Dong Open Air
It was time for the Dong Open Air becoming an adult: For its 18th edition it welcomed their fans for the 15th time on the Dong hill. So it was a little jubileum for ourselves following the DOA since the first time it had moved to this unique festival location.
This year’s slogan „Paraskavedekatriaphobia“ dealt with the fear of a friday, the 13th. But there was no need to become superstitious, and Jason Vorhees from the so-called movie wasn’t seen over the weekend.
Vice Versa: Lead by the Folk fan-faves Eluveitie, the national heroes Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, the Bay Area Thrash legend Exodus and the UK Crossover weirdoes Skindred these three days should become another amazing ones on the Dong hill. The weather worked well, the organization did as well, and the landscape had been mentioned for several times on this website as an incomparable one. On the Dong hill 28 bands appeared in three days for about 3000 fans!
Thursday
Visigoth That an American band which had signed at Metal Blade opened the Dong Open Air on thursday noon showed the evolution of this festival. So it wasn’t too astonishing the festival opener attracted several fans into the tent to see True Metal tracks like „The Revenant King“ and „Dungeon Master“ as by „Warrior Queen“ and „Steel And Silver“ material from their new release „Conqueror’s Oath“.
Blessed By Rhenus The formation from the close Düsseldorf presented Progressive meets Melodic Death Metal, a mixture that worked well. The setlist of course consisted of their debut „The End Of Silence“. Songs like „King“ or „Free Your Mind“ got more than just warm applause.
Scardust Lead by female vocalist Noa the following act showed how Symphonic Metal from Israel sounds like. Compositions like „Out Of Strong Came Sweetness“ and „Arrowhead“ showed their style wasn’t that far away from well-known bands as Epica without losing their own originality.
Night In Gales For the third time the Melodic Death Metal fivepiece from the close town of Voerde entered the Dong stage. After reuniting with fronter Christian Müller replacing the leaving longtime vocalist Björn Gooßes the band released by „The Last Sunset“ an album which sounds pretty similar to their debut „Towards The Twilight“. The fans celebrated the new „Architects Of Tyranny“ and „The Spears Within“ as classics like „Sylphlike“, „Razor“ or „Autumns Water“.
Blaze Bayley The ex-Iron-Maiden-singer showed that he’s still hungry and acted as moved a lot on stage. New „The Redemption Of William Black“ material earned much applause, but singing Maiden classics from the two albums he had taken part in like „Man On The Edge“ of course achieved much louder support.
Destruction Supported by Vader-drummer Wawrzyniec Dramowicz the German Thrash Metal icon around mainman Schmier and lontime comrade Mike enthused by a best-of-set containing „Nailed To The Cross“, „Mad Butcher“, „The Butcher Strikes Back“, „Thrash Till Death“ and „Bestial Invasion“. The crowd reacted by massive headbanging and a couple of moshpits.
Korpiklaani Party time for the Folk Metal fans. The Finns brought a lot of singalong songs for the better mood by „Wooden Pints“, „Beer Beer“, „Tequila“ and several others in Finnish held tracks. The crowd danced and partied until the encores „Happy Little Boozer“ and „Vodka“. The titles even told what it was all about.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter Not less party promised the headliner position. The formation from the East German Weimar participated on their third Dong Open Air. And so became „Wir Sind Zurück“ the right opener to start into the show. The fivepiece succeeded on the Dong hill and got celebrated by a pretty filled tent for „Es Wird Schlimmer“, „Reitermania“, the title track of their current release „Der Rote Reiter“, „Friede Sei Mit Dir“ and „Herz In Flammen“.
Friday
Triddana An Argentinian Folk Metal band you can just discover at the Dong Open Air. Their sound was supported by a bagpipe(r) and became the right wake-up call. So the sound of this quartet got their first German fans pretty fast.
Fabulous Desaster The fourpiece from Bonn played a Thrash Metal sound which was definitely not my cup of beer. Especially the voice was much too high. But a few headbangers seemed to enjoy this.
Tyler Leads The Heavy Rock formation understood how to attract the metalheads to the stage. Their rocking sound as their performance left no other option than to move to „Electric Wasteland“ and „Call Of The Wild“.
Infected Rain I was curious about the quintet from Moldavia. And what followed was one of the definite highlights of the weekend. A technical varied young band with a good asskicking sound and a charismatic singer. Lena wore the first message on her pretty short shirt by „Eat Pussy Not Animals“. And while a few men might have thought „Hm, why not?“ they got suddenly blasted by „Serendipity“, „Mold“ and „Orphan Soul“ supported by an astonishing numer of fans in the sunny afternoon.
Antilles Instead of the canceling French Impureza short-term replacement Antilles from the close Münster entered the stage. They performed songs from their debut „The Inticrate Path Of Creation“, and their varied Thrash Metal inspired more and more headbangers to take part in. I hope to see them again.
Vogelfrey The sixpack from Hamburg welcomed a lot of fans in front of the stage. Their Folk Metal was obviously popular at the Dong hill. So the crowd sang and danced to „Heldentod“ and „Schuld Ist Nur Der Met“.
Motorjesus Very popular indeed was the following band on the Dong hill. Playing for about the fifth time on the DOA the tent was pretty filled, and many of them wore shirts of their seemingly faves. And those ones rocked the hill by „Motor Discipline“, „Fist Of The Dragon“ as „Re-Ignite“ and „Speedway Sanctuary“ from the brandnew album „Race To Resurrection“. Lead by the agile fronter Chris „Howling“ Birx this performance became another complete triumph at the DOA.
Moonspell For the first time the Gothic Metal institution from Portugal appeared at the DOA. They started with „Im Nome Do Medo“, the title track and „In Tremor Dei!“ from the recent album „1755“ while mainman Fernando Ribeiro wore a strange bird mask to stress the dramatic factor of their compositions. But he put the mask down for the first classics „Opium“ and „Awake“ which raised the motion in the audience. The quintet convinced completely and finished their performance by the jubilated classics „Vampiria“, „Alma Mater“ and „Full Moon Madness“
Exodus To watch the Bay Area Thrash Metal legend was one of the biggest surprises of this year’s billing. Lead by the fronter Steve „Zetro“ Souza as the guitar-veterans Gary Holt and Lee Altus the fivepiece played a smashing best of set including the newer „Blood In, Blood Out“ as „Parasite“, „ A Lesson In Violence“, „Blacklist“ and „The Toxic Waltz“. The Thrash fans freaked out headbanging and moshpits creating. So „Strike The Beast“ marked the end of an amazing hour of pure Thrash Metal.
Eluveitie This day started with a bagpipe and it ended with one. The ninepiece from Switzerland populated the stage to get the still motivated crowd in action. And so they did by „A Gaulish War“, „The Call Of The Mountains“,„A Rose Of Epona“, „Thousandfold“ and the encores „Rebirth“ as „Inis Mona“. The fans gave the rest of their reserves, and the band had a wonderful comeback on the Dong hill.
Saturday
Dirty D’Sire The quartet from the close city of Duisburg had the excersize to wake up for the last morning/noon (depends on the point of view), and solved this more than well. Their catchy as variable Metalcore from their debut album „We Own The Night“ attracted more and more visitors into the tent. Jubilated highlight was their Imany-interpretation of „Don’t Be So Shy“.
Torian Five years after their DOA-premier the Power Metal band from Paderborn returned to the Dong hill. Several fans waited to support „Stormbringer“, the self-titled „Torian“ as further hymns. The guitars as fronter Marc Hohlweck became the main factor for their live power.
The Monolith Deathcult The Dutch Neighbors emphasized the Death Metal element in the billing and motivated a couple of headbangers to take part in. The fourpiece could choose out of six albums, and the seventh one is about to come.
Alvenrad The next formation from the Netherlands was about to follow. But this one was a lot less brutal although their Folk Metal wasn’t less successful. Many spectators applauded and danced to tracks like „Boum Des Gouds“ from their recent record „Heer“.
Drone The first Metal Battle winner of Wacken returned to the Dong hill and knew hot to entertain: Sixstringer Marcelo managed a part of his guitar-soundcheck while getting beers playing his instrument at the beer-station next to us. The show startet with the „Baywatch“ melody and two Mitch-Bucannan-lookalikes. After this the fourpiece performed a thrashing set with an enthused audience and many headbangers as moshpits. In the end they put some festival friend as ballgagged madman in a cave onto the stage which lead into the classic „Theopractical“.
Jinjer The quartet brought for the first time their innovative sound to the DOA. „Words Of Wisdom“, „I Speak Astronomy“ as „Pisces“ were no easy-listening, but energized by the performance and the variable voice of fronter Tatiana many supporters celebrated the band from the Ukraine.
Grailknights The funny fivepiece searched for another time for the holy grail at the Dong Open Air. The fans partied and sang along with „Nameless Grave“ as „Grailquest Gladiators“, and in the end the enemy Dr Skull got defeated.
Mantar Stage time began with further ten minutes soundcheck. Honestly: What complex sound does their noisy music need in their eyes? It felt a bit like arrogance after the duo had been hyped for a while. The performance consisted of guitarist Hanno being orientated to his drummer Erinc and so showed the fans his back. So the spectators mainly had to deal with „Praise The Plague“, „Cross The Cross“ and „Era Borealis“.
Skindred The Welsh co-headliner filled up the tent with the most supporters of the whole weekend. And the atmosphere they created became unique as well. All fans sitting down and jumping up on vocalist Benji’s commando, collective own T-shirt in the air holding and other actions as adviced by the fronter. Their Reggae-influenced Crossover itself animated the spectators to jump and party. Probably the band with the most won new fans after the show on this weekend!
Betontod The Punk Rock fivepiece returned from their very close town to appear for the second time at the DOA. And although the tent wasn’t as full as it had been the band before they got supported by motivated fans singing along with „Viva Punk!“ and „Keine Popsongs“. So this home game worked very well and became a worthy final show of the Dong Open Air 2018.
Conclusion:
For another time the weather god was okay with the Dong Open Air although a few degrees less wouldn’t have disturbed anyone. But anyway, the conditions were good. The organizers had to manage one cancelation of Impureza replacing them by Antilles. The rest of the organization worked well, too. Stage area, securities, showers and toilets, nearly no matter anywhere. Besides the usual drinks the DOA offered another festival craft beer called „Rinderwahn“. So there were no wishes left. Thanks go out to Benjamin „Colamann“ Munsch and the DOA-team!!!!!At the Dong Open Air drank, rocked and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Dumbo & Dennis!!!!!