Six Feet Under - Dark Funeral - Eluveitie - Brujeria - Moonsorrow - Sadus - Brutal Truth - Shining - Rotten Sound - Paganizer - Beneath The Masscre - Hellsaw

[Dajana] Oh, oh… this night was really damn fucking short! *sighs* 2 hrs of sleep and we got kicked out again by the sun *grrrrr* Ok, same procedure… first giving us some kind of a human-like look, breakfast and then… just hanging out till 1pm...

:: pics ::

[Dajana] Black, blacker, blackest… darker a day cannot begin! Not even at sunny sunshine. Austrian Black metallers :: HELLSAW :: kicked it of furiously and visibly had a infernal blast during their show ;) Five songs from the new album Cold got presented. Oh, and pyros would have perfectly suited to the band too, just to mention that ;) And again a great show. Love to see them!
[Claudia] Yeah, HELLSAW is pure Black Metal with Corpse-paint, huge spikes and rivets. And I agree, it was a hellish black introduction of the last festival day.
Setlist: Sulphur Prayer (Intro), I Saw Hell, The Black Death, The Inner Revenge Of Nature, The Ember Of Your Own, Moonrites Diabolicum, Ache, ... Me Crying, Der Harzwald, In Memory, Outro

[Dajana] Those, who weren’t awake yet got woken up, thrashed and blown away by :: BENEATH THE MASSACRE :: Now! And literally! Have never seen them before playing live… it was just awesome! An all destroying force. Fair in the face.
[Claudia] I was invited by Stiefel, the dude who mixed most of the bands and had the pleasure to see BENEATH THE MASSACRE from the mixing tower. So I had a perfect sight on stage and a brilliant sound. These Canadian guys just left scorched earth! The first highlight!

[Dajana] Afterwards things went on pretty unhurried :: PAGANIZER :: delivered a quite unspectacular Death Metal show. Time for a first beer and a walkabout…
[Claudia] Was rather less exciting…

[Dajana] …and back on time to party with :: ROTTEN SOUND :: I really love the Finnish Grindcore guys ;) You know, nothing left to be desired and once more scorched earth left ;)
[Claudia] Also the crowd was going insane. Haven’t seen so many mosh pits and circle pits at once, with funnily dressed up people inside ;)
[Dajana] Undressed? I missed something?...*lol* Saw the circle pits too but wasn’t willing to get even in near of them, after I have seen the first bloody noses ;) Singer Keijo anyway was totally ravished by the audience’s feedback. What burst of energy, at this heat!

[Dajana] Finally! :: SHINING :: being already in a good mood yesterday I assumed that not so much could go wrong with Kvarforth tonight. With the bottle JB in his hand (that wasn’t emptied that much – boozing? As if! Sipped at best *lol*) SHINING got into heir set. Unfortunately, the band had to struggle through some sound problems, which were a bit annoying, especially, since the sound lives from its atmosphere. Band took it easy, crowd too, more or less. Generally speaking, the crowd was pretty funny during this show, including fans with potted and spiked palms; in front of me I saw someone with a lurid yellow snuggle duck and, at last, a guy with a Jason Donovan shirt passed me. With his image on it… BLACK METAL IS WARRRRRRRRRR! *snorts with laughter* War also cutie Nicki tried to incite when he gave a “black metal mongo” in the first rows a bird saying: “I know how to find you after the show! ;) On stage meanwhile nothing spectacular happened. Again Kvarforth hold himself off. No mess, no scandals, no puking. Only hugging and kissing with the cuddly bassplayer *OMG what SCANDAL!” *lol* But they played a song from the upcoming album VI/Klagopsalmer :)

[Claudia] More Grindcore, more sickos…. The :: BRUTAL TRUTH :: ! Danny Lilker and his mates also had a ball. Especially drummer Richard marvelously pulled faces. Singer Kevin went wild barefoot with a crumpled Stetson on and axe-man Erik wore flip-flops *laughs*, while delivering an old school Grindcore massacre. What hell of fun!

[Dajana] Next highlight per se showed up with :: SADUS :: entering the stage. Finally a Thrash Metal band, the only one at PARTY.SAN. By the way… Mr. Travis and Mr. DiGiorgio and Mr. Allen just celebrate their 25 wedding anniversary. 25 years of SADUS with the same line-up. WOW! My deepest respect!
[Claudia] SADUS I was looking for most and I didn’t get disappointed! Frisco-based sunny boys really played most of the songs from the first three albums lllusions, Swallowed In Black and Chemical Exposure, with a lively stageacting to fill this huge stage with action. It was exceptionally great to watch them performing live. Thrash Metal rules!!!
[Dajana] I fully agree! Also after the show this trio emerged as being very likeable and congenial. Just to snog them down to earth (actually done by some girls) ;)

[Dajana] Sky becomes cloudy and overcast, but it doesn’t rain yet :: MOONSORROW :: get on stage and get in as aggressive as always. I have seen them quite often and so I’m not so much enthused now. Frontman Ville surprisingly stayed in the background leaving the action to Mitja and live-guitarist Janne.

[Dajana] Next and final Grindcore band is up to jump on stage while heaven opens its gates for the first rain drops :: BRUJERIA :: didn’t care and kicked off brutally. Totally sick and insane Mexicans. Mummed ones. Shane Embury (ok, not a Mexican ;)) is now called Hongo, and Jeff Walker El Cynico (nor is he ;)). No chance to hide, they got recognized ;) Shane stood their like nailed, Jeff was bit more lively. But the real party got celebrated by Juan Brujo and Pinche Peach. Crazy bastards and full of black humor. Everything they told was in Spanish. Dunno how much people understood. But the show was real fun!
[Claudia] Too bad that BRUJERIA had such pappy sound. Just to make it clear, it wasn’t the next long-drink at the mixing tower, BUJERIA had own sound engineers ;) Beside this little flaw the show was downright entertaining.

[Dajana] Ok, some variety is always needed and :: ELUVEITIE :: are popular having a huge following. Though, they seemed to be misplaced at PARTY.SAN. Weather freshened and so we left the Swiss guys with the “standard program” done in favor of a delicious dinner ;)
[Claudia] I anyway can’t do anything with Medieval/ Folk Metal, no chance to score brownie points. I rather wanted to have some food too, following Dajana. There was some need for a break ;)

[Dajana] Back to get heated up with :: DARK FUNERAL :: and lotsa pyros. Wet spots dried, wet bodies too ;) And I have to confess, the guys of DARK FUNERAL are really well-fed *laughs* Looks ludicrous with the corpse-paint over the double chin ;) Nevertheless… great show, maybe a bit unhurried. The Swedish blackies are in studio right know, let’s see with what they will come up. According to Lord Ahriman the new album is supposed to be slower and less technical (were they ever???)
[Claudia] The sound was pretty phat too ;)
Setlist: Intro, King Antichrist, The Secrets Of The Black Arts, The Arrival Of Satan’s Empire, Goddess Of Sodomy, Vobiscum Satanas, Open The Gates, Hail Murder // Atrum Regina, An Apprentice Of Satan

[Claudia] :: SIX FEET UNDER :: didn’t kick me out of my socks at PSOA 2006 and so they did not again at this year’s edition. I found their groovy Death Metal just boring.
[Dajana] Hmhmhm... well, it’s yet striking what Chris Barnes is able to do with his voice. Also visually with his super long dreads he is worth the one or the other sight ;) I was kinda asleep at the wheel, unable to pay much attention to the show. Level of alcohol was higher and I had some nonsense in my head… hehehe.

[Upshot - Dajana] Let me say it once again: what a fucking great festival!!! Perfectly organized, totally relaxed. I saw EVERY band, I took photos of EVERY band and I for sure did not miss out on the fun. Thank to the JD-master at the bar I always was in an exhilarating mood but never had a hangover next day and other suffering. Was probably due to the really good food. Never ate so much at a festival. Real meals I mean, ya know, potatoes, veggies and meat *laughs* That’s the way it has to be! ;)

[Upshot - Claudia] Yes, once again I had a great time in Bad Berka. Ok, headliner weren’t my cup of tea this year (except for the co-headliner UNLEASHED), for that other bands like SADUS, BENEATH THE MASSACRE, SOLSTAFIR made it up all the more. Regarding parties I gave everything *lol* Oh, and it really got late at the last one. Holydays are different, but hey, I can sleep when I’m dead ;)
At this point: greetings to Berlin to the guy who slept under our awning and to Stiefel for the great time at the mixing tower ;)

[Dajana] OOOOOOHHHH... and not to forget… Greetings to Mille (Kreator) for his incredible scream Sunday morning at 10 (was it War Curse or Escalation?) I guess, we were hysterically laughing for around 5 or 10 minutes, with tears rolling over our faces, sitting in the car and unable to drive *laughs*

[Claudia] P.S. It was Escalation. Although… Endless Pain would have better suited me headaches ;)

[Dajana] To Mieze, Boy, Jarne and PARTY.SAN Crew: Thank you, we truly had a blast! See ya in 2010! (Oh, and if you need some help with security companies, I know some experienced ones ;))

[Claudia] Thank you much for this great festival! I’ll be back in 2010 too!

Hell is closed!!!

stories • Dajana & Claudia • all photos © Dajana