The Faceless - Carnifex - Suffocation - Hate Eternal - Katatonia - Misery Index - Cantus Buranus - Anaal Nathrakh - Backyard Babies - The Red Chord - Kreator - Hackneyed - Walls Of Jericho - Beneath The Massacre - J.B.O. - Psycroptic - Equilibrium - Sylosis - Unheilig - Jack Slater - Grand Magus - Vader Deadlock - Katra

My personal prefixes for this year’s SUMMER BREEZE were anything but promising. I spent the whole Wednesday evening and night more on the pot than in bed after eating a pizza my stomach didn’t really like – and this dragged on until Thursday. In view of the last years’ toilet situation it wasn’t really a pleasant thought, going to a festival with an upset stomach… As Ruben, the drummer in my band and I arrived in Dinkelsbühl we stopped over at the REWE supermarket to equip us with liquid gold, the stomach trouble was gone…
The way between Dinkelsbühl and the festival area was done pretty fast. No traffic jam no frustrated waiting festival visitors. The new entrance system seemed to be successful (whereas we had no traffic jams last year as well – it’s just a question of timing… ;). As we arrived at the campsite we found our personal site thanks to the “blue arrow” which led us to our friends who arrived earlier and reserved us a site. First of all, the obligatory salutation ceremony – and so I got to know three new cool guys from Swabia with Johannes, Alex and Flo. After the first beer we went to the festival area – because one of my personal festival highlights has been waiting for us.

:: pics ::

The Doom Metal gods :: GRAND MAGUS :: entered the Pain Stage quite on time at short after half past three and rushed into a rousing gig with Like The Oar Strikes The Water off the fantastic last album Iron Will, which almost wasn’t topped sound-wise during the whole festival. The trio drudged through three-quarters of an hour of finest Doom Metal as the weather was pleasantly cloudy and a soft breeze blew through the crowd. The sound was so fat – that was jaw dropping with one guitar only! JB is a fantastic singer and an extremely charismatic front man, who philosophized with the crowd far from any clichés about wolf populations here in Germany and in Sweden. I have to mention the fine technical skills next to the great performance. It left marks that JB played some time together with Michael Amott in Spiritual Beggars in the way his leads sound – or was it vice versa? ;)
Setlist: Like The Oar Strikes The Water, The Shadow Knows, Wolf’s Return, Iron Will, I Am The North, Kingslayer

I didn’t really see much of the gig of the Brits :: SYLOSIS :: in the Party Tent, as the next gig’s been awaiting me on the Pain Stage. Butt he short impression was definitely positive. Some Metalcore here, some thrashy riffing there, technically brilliantly performed – that’s the best way to make new friends!

Next one on the Pain Stage was the Munich-based band :: EQUILIBRIUM ::. I have to admit that I haven’t dealt with the musical outpourings of the ladies and gentlemen. But I still was excited to see the gig of this currently pretty hip and hyped quintet. The gig definitely was a killer for fans of folk-influenced Pagan Metal with pretty unspectacular Black Metal vocals, which was confirmed by the numerous crowd surfers. I got bored by the sound quite fast, one song sounded like the other. Vocalist Helge was anything but imaginative in his communication with the crowd (“You are wicked!” – and his repertoire was exhausted) and the Michael Jackson filler was just awkward. But the band enjoyed the gig on stage and could at least convince their fans.

[Johannes] On the first evening of the SUMMER BREEZE festival, :: PSYCROPTIC :: served the audience a well-dosed portion of finest technical Death Metal. The Australian band performed their extremely complex songs with playfully effortlessness, above all the two brothers Joe and Dave Haley (guitars and drums). They played a nice combo of songs from their latest, very atmospheric album Ob(Servant) and the older, more brutal ones The Scepter Of The Ancients and The Isle Of Disenchantment. At first there wasn’t too much going on in front of the stage, but more and more people poured into the party tent, attracted by tight blast beats with melodic parts in between. Shouter Jason Peppiatt did a good job as well. His range went from pig squeals, over deep shouts to high-pitched screams. Altogether a very successful performance, which was without any doubt one of the best of the whole festival.

The first surprise came with the beginning of the :: KREATOR :: gig. I stood in queue in front of the media pit. As the first group (me included) was allowed to enter the pit, I was rejected by the crewmember that checked the press cards – but it was all Greek to me due to the noise and the earplugs… Later it turned out there has been a sort of hierarchy among the photographers since last year on the SUMMER BREEZE. Who, as already mentioned, didn’t get such a headliner press card for photography, couldn’t take photos of the last three acts on both main stages. I don’t know which criteria were decisive for the selection. But it definitely was a pity, because I wasn’t allowed to take photos of a lot of bands in the best stage light.
Anyway, let’s get back the Essen-based Thrash dinosaurs. Actually, nothing can go wrong when a band starts a gig with a five-minute lasting eargasm such as Hordes Of Chaos. And all in all, it didn’t go wrong. A quite well balanced setlist was served to fans of both the older, more primitive (Betrayer, Tormentor, Extreme Aggression) and newer, technically way better part of KREATOR’s discography. I missed the two blasts People Of The Lie and Terror Zone off the Coma Of Souls album as well as my Thrash-hit Amok Run. Mille’s patronizing behavior on stage was something that left a sour taste not only to me. Self-assurance is all well and good and it’s great if the band is incited by the euphoric reactions of the crowd, but it’s going too far when the front man starts to insult the crowd (“You bums!”). And the faked encore package was for the birds, because the band stopped their regular gig about 15 minutes before its regular ending and went off stage to be able to play these faked encores. No other band (at least none of the ones I have seen) did it this way…
R ésumé: a great gig with a slightly over-motivated Mille…
Setlist: Hordes Of Chaos, Phobia, Terrible Certainty, Betrayer, Voices Of The Dead, Enemy Of God, Destroy What Destroys You, Pleasure To Kill, Violent Revolution, Extreme Aggression, Coma Of Souls // Warcurse, Flag Of Hate, Tormentor

I tried my luck once again to enter the media pit during the gig of the :: BACKYARD BABIES :: but it was in vain… Well… Not being allowed to take photos of a band that makes such a party on stage is a shame.
Even though I haven’t heard anything of the Swedish rockers before, I was really curious, particularly as they have the former Hellacopter Dregen who is known for being hyperactive on stage on board. And even though the feel-good-Punkrock of the Scandinavians seemed by and by monotonous, the BACKYARD BABIES made it to keep the great mood and Dregen and singer Nicke motivated the fans more and more to exploit themselves. In doing so, the band acted pretty down-to-earth and thanked the crowd politely.
I was lucky that a promoter of Jägermeister was around during the gig and gave me one of the promo caps, which turned out to be essential during the next two days…

:: KATATONIA :: was the last band on the two main stages for this Thursday. No pictures here, too… Fuck!
It once again became apparent tonight that the Stockholm-based band seems to enjoy being on stage. Meanwhile, Jonas is not only vocally one of the most coveted front men in the Metal scene (e.g. his guest appearances in the most diverse bands such as Long Distance Calling, Ayreon or recently in Pantheon I), but also a likeable and communicative (compared to the extremely introverted Jonas Renske some years ago) contemporary. He’s excused for having a rusty start in Consternation and Soil’s Song, because the whole band seemed a bit unsettled tonight. In the face of the fact that the band interrupted their recording sessions for the new KATATONIA album Night Is The New Day (release date some time in November this year) especially for the SUMMER BREEZE and two other gigs and thus surely couldn’t rehearse extensive, the performance tonight is as right as rain.
But it was annoying that the band performed almost the same songs like e.g. on their gig in Karlsruhe in 2006 – the Swedes could really spend some more time with their setlist having such a humongous choice of classics.
Setlist: Intro, Consternation, Soil’s Song, Teargas, Deadhouse, Ghost Of The Sun, My Twin, Sleeper, Future Of Speech, Tonight’s Music, July, Evidence, Murder

story & pics © Haris