At The Gates - Enslaved - Morgoth - Watain - Hail Of Bullets - Nachtmystium - Exhumed - Heidevolk - Panzerchrist - Witchburner - Cliteater - Dawn Of Desease

“Wiebke, undermine your boss and join me in the pit taking photos of Taake” - Gunnar

[Dajana] …so that I woke up unbelievably fit and in best mood to stand on time on the mat… um… meadow. A band called CASHLEY started playing for the morning pint at 10 am. Too early for us but nice listening to from the sleeping back ;) Sounded like an Elvis cover band. But there was already much action to hear from there. Seems like a lot of people were still awake and partying.
[Wiebke] Yep, music sounds pretty loud over the entire area into our tents; meanwhile the trio rehashes a bunch of known songs. Not bad.

:: pics ::

[Dajana] We are satisfied with the first band on the main stage. :: DAWN OF DISEASE :: let Swedish influenced Death Metal thunder over the grassland and made attendees falling into ecstasy.
[Wiebke] Time flies and we already deal with the last festival day. Well-rested Osnabrueck-based death metallers deliver a sound that leaves fans headbanging. Fronter Tomasz growls as if there is no tomorrow and uses the entire space the huge stage offers him. Also guitarists and bass player play with much delight and mosh onstage. Maybe a bit too determined if you ask me. They could do it better with a more easy-going nature. But I think, after the next hundred of live shows routine will appear.

[Dajana] Finally a Grindcore band. Funny enough, before :: CLITEATER :: were about to enter the stage the crowd was almost completely exchanged. Because it became… colorful ;) Time has come for the insane, which started the first circle pits. CLITEATER shot a dozens of track among the audience, short, crispy, heavy and downright entertaining.
[Wiebke] I admittedly am not a big fan of that genre. But exception proves the rule. CLITEATER go wild and display such groove that I can’t help myself and join in. Fronter Joost acts like a stage hog and exactly hits my nerve with his voice type.

[Dajana] What struck me first when :: WITCHBURNER :: kicked off their set were the missing bullet belts of singer Metallic Mayhem. Never saw him that… naked. The whole band looked tired, unmotivated and actually acted like that: lethargic and spiritless. Collective hangover? Ok, then off for a breakfast or lunch or whatever we can get now ;)
[Wiebke] I don’t like to say that but WITCHBURNER are deadly boring. There are heaps of Thrash bands out there thrilling and exciting.

[Wiebke] Wondering if :: PANZERCHRIST :: appear to be similar to Truppensturm yesterday. Squeaking and rattling tank tracks introduce (and appear later in the songs too what enormously gets on nerves then) till the Danish squad storm the stage. Their brand of Black/Death Metal is raw and brutal yet displays variation in songwriting. Besides, PANZERCHRIST have with Magnus a charismatic frontman, his fave shot seems to be “come on”. Umpteen times he yells at the crowd who is way too lame in his opinion. Much noteworthy also the make-a-face-game of the guitarist, who even shares his beer with the fans.
[Dajana] I say yes. It’s the same as with Truppensturm, just the Danish way. Highspeed blasts to wrack and ruin everything. You know, the ICE, again… disturbing our first beer consumption.

[Dajana] The PARTY SAN OPEN AIR has always one band on the billing that gets out of line. Anno 2011 it is :: HEIDEVOLK :: Probably to make Ensiferum not feeling so alone and misplaced ;) Well, you remember what I said about this Viking/Folk stuff? Yes? Ok… off for another beer ;)

[Dajana] :: EXHUMED :: scored by making everybody laugh – involuntarily. Organizer had to push back in the running order after the gentlemen Matt Harvey and Co went to Bad Berka (the old festival place), facing an empty and green meadow ;)

[Haris] Oh yes, I was really looking forward to the Avant-garde Black metallers :: NACHTMYSTIUM :: Alas, their gig didn’t pass off without problems – on the hand drummer Charlie ruined his double bass pedal (no surprise, with such a hard punch) and unfortunately the lead guitar was too low in the mix.
Nevertheless, the gig was very well, the choice of songs well balanced (especially the songs from the last album came across pretty well) and the performance of the Americans was down-to-earth and likable! Highlight!
[Wiebke] Yes, I was much excited the entire day to see them. Quickly pushed into the second row and sang along to Your True Enemy, which was too fast played and so too fast over. Mr. Blake likewise moshes and bangs his head and impassionate screams his lyrics. Keyboarder Sanford does not all any short either. The Double bass pedal breaks at Hellish Overdose, but probs get solved quickly and NACHTMYSTIUM start this song new. But highlight is definitely the sluggish and atmospheric Ashes To Ashes. The last song can’t do it anymore and I toddle off with a big grin.

[Haris] Time for :: HAIL OF BULLETS :: time for a timeout. Accompanied by friends I did it the chilling way. It’s really great to lay on the grass nodding with the head rhythmically to the Dutch Death Metal commando. HAIL OF BULLETS have a great sound, clear and transparent, while Martin van Drunen kicks everybody’s ass. Saying that the PARTY SAN OPEN AIR is the best festival ever was meant honestly and reflects the fan’s opinion.
[Dajana] Yes, HAIL OF BULLETS kill live on stage. Unfortunately guitar player Stephan Gebédi got stung by a bee, an ill especially Martin wanted to flush down quickly with some brewski. Didn’t do any harm to the show, Martin’s joke were killingly funny *laughs*.

[Haris] What :: WATAIN :: brought up afterwards, was not of this world. A crystal clear sound, a dedicative performance, the already known stage set with the burning inverted crosses, pyros and finally a cover of Bathory’s A Fine Day To Die made the performance of the Swedes to another highlight of this festival. Any questions?
[Wiebke] Ditto. WATAIN celebrated a 45 minutes lasting black mess consisting of songs from the albums Rabid Death‘s Curse and Casus Luciferi only. Although Erik’s play with fire and his gestures occasionally appeared to be disoriented, the show was worth seeing. And WATAIN got frenetically celebrated by the fans.

[Haris] Following this, it was time for goose bumps. „ :: MORGOTH :: is back!” Singer Marc couldn’t repeat that often enough – that’s why he did that three times, so that everyone knew, that the most important German Death Metal is back, and how!
[Dajana] Well, yes. Odd. His announcements I mean. Pretty trivial...
[Haris] It’s consequential that the reunited quintet (minus fore-drummer Rüdiger and -guitarist Carsten) started the set with the intro of the milestone Cursed. Just like some other bands, the intro playback didn’t run smooth, but whatever, for the band started with Body Count as expected and fascinated the crowd from the first second on. They smoothly continued with Exit To Temptation with its stately, hellishly groovy intro. Terrific!
Marc jumped across the stage as if stung by an adder and heated up the rest of the band and the crowd. It is self-evident that his voice doesn’t cover the very large spectrum any longer – but he got out of the affair damn good and offered a splendid performance.
All songs were featured which should be written on the wish list by fans of the first three CDs (incl. the double EP Resurrection Absurd/The Eternal Fall) – but still I would have loved to see Under The Surface performed live as well, but Resistance wasn’t the worst choice off Odium.
For me it was THE highlight of all highlights and MORGOTH is next to Entombed’s Metalfest Austria gig on the pole position of all gigs 2011!

[Haris] With all this enthusiasm I almost forgot that there are still some bands left on the billing… And what came was almost as good as the prior gig. :: ENSLAVED :: were amazing. They started 70 minutes of Viking/Progressive Metal history with the terrific opener Ethica Odini. Even keyboarder/singer Herbrand had a really great voice tonight and built the unique contrast to the scratchy, absolutely amazing vocals of singer/bassist Grutle. Next to classics of the recent history such as Ruun, Raidho, Fusion Of Sense And Earth older songs like As Fire Swept Clean The Earth (goose bumps!), The Voices and a very old one (Allfadr Odinn) were part of the set and made that gig to something very, very special.
[Dajana] Oh my… ENSLAVED always make my heart melt ;) Especially when it comes to the new songs from their masterpiece Axioma Ethica Odini, Gods work. Saw them 3 times this year and gonna see them at least another 2 times this year at festivals. I’m an addicted one *laughs* Grutle was in best mood and had a hell of fun on stage. For Ice Dale they put a platform on stage, to pose higher above the crowd ;) Maybe a bit overdone… And the setlist they could change from festival to festival too. At least slightly. Isn’t that way that they wouldn’t have enough songs to play, right?
[Wiebke] My thoughts, exactly! I plead for “ENSLAVED plays the entire Axioma Ethica Odini” in a special show. At PSOA 2012. Utopian… I know…

[Dajana] PARTY SAN OPEN AIR literally kept the best for last! :: AT THE GATES :: topped everything this weekend. Fall down on your knees and adore!
[Haris] AT THE GATES was really great – singer Tompa was agile, likable, heated up the crowd and still sung well. I still have to get shot of the one or another point of criticism: drummer Adrian had some timing problems (e.g. in Slaughter Of The Soul) which most of the people probably didn’t notice, the two guitarists Anders and Martin didn’t always play that tightly together, which was evident in the triplet-ride of the verses of Under A Serpent Sun or Suicide Nation (truly really difficult riffs!). Thus, it was no good idea, to have the delay on the vocals that loudly in the mix, because it sounded very weird at times. Nevertheless, AT THE GATES was a very good end of a fantastic PSOA 2011! See you next year!
[Dajana] Considering the fact that they probably did not rehearse that much prior the festival shows, I think it was ok. It’s the worse thing that the 3 main bands every day have such bad lights...
[Wiebke] Nothing more to add. The guys play a best-of show and prove that legends not necessarily need to pull down themselves. Great!

[Dajana] Once again a fantastic PARTY SAN OPEN AIR comes to an end. Damn it! It passed by way too fast. Again. It was great, of course. We had a blast, truly, and we are coming back. OF COURSE! Just the weather… We have to think about how to drag the beloved warming yellow ball on the sky for the entire festival to Schlotheim. Next year ;)