SUMMER BREEZE 2013
In the meantime nearly every metalhead in Central Europe knows each festival summer is just completed with its final highlight Summer Breeze! Travelling to Dinkelsbühl while these days you can find besides a beautiful town an open air that guarantees continuity by confirming lots of interesting bands from different subgenres for a fair ticket price. After 35000 sold tickets they declared Summer Breeze 2013 sold out.
What we really appreciate about the Summer Breeze is the fact they don’t just concentrate on the headliner positions being represented by Sabaton, Lamb Of God and In Flames this year, but on a strong billing in general as well. The weather was as good as it had been all the years before, just as a Summer Breeze. The organisation did as well. The most remarkable change were the extended size of the Party Stage Tent, the huge screen besides it and the new regular program on the Camel Stage on wednesday. On this year’s Summer Breeze 100 bands appeared on four stages (including the Camel Stage) in four days for about 35000 visitors (Sold out!).
Wednesday
Party Stage
Bury Tomorrow After the First Blood competition the Nuclear Blast Labelnight began by the quintet from Southampton. The probably because of the before happened New Blood Award mainly young spectators celebrated the Metalcore. Melodic hooklines met breakdowns and convinced me from “Lionheart” to “Royal Blood” despite the fact I hadn’t heard of them before. First band = first surprise!
Vader The polish Death Metal institution left no doubt the brutality level raised quite a lot as the opener “Sothis”, “Carnal”, “Reborn In Flames”, “Come And See My Sacrifice” showed. The packed tent headbanged until “Wings” and “Helleluyah!!! (God Is Dead)” finished this hour of a Death Metal lesson.
Exodus No less hard, just a bit slower the US Thrash Metal acted on stage. The Slayer-supporting guitarist Gary Holt got replaced by Bay Area Thrash college Kragen Lum. After the Vader blast it was hard to attract the headbangers again, but from “Piranha” on everything worked for the Californians. So “Bonded By Blood”, “A Lesson In Violence” and “Toxic Waltz” could just succeed.
Destruction After the mentioned performances many fans had left the tent in which much space wasn’t civilized. The Thrash trio began by “Thrash Till Death” and let follow by “Nailed To The Cross”, “Mad Butcher” as the end consisting of “The Butcher Strikes Back”, “Bestial Invasion” and “Curse The Gods” several classics which got jubilated by the few fans.
Kadavar The Stoner Rock threepiece from Berlin replaced the canceling Witchcraft. And they did their job well bringing the Rock vibe back on stage. Of course their set mainly consisted songs from their debut record “Abra Kadavar” which sounded well to me. Nice!
Thursday
Main Stage
First Blood Just after the New Blood Award winner it was time for First Blood. What a program pun! Hardcore from San Francisco was just the right instrument to wake up the visitors. Just too monotonous, but the Californians reached their goal and took care about one of the earliest wall of deaths I have ever seen on festivals.
The Bones The Punk Rock band played several times on the Summer Breeze, and again they rocked the crowd. This time the Swedes did this even in the heat of the early afternoon by “Screwed, Blued And Tattooed”, “Gazoline Business” and the Accept-cover “I’m A Rebel”.
Soilwork In spite of the heat the Melodic Death Metal institution from Helsingborg had the pleasure to welcome lots of fans in front of the stage. In contrast to most festival appearances the sixpiece took the risk considering by the opener “This Momentary Bliss”, “Spectrum Of Eternity”, “Tongue” and “Rise Above The Sentiment” four songs of their new double album “The Living Infinite”, but because of the high quality of this masterpiece it worked. Of course it worked even better with the classics “Follow The Hollow”, “Nerve” and the final “Stabbing The Drama”.
Fear Factory The US Industrial Metal icon started with a strong combination between old and new by “The Industrialist”, “Shock”, “Edgecrusher” and “Powershifter”. The many fans didn’t hesitate to headbang and to start the pit-action. In comparison to the Wacken-appearance two weeks ago fronter Burton C. Bell’s voice seemed to be in a much better mood coping with most of the clean passages. So the wonderful “Archetype” became a real pleasure, the classics “Demanufacture”, “Self Bias Resistor” and the final hit “Replica” of course as well.
Der W The ex-Böhse-Onkelz-fourstringer Stephan Weidner and his band seemed to had no credibility in Dinkelsbühl. The festival area was pretty empty, and the left persons showed their middle fingers. Not the best atmosphere to appear, I guess. On the other hand the show didn’t rock at all.
Sabaton What followed wasn’t quite better. But only in my opinion. The masses had returned to celebrate songs about war historic. What sounds quite sarcastic is a bestseller, and so the Swedish fivepiece had no problem to start after Europe’s “The Final Countdown” as intro by “Ghost Division into their set. They had to play this with lent instruments after they had lost their luggage by their airline. But this didn’t disturb the band. Supported by many pyro-effects “Attero Dominatus”, “Panzerkampf”, “The Cliffs Of Galipoli”, “The Art Of War” and “Primo Victoria” got much jubilation.
Pain Stage
Stormborn The same procedure as every year. The winner of the underground competition which had been held one day before was honored by the New Blood Award as by the first slot on the open air festivalsite. The young band from London wasn’t more as an average Power Metal band that had listened a lot to Iron Maiden. Were the other bands in this competition really worse?
Cultus Ferox The medieval Folk band bored me for another time. But they are Summer Breeze frequenters and could count on their own fan base in Dinkelsbühl to which I definitely don’t belong to. “Ahoi”!
Alestorm It didn’t become much better in my opinion, but lots of fans celebrated the Folk Metal about piracy. The scottish fivepiece knew how to animate their supporters by “The Sunk’n Norwegian”, “Shipwrecked”, “Keelhauled” and “Captain Morgan’s Revenge” causing several crowdsurfers.
We Came As Romans The variable Metalcore of this sixpiece from Detroit was the right contrast to the combos before. The two vocalists as all the hooklines convinced absolutely as the live interpretation of “To Move On Is To Go Now”, “Fade Away”, “Broken Statues” and the The Wanted – cover “Glad You Came” inspiring their many fans to sing along with. And those even happened while the opener “Hope” and the title song from the brandnew album “Tracing Back Roots”.
Korpiklaani And another Folk Metal combo wanted to make party. The musicians seemed pretty drunk just entering the stage. Several of their fans seemed to be as well, and so the party could start. Musically this turned out to a bad joke.
Powerwolf The triumphal procession moved on to as through Dinkelsbühl. Of course, the Summer Breeze is some kind of a home match for the five wolves performing there for about the fourth or fifth time. The opening “Sanctified With Dynamite” and “We Drink Your Blood” were sung by thousands of fans. The filled festivalsite celebrated “Amen & Attack”, “In The Name Of God (Deus Vult)”, “Coleus Sanctus” and “Kreuzfeuer” from the very new album “Preachers Of The Night” as classics like “Werewolves Of Armenia”, “Resurrection By Errection” or “All We Need Is Blood”. Technical problems couldn’t stop band as fans, and so a jubilated amazing show ended by “Raise Your Fist, Evangelist” and “Lupus Dei”.
Saltatio Mortis What happened to this stage on this day? The next medieval Folk Rock ensemble became even more horrible than their genre colleges had been before. But even after midnight there fans applauding. Whatever!
Party Stage
Mustasch Five years after their latest Summer Breeze – participation the quartet from Gothenburg showed how Rock has to sound like. Beginning with the lower tones of the semi-ballad “It’s Never To Late” the tent crowd noticed pretty fast this show was about to turn to rock at all. Supported by Ralf Gyllenhammer’s german comments the audience had fun with “Bring Me Everyone”, “Down In Black” and the hit “Double Nature”.
Illdisposed Ironic announcements held in german are a typical attribute of the Danish as well. Fronter Bo Summers knew how to entertain by pointing out on the development of the band which had played on an open air stage the last time in 2007. Besides much laughter the quintet caused headbanging- as pit-action especially by the classics “Weak Is Your God”, “I Believe In Me”, “Dark” and “Throw Your Bolts”. A strong as much appreciated Death Metal performance got finished by “A Child Is Missing”, “Fear The Gates” and “Now We’re History”.
Cult Of Luna After five piece the eightpiece (!) from Northern Sweden returned to the same stage to fascinate again by creating a melancholic atmosphere filling the whole tent. The band including their four guitarists (!) put their main focus on their new masterpiece “Vertikal” by the opener “I: The Weapon” as the two finally played tracks “Disharmonia” and “In Awe Of” which got as massively supported as “Ghost Trail” and “Finland”. The band seemed to fascinate by their performance combined with an amazing light show. Best show of this year’s Summer Breeze!
Friday
Main Stage
Feuerschwanz The Bavarians attracted thousands of supporters in front of the stage what definitely astonished. But many of them seemed to be the nowadays usual event freaks with costumes and stuff not singing the trivial singalongs than just something. Anyway their Folk Metal stuck much more on my nerves than those freaks did.
Neaera Finally: Deathcore smashed the audience backt to what the festival mainly is about. After they had succeeded at all two weeks ago in Wacken the quintet from Münster striked again. Considering by the title track as opener, “Through Treacherous Flames” and “My Night Is Starless” material from the new “Ours Is The Storm” – hammer the classics “Let The Tempest Come”, “Armamentarium” and the finisher “Spearheading The Storm” left no trace about the heavy- as tightness of this band. Shouter Benny Hilleke thanked for the suppport and the audience was completely satisfied.
Agnostic Front The fathers of old school – Hardcore from New York City rocked Dinkelsbühl by hymns like “For My Family”, “Crucified” and of course by “Gotta Go”. Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma & Co obviously enjoyed being celebrated by nearly all present visitors who might have been ten thousand then. To the pleasure of the fans the five guys closed their set by the Ramones cover “Blitzkrieg Bop” supported by a tremendous sound.
Eisbrecher The follower of Megaherz has the same problem as its named forerunner: It sounds like a Rammstein-clone. And this attracted a huge audience, but on the other side it was kind of significant the only hit “Miststück” from the mentioned Megaherz got extended to a twelve-minute-version .
Anthrax The Thrash Metal icon from New York started phenomenal by “Among The Living”, “Caught In A Mosh” and “Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.). The following “In The End” got dedicated to Ronnie James Dio and Dimebag Darrel what caused much applause by the audience. By “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t” they considered another song from the current “Worship Music” – album. But the classics “Deathrider”, “Indians” and “Got The Time” earned the most support by the headbangers, crowdsurfers and moshpitters. And so they during the surprising AC/DC´-cover “T.N.T.”. After “I Am The Law” Scott Ian & Co left the stage to return with the encores “Madhouse”, “Medusa” and “Antisocial”.
Lamb Of God While viewing the running order for the first time I got astonished about the headliner position of the quintet from Richmond after Anthrax. But from the first tones of the opener “Desolation” it was clear they deserved it. The following “Ghost Walking”, “Walk With Me In Hell”, “Set To Fail” and “Ruin” impressed by heaviness, groove and tightness. Lead by shouter Randy Blythe whose latest prison drama in the Czech Republic took its well-known end of being declared as unguilty the charisma as sympathy was another factor, especially while stressing this was the first headliner show on a european festival or while thanking for the support as for the german beer. After “Contractor” the fivepiece returned on stage to fulfill the wish for encores by “In Your Words”, “Laid To Rest”, the hit “Redneck” and “Black Label”. The probably twenty thousand fans celebrated those ones nearly ecstatic. After this performance it was easy to see Lamb Of God is ready for any festival headliner show.
Pain Stage
Psychopunch The planned Sister Sin needed to cancel their appearance and got short-term-replaced by regular guests of the Summer Breeze. The four Swedes had to play in front of a small crowd which probably wouldn’t have happened in case of being on the proclaimed billing. Cool Punk Rock show!
Letzte Instanz Because of its name this sevenpiece usually played as last act the years before. Anyway, their German-speaking Gothic Rock didn’t rock at sunny noon as well, except for the “Final Countdown” – intro.
Leaves’ Eyes Even more epic became the following show. Liv Kristine, her husband and the Atrocity-backing-band stuck on my nerves for another time. Exclusive was the very first performance of “Hell To The Heavens” from the forthcoming release.
End Of Green The next appearance turned out to a home game for another time. The regional heroes added another one to their collection of great Summer Breeze – shows. From the opener “Highway 69” on their cool combination between Rock and Gothic rocked Dinkelsbühl. The crowd obviously was pretty familiar with “Killhoney”, “Goodnight Insomnia”, “Tie Me A Rope… While You’re Calling My Name” and “Drink Myself To Sleep”. The quintet presented by “Hangman’s Joke” and “De(ad)generation” material from their brandnew album “The Painstream” being released the same day. “Dead End Hero” marked the end of a rocking gig.
Walls Of Jericho Fresh mother Candace Kucsulain ruled the stage as she had done before the baby break. After each of her advises circle-pits or crowdsurfers were just a question of seconds and the band added the US-Hardcore-soundtrack by “A Trigger Full Of Promises”, “The New Ministry” and “The American Dream”.
Tiamat The quartet from Stockholm took care about a more silent break which sounded quite chilling. And although tracks like “Vote For Love”, “Cain” or “Brighter Than The Sun” rock, the highlights were for another time: “Whatever That Hurts”, “The Sleeping Beauty” and “Gaia”. What a surprise!
Finntroll After years the Finns returned with ridiculous plastic hobbit ears and filled by the title track as opener, “Mordminnen”, “Häxbrygd”, “När Jättar Maschera” and “Skogsdotter” nearly half of the gig with new “Bloodsvept”-material. But most appreciated of course got the final “Trollhammeren” and “Jaktens Tid”.
Party Stage
Evergreen Terrace Finally the Metalcore-fivepiece from Florida returned to Dinkelsbühl. This time they rocked the Party Stage Tent from the opener “Enemy Sex” over “Where There Is Fire, We Carry Gasoline” and “Wolfbiker” to the great final consisting of Tears For Fear’s “Mad World”, the hit “Chaney Can’t Quite Riff Like Helmet’s Page Hamilton” and the U2’s “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”. Shouter Andrew Carey was obviously pretty much drunk, but he matched all his passages, so this circumstance didn’t mean any live-quality losses, it just turned out funny. Lead by clean vocalist as sixstringer Craig Chaney the band succeeded with their groove as by their catchy hooklines. The tent population celebrated this enormously, even a wheelchair user practised crowdsurfing.
Saturday
Main Stage
Orden Ogan The germany Blind Guardian – fans still sounded to similar to their obvious idols, their stageacting was lame and the most celebrated “We Are Pirates” was no more than a bad joke.
Van Canto A much more individual approach wasn’t set by the following ensemble by one drummer and five vocalists singing and interpreting the remaining instruments to own tracks as to Nightwish’s “Wishmaster”, Grave Digger’s “Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching)” and Iron Maiden’s “Fear Of The Dark”. This worked as always that way: Interesting for the first few minutes, tedious for the rest of the concert.
Moonspell Portugal’s finest played a solid Gothic Metal show as they are known for. The duet between mainman Fernando Ribeiro and Tristania’s Mariangela Demurtas to “Raven Claws was nice, but the real highlights were the evergreens “Opium”, “Vampiria”, “Alma Mater” and “Full Moon Madness”. Cool live appearance!
Devildriver The Thrash Metal fivepiece from California didn’t attract to much people, maybe because of the heat. Anyway, Dez Farfara demanded a wall of death to destroy a few guys in Teletubbies-costumes. They considered by “Ruthless” and “The Appetite” two tracks from the forthcoming output “Winter Kills” to be released two weeks later. The biggest circle-pits of the gig were seen during “I Could Care Less” and “Clouds Over California”.
Hatebreed From then on Jamey Jasta and his Hardcore-comrades took over Dinkelsbühl. The thousands of fans just seemed to had been awaiting these 75 minutes. The Connecticut-fivepiece considered by “Dead Man Breathing”, “Honor Never Dies”, “Indivisible” and “The Language” material from the new “The Divinity Of Porpose” – record. The biggest moshpit-action happened and the most crowdsurfers were counted while “To The Threshold” as while the great final consisting of “This Is Now”, “I Will Be Heard” and “Destroy Everything”. Another highlight was the Slayer-cover of “Ghosts Of War” which got dedicated to Jeff Hanneman.
In Flames The last show of the “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” – world tour was supposed to happen in Dinkelsbühl. Its title song set the start for the following 90 minutes containing a best-of-set, an ambitious band and fire works show with many pyros and other special effects. The band which attracted the biggest masses on the festivalsite inspired by “Pinball Map”, “Only For The Weak”, “Cloud Connected”, “The Quiet Place” and “The Mirror’s Truth” to headbanging as moshpits. Anders Fridén entertained pretty relaxed and announced to come back with an awesome new album before disbanding by the amazing final consisting of “Deliver Us”, “Take This Life” and “My Sweet Shadow”. Impressive!
Pain Stage
Nachtblut The most horrible wake-up-call I have ever experienced happened that morning. The musically as visually ridiculous fivepiece from Osnabrück set just one little highlight when they covered Die Prinzen by “Alles Nur Geklaut”.
Arkona The Russian Pagan-combo entered the stage in viking-pelts despite the heat. And as ridiculous became their following ‘tralala’-music. The fact they sang in russian probably hided some more ridiculous lyric circumstances.
Fiddler’s Green The approach of the band before got fulfilled by the Folk Rock – sevenpiece. The Bavarians presented by “The More, The Merrier” a new track from the brandnew “Winners & Boozers” release. The fans danced, partied and initiated the wall of Folk.
Knorkator The weirdoes from Berlin should have better played on the neighbored Main Stage. Masses filled the place in front of the Pain Stage to celebrate the show from the beginning marked by “Der Ultimative Mann” and “Ich Will Nur Fick’n”. The following covers of Ace Of Base’s “All That She Wants” and “Boney M.’s “Ma Baker” convinced those spectators who hadn’t been familiar with the band. Its show elements convinced as well shooting vocalist Stumpen inside a big gum ball as ultimate crowdsurfer over the crowd. All this lead to maximum sympathy and support while “Ich Lass Mich Klonen”, “Alter Mann” and “Böse” and “Wir Werden Alle Sterben”.
Ensiferum Another victim of Air Berlin became the Finns who had to lent their instruments from other bands and dedicated “Tale Of Revenge” to the airline. Anyway this show turned out to a party within “Token Of Time”, “Battle Song” and the final “Iron” before the Star Wars theme marked the outro.
Amorphis Another stirring performance was held by Amorphis in Dinkelsbühl. It had become colder and under a clear sky the melodies from the thousand lakes suited the atmosphere totally. By the opener “Shades Of Gray”, “Nightbird’s Song” and “The Wanderer” compositions from the new album “Circles” found their consideration. Those ones got as much celebrated as the classics “The Castaway” and “On Rich And Poor”. The crowd jubilated each song by much applause. So “The Smoke” and “House Of Sleep” meant the end of a wonderful show.
Dark Funeral As three years ago at the same festival fronter Emperor Magus Caligula proclaimed by the last played “My Funeral” his parting from the band. He should have better held his promise because the Swedish Black Metalers didn’t impress at all by their wannabe-evil-performance.
Party Stage
Architects It’s a tough question to say who jumped around more: The Metalcore-band from Brighton or its fans. The melodies combined with breakdowns worked very well with the crowd around midnight. So they finished an inspiring performance with “These Colors Don’t Run”.
Primordial Pure Heavy Metal reigned during the following 55 minutes. Lead by the charismatic mainman Alan Averill Nemtheanga “Gods To The Godless”, “As Rome Burns”, “The Coffin Ships”, the surprise “Heathen Tribes” and the finisher “Empire Falls” earned much jubilation.
Long Distance Calling The tent won an astonishing number of spectators for the last dance. The Postrock turned out to be the right chilling as rocking soundtrack to bring this wonderful festival to an ideal end. In the deepest night the opener “Into The Black Wide Open”, “Black Paper Planes” and the final “Metulsky Curse Revisited” got massively celebrated.
Conclusion:
Same procedure as every year: The Summer Breeze topped the whole festival summer with a strong as variable billing regarding all subgenres of hard music and by an ideal organisation. Besides that the festival can call its visitors to the most atmospheric as relaxed ones. This positive intensity impressed this year again. The food mile offered for another time a variable choice. The prices for food and drinks (e.g. 3, 30 € for a 0,4 l can of beer or softdrink) were fair. So we are looking forward to Summer Breeze 2014!!! Special thanks go out to David Gregori and the Summer Breeze-team!!!!! At the Summer Breeze rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Brix, Anja & Sebastian!!!!!