Summer Breeze 2011 Review

SUMMER BREEZE 2011
Slowly, but surely the Summer Breeze raises by the size of its audience and evolves step by step. It’s the pure intention of the organizers to let grow their festival in a small as controlled way. So after 33000 tickets they declared their festival as sold out.
That’s probably the main fact for being able presenting such a well-organized festival. In comparison to 2010 the festival area hadn’t changed that much: The last year established “New Blood Award” as the Camel Stage filling the changeovers next to the Party Stage again belonged to the program. The most important innovation this year was the extension of the Party Stage tent which now had the right size for the starting day as for its bigger bands of the following days. It had become the vision of the Summer Breeze not building up its billing around one or two big headliners than to present a well-balanced line-up on a high level. Anyway the headliners In Extremo, Hammerfall as Hatebreed of course attracted numerous fans as the exlusive appearances by the 20 years anniversary day of Kataklysm, the reunion show of the Farmer Boys or the last open air festival performance of God Dethroned before splitting at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting in december. After a rainy summer which hadn’t been worth its name the four days in Dinkelsbühl were extremely hot, just interrupted by one stormy night.
On this year’s Summer Breeze 102 bands appeared on four stages (including the Camel Stage) in four days for about 33000 visitors (Sold out!).

Wednesday
Party Stage
Melechesh After the New Blood Award for underground bands it was up to the multi-cultural as -religous fourpiece from Israel to open the Nuclear Blast night. With their oriental sounding Black Metal the charismatic fronter Ashmedi achieved first bigger celebrations from the audience this night.

Scar Symmetry It has changed a lot around Scar Symmetry: Their former vocalist and songwriter Christian Älvestam quit the band and got replaced by two fronters which portioned the grunt as clean vocals. The latest named ones didn’t really work very well, besides that the appearance became an enormous success. Besides representing by the opener “The Anomaly” and “Rise Of The Reptilian Regime” from their new album “The Unseen Opener” expecially the familiar “Morphogenesis” and the final “The Illusionist” got much applause as interaction.

Destruction After starting with “Curse Of The Gods”, “Mad Butcher” and by “Hate My Fuel” as “Armageddonizer” from the recent release “Day Of Reckoning” the German Thrash Metal veterans performed a best of set over “Nailed To The Cross”, “Bestial Invasion” and the finisher “The Butcher Strikes Back” which filled the tent with even more fans than the Swedes before had done.

Vader The Death Metal institution from Poland convinced for another time with a very tight set beginning with “The Imperial March” from the Star Wars saga. And they even performed by “Come And See My Sacrifice” a new track from their brandnew output “Welcome To The Morbid Reich” besides the classic “Sothis”, “Black To The Blind” or “This Is The War”. A special surprise became their two encores covering Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath” as Slayer’s “Raining Blood”.

Hell The tent had become much emptier before the NWOBHM-fivepiece entered the stage to mainly present material from their debut record “Human Remains”. The main focus was set on vocalist David Bower who performed the songs like an actor which was no surprise because this guy’s main job is to participate in musicals. Besides that the very traditional vocals became a bit too cheesy.

Sylosis The following appearance should become the best one of this evening which many of the left spectators weren’t able to see. So the half filled tent celebrated the Thrash Metal quartet starting with the new single “Empyreal” into a well-balanced set between their two longplayer albums “Conclusion Of An Age” and “Tears Of The Earth”. Songs like “Reflections Through Fire”, “Sands Of Time” and “Teras” as the stageaction including the high skilled guitar playing animated headbanging as moshpit action in front of the stage.

Thursday
Main Stage
A Pale Horse Named Death The quintet around (ex-)members from Life Of Agony and Type O Negative (guitarist Bobby Hambel, drummer Johnny Kelly and vocalist as ex-drummer Sal Abruscato) performed atmospheric slow Rock songs from their debut “And Hell Will Follow Me”. This first show caused appetite for more.

Seventh Void So did the appearance of their friends which might be called as a kind of the Type O Negative successor. Drummer Johnny Kelly and guitarist as now singer Kenny Hickey who had been shared besides Johnny the second sixstringer to their friends who had been playing before. NYC-connection! Finally their grooving Rock from their debut recording “Heaven Is Gone” convinced.

The Haunted The fivepiece from Helsingborg set the first open air stage highlight of this year’s Summer Breeze. New “Unseen”-tracks like the opener “Never Better” and the title track as older smashers like “99”, “D.O.A.”, “No Compromise” took care of the first moshpit action of the day. Finally of course the double punch consistig of “Bury Your Dead” and “Dark Intentions” closed a strong show.

Suicidal Tendencies The cult Crossover band set from the up-tempos-opener “You Can’t Bring Me Down” on clear standards about how to perform hits like “Join The Army”, “Freedumb” and “War Inside My Head” even more than a decade after having released their latest longplayer. Mainman Mike Muir ran the stage up and down in his own way and the crowd partied till the final hymn “Pledge Your Allegiance”. Besides all their technical skills especially the hell of a drummer Eric Moore impressed on his kit.

Arch Enemy The suddenly raised spectatorship on the festivalsite showed the popularity of the Main Stage co-headliner nowadays. Beginning by “Khaos Overture” and “Yesterday Is Dead And Gone” from the new “Khaos Legion” – album fronter Angela Gossow and her Swedish band animated their crowd to move, and so the fans did to “Revolution Begins”, “Ravenous” and “My Apocalypse” before by “Bloodstained Cross” another new title waited for its presentation. And so it continued until the final consisting of “We Will Rise”, “Nemesis” and “Fields Of Desolation”.

In Extremo It was the third time the Folk Rock/Metal combo headlined the Summer Breeze and its popularity was shown by a filled up festival area. And the crowd celebrated new “Sterneneisen” material (the opening title track, “Zigeunerskat”, “Unsichtbar”, “Stalker”) as especially their classics (“Vollmond”, “Herr Mannelig”, “Spielmannsfluch”, “Viva La Vida”, “Omnia Sol Temperat”). Supported by several pyro effects as a good light show the Folk Rockers succeeded again in Dinkelsbühl.

Pain Stage
Steve From England Traditionally the official open air program of the Summer Breeze got opened by the winner of the underground competition which had been held in the party tent the day before. After honoring the winner with the New Blood Award the North Germans entertained by their Hardcore Punk. In my opinion just the band name has to be changed.

The Sorrow The Austrians are well-known for melodic energetic Metalcore shows, and that’s what exactly followed. While very hot temperatures the song “Where Is The Sun?” felt a bit ironic. Anyway the quartet rocked the festival area by “Crossing Jordan”, “My Immortal Guardian”, “Knights Of Doom” and the final “Death From A Lovers Hand” which got celebrated by several circle pits.

Death Before Dishonor Boston Hardcore ruled the stage and rocked the festivalsite. Dirty and straight into your face the fivepiece appeared and pointed out they had been “Born In Misery” and they will “Break Through All” before passing with their hometown dedication “Boston Belongs To Me”.

Comeback Kid The Winnipeg Jets are back in the NHL and so their fans are with the best appearance of the whole weekend. The quintet showed how stageaction has to work combined with great Hardcore hymns. Having by “Symptoms + Cures” a strong current masterpiece with party hits like the opener “Do Yourself A Favor”, “G.M., Vincent And I”, “Because Of All The Things You Say” as by classics like “Broadcasting”, “Talk Is Cheap”, “Step Ahead” and the hymn “Wake The Dead” just can result in a thrilling show. Also remarkable was the interaction to appeal the crowd for the “biggest hug ever” which also worked pretty well. After the show fronter Andrew Neufled went for handshakes with the first rows into the photo pit. Awesome gig!

Ignite The Hardcore institution from Orange County is probably one of the most popular ones as one of the best live acts for sure which was shown by the huge crowd waiting in front of the stage. And the fivepiece started strong by “Poverty For All”, “Veterans” and “Fear Is Our Tradition” while the pit moved. Between the songs vocalist Zoli Téglás did different statements to the issues financial crisis, animal protection, peace & war and the mass murder in Norway for whom he wished sucking cocks in prison. Besides that the band took care of the party aspect by “A Place Called Home”, “My Judgement Day”, the U2-cover “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, “Live For Better Days” which got dedicated for people living in war zones and the finisher “Bleeding”.

Sonic Syndicate Show by show the Swedish sixpack is more suggestive of just being a constructed product. So this show was another lowlight and the opener “We Rule The Night” marked the clear contrast to what really happened on stage: No tightness, no spirit, no soul! Of course they attracted lots of especially young fans, but “Jailbreak”, “Revolution, Baby” “Enclave”, “Aftermath” or the set closing “Jack Of Diamonds” could have been performed with much more ambition like Arch Enemy had showed just before on the neigbored Main Stage.

Marduk The end of the first open air day was supposed to become brutal. The Sewdish Black Metal commando invaded the Pain Stage. A couple of fans celebrated their evil protagonists till “Panzerdivision Marduk” and “Azrael” marked the end of the first day on the open air stages.

Party Stage
Excrementory Grindfuckers But this didn’t mean the end of the night which continued in the tent. And the comedy grinders began their slot while the changeover animating the fans with several lyric variations of an old german classic song instead of concentrating on a soundcheck. So they maximized their party time up to 70 minutes including “Looking For Grindcore”, “Ein Bisschen Grind Muss Sein”, “Vater Morgana” and “Final Grinddown”.

Friday
Main Stage
Nervecell Death Metal can also exist at places you can’t imagine there is. The four Arabs from Dubai don’t need to hide behind the more prominent colleges from North America and Europe. This was a tight and technical approached Death Metal demonstration, just the sound sucked.

Skeletonwitch Different band, same problem: The guitar sound was much to low, so there was no option for a good sound. Besides that the old school Thrash Metal of the five guys from Ohio stuck on my nerves after a while.

Emil Bulls The Bavarians can be called a steady guest at the Summer Breeze. Three years ago fronter Christ’s voice didn’t work very well. This time they appeared with their well-known strength. After Manowar’s “The Crown And The Ring” as the intro the band started by “Here Comes The Fire” and “The Most Evil Spell” the first circle pits and while the gig the crowed raged on until the strong finish containing “Nothing In This World”, “When God Was Sleeping” and “Worlds Apart”.

Saltatio Mortis To the steady guests can also be counted the Folk Metal sevenpiece from Mannheim which were the sucker of the weekend. Cheesy medieval Folk wasn’t really my cup of tea or rather my can of beer. Sorry, ask their fans!

J.B.O. The Comedy Metal band from Erlangen is one of those acts I had seen too often ten years ago, and this hasn’t changed yet. But the four guys played a tight set and celebrated with their fans the release day of their new record from which they introduced “Dr. Met” and “Killer” besides the classics “Bolle”, “Ein Guter Tag Zum Sterben” and “Verteidiger Des Wahren Blödsinns”.

Bolt Thrower Appearances of Great Britain’s finest are rare, especially on festivals. And they always attract a lot of fans. More than enough reasons for the enormous number of fans waiting for the co-headliner as probably the secret headliner of the evening. The fivepiece played a majestic set containing the opener “IVth Crusade”, “Mercenary”, “Where Next To Conquer” and finished an amazing Death Metal show by the strong finish consisiting of “For Victory”, “No Guts, No Glory” and “Where Cannons Fade”.

Hammerfall As for Bolt Thrower it also was the first time for the Swedes appearing on the Summer Breeze. And they saluted an astonishing number of fans in front of the Main Stage despite the fact Melodic Metal usually is not the favorite flavor of the Summer Breeze audience. So material from their new release “Infected” (the opener “Patient Zero”, “Bang Your Head”, “Let’s Get It On”) found its applause, but the most jubilated songs of course were “Renegade”, “Blood Bound”, “Heeding The Call”, “Hammerfall”, “Hearts On Fire” and “Let The Hammer Fall”. The fans headbanged and sang, so the confirmed headliner slot for Hammerfall must be called a right decision.

Pain Stage
Trigger The Bloodshed Puh, Brutal Death Metal in the early morning at 11:00 a.m. is very hard, but not too hard for about 250 fans watching a technical approached show of the UK-fivepiece.

Your Demise The following act turned out to be a brutal act from Great Britain as well. This time it was a Hardcore-fronter shouting to the fans. Hymns like “Nothing Left But Regret”, “Life Of Luxury” and “The Kids We Used To Be” worked very well with the audience. So who hadn’t been awake before was it now for sure.

Kalmah Up to that appearance I hadn’t taken too much notice of the Melodic Death Metal quintet from Oulu which was then about to change. The Finns convinced by good songwriting which sounded pretty ordinary Melodic Death Metal, but the fans obviously enjoyed it.

Hail Of Bullets The Dutch all-star Death Metal fivepiece started with “The Eve Of Battle”, “Operation Z” and “Red Wolves Of Stalin” strong into their set and impressed by a tight as grooving old school Death Metal performance. Fronted by the sympathic shouter Martin van Drunen the success of their appearance was guaranteed.

Enslaved The Norwegians are the best evidence for a Black Viking Metal band being still able too sound interesting as innovative. And the quintet rules each stage they play on as well. So they did in Dinkelsbühl by the opener “Ethica Odini”, the rocking “Ground”, the hymn “Ruun”, the classic “As Fire Swept Cleanse The Earth” and the final hit “Isa”. Amazing!

Turisas Amazing is not a word I would use for the following Finns. Their Pagan Metal is the complete contrast to the variable sound of their colleges. But it amazed a couple of fans celebrating “Rasputin” and “Battle Metal” in the end of the show.

Amorphis Two years ago the Finns performed a thrilling show. So they did this year again. Tomi Joutsen is the personalized charismatic vocalist on which most fans were focussed. He and his band lead through a concert considering by the starter “My Enemy”, “Mermaid” and the single “You I Need” from the new “The Beginning Of Times” masterpiece. Nevertheless the most celebrated songs were the more familiar hits “”Against Widows”, “Towards And Against”, “My Kantele”, “Silver Bride” as the set closing “Castaway” and “House Of Sleep”. Supported by a cool coloured light show the gig turned out to another amazing one.

Kataklysm 20 years ago from exactly this day Kataklysm were founded in Montreal. And so this special anniversary night needed a special setlist. This contained one song minimum each album, even the debut “Sorcery” got considered by “Feeling The Neverworld”. While just a couple of die-hard-fans knew those classics the crowd went crazy to well-known Death Metal monsters as “Taking The World By Storm”, “Manipulator Of Souls”, “As I Slither” and the great final consisting of “In Shadows And Dust”, “Crippled And Broken” and “Push The Venom”. What a strong dignified appearance!

Party Stage
Vicious Rumors After the American Prog Deathers Atheist had canceled their Summer Breeze participation they were replaced by the Power Metal institution from the Bay Area. Was it the short-term-confirmation, the direct concurrence to Hammerfall playing the same time on the Main Stage and probably attracting the same fans or was the reason Power Metal plays no big role at the Summer Breeze audience responsible for the small number of fans in the tent? Whatever, Geoff Thorpe & Co presented themselves very agile on stage performing the band hymn “Digital Dictator” as opener, “Worlds And Machines”, “Soldiers Of The Night” and “Don’t Wait For Me”.

Powerwolf This band is very funny as instrumentally very tight, live appearances always combine much entertainment and impressing arrangements. And the fans are extremely loyal. They even sang the choruses of the opener “Sanctified With Dynamite” and “We Drink Your Blood” from the brandnew “Blood Of The Saints” masterpiece. And of course they did while “Raise Your Fist, Evangelist”, “Werewolves Of Armenia” and “Resurrection By Errection”. They just had to fight with one break in which singer Attila Dorn complained their new drummer had just damaged the drumkit which was one of several laughter causes. Supported by a red held light show and pyro effects the whole filled up tent enjoyed the show.

Secrets of The Moon The probably best German Black Metal band returned after they had played on the same stage while the same time on their last SB-gig of 2009. Two years ago they played just one day earlier. And again they created a thrilling atmosphere by their epic songs. Just sad the quartet arrived 15 minutes too late on stage, so they had just half an hour left to fascinate their fans, but they did.

Saturday
Main Stage
Benighted A brutal but wonderful wake-up-call turned out to be the French fivepiece in the morning. Their Brutal Death Metal was very comlex as variable and impressed most of the few spectators a lot.

Engel Much more melodic turned out to be the following act. The Swedes, meanwhile without bandfounder Niklas Engelin who had changed to their huge brothers In Flames, entertained the crowd by their mixture between their mixture of intensity and catchy refrains.

Grand Magus The more traditional Doom Metal trio from Stockholm had a hard position on the Summer Breeze. Although their sound has a particular rocking factor more of the mainly younger fans waited in front of the neighboured stage for Deadlock. Nevertheless their mainly on their latest two releases “Iron Will” and “Hammer Of The North” based set entertained.

Farmer Boys After the long time of three years the regional heroes Farmer Boys returned on stage. And of course the familiar festival where they had played for several times was the definite place to let it happen. It became an hour of magic when the five guys opened their gig with the strong “When Pigs Fly”, “Farm Sweet Farm” and “Like Jesus Wept”. Just vocalist Matze Sayer has to train his voice for hopefully more to come. And although they come from the close city of Stuttgart it wasn’t that crowded in front of the Main Stage. Their latest album was released seven years ago and is probably too old for the younger SB-audience. Anyway, the present people rocked while “The Good Life”, “We Sow The Storm”, the Depeche Mode cover “Never Let Me Down Again” and the final hit “Here Comes The Pain”.

As I Lay Dying For the second time the Deathcore stars from San Diego appeared in Dinkelsbühl. The festival ground was pretty packed and what then followed can be called a thiumphal march for the band having their last summer festival appearance 2011 in Europe. From the first tones of “Within Destruction” and “The Sound Of Truth” the crowd raged in enormous pit-action. The band showed a tight as stageactive show which motivated the fans even more celebrating old and young hits as “Through Struggle”, “An Ocean Between Us”, “Parallels”, “Nothing Left” and “Forever”. After 65 minutes an impressing as agile show got finished by the jubilated “Confined” and “94 Hours”. Awesome!

Tarja What followed was much less awesome: The former well-known Nightwish yodler Tarja Turunen appeared with their solo material. Supported by Apocalyptica cellist Max Lilja this motionless appearance seemed to thrill noone of the much emptier festivalsite. The biggest applause she earned for the Gary Moore cover “Over The Hills And Far Away” which was pretty familiar as Nightwish cover and not related as Tarja solo track. So the position in the billing was much too high for Tarja as the relatively small number of fans showed.

Hatebreed It was the first time for the Hardcore attack from New York City. So it was interesting to see if they could handle a headliner position of a big German festival besides the With Full Force. And they took their chance from the beginning marked by “Everyone Bleeds Now” and “Hands Of A Dying Man”. Fronted by an energetic Jamey Jasta their smashers worked very well although the more melody-orientated colleges from As I Lay Dying achieved more fans’ reactions the fivepiece kicked ass, expecially by their Hardcore-hits “This Is Now”, “Live For This” and “I Will Be Heard” which caused several circle pits as walls of death. Most fans of the Summer Breeze crowd would be happy to see them returning to Dinkelsbühl I guess.

Pain Stage
Motorjesus A better wake up call than a massive Rock ‘n’ Roll band is not possible. And so the guys from Mönchengladbach rocked the fesitvalsite with “Fist Of The Dragon” and “Church Of Booze And Kerozene” and especially fronter Chris Birx knew how to entertain by a couple of funny statements as actions.

Total Chaos After Rock ‘n’ Roll followed Punk Rock which reminded me a lot to the Sex Pistols as to The Exploited, just even worse. So the Californians didn’t really reach the level of their stage predecessors.

Deadlock The first highligt of the last festival day 2012 were the five guys and one lady from Bavaria. Their modern Deathcore attracted a lot of fans in front of the stage and even the sun came back while they started with the “Bizarro World” intro as by “Earthlings” to continue with their three video singles “The Brave / Agony Applause”, “Virus Jones” and the pharma-policy-critzising “Code Of Honor”. The fans definitely were with the band and so “Awakened By Sirens” and “End Begins” completed a great show which invited to interact.

Smoke Blow The Punk formation from North Germany has deserved an image as an excellent live act over the past years of massive touring, especially at the Summer Breeze which declared a respactable number of fans in front of the stage waiting for their heroes. And the waiting was absolutely worth it because the band celebrated their songs by running and jumping the stage up and down while performing the opener “Sick Kid 85”, “Alligator Radio”, the Billy Idol cover “Rebell Yell” and the finisher “Junkie Killer”.

Corvus Corax The medieval ensemble of Corvus Corax had a difficult position to entertain the audience which partly interacted and applauded. The other part as me didn’t feel any special vibe while this appearance and got bored pretty fast.

Caliban The German Metalcore icon saluted numerous fans in front of the Pain Stage which showed there still had been a lot of energy left for the following pyro-supported show. The opener “Love Song” shouldn’t mask the fact the following hour became a positively hard as intense one. Supported by a great sound “No One Is Safe”, “I Will Never Let You Down”, “24 Years”, “Nothing Is Forever” and the set concluding “It’s Our Burden To Bleed” animated massive pit-action as a respectable wall of death. Just fronter Andy Dörner had to take care about himself after he had injured his ankle by a jump during the beginning of the gig, but he passed this exercise. Cool show in which just the two cover versions disturbed a bit.

Sodom The German Thrash Metal institution attracted an astonishing big fanship on the festival area. Even the many young fans were curious to celebrate classics like “Outbreak Of Evil”, “The Saw Is The Law”, “Agent Orange”, “Blasphemer” which got dedicated to their passed original drummer Chris Witchhunter and the Thrash-hymn-final consisiting of “Ausgebombt”, “Remember The Fallen” and “Bombenhagel”. Fronter Tom Angelripper entertained through the set and his trio rocked.

Primordial The last band on the open air stages was supposed to be the majestic band from Ireland. The charismatic vocalist Alan A. Nemtheanga animated the last energy reserves of the present audience from midnight on. Besides presenting by the opener “No Grave Deep Enough”, “Lain The Wolf” and “Bloodied Yet Unbowed” material from their new album “Redemption At The Puritan’s Hand” it were especially the epics “Gods To The Godless”, “As Rome Burns”, “The Coffin Ships” and “Empire Falls” which earned much jubilation. Cool intensive show!

Party Stage
Obscura The quartet from Munich showed very technical arranged Prog Death Metal is able to be absolutely live-compatible. The tent was pretty filled up and seemed to be very well-prepared celebrating all those complex but obviously familiar math metal monsters. The set was well-balanced between compositions from the new masterpiece “Omnivium” like the opener “Septuagint”, “Vortex Omnivium”, “Ocean Gateways” and “Euclidean Elements” as by the video single “Anticosmic Overload”, the Death memorial “Incarnated” and the wonderful “Centric Flow” from their breakthrough album “Cosmogenesis. What an amazing show!

The Ocean The following 45 minutes became the pure definition of intensity. The five artists set an atmosphere as a grooving sound which can just be called impressing. They concentrated on their latest two masterpieces “Heliocentric” (the starter “Shamayim”, “The Origin Of Species”, “The Origins Of God”) and “Anthropocentric” (the title track, “The Grand Inquisitor I & II”) performed them extremely agile and fascinated the not too less active fans while the new vocalist convinced completly. Amazing!

God Dethroned It was the last show of the Dutch Death Metal institution on a festival as in Germany and it was the second last of the band’s history before they split at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting in December. And of course mainman Henri Sattler decided for a best of setlist containing “Serpent King”, “Boiling Blood”, “Poison Fog”, “Villa Vampiria” and the final “Under The Sign Of The Iron Cross” which all got much applause and headbanging as pit action. Goodbye and thanks a lot for 21 years of excellent Death Metal!

Conclusion:
Again the Summer Breeze had been sold out months before the party started. The organization worked very well, even the storm in the night between friday and saturday didn’t disturb or damage anything important as on other festivals this summer where even stages broke completely down. The concept with the open air part of the festivalsite and the area with the tent stage including the changeover filling neighbored stage worked well for another time as the ways between them were pretty short.
The billing at the Summer Breeze evolved to my favorite one of each summer for its latest four editions! It’s well-balanced between all the different Metal subgenres and presents strong bands playing not at every other festival. The food mile always belongs to the most variety offering ones, just the prices for drinks were a bit higher this year (e.g. 3, 30 € for a 0,4 l can of beer or softdrink).
These are more than enough reasons to return to Dinkelsbühl, so where will you be?
Special thanks go out to David Gregori and the Summer Breeze-team!!!!! At the Summer Breeze rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Jenny!!!!!