Party.San Thursday

Arrival Day

For 30 years, a small – indeed, NOT sooo small – community of dedicated metalheads has met for one of Germany’s most illustrious festivals. It is the place for real fans and enthusiasts, the place for experts and music lovers rather than for so-called festival tourists who just consume the atmosphere but neither breathe nor smell nor live it. For me, it is only the third time, but I have been completely in love with Party.San Open Air from the very first minute. Thus, on Wednesday, I meet some of my metal buddies right in front of the entrance gate, and together we enter the holy ground of this metal paradise. Check-in is easy and precise, and safety control is not an empty phrase here, as it is elsewhere just for the sake of it. We are guided to the camping area; our cars are placed by the stewards according to their emergency rules, and all of this, from meeting up to parking the car, takes less than 15 minutes. That’s what I call efficiency!

Soon our tents are put up and ready to move into, and the barbecue is prepared for Franconian Haute Cuisine: Coburger sausages. The first beer keg is opened, and the nine of us celebrate our reunion with Goassmass, a mixture of dark beer, cola and a small amount of cherry liqueur, tasty but dangerous. Shortly before 20:00, it is time to look around the campsite and slowly walk towards the infield to pick up the festival wristband and join the traditional Cuba-Libre-Party. Some food stalls and the beer bar are open as well, but Cuba Libre is the real deal tonight. Careful drinking and taking care of each other are important there, so we can all still walk back to our tents on our own two feet.

Thursday

Thursday starts not as early as the other two days will, so there is plenty of time to sleep an hour longer than usual, prepare breakfast, enjoy scrambled eggs, clean the dishes, and even enjoy another barbecue, this time with steaks instead, and more beer to get into a light-hearted, buoyant mood for the next 60 hours without losing control due to alcohol abuse.

As soon as we hear Esmeralda’s cannon shot, we are ready for the infield: a sip of whisky at The Seven Lords Pub with its lovely selection and the first band on the Main Stage. At 13:45, SARCATOR from Sweden play Party.San for the first time. Black Thrash Metal rules for the next 45 minutes, and the four guys indeed convince the growing crowd.

After a short break, it is time for 200 STAB WOUNDS. Of course, this is no physical threat but the name of the second band, this time Death Metal musicians from the United States and no less convincing than the previous act.

Meanwhile, the Tent Stage is set for its first band. German MORBUS DEI play Party.San for the first time as well. 35 minutes of playtime are barely enough to get into the mood for their interesting Black Metal interpretation of raw energy combined with melodic depth.

Our first festival highlight follows at 15:45 on the Main Stage with IOTUNN from Sweden, and again it is a premiere. Their epic Melodic Death Metal and theatrical stage show blow not only our minds away. 45 minutes are just not enough for this band, and a midnight show would be nicer than a teatime slot, but I am convinced that this will change soon.

Jump back to the Tent Stage, and RATS OF GOMORRAH are already waiting. In fact, the two musicians are from Germany and present old-school Death Metal without any compromises, right between the eyes and the ears.

Grindcore Death awaits us on the Main Stage when US-American MISERY INDEX let their guitars scream, not for the first time at Party.San. Indeed, they have played here for the fourth time, if I researched correctly. Band and festival simply fit together like ebony and ivory on a piano.

.The Tent Stage remains in German hands when MESSTICATOR take control for the first time at Party.San. A well-arranged Death and Thrash thunderstorm breaks down on the audience. It is already misty in the tent, and their energy doubles it with ease.

SADISTIC INTENT from Los Angeles, USA, tear down the Main Stage, performing intense, brutal Death Metal from the raw and unfiltered underground since 1987, almost 40 years and still sounding fresh.

TODOMAL take the Tent Stage and, surprisingly, they are not German but based in Spain. It is their first time at Party.San, and they are the first band with a female musician, their keyboardist. Yes, you read that right: a keyboardist at an extreme metal festival, and she won’t be the last. Their Atmospheric Doom Metal hypnotizes the crowd for good reason.

Austria invades Party.San when SCHIRENC PLAYS PUNGENT STENCH entertain us on the Main Stage. The raw power and dark humour of Pungent Stench’s recreated sound rule. Combined with Viennese charm, these legends have the audience eating out of the palm of their hand. It is the first and last time to enjoy them at Party.San; the band will disband by the end of the year.

BEGGING FOR INCEST playing Party.San for the first time is no crime but, again, a band’s name: provocative, aggressive, extreme and German. The performance is pure, raw and dirty. Live with it, live or die with this Brutal Death Metal.

At very short notice, LAMP OF MURMUUR could be engaged for Party.San to replace Desaster. Thank The Highest Being there were still some seats available on their plane from the US; otherwise, we would now miss an excellent Atmospheric Black Metal and corpse paint celebration on the Main Stage.

We remain US-American but change the stage when EVOKEN present Funeral Doom combined with Death Metal for the first time at Party.San. To say that it is spooky would be an understatement. Fog and mist on stage and in the tent play their roles very well in creating this very special atmosphere which made it very demanding to take any halfway good pics.

You might know the vocalist of the next band very well from another band. His name is Nergal, the band is Behemoth, but today we speak about SVENTEVITH from Iceland. His charisma meets the cold, chaotic roots of Misbyrming to create a dark, powerful wall of sound in the best manner of Sventevith. Truly a highlight of Thursday.

Black Metalists SEARBLISS from Hungary finish the evening on the Tent Stage. The audience gets the full package of rough riffs and funny, unusual instruments before it is time for the two headliners on the Main Stage tonight.

The first one comes from the Iberian Peninsula, but neither Gibraltar, Andorra nor Spain. You guessed right: it is MOONSPELL from Portugal. To say that their show is excellent and worthy of a co-headliner simply doesn’t do it justice. Even if MOONSPELL’s Gothic Metal finds itself on the “soft” side of Party.San, it is exactly what 9,000 metalheads want now. This and nothing else matters.

Thus, the bar is set very high for the main headliner and closer of the night. But TESTAMENT wouldn’t be TESTAMENT if they couldn’t manage and solve it with ease. US-American Thrash Metal, loud and proud, is what we get now, before, at 1:00, the famous Metal Disco starts for those who can’t find any sleep and still need more music in the party tent. Friday will be a long day with a full programme, so we prefer to have a last drink at our campsite and find some soothing sleep to recover. Age pays its dues…