Enslaved - Kataklysm - Borknagar - Endstille - Immolation - Impiety - Skinless - Ellende - Skitsystem - Spectral Wound - Frozen Soul - Atomwinter • The Ruins Of Beverast - Heretic - Wound - Arsgotia - Stormkeep - The Night Eternal - Tabula Rasa - Chaos & Confusion - Spearhead

[BRT] What the heck? On the way to the festival area I talked myself into a frenzy and unfortunately missed :: ATOMWINTER :: and :: FROZEN SOUL ::, two potentially interesting bands. From the Canadians SPECTRAL WOUND I only got the end. Powerful sound and an impressive stage atmosphere - I wouldn’t have thought after hearing many disappointed voices to the club gigs. There is nothing else to say about the awesome Quebec Black Metal.
[Dajana] I also missed the first two bands. Well, at least, I heard FROZEN SOUL (even saw them from afar), while I shoveled in fried potatoes before they would be sold out again (which happened in no time)...
[Seb] The Texans were the first band that inspired Dajana and me to leave the camp... well, and the desire for large portions of fried potatoes and eggs as sort-of-breakfast ;-) For such an early slot, I was quite impressed by the old-school-death metal assault of the Americans. This was for sure a great start to the final day.

:: pics :: SPECTRAL WOUND ::

[Seb] The first Black Metal band of day three took the stage to an intro of battle noises and the clopping of (war horse) hooves and did their best to evoke some dark atmosphere despite the scorching midday sun. Three full length albums into their career, :: SPECTRAL WOUND :: are definitely heading into the right direction. In my opinion, they improved a little bit with every one of them. Not much of a surprise that two thirds of the setlist were taken from the strongest and latest album A Diabolic Thirst (2021). Unfortunately, the band encountered technical difficulties just when they wanted to play one new song (Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal, yeah... that song title is somewhat cheesy) and we had to endure a lengthy intermezzo before they got going again.
But apart from that, SPECTRAL WOUND delivered a convincing show; especially the slower and melodic parts were excellent to a point where I was a bit disappointed when the songs transitioned into more generic blast beat passages.
[Dajana] Yes, the Canadians left nothing but scorched earth, acted wild and untamed on stage. Especially the charismatic singer Jonah knew how to convince. I liked it a lot :)
Band: Jonah (vox), A. A. (git), Patrick (git), Samuel (bass), Illusory (drums)
Setlist: Imperial Saison Noire, Soul Destroying Black Debauchery, Frigid And Spellbound, Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal, Diabolic Immanence, Slaughter Of The Medus

:: pics :: SKITSYSTEM ::

[BRT] Yeah, great, the Swedes from :: SKITSYSTEM ::, at early noon. It can hardly get any better than that! Well, the music is cool and meanwhile you can talk about an all-star band (At The Gates, Marduk, Edge Of Sanity members), also otherwise the rough Swedish Crust is unholy fun. Technically, it certainly goes better: the drummer wasn't always in the same song as the rest of the gang, and singer Frederick Wallenberg whistled, as if on his last legs, his roars didn't have much power. No question, it was still asskicking, but I'm certainly not completely objective when it comes to SKITSYSTEM.
[Dajana] And I still thought, you know all the noses there on stage ;) Through the lens you sometimes see a bit more, so I had the feeling that the band was not well rehearsed, that especially drummer Kalle was always looking around for his Crust companions. But, maybe, the monitor sound was bitching and the band couldn't hear itself, who knows... Doesn't matter, because this show was fun in any case :)
Band: Fredrik Wallenberg (vox, git), Andreas Axelson (git), Martin Larsson (bass), Karl "Kalle" Persson (drums)

:: pics :: ELLENDE ::

[Dajana] Hailing from Graz, Austria, the post-black metallers of :: ELLENDE :: I had on my live wish-list for quite some time. The project of L.G. has a firm place at the NH with ratings not below 9 out of 10 points. At first, I had doubts about the atmosphere in the blazing afternoon sun, but the band quickly swept them away. Intense performance, even if you couldn't concentrate on the lyrical concepts of the compositions. As for that you better enjoy them during an intimate club show.
Band: L.G. (vox, git), T. H. Z. (drums)

[BRT] With :: THE NIGHT ETERNAL :: the young shooting stars from the Ruhr area are at the start to loosen the ongoing Death Metal massacre up with classic metal and a pinch of melancholy. And it was really packed in the tent. Unfortunately, the sound was sometimes so excessively loud that a few people fled outside. THE NIGHT ETERNAL did a good job, there's nothing wrong with Ricardo's singing anyway and the songs meanwhile have the character of catchy tunes. Maybe, the stage acting is a little too over the top in between, but okay, maybe the band felt they had something to prove among all the heavy bands.
[Seb] I honestly tried to like it! I hardly met anyone who wasn't full of praise for THE NIGHT ETERNAL in advance. Alas, it still sounded like run-of-the-mill heavy metal to me that I had heard a thousand times. I am surely not a member of their target group, but I am still wondering, why the band was even at the festival. Helene Fischer wouldn’t have been significantly more out of place at an Extreme Metal festival ;-)
Band: Ricardo Baum (vox), Rob Richter (git), Henry Käseberg (git), Jones Nühlen (bass), Aleister Präkelt (drums)
Setlist: Between The Worlds, In Tartarus, Shadow's Servants, Prince Of Darkness, Elysion (Take Me Over), Stars Guide My Way, Moonlit Cross

[BRT] :: SKINLESS :: actually are one of the gray eminences of Brutal Death Metal. I had never really dealt with the New Yorkers, but, what came out from the PA was really tight and brutal. The guys around front grunt Sherwood Webber and band founder Noah Carpenter obviously had fun and that came across very well. Of course, it's also fancy when the singer can sing passable German children's songs to loosen things up... Actually, I was at a real low point at this time and was worn-out, but SKINLESS kicked my ass again.
[Seb] There's a first time for everything in life, and this time it was a Death Metal shouter singing „Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken“... well, maybe I am just not getting around enough but that was a bit unusual ;-) Can only subscribe to what BRT said, that was fun!
[Dajana] SKINLESS? SKINLESS? I haven't seen them live, have I? Anyway, I don't have any photos... I am confused...
Band: Sherwood Webber (vox), Noah Carpenter (git), Dave Matthews (git), Joe Keyser (bass), Bob Beaulac (drums)

[BRT] And on we go in the tent with :: STORMKEEP :: (yes, also a band from the Blood Incantation camp)... From the outfit also the folk luminaries of Hexvessel could have been there. But, there is flawless Norway-styled Black Metal thundering out from the speakers, including completely non-cheesy keyboards, melodic songs, aggressive screaming and sawing guitars. Dude, that was really cool. An absolute surprise for me and an unexpected highlight.
Checked out afterwards: The debut album Tales Of Othertime, which is also a real hit. Be sure to listen!
Band: Otheyn Vermithrax (vox, git), Apokteino (git), Nightmare Imperator (git), Nebula Husk (bass), Lord Dahthar (keys)

:: pics :: IMPIETY ::

[BRT] I have to admit that I have a real soft spot for the completely overdone/exaggerated War/Bestial-Black Metal and I usually stand there with a pretty moronic grin when such a band plays on stage. :: IMPIETY :: from Singapore, a real heavyweight and a band that has probably released the most records compared to any other band, played at this year's PARTYSAN. Compared to many bands from this area IMPIETY have a much more thrashy side and a little less deep-throated low guttural grunts. In addition, there is also a certain technical finesse. On stage they were really cool and all the studs and bullet belts surely made them the most photogenic band. Impressive!
[Dajana] Yes, here I can remember again quite clearly, to have been there with all senses ;) If this was the most photogenic band of the festival is debatable, but it was fun indeed. The band and the music feels like hit by an ICE (high speed train). With full force. And that's the way it has to be! It's even still fun to write a live report at home while listening to them ;) And they look sooo evil too ;)
[Seb] It's no secret that I mostly listen to Black Metal, but I never really got into the "War Metal" sub-genre. Maybe I do just not know any of the good bands, but generally speaking, this kind of music is to dull and primitive for my taste. IMPIETY are far from being the worst of the bunch, but, as BRT aptly pointed out, they do at least offer an ever so slight bit of variety. Nonetheless, that wasn't enough for me, the performance got tiresome quite quickly. If it's always just fast, it's just not spectacular after a while.
Band: Shyaitan (vox,bass), Iszar (git), Adzrin (git), Dizazter (drums),

:: pics :: IMMOLATION ::

[BRT] Actually, I wanted to take a break at this point, but then I found myself nodding my head and grinning while celebrating the :: IMMOLATION :: gig. This time there was a crystal clear and powerful sound, the band was in a good mood and ripped off a really groovy gig. Always cool: the jagged guitar dance of founding member Robert Vigna, a real unique guy.
[Dajana] IMMOLATION are of course always welcome. However, I had the feeling that the band was exhausted. Especially Ross Dolan didn't seem to be very into it. But, as I already mentioned somewhere above, most of the bands were commuting between three big European festivals that weekend, and IMMOLATION certainly played on all three as well.
Band: Ross Dolan (bass, vox), Robert Vigna (git), Alex Bouks (git), Steve Shalaty (drums)

:: pics :: WOUND ::

[BRT] I met the guys from :: WOUND :: several times on the festival ground before they hit the stage for their farewell show. There was a lot of nervousness and certainly a lot of melancholy, but also joy to go on stage again. On the boards, however, the nervousness was gone, and even if everything didn't fit and went smoothly, there was a very, very great show, which was only spoiled a little by the relentless volume in the tent.
[Dajana] I also found myself in the tent to see the Hessians live for the first and for the very last time. BRT was quite insistent when it came to WOUND ;) There wasn't much to "see", just fog and occasionally a few shadows, but well.
[Seb] WOUND were declared as mandatory by BRT, our camp neighbors and others and so we dutifully made our way to the tent. Indeed, a good gig, but as the BRT already mentioned, extremely overdriven at times. I would have enjoyed it more: The crew at the mixing desk was to blame for the fact that it was "only" good and not excellent.
Band: Schettler (vox), Flo (git), Last (git), Alex Schulz (bass), Appel (drums)

:: pics :: ENDSTILLE ::

[Seb] After several years of knowing the band and several festivals where I had one or two disastrous parties with :: ENDSTILLE :: (back then with the original line-up), I was really happy to finally see the North Germans live again. After the now ten year old album Capitulation, it had become a little quiet around ENDSTILLE. The album Finis Germaniae, which was announced for 2015, was never released and from THE popular German black metal band the Kiel-based band was passed to an also-ran. Now, however, ENDSTILLE have returned with their album DetoNation, which was a few days away from its release at the time of the performance.
The performance at the PSOA probably wasn't particularly good PR for the album, because the show was riddled with technical glitches from front to back, almost nothing worked. In the end, perhaps three pieces were played completely, sometimes, like Spring Awakening, in several attempts, others like 2013's Sick Heil remained unfinished. Singer Zingultus became (while his bandmates stoically didn't show anything) more and more annoyed and gradually threw the setlist overboard. Instead of new songs, there were pieces from the early 2000s (e.g. Der Hetzer (Batallion 4)), which, according to the announcement, could be played blindly. If something worked out, it sounded good as usual, but all in all it was a heavy disappointment.
[Dajana] Mr. Zingultus obviously doesn't like photographers. But at the slightest technical problem he started to cry and (wanted to) threw the show. Pussy!
Band: Zingultus (vox), Lars Wachtfels (git), Cruor (bass), Mayhemic Destructor (drums)

:: pics :: HERETIC ::

[Dajana] I don't know anymore, out of which impulse I went to :: HERETIC :: in the tent... Black Metal Punk & morbid maniacs... Sounded hot! It was hot! But only in the tent. On stage with the Dutchman it was rather not so. But maybe I lacked the intellectual access to the band... ;)
Band: Thomas Goat (vox, git), Tony Hellfire (drums), Tom auf der Axe (drums)

[Seb] One of three bands at the festival, of which I definitely didn't want to miss single minute, played in the tent, probably by their own request. Just a few years earlier :: THE RUINS OF BEVERAST :: were allowed to go wild on the main stage, although that might be the wrong word... And even if they were raging, you'd hardly see it with constant lighting from behind and equally constant fog. Of course, the band only comes up with four to five pieces in just under 40 minutes, all of which are epic in length and often feature monotonous, hypnotic riffs. It's hard to describe and definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but the sound creates a maelstrom that you just fall into and hardly notice anything around you for the duration of the gig. One of the few bands that is actually made to be heard lying in the dark, but still does not disappoint live on stage. Band: Alexander von Meilenwald, Arioch (git), G.ST (bass), Job Bos (keys), Jhn (drums)

:: pics :: BORKNAGAR ::

[BRT] With :: BORKNAGAR :: there came something to breathe again shortly before the end. Thrashing and shredding were largely left out, the band limited itself to the more melodic and atmospheric songs of the last albums and that came across surprisingly well. Even though Vintersorg is no longer with them, the band has two fantastic singers in their ranks, ICS Vortex and Lars Nedland, who handled the complete spectrum of the BORKNAGAR sound with ease. Surely not sooo much happens on stage, yet the gig just did well at the end of a three days festival. But, perhaps, it’s also because the last records were regulars in my player and this sound also just comes very well at sunset.
[Dajana] I have to admit, I was shocked at how badly ICS Vortex sang. Colossus in particular, which is a showpiece from the old days, sounded really… um… off-key.
[Seb] I was kind of worn out at this point, BORKNAGAR were just too quiet, so I listened to them from the backstage beer garden. Nice, but similar to the last day of the RHF, in my opinion too much of a downer for “the last attempt”.
Band: Oystein G.Brun (git), ICS Vortex (voc, git), Lars A. Nedland (keys, voc), Björn Dugstad Rönnow (drums), Jostein Thomassen (git)
Setlist: The Fire That Burns, Frostrite, The Rhymes Of The Mountain, Up North, Voices, Colossus, Ruins Of The Future, The Dawn Of The End, Winter Thrice

:: pics :: KATAKLYSM ::

[Dajana] Well, in joyful anticipation of the headliner we had to quickly endure :: KATAKLYSM ::. Not that the Canadians are bad; they are modern, brutal, but somehow soulless, stereotypical. And there was nothing to see or photograph. Five photos snapped and gone...
Band: Maurizio Iacono (vox), Jean-François „JF“ Dagenais (git), Stéphane Barbe (bass), James Payne (drums)

:: pics :: ENSLAVED ::

[Dajana] But the best is yet to come! So it says. In this case... literally. The very best! The PARTY SAN OPEN AIR had announced an exclusive Vikinglir Veldir set. I hadn't really taken in that message until the lights went down, the intro played and my jaw dropped. The stage deco, the lights, the crystal clear sound, and a band playing like they were unleashed, beyond of everything. Fucking hell, how fkg cool was that?
:: ENSLAVED :: indeed presented a breathtaking set and had the audience spellbound within seconds. We're used to action-packed posing from Icedale, but also Grutle made an extremely lively and fit impression. And which band manages to captivate the audience with a 17-minutes, almost instrumental encore on the last day of the festival, after a one-hour headliner show? I can only think of one band... right! ENSLAVED! By far the absolute highlight of the PARTY SAN METAL OPEN AIR 2023!!! Yeah! ♥♥♥
[BRT] ENSLAVED, finally! One of the most likeable bands in the business, very down-to-earth and reflective, musically always exciting. And they delivered - routinely but with enough drive and fun at the same time. Vikinglir Veldir is my absolute favorite of the early works and the album was just perfectly and cool brought over. With the 17-minute bonus track 793 Slaget Om Lindisfarne ENSLAVED even double down. That's how a headliner has to look like, that's how a worthy finale has to look like! Impressive!
[Seb] Hell yeah, that was a headliner truly worthy of the PSOA's final spot. I have to admit that I don't know much about ENSLAVED's newer material and am at best indifferent to it, but a show where the entire 1995 Vikingligr Veldir is played? Awesome, and, according to the announcement, the first time that the band has done this away from home.
ENSLAVED delivered their almost 30-year-old and yet in no way antiquated cult album with absolute perfection, every note was perfect and at times I simply enjoyed the set with my eyes closed. Dajana's “How fkg cool are they” when returning from the photo pit sums it up briefly but very succinctly.
When ENSLAVED reached the end of Vikingligr Veldir at exactly 1 a.m. with the last sounds of Norvegr, we even asked ourselves whether an encore could possibly dilute the crowning conclusion: far from it. With the hypnotic 793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne) from the direct successor album Eld, stretched to almost 17 minutes (small correction, the successor album is Frost - BRT, which was released in the same year), the Norwegians went one better and ended the PSOA 2023 with an incomparable appearance. Incredibly good and undoubtedly the highlight of the entire festival.
Band: Ivar Bjørnson (git), Arve Isdal (git), Grutle Kjellson (vox, bass), Håkon Vinje (keys), Iver Sandoy (drums)
Setlist: Lifandi lif undir hamri, Vetrarnótt, Midgards Eldar, Heimdallr, Norvegr, 793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)

Stories © BRT, Öko, Seb, Dajana • Pics © Dajana & Dajana Winkel • Photography