Friday
After seeing all bands of the Main Stage on Thursday, I was more selective on Friday and I also saw some Tent Stage bands, so here we go. Sadly, I mixed up play times of Tent Stage and Main Stage, so I missed out a few bands and just made it to the last songs and chords of Afsky from Denmark. After a short look I made my way to Cloak on the Tent Stage to enjoy Black Death Metal from Georgia/US. I was surprised by some included Gothic grooves though. Check them out!
Sacramentum on the Main Stage caught my attention with their Melodic Black Metal, or is it more Death Metal, or a mix of both? Anyway, Swedish Sacramentum delivered it all.
Afterwards we were bewitched. No, not by Burning Witches but by finest Swedish Black Thrash Metal of metal veterans Bewitched. Although there has been no new release since 2006 and having lost their equipment on the flight, they have not forgotten how to shred their guitars!
I nearly missed Kraanium who slammed a wonderful set of Brutal Death Metal due to a short visit to our campsite for some food. I luckily enjoyed the second half of their set from the distance and was ready for the Tent Stage. Nervo Chaos was the band I wanted to watch there, and I wasn’t disappointed by the musicians from Brazil who performed a very skillful Death Metal set. Brazil seems to be a good country for metal in general, thinking of bands like Nervosa, Crypta or Sepultura.
Incantation released a full volley of American Death Metal. It is unbelievable, that they exist for 35 years now and still sound fresh and hungry for morbid and blasphemic music.
Before the next band on the Main Stage, I paid a visit to the Tent stage and had a short look at Varathron from Greece with their partly mythologic lyrics and extraordinary Black Metal.
The next band was my friend Doro’s favourite. “Batushka was awesome”. And yes, they were, very different to all other bands. Black Metal with orthodox liturgical lyrics reigned the stage. The show was a real gem and a kind of Black Metal Musical. Great indeed!
Sólstafir were my personal favourite though. The Icelandic Psychedelic Alternative Metalist delivered a great show with a brilliant web of sound which let you dream away into landscapes of ancient countries, lost worlds, and personal nightmares. I wished, that just once, there was an LED-screen showing some of those imaginations.
Before Friday’s headliner, I switched over to the tent to watch a recommendation of some friends. All female Konvent from Denmark delivered a remarkable set of Death Doom Metal, slow, epic, and deadly with most brutal vocals of the whole weekend.
Then the headliner of Friday entered the stage a quarter to midnight. Behemoth from Poland are on European festival tour and stopped at Party.San as well. Satanic verses and blasphemic lyrics ruled for the next 75 minutes. The combination of show, instrumentalization and lyrics is outstanding though very controverse for some people with a lesser point of view than metal heads have. Great band, great show, great entertainment, nothing more to say.
A short visit to the Metal Disco finished the day and night for me, the next band I wanted to watch would play only a few hours after Behemoth…