Ok, Brutal Assault 2006:
Same as last year, I went by bus with ca 90 metalheads from the area where I live. You know it, beer, beer, beer = frequent pauses for taking a leak. Therefore we arrived late and missed Jig-Ai, Rites of Undeath, Crashpoint and Mortifilia. The number of people who showed up was breath taking - last year there were maybe 3000 people there and we were amazed, this year there were around 10000 souls, and queues, queues, queues. I really wanted to see The Ocean, who played after Mortifilia, so I sneaked inside thanks to my friends in the BA Crew. With the green wristband and a beer it all looked better. The Ocean started the best festival Ive been to so far. Their performance was really energetic, two drummers, two lead singers with the rest of the band doing backing vocals - pretty impressive. I dont know their stuff, but they did a great job.
What came next was the first climax of the whole fest - Birdflesh. Three guys dressed in aprons, two of them wearing masks, one just his face (which was enough), showed the crowd whats grind core about. Silly lyrics, silly looks, pure fucking fun, yet excellent music. The drummer was fantastic - doing blastbeats like a maniac and growling the shit out of his lungs at the same time. Blasts from the Ass and Happy Hour Crazy Hour were the best.
Then Gojira - phew, another climax - what a gig! The sound was crushingly clear, and the riffs and stop-times slowly tore us appart. They played songs from all 3 albums, obviously preferring the last one. Superb.
And the climaxes continued, hehe. Orphaned Land. Really looked forward to them and they didnt let us down. Played two new songs, then a handful from Mabool and a couple from Sahara and El Norra. Again, the sound was excellent, the band enjoyed the set and the cheers, a wonderful show.
Then it was time for Fear Factory. They were a bit boring, especially Burton was just doing his job, clean vocs out of tune, looked tired. The rest of the band did very well and saved the final impression for me. But nothing really special.
Severe Torture was the last band for me on Thursday, and also nothing special, so after a few songs I went to the tent.
Friday promised another series of orgasms, but the truth was different. The first band for us was Galadriel - seen them plenty of times, but very good.
Then we were exploring the stands and drinking floods of beer, so the next band was Ingrowing, a czech grind (what else) band. Havent seen them for some time, so I was really glad to do some moshing, their music ranks among the top bands of the genre, excellent.
Then Visceral Bleeding. Their label, Neurotic Records, promised a really good technical death metal (they have also Spawn of Possession), but it was nothing much. The band tried, but it just didnt work, they come nowhere near SoP, or other tech death metal bands.
Born from Pain and Rotten Sound were pretty good, especially RS were a fucking blast, really made my ears happy!
Then it was time for Skyforger from Latvia - a sort of folk black. Didnt really know what to expect, but it was fucking great! I knew they had some a capella songs, and kind of soft instrumentals, but they played a selection of the heaviest shit they had. It was perfect, the first climax on Friday.
The other one came right after - Carnival in Coal. If someone would tell me before the fest that this band will have the biggest circle pit on the fest (well, except Sick of it All, but that goes without question), Id laugh. But they did. And it wasnt during some heavy part, but during that swingy thingy in Satanic Disaster. This set was absolutely fantastic! The singer asked: Brutal Assault, are you prepared for one hour of sheer music stupidity? and the crowed roared yeeeaaahh, and all hell broke loose. Fuckable, Satanic Disaster, Right Click-Save As and as the last song of the set the cover of Maniac from Flashdance - beautiful. The band was really really happy, they probably didnt know what to expect either, but the people loved them.
Sick of it All were next - no comment. A massacre.
Amorphis - now what the fuck was that? A bunch of retired old farts? A huge disappointment for me. The sound was awful, the only member of the band, who at least pretended to care was the new singer. The played Against Widows, Into Hiding, but how. It did nothing with me. A waste of time.
Dimmu Borgir proved what was to become a weird rule at the fest - the longer the sound check, the worse the sound. It took 4 songs to make it listenable (included Kings of Carnival Creation, which was a bummer, because Galders guitar wasnt simply there). But overall a good show, a lot better than Amorphis, but still - kind of too bloody cold "professionalism". They played 2 new songs, the new album looks promising. Hellhammer on drums was the best by far.
Textures were next - a not so well known band from Holland (compared to DB), but a great set. The sound check took maybe 10 minutes and the sound was excellent. I really enjoyed their show.
Disavowed - also from Holland, playing music the closest to the gory liver of my heart. Amazing gig, I saw them at BA 2002, and was amazed how they improved their playing and how the new stuff rocks!
To cut the shit shorter, Saturday started for us a bit late, with all that drinking and looking for some decent food in the area, we started at 15,00 with Arsebreed. But what a start that was! Excellent brutal death metal, two growlers, funny lyrics, great performance. Really technical stuff. It was really cool to observe the two singers making it a grind core gig, and then the band playing a top class death metal. Worked perfect together. One of the singers is the singer from Disavowed btw.
Then Neglected Fields from Latvia. Love this band, and the band loves the fest and the people there. They travelled 27 hours just to play there for 35 minutes. Their music is really special - it is death metal, but they stretch it to and beyond its limits, while still remaining within the genre. They dont mix or incorporate elements of other genres into their music. The last song of their gig was Breathe - a cover of The Prodigy, but it was a death metal song, all sounds were created by the 4 instruments. My recommendations.
Then I simply had to take a nap, so I didnt see Skinless and Root.
My friend came to wake me up for Gorefest. I thanked him very much for doing that. When we were crossing the gate, Gorefest were playing the first tunes of For the Masses. We started to walk fast and when the singer announced the initial rrrrrrooooooowwwwwrrrrrrrr, we started to run straight into the pit. One of the best shows ever for me. They played the best songs from False, Erase, Chapter 13 and La Muerte with such ease and charm. The only bad thing was the rain.
Then Destruction came, a bit scared to be the only thrash band at the festival. We drank a lot during their gig, so near the end we were hopping to their thrashy songs. They did very well.
Morbid Angel - Rutan, Azagthoth, Vincent, Sandoval - more than 90 minutes of pure fucking perfection, yet the sound could have been better, with that sound check lasting more than 45 minutes.
Napalm Death - again, sound check very short, but the sound was crushing. Absolutely fantastic show, also played some new stuff, excellent gig!
Mayhem were the last band I saw, I left in the middle of their set, because its not really my cup of tea, and I was so fucking tired that I could barely stand.
For reasons given I missed Ephel Duath, the last band of the fest. I am truly sorry, because I like them a lot and my friends told me they were mind blowing. At least I bought their cd and a t-shirt.
So, all in all, an amazing festival, the weather was good (the forecast was much worse than reality) - it started to pour this morning during packing, but nobody gave a fuck. We were all happy.
The show was grand, of course, too.
