• Abbath - Overkill - Urfaust - Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult - Mantar - God Dethroned - Misþyrming - Azarath - Night Demon // Tent // Dawn Of Disease - Ultha - The Lurking Fear - Pighead - Lucifericon

:: pics ::

Thunder and Lightning

[Dajana] And here we go. Ants in the pants made the night short and rocketed the anticipation upwards. The boys were quickly gathered and packed and then we rode the highway to hell. ERM… NOT. Or maybe yes, but in a different way. However, my car made it around the half distance and broke. Garage, expensive repairs, rental cars, many hours of wait… grmpf! It took us 12 hours to reach the PARTY SAN OPEN AIR. At night-time we finally had our passes in hands, built the tents in a twinkling of an eye and nippity-nip, the first beer was tasted. Till that moment BRT had to care all alone for everything editorial… :/

[BRT] After - surprisingly - much sleep, minor hangover pains and some breakfast, early beers were boozed with early arrivals – festival life can be so great ;)

[BRT] Yeah! Once again I got to witness :: NIGHT DEMON :: opening a festival. Save choice if you want to fill the ranks. Succeeds even on a Death/Black Metal festival. The guys around singer Jarvis kicked off with full force and mastered the crowd in a twinkling of an eye. No doubt, those guys play shows at every crossroads. Delight in playing, stage action, communication with the crowd – all that happened on a high level of energy and professionalism. I just hope they don’t exhaust that moment. Once you have seen NIGHT DEMON one time too many. However, perfect opener for this festival. And those who still don’t owe the band’s current release, Darkness Remains, should go and grab one. I liked it a lot and the beer even twice… ;)

[BRT] Next up is :: AZARATH ::, a Polish band that connects Black and Death Metal much in the veins of Behemoth/Hate/Belphegor. They were an unknown quantity to me, although they have already released their sixth full-length, In Extremis. AZARATH delivered asskicking and dynamic songs and it was a great pleasure to listen to them. I’m definitely going to deal with them closer. The stage acting was perhaps a bit lame.

[BRT] :: MISÞYRMING :: is one of the Icelandic bands that came into awareness in the wake of Svartidauði. Chaotic and orthodox Black Metal, extremely atmospheric, dark and dense, whereby we have already reached the crux of the matter: such band and such music needs darkness. Smoke and a cool light show. It was late afternoon, cloudy and rainy but not dark and bleak enough. A little drawback a good band would have outweighed. But MISÞYRMING once again were not able to convey songs and atmosphere, which is a bummer. The band’s 2015 debut, Söngvar Elds Og Óreiðu, is a great piece of modern Black Metal.

[BRT] Afterwards I sneaked into the tent and watched :: PIGHEAD :: thrashing through their three records of Brutal Death Metal and I surprisingly liked it a lot. A musical style that is rather underrepresented at PSOA. Ok, last year they had Katalepsy destroying the main stage ;) Another step to offer us a more varied billing.

[BRT] :: GOD DETHRONED :: are on reunion tour and brought us their 10th full-length, The World Ablaze. I hardly ever dealt with them any closer. What I had heard so far didn’t kick me out of my socks. Perhaps, it is too much off-the-rack music to me. However, GOD DETHRONED had a powerful sound, visibly fun to play live again and enthused their fans with a highly energetic performance. But their show once again didn’t touch me, left me cold, which is actually sad. Because, their brand of Death Metal potpourri has some great melodies and riffing to offer.
[Dajana] Too bad. I really would have loved to see them… *nagging*

[BRT] There is a drawback most of the so called “supergroups” reveal and which clearly shown up at :: THE LURKKING FEAR :: too: Expectations at such cast are high (2x At The Gates, 1x Edge Of Sanity, 1x Bombs Of Hades). Besides, Tompa Lindberg is a well-respected and reputable frontman. Is such a band/project now pure calculation or are there really friends doing the music together they fancy? And if the result is just common and unspectacular Swedish Death Metal? Well, it wasn’t bad at all, but I doubt that they become more than just a flash in the pan. Nevertheless, the tent was crowded and the feedback awesome.

[BRT] Yeaaah, time has come for the two crackpots of :: MANTAR ::. In 2015 they still played the tent, 2017 the rocked the main stage. Being just a duo, Hanno and Erinc once again managed to blast and destroy the stage. Their heavy and nasty Sludge-Doom-whatever-Punk always scores, no matter how big the stage is. They have released only two albums and already gained such a huge stage presence… Once again, I’m deeply impressed. Though, same problem, an overpowering presence might kill their run. People are already overly stuffed and saturated. A new record? Yeah, I’m up for it. But MANTAR don’t really have musical rivals that they are in need to play at every ewer...

[BRT] In my opinion, :: ULTHA :: are one of the best German Black Metal bands today. They manage to combine atmosphere with aggression and to merge them into great melodies, leaving their very own mark in the scene. The stage was fittingly covered by a smoke screen and only bathed in diffuse lights, and the tracks went down pretty awesome. Sound was great too. What more could you want? Heard a lot of praise, and they confirmed. And ULTHA don’t need altars and incense materials. Thank you! Great band!

[BRT] Hmmmm… The lady of :: DARKENED NOCTURN SLAUGHTERCULT :: rather made a name of herself with stupid interviews. Regarding sound, their classic Norwegian Black Metal of early 90s was solid. And so was the show: Miss Onielar, stylishly wrapped in a bed sheet, a bit of fire, a bit of ballyhoo. Solid. And unspectacular. DARKENED NOCTURN SLAUGHTERCULT had luck, the twilight perfectly suited the show and created atmosphere. I won’t become a fan, and generally DNS seem to polarize, which must be any bad.

[BRT] Um… Well… Dutch band :: URFAUST :: is quite a particular phenomenon. You either love or hate them. Every now and then I like to listen to them and I can do so without mind-expanding drugs to come to terms with their Ambient Black Metal, but someone must have put something into my drink… Not with all the will in world I can remember when, how, where and that URFAUST have played. And I’m sure I was on the festival ground… Must have been the cats and dogs pouring out of the dark sky…
[Dajana] Blackout, right? Know that feeling… ;) Anyway, sorry BRT that you have to everything editorial alone so far. And THANK YOU, of course. After a lunatic 12 hrs. ride the rest of the crew finally made it to the holy ground and in front of stage to see URFAUST. I wasn’t really present yet, needed to calm down, but URFAUST delivered the best music to do so ;) I liked it.
[Öko] I like URFAUST on CD, and how two guys can play a an awesome show, Mantar proved. To their rehabilitation let me mention that both bands can’t be really compared. I was stressed by the intense rain and the complicated arrival.

[BRT] :: OVERKILL :: playing the PARTY SAN OPEN AIR? That works? Why, yes, of course! That works! OVERKILL is just the best, most aggressive and most enthusiastic live band I’ve ever seen and cut an absolutely outstanding figure between all those heavier bands. Besides, with Bobby Blitz Ellsworth the New York boys have one of the most charismatic frontmans out there, most of the riot combos cant score with. The performance was a little bit short but who plays timeless tracks such as In Union We Stand always wins.
[Öko] OVERKILL! That’s all that needs to be said. Everybody who has seen the Thrash legends know what to expect. And OVERKILL never fail. Amazing show. But, at the end, 10 minutes were still left and OVERKILL could have played two more songs. Too bad. Positive side effect: rain stopped during the whole OVERKILL show.
[Dajana] OVERKILL played their well-proven festival best of set, all classics included. You can’t do it any better. My personal fave is still Rotten To The Core. OVERKILL nailed it. Pure fun and pleasure.
Setlist: Mean, Green, Killing Machine, Rotten To The Core, Electric Rattlesnake, Hello From The Gutter, Goddamn Trouble, In Union We Stand, I Hate, Ironbound, Elimination, Fuck You

[BRT] For :: ABBATH :: goes the same as for the final incarnation of Norway’s Black Metal institution Immortal: they walk a thin line between good music and unintended humor, or even slapstick. To me, ABBATH is nothing to write home about. And it’s no laughing matter either anymore. In my opinion, ABBATH as a headliner was a miscast and especially after Overkill an ungrateful job.
[Dajana] Damn, did I miss the beginning? I was busy with hard drinking from frustration. I actually didn’t want to drink at all, well… Seemed to be the same with Mr. Eikemo. That matter with drinking I mean. He probably did not because of frustration, but of pure pleasure ;) I agree, Overkill and ABBATH should have switched their slot. That would have been a barnstorming finale for day one of PARTY SAN OPEN AIR.
[Öko] I never found Immortal interesting and so I watched ABBATH just from afar. It was ok, but didn’t catch me. The lightshow was pretty good.

[BRT] That’s how we survived day one. Unfortunately, weather was definitely not on our side. Cloudbursts are not really fun at a festival. As for that, we got some great bands to see. But to be honest, this day was just the overture for the things to come.
[Dajana] Yes, you can say so, but to me in a different kind of way…

story © BRT, Öko, Dajana • pics © Dajana & Dajana Winkel • Photography