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“Grindcore with swiveling hips”

[BRT] A walk across the festival area let me ponder if the guys lying around are the first ones already relaxing in the sun semiconsciously or already comatose again ;) It seems the shows with pressure fuelling attached takes its toll at green users and displays first aftermaths and side effects.
[Dajana] Thank Buddha I’m free of all these effects this morning and feel well, in best mood and highly energetic ;)

:: pics ::

[BRT] :: RECTAL SMEGMA :: replaced Rompeprop in the billing (due to the drummer’s illness, both Dutch bands), probably have the most unsavory band name but perfectly played out their strength as warm-up act. They call it Porn Grind, with supersonic cudgeling, ultra deep-throated growls and grunts and humor galore. Actually much danceable. If there is a Grindcore band that causes swiveling hips than RECTAL SMEGMA.
[Dajana] Another thing I love the PARTY SAN OPEN AIR for: all these strangely named Grind bands I never would attend a show back home when reading such names yet great to discover at such festival :) RECTAL SMEGMA anyway was killer!

[BRT] Swedish :: TRASH AMIGOS :: could only fell behind afterwards. With an out and out Slayer sound, bumpy played and with misplaced Mexican costumes they could not score. Accordingly the crowd’s response was restrained.

[BRT] It followed a massacre that left me speechless, at least astonished. :: CATTLE DECAPITATION :: delivered a technically perfect, mercilessly staged high-speed Grind-Death cudgeling par excellence. Presence and charisma of the slightly insane appearing singer was the icing of the cake. CATTLE DECAPITATION were definitely a big surprise and at the end were the biggest highlight of PSOA 2012.
[Dajana] It is indeed unbelievable what these gents do with their instruments. Luckily the singer did not play any and used his mobility to go wild on stage. A good compensation for the static stage acting of the others.

[BRT] :: NOCTE OBDUCTA :: even don’t try to score with speed. They focus on slow and/or atmospheric soundscapes. Does not really work at this sunny afternoon and their Ärzte-like announcements and talks backfired.
[Dajana] Especially this Ärzte-like talking style is utmost unusually for NOCTE OBDUCTA. I never have seen this sleaziness and good mood within the band. Generally speaking it is great to see the band back on stage. Sun or no sun, it definitely was an amazing show!
Setlist: Leere Pt. II, Es fließe Blut, Prinzessin des Nachtschatten, Niemals gelebt, Fick die Muse, Solange euer Fleisch noch warm ist, Gemälde derer, die schieden Pt. III

[BRT] Some self-proclaimed scene-guards certified :: ARCHGOAT :: a ramble-cult-status. Well, I found killer nails and rivets and iconic corpse paint armed ARCHGOAT not as half as rumbling as labeled. Their War Black Metal is surely powerful and straight forward and they even display variety with slo-mo parts and alternating growl, grunts and gnarl-like singing, but all in all the band delivers a total unemotional show under a burning sun. Then better coffee and cake!
[Dajana] Yes, nomnomnom. Oh, by the way… are pink guitar wires evil as fuck?

[BRT] :: WARBRINGER :: ale ALWAYS a guarantor for an awesome live show. There are many established Thrash Metal bands that could learn a lesson from them. Really. More action on stage was hardly seen at PSOA 2012.
[Terry] Hell yes, Thrash Metal as its best! Perfect music to get my eyes open and to get it going again, whereupon Cattle Decapitation made it already. WARBRINGER play well attuned, have enough energy, aggression and the right attitude and shot me into the headbanger universe.

[BRT] In contrast :: TOXIC HOLOCAUST :: just fall short. Old school Thrash Metal but lacking of speed, charisma and recognition value.
[Terry] I’m not really familiar with the band. Just saw them supporting Kvelertak lately and there they did a good job. But it was in a small club. Today they could not convince me at all.

[BRT] Due to traffic jams :: RAGNAROK :: moved up two slots in the running order. A spot unavoidable but not deserved if you ask me. Norwegian Black Metal too pale, too common and too trivial.
[Dajana] Watching RAGNAROK I for some reason felt remembered to last year’s Urgehal show, were Nefas was still alive. R.I.P. Trond!

[BRT] :: INCANTATION :: right after outweighed and gave us a good dressing down in matter of Death Metal, delivering the perfect mixture of slow, groovy and all crushing parts and infernal blast beats, evil and dark brought on stage. That’s the way Death Metal has to be!

[BRT] As for that following band :: INSOMNIUM :: hardly left any impression that was more than the “neither fish nor fowl” thing. Melodic Death Metal without the emotional depth of Ghost Brigade and without the elegance Edge Of Sanity. With technical finesse and a few nice melodies one won’t pave new ground.
[Dajana] Ehem… THAT I see totally different ;) The new album One For Sorrow already offers so many great songs, which live emerge to be all destroying crushers, added by a dark and intensive atmosphere, driving rhythms and dynamics. Just stunning! Neck-breaking. Just listen to the double feature Intertia/Through The Shadows. Again, I got gooseflesh!
[Terry] I like too what the Finns do. Some of their melodies are just… to kneel down for, added by a nicely brutal singing. Only the bad sound narrowed the pleasure a bit.

[BRT] Although I’m not a :: TANKARD :: fan I have to admit: they are a great live band and fronter Gerre does everything right to animate the crowd, even if this bromidic knee-slapping humor gets on nerves.
[Dajana] Time out…

[BRT] When :: NAGLFAR :: entered the stage it was finally dark and a cool Black Metal show with a great lightshow and pyros worked well. Raging, straight forward with much atmosphere. Great.
[Dajana] After line-up changes Mr. Wrath finally got a new live crew together. And it was clearly to see how much fun and delight they had to play live again. Great show, indeed!
[Terry] I also was much looking forward to this show. But again the sound man was weakening and due to timing variations one was able to notice that there was a new skinman behind the kit. Nevertheless a great show with a great setlist. As for me personally I have to confess that I started to break down after so many festival days, bands, heat and alcohol. Heard my tent whispering… that might be the reason why I could not enjoy NAGLFAR to the full.

[BRT] I never would have expected to see a Death Metal band creating such a huge stage show. And :: BEHEMOTH :: did it perfectly. Decoration, lights, fires, pyros, everything worked harmoniously together, creating an intensive atmosphere, dense, a Death Metal storm that was occult and mystical, thank to charismatic frontman Nergal and his mates.
[Dajana] Yeah, it seems that nothing can stop Nergal anymore. And it makes me happy to see that he looks much healthier again, brimming of energy. During the Full Of Hate tour in February I was afraid he would take too much and as I heard little later he had a little relapse. However, tonight BEHEMOTH was definitely a force!

[BRT] As Terry said, 3 full days of festival, bands, heat and alcohol sees even the hard-assed fan paying its toll. In my opinion the Saturday billing was not as strong as the one on Thursday and Friday but I saw almost all bands on the main stage though. As already mentioned the bands on tent stage fell short and I’m sure I missed some great shows. But every now and then I need time to care for my beer level and to outstretch my old bones.
With Köstritzer beer organizer has chosen the perfect festival beer at a good price. And the Nocturnal Hall crew intensively did their best to keep up a high number of blows… um… drinks. Altogether a great festival with only a few weak points.
[Dajana] I can only agree! PARTY SAN OPEN AIR 2012 was awesome, once again and left us happily exhausted. I’m already looking forward to 2013 ;)
[Terry] Yeah, we definitely had a blast to rock Northern Thuringia. A liners note regarding the sound: Although I was quibbling here and there I most time was satisfied with what the speaker towers were blowing everything away. It’s an extreme metal fest. That’s the way it has to be! Thx! :)

story • BRT, Terry, Dajana • pics © Dajana