• Watain - Tankard - Brujeria - Tribulation - Pestilence - Sadistic Intent - Exciter - Carpathian Forest - Harakiri For The Sky - Wolfheart - Graveyard - RazorRape
• Tent • Gorilla Monsoon - Possession - Essenz - Obscenity - Engulfed - Hierophant

:: Pics ::

[Dajana] On the last festival day, I did not need an alarm or a gunshot to get up. :: GORILLA MONSOON :: were set to do the wake-up call at 11 am. I love them On time and properly dressed I stood in front of stage :) And guess what! I was not the only one with such zeal. The tent was much crowded at this early hour. Inside the tent it was bone-dry and dusty but it perfectly suited the wicked and nasty Fuck-You/Southern HellRock attitude of the band ;) I love this sound. And I love the voice of singer Jack Sabbath, which is as dirty and filthy as fuck. I always wonder how many whiskeys he drinks and cigarettes he smokes before a show to sound like that. This was for sure a bloody hell of an asskicking show! Yeah!
Oh, by the way guys… what about some new stuff? The last record, Firegod, was released in 2015 and already has a thick layer of dust on it.
Setlist: Down Song, Damage King, Night Of The Wolverine, 50Dollar Whore, Call Of Gaia, Death Revolution, Law Of The Riff, March Of The Hellrock Inc., My Way, Codeine Commander, Born To Lose

[Dajana] Coffee. :: RAZORRAPE :: *yawns*. More coffee. This was boring and did not tickle me any bit. Next one please.
[Öko] I did not see them. But the burps that sounded over the camp were the worst I ever heard. And I thought, there is nothing worse than pig squeals. Now I know there is something worse.

[Dajana] It became better with Spanish Death metallers :: GRAVEYARD ::, although I find them rather one-dimensional. Maybe it was the right time and the right conditions for some Death Metal ;)
[Öko] GRAVARD are nothing special on CD, and they are not live on stage. Time for breakfast.

[Dajana] I so far have not heard much from Finnish melodic Death metallers :: WOLFHEART :: before and I think, I have not seen them live before either. I just recently listened to the first new songs and was curious how they would sound like live on stage. They most of all had an impressive stage presence. But I missed a bit the epic melodies. I know they have them in their songs. WOLFHEART have finished recording their fourth record, Constellation Of The Black Light, ready to hit the stores in September. Great show!
[Öko] I connected the name WOLFHEART with more depth and atmosphere. It is the band of multi-instrumentalist Tuomas Saukkonen of Black Sun Aeon (and a few other bands he disbanded in order to focus on WOLFHEART – Dajana)). I got disappointed. Except for a few beautiful passages, the music was not a quarter as good as Black Sun Aeon.

[Dajana] The last festival day continuously developed and got better. So much melancholy. So much dramatic, perfectly staged by singer J.J., who appeared so vulnerable and shy while screaming his pain out. With Heroin Waltz and Tomb Omnia :: HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY :: presented the “shortest” tracks from their new album Arson, added by two and one from the previous records. Touching show. Really.
[Öko] I like to listen to HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY and was looking forward to see them playing live for the first time. I liked the show. The show stood out from the day’s brutal stuff. Fine. Fine.
Setlist: Heroin Waltz, Funeral Dreams, Calling The Rain, Tomb Omnia, Jhator

[Dajana] I think, :: CARPATHIAN FOREST :: do not need any introduction. Norwegian Black Metal. Nattefrost did not seem to be utterly hammered; at least he did not move uncontrolled. But it of course did not narrow his “fuck you” attitude. Well, we know them. CARPATHIAN FOREST are meanwhile predictably unpredictable. But that’s ok.
[Öko] It seems, this year the festival weather was just too sunny. CARPATHIAN FOREST entered the stage capped and gowned and with corpse paint but their show did not want to spark. And I actually like them. The “singing” was odd. Not in a funny sense, rather dull than nasty.

[Dajana] Time for a change. Time for some Canadian Speed Metal. Holy shit, :: EXCITER :: will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2020. And the old men still cut it. I especially admire singing drummers. Respect for this effort, even if there were some tones off-key. Who cares? It was a stunning show!
[Öko] Woohoo, Speed Metal from the godfathers of this genre in its classic 3-head-formation of the founding members. EXCITER rocked the stage no matter what. Many other bands could learn from them. It is for sure an advantage to have a singing drummer, as both, guitarist and bass player, could freely go wild. And when EXCITER then play tracks such as Heavy Metal Maniac and Violence & Force you bow in awe.

[Öko] :: SADISTIC INTENT :: after Exciter? Who the hell came up with this idea? SADISTIC INTENT are for sure no cult band. Yes, they are around for quite some time (with interruptions) but have not released anything new anymore since their 2002 EP Morbid Faith. The Cortez-brothers have not much more to offer than blackened Thrash Metal.

[Öko] Now let’s talk about a legend of European Death Metal. :: PESTILENCE :: have released three great records with Malleus Maleficarum (1988), Consuming Impulse (1989) and Testimony Of The Ancients (1991). Oh, and Spheres (1993) was a good one too. Unfortunately, Martin van Drunen does not sing there anymore and Patrick Mameli is truly no entertainer. The old songs were well received. Solid show.

[Dajana] After a proper break I returned full of energy for the grand finale of the PARTY SAN OPEN AIR 2018. There is hardly any other band so fascinating than :: TRIBULATION ::. I love their music but much more I love their live shows, their way to express themselves artistically. TRIBULATION shows are magic. Ok, admittedly, festival shows ain’t that intensive and thrilling than club shows, because you cannot smell the incense and they do not have additional paraphernalia on stage but, as for that, especially Jonathan Hultén has much more room for his expressive and capricious performance. You should never miss a TRIBULATION show anyway!
[Öko] Let’s talk about a positive surprise of PSOA 2018. It is sufficiently known that legs will be shaken at a TRIBULATION show. A lot. If you like it or not, is up to you. But there is action on stage. And the Swedes are entertaining. I think, the new album, Down Below, is not as good as the previous ones, but its songs does not fall any short live on stage. Great!

[Dajana] Puta madre! It is always a pleasure to see :: BRUJERIA :: rioting a stage. Their songs are short and snappy and to the point. Napalm Death the Mexican way, so to say ;) Their anti-Trump statement let the band see a sea of middle fingers and the cover version of La Macarena made the crowd dancing ;)
[Öko] Viva la revolución! Spanish is the perfect language to incite a rebellion. I did not understand anything they said but that’s ok. “Dance performances” were combined with Death und Thrash Metal and Grindcore, the nasty way ;) If Shane Embury (Napalm Death), Jeff Walker (Carcass) or Adrian Erlandsson (At The Gates) performed on stage, who knows, everybody was masked. However, it was great fun.
[Dajana] Nope, none of mentioned “guest musicians” was on stage. Masks or not it is quite easy to recognize the musician behind. Especially Shane ;) At the end, it does not matter, BRUJERIA are always great.

[Dajana] Hm. Well. :: TANKARD :: is a band I never became familiar with. I don’t like this kind of fun… erm… beer Metal. Yes, they enthused the masses, made them sing along full-throated and the PSOA crowd had visibly fun, heated up with a lot of pyros again. Still, not my cup of tea.
[Öko] Germany’s Thrash Metal veterans as a co-headliner? That works? Yes, it does. Um… only just. Gerre and his mates had fun and the fans too. With a lot of fireworks. All in all quite OK.
Setlist: El Condor Pasa, One Foot In The Grave, The Morning After, Zombie Attack, Rapid Fire (A Tyrant's Elegy), R.I.B. (Rest In Beer), Pay To Pray, Chemical Invasion, Rules For Fools, A Girl Called Cerveza, (Empty) Tankard

[Dajana] What to do with :: WATAIN ::? Review them or not? Bands that always again flirt with right-winged ideology really, really piss me off. Like WATAIN. Hitler salutes here, Hitler salutes there. It did not happen the first time, no matter if it was a “session musician” or Erik Danielsson himself. A shitstorm starts, wishy-washy statements follow and lo and behold, fans, press and media flatter them again. Now click on repeat. It sucks. Badly. WATAIN do not give a shit, so I do not either! Off.
[Öko] The veil of silence…

Résumé:

[Dajana] Here we are at the end of PARTY SAN OPEN AIR 2018. As always it was an excellent weekend full of great bands, shows and entertainment. There is no other festival were I laugh so often. Laughing to tears. Except for the storm, the weather could not have been any better. No blazing heat, no rain, and always a fresh breeze. Perfect.
Again, I would like to say thank you to Mieze, Arne and co. for their excellent action during the storm and afterwards. There was only a delay. No band needed to be cancelled, all bands arrived the festival area (airports around were closed, so there were fears that some bands would not make it to the PSOA). This is truly impressing! From an organizational point, everything went like clockwork. The only minus go out to the lame billing. EMPEROR were an absolute highlight, no doubt, and surely not the cheapest one, but the rest of the bands, most of them, were off the shelf and even played the PSOA already too often.
I loved GORILLA MONSOON, also EXCITER, EXHORDER and ANAAL NATHRAKH. But that’s not enough for a 3-days festival. And I think that reflects on the number of attendees, which significantly decreased compared with the last years.

[Öko] Yes. My second PARTY SAN OPEN AIR is over. How was it? Ambivalent! Organization, atmosphere and festival area were top. But I was not happy with the band selection. Too much 08/15. Except for EMPEROR, most bands on this year’s billing you can see playing live at every corner. I wish, the organizers would show more bravery for the next year’s edition.

[Dajana] Perhaps, the lame billing was just the quiet before the storm? Next year the PARTY SAN OPEN AIR will celebrate its 25th anniversary and I think, we can expect something big. So, then let’s get prepared for the big party ;) First bands are already announced. I see a first headliner and the 12 am band for Friday. Not really exciting yet, but let’s wait…

Confirmed so far:

TESTAMENT - VOMITORY - BELPHEGOR - ASCENSION - FIRTAN - SOLSTICE - CRAFT - GUTALAX

See you next year in Schlotheim! :)

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