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2007-01-13 DE – Georgsmarienhütte - Eventcenter B51

Moonspell - Primordial - Endstille - Communic - Moonsorrow - A Life Divided - Sudden Death - Path Of Golconda

Year by year German Burning Stage team calls for the first festival event in the freshly started new year: the WINTERNOISE FESTIVAL! Ok, what winter? Well, the word “winter” seems to be unbefitting this time… ;) At + 8°C and under a dark, cloudy and rainy sky I again hit the road towards Georgsmarienhuette, near Osnabrueck for the very last party taking place at B51. Something that could have been perfectly called a demolition party… ;)
In the run-up just one line-up change happened: The Duskfall dropped off. Not too bad since they already appeared at the last year’s edition of WINTERNOISE FESTIVAL. Local old school deather SUDDEN DEATH filled in, what turned out to be a great decision ;) With the black metal cats from ENDSTILLE there was only one repeater on the billing. Ok, a half one, at least, coz they already had a stint on Hellflame Festival in 2005.
But since there is no festival without some chaos Lacrimas Profundere cancelled their appearance one day prior due to illness and got replaced by PATH OF GOLCONDA. That of course messed the running order and the gothic-driven billing that was tailored to the headliner MOONSPELL. Never mind! On this evening a running order was the last thing making sense ;) Everything turned out to be completely different…

:: pics ::

Arriving at B51 on time I saw the doors still closed. No sight defect, attendant crowd had the same view ;) We should look on these closed doors for a while. The hall was used the evening before and was left as a pigsty, the PA just arrived and the fans were awaiting a long haul… With a delay of around one hour the gates got finally unlocked to welcome the soaked crowd with many merchandise stands and even the food stand inside. Great! Ok, one minute left to say hello to friends and the festival got kicked off…

:. PATH OF GOLCONDA ~ first entered the stage and could open in front of an already large crowd. A plus for the delay ;) The sound was poor, singing too low but who the fuck cares? These gents did not and thrashed on with full throttle. They probably had a much better monitor sound. PATH OF GOLCONDA got into with songs from the new full-length The Threshold Diaries, followed by two smash hits from the debut Destination: Downfall. The feedback was inexpertly great and even prodded the band to give their best. Succeed! This was a fucking great and energetic opening show!
Setlist: Metropolis Rotting, Between God And Gutter, Foul Winds Through Utopia, The Cannibal Crusade, Petriachor (The Parting Of Hearts)

:. SUDDEN DEATH ~ was coming next. They were brought forward, because they had to play another gig this evening and time was passing by quickly. And yes, the guys from Osnabrueck are also back on stage! In support of their freshly pressed and unleashed album Rethroned they started with it: intro and Until Hell Froze – shit, does it not suit exquisitely? *lol* While the infantry was treated with earthy death metal/grindcore, fronter and bass player (2x Markus) were acting downright unleashed and ran riot. Latter one was not to hold on stage and rather tortured his strings among the crowd, but always looking after his little boy – a tiny tot of approx. 5 years, sitting at the stage’s edge and skeptically watching what his dad was doing there. But daddy was proud as fuck ;) How cute is that? However, the local matadors had to struggle thru the crowd that was almost scared and buckling backwards but the rest did partying a lot and enjoyed the gig. And, considering the fact, that the B51 will be torn down, SUDDEN DEATH appealed for active participation (ok, figuratively) underlaid by Terror and left scorched earth musically ;) I absolutely loved this show! And I want more!
Setlist: Until Hell Froze, Broken Wings, Insert Coin, The Sun, Observer, Spiral Fortress, Black Pieces, Terror, Germ Under God

:. A LIFE DIVIDED ~ was supposed to be the actual opener this evening and kicked of with Isolation from their current and self-released album Far. First tones of singer JP went down quite off-key, even pointing out the extremes between them and other bands. Munich-based outfit offered soft Gothic/Electro, musically speaking sophisticated but the music was somehow lacking of power. Everything was just dabbling along. The band itself of course realized this, tried their best but failed to get the audience going. Only the girls followed their call to shake their legs. That A LIFE DIVIDED are able to rock out, they proved with their last song No World Order from the debut album Virtualized. Suddenly the guys kicked asses ;) Why they didn’t start this way right from the beginning? They can make it… ;)
Setlist: Isolation, Anyone, So Far To Go, Matter Of Sight, Walking In My Shoes, Virtualized, Hand Of Healing, Sounds Like A Melody, No World Order

:. MOONSORROW ~ just turned the tables afterwards. During the backline-change the crowd was pressing toward the stage and the WINTERNOISE FESTIVAL experienced its first highlight with the intro to Kivenkantaja. Axe-man Mitja was so full of energy, hardly to tame, and was everything rocking down to earth in his part of the stage. Of course not without evil posing ;) The rest of the band was nothing short of him. Only Ville seemed to be a little more restrained, since he also had to sing. But for that he was grinning like a Cheshire cat, lively talking to the audience. Anyway, grandiose vibes there, jumping over in a twinkling of an eye. I was just wondering who started first… Fantastic show! I actually didn’t expect anything else. As at the other recent shows Henri Sorvali got replaced by Janne (did I see a show without him?). Those who expected to get one of the both songs of the brand new album V: Hävitetty were left disappointed. I guess we will never get them during a normal show. But, no problem at all! MOONSORROW have enough great material to please the fans for hours ;) By the way… what about the track Likkonen?
Setlist: Kivenkantaja, Kylän päässä, Pimeä, Likkonen, Sankaritarina, Pakanajuhla

:. ENDSTILLE ~ caused some confusion. According to the running order Communic should have entered the stage. But, what was going as planned tonight? ;) Ok, then first the Black Metal attack! With Dominanz fronter Iblis started with spitting blood over the first rows, making them looking like Gwar victims. I just hope it was artificial blood… Of course, Iblis and Cruor were corpse painted and dressed in everything the chain, sting and rivet market may offer, while Wachtenfels and drummer Mayhemic Destructor went around as “normal” dudes. Sentiments seemed to be distributed the same way. Guitarist and drummer had some technical problems, were pissed and fighting with the stage techs. That did not derogate the show and ENDSTILLE got once more enthusiastically celebrated. Just at the end of the show ecstasy slowed down and catcalls came from the last rows. What made me smiling now and then was the North Sea idiom when Iblis started to talk with the crowd but looking evil as any possible. How cute was that? *lol*
Setlist: Dominanz, I Bless You…God, Frühlingserwachen, World Abscess, Biblist Burner, Hate, Der Hetzer (Batterie 4), Your Love Is Infectious, Disillusioned Victory, Bastard, RAF, Navigator

:. COMMUNIC ~ afterwards committed something like a break in style, visually as well as musically. But that’s exactly the great thing with “multi-culti” festivals ;) These Norwegian lumps of sweetness kicked off their set unbelievably energetic, played as tight as fuck and created such powerful sound that I was like… WOW! Wtf… are they doing there? I expected sort of a weak sound. No way!!! Instead COMMUNIC delivered a firework of progressive Power Metal. Holy shit! The gents played four songs from the highly acclaimed Waves Of Visual Decay and two from the predecessor. Just cute these guys. Really!

:. PRIMORDIAL ~ had to be the second highlight on this evening. Honestly… I never have seen mastermind Alan that emotional. And I have already seen many PRIMORDIAL shows. His facial expression was… just extreme, distorted, very close to burst out in tears, soulful. I only saw once a slight smile flickering over his face. In between he aggressively tramped over the stage, even killed his microstand, fell on his knees or sank into contemplative self-reflection. With his tattered outfit he then looked so vulnerable, making the crowd crying. What a roller coaster of feelings and emotions! Except for the four-stringer the rest of the band acted reserved and created an antipole. That of course amplified and centered Alans performance, made it even more intensive. Ciarán again couldn’t make it and got once more replaced by Gary. Musically PRIMORDIAL offered the proved mixture of old and new songs but this time they did not start with The Golden Spiral, but with To Enter Pagan. Despite of many calls there was no encore given, what was really bad :(
Setlist: To Enter Pagan, The Golden Spiral, The Gathering Wilderness, Autumn’s Ablaze, The Burning Season, The Coffin Ships, Sons Of The Morrigan, Gods To The Godless

:. MOONSPELL ~ actually added the cherry on the cake! I have not seen them performing live for a very long time. Other ones reports were mostly ambivalent so that I did not expect that much. Stage scenery was promising a lot… and took much time to be built up. Getting aware of the setlist it gave me creeps. The shortly before and speculative compiled best-of setlist seemed to be come true. Besides four songs from the current masterpiece Memorial the Gothic rockers went back deeply into the past and ecstasies the audience with classics such as Opium, Wolfshade, Vampiria, Alma Mater and the MOONSPELL song of all times: Full Moon Madness! How fucking great is that??? The band was in high spirits, rocked their souls out of the bodies and flirted with the fans. Singer Fernando Ribeiro pulled – with a voice in top form – all the stops, took off his clothes step by step and made the girls going mad ;) What a great an awesome show I tell ya! Of course MOONSPELL could not leave the stage without encores. And we got two! At the end MOONSPELL were exhausted but gushingly took a bow and released the tired crow into the pitch black night…
Setlist: In Memoriam, Finisterra, Memento Mori, Blood Tells, Everything Invaded, Opium, Wolfshade, Alma Mater, Proliferation, Upon The Blood, At The Image Of Pain, Nocturna, Vampiria, Full Moon Madness // From Lowering Skies, Capricorn At Her Feet

Summary: Again the WINTERNOISE FESTIVAL turned out be a fantastic event. The bit of chaos was ok, I guess, it doesn’t work without any ;) I wish the organizers had published a running order (despite the changes) as they did the years before as well. Not everybody wants to see every band…
Apropos everybody… with approx. 650 people the festival was less attended than the year before. Don’t ask me why. The billing was just great, the location and the prizes too. The question that now arises is: where will the next edition take place?

 

story & pics © Dajana