills that Mr Barker offers, but beside it is sad. They even manage to rape their old “Stormblåst”-classics ‘Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen’ and the titletrack for their masquerade. It might be entertaining to some, yes, but was Norwegian Black Metal once meant to entertain? I can’t imagine anyone is enjoying this for musical reasons. I left...

…to have a few drinks. There are other ways to enjoy a festival. If it comes to the festival itself this is with huge lead the best organized and fan-friendliest festival. The prices – starting with that for the ticket and also for the beer and food are human and far better than on the larger established festivals. As there are about 10,000 – 13,000 visitors it still has a familiar feeling in a way, there are never – really never queues in front of the entrance although the entrance is maximum a third of that in Wacken etc. But it worked. There were hardly any problems with the security as far as I reckon (besides some under taught security who had problems with journalists), everything was friendly and if they manage to get a campsite a bit nearer (30 minutes to walk – but there was free and regular bus shuttle service) this could be one of the best festivals in the near future. I only hope that they will nevertheless limit the ticket-capacity next year to not more than 15,000 and keep that familiar inside a small village.

My personal highlight of Saturday and the festival itself was still to come. Where there is some things missing in HYPOCRISY’s live performance  meanwhile, PAIN is still brilliant – probably because they are playing gigs hardly as regular as Tägtgren’s mainband. Concentrating on the songs of the last two albums and including the marvellous BEATLES-cover ‘Eleanor Rigby’ this is pure live power, spontaneity and fun. You can see it in the eyes of the musicians, Peter himself runs his ass off but all musicians do not only concentrate on the music. It is quite to good to observe that the songs of the a bit flat produced last album work far better and seem to be much harder and having more groove than on the record itself. Perfect example here is ‘Shut Your Mouth’, the Swedish single from “Nothing Remains The Same”. Great! And unlike TIAMAT yesterday the audience watched, banged and danced for PAIN until the bitter end. Hope to see you again soon!

MY DARKEST HATE were my band to start the Satuday after not really much sleep. I personally think that their music is not as good and they profit a lot from the fact that known musicians from other bands are part of them, but for a good start into the morning, they woke you up with their very own definition of Death Metal.

AMON AMARTH are, at least in my opinion, still one of the more underrated bands. Their Swedish Death Metal deserves, compared to the attention that bands like IN FLAMES or DARK TRANQUILLITY get, far more publicity as it still IS Death Metal and they are an enjoyable live-band. 40 Minutes without a pause or break and ‘The Last With Pagan Blood’ should have convinced the last person that they had deserved a far better position and more playing-time than in the hottest sun during the afternoon.

What was said about MYSTIC CIRCLE could have been said about AGATHODAIMON as well. Okay, I think that their only good release is their 1^st demo, but when one compares the album and whatever surrounds the band etc. with this gig, I guess everybody would have been surprised. Or did you expect their vocalist / guitarist in a jacket full with old-school patches and their bassist posing around with sunglasses? Well, well… contradicting. Besides this, it was a solid show, nothing spectacular, quite mediocre, better than some other bands on the festival but still not my cup of tea. And this rock’n’roll-behaviour does not really fit. And perhaps one should spend a bit more time to prepare the DAT if one uses one...

As the most disgusting and stupid band, DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, had finally played, the grand retro-final of this festival was still to come, starting with Finnish suicidals SENTENCED. It is accepted that those Suomian warriors have left their Death Metal roots behind but what they still keep is their fun on stage, their alcohol-abuse and their sarcasm. And that is something that makes them so worthy. And although they simply rock, I wonder whether they still call themselves “Metal”, they do not behave as rockstars. Song after song after song, hardly any breaks between those songs, hit after hit and simply a good festival-gig. And their humour is still uneaten: ‘Excuse Me While I Kill Myself’ was the best final they could do…

The next band was the one I had waited the most for, SAMAEL. As I am able to enjoy all albums from “Worship Him” to “Eternal”, I had really great hopes. Those were not really fulfilled 100% if I am honest, but then, were they realistic? The first thing is the setlist, except one song from “Ceremony Of Opposites” there was no one taken from the pre - “Passage” era, and SAMAEL were preferably more futuristic then dark, what I so much liked about them. Then on the other hand, is it not better that they did not dare to play old songs instead of tormenting them to pieces? The diaprojection etc. were completely brilliant, the band was tight, artist on the stage and this was after three years of complete silence, a good comeback, but on the other hand also a hint on what is to be expected in the near future: this band will still explore further, will be pushing the frontiers afar again and again and again, their next album will be brilliant in all aspects I predict, it will be SAMAEL, but if all can cope with it? We will see next year.

Okay, and the final: PARADISE LOST. As the festival had all its highlights and its shadows, the shadows should finish it. Unfortunately I never never managed to see PARADISE LOST when they toured their (in my opinion best) “Draconian Times” - album before they entered their odyssey of electro-albums, major deal etc. And after all those years they finally decided to return to their more metalized basics? As their new album seems to focus more on their more successful are, suddenly all those hated Metal songs, especially from “Icon” and aforementioned fifth album returned into the setlist, accompanied by ‘As I Die’ etc. etc., but then the band had hardly any stageacting and really represented themselves as if their was no need at all to do something and as if they were just thinking how to get away from the stage as soon as possible. When they changed their style, they said that this is what they wanted to do and they tried to keep their integrity, but why then do they suddenly turn back to their other albums which simply their fans like the most? Is it integrity to just do what probably sells the best? Or just play what the fans expect and favour? It would have been nice to see PARADISE LOST performing all the old classics for sure, but not so bored and with an so unenthusiastic Nick Holmes on vocals. Please please stop this band or make them split or whatever, so disappointing...

Nhashi
all pics taken from the official Summer Breeze website

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