DONG OPEN AIR 2012
This year’s edition of Dong Open Air had to deal with a completely wet weekend. We all remember the storm inferno in 2004 as an incomparable experience. This year there was no dangerous aspect, it was just rain, mud, rain, mud and rain again. The DOA-team did their best to make their visitors feel comfortable by covering the moistest places and the deepest mud with sand, but anyway: Who didn’t have appropriate equipment, especially shoes might have get a cold right after the festival.
All the issues which stand for the DOA making it a unique festival experience the spectators could count on for shure: The familiar atmosphere, the landscape, the fan-orientated prices (e.g. 2,00 € for a 0,5 l – bottle of beer) and the band bookings regarding the well-known names as Sepultura, Rage, Napalm Death, Knorktator or Armored Saint as well as unknown bands from all the different Metal & Rock styles.
Of course the strcitly limited festival was sold out for another year after a few minutes.
Thursday
Path Of Golconda As four years before when the Death Metal fivepiece appeared at DOA for the first time the organizers set the local heroes from the close city of Oberhausen on the opener position. A comprehensible decision because they attracted a couple of fans filling the tent.
Circle Of Silence The difference between having the local advantage or not was easy to see while the following band from Southwest Germany. Much less spectators took care about their Power Metal. Nevertheless it was a tight played set which caught its fans. But the stage-action should get improved.
One Bullet Left That wasn’t the problem of the Metalcore-quintet which was the second act from Oberhausen. After two years of stage absence the band presented themselves as they had never been away. “Whatever May Come”, “Feast For The Carnivore” and the final “Alpha Dogs” animated to moshpits.
Hungöver The new formation of former Sodom drummer Bobby Schottkowski played what everybody expected: Teutonic Thrash Metal. Especially the voice of frontman Dome reminded me on Phil Rind from Sacred Reich. Their material showed much groove which caused some headbanging action. To me their sound became to monotonous after a while.
Betontod Another local hero formation appeared at Dong hill on the opening day, the third one already. But in this case it was the co-headliner with a history over more than two decades. Their German Punkrock took care of a party-filled tent by “Entschuldigung Für Nichts”, “Keine Popsongs” and “Alles”. To me it sounded too much like Boehse Onkelz, but the crowd celebrated them.
Suidakra The Pagan Metal fourpiece appeared at Dong Open Air for the third time. And a not too small part of the Dong visitors may also be called Suidakra fans, but while the gig of the band from Düsseldorf there was still more than enough place in the tent which probably depended on the thursday. But Pagan fans had their fun, so me didn’t. Just their sound could have been a bit clearer. Co-assisted by a female vocalist while “Biróg’s Oath” the show found its farewell in the encores “Balor”, Conloach” and of course “Wartunes”.
Friday
Basanos The Thrash Metal of the sympathic band from Vienna probably was the best method to motivate the Dong visitors in the noon after it had rained the whole morning. Regarding their both longplayers “Instincts” and “Cracking The Sledge” they caused the first headbangings in the early noon.
Davidian And it went ahead by Davidian from Southwest Germany where their guitarists had organised the Zabbaduschder Festival for years. Anyway the band had turned with the vocalist change from a monotonous Thrash to an exciting Death Metal act. The setlist only concentrated on the new album “Our Fear Is Their Force”. The number of headbangers increased during the show, of course especially while the band-titled Machine Head hymn “Davidian”.
Pictura The all in red and black suited musicians of the Progressive Death Metal quartet set the biggest underground band highlight of this year’s DOA edition. From the opener “Spheres” on the band enthused the raising number of spectators whose applause grew after the following “Painting The Veil” and “Ivory Tower”. Considering only the recent EP “Rebirth” and newer masterpieces they won numerous new fans, including me.
Eastern Front An English band that only regards the world war front between Germany and Russia sounds strange. But the Black Metal of the well-painted evil artists was a good one. In contrast to many subgenre amateurs their sound was well-structured as tight performed. Even hours after the live-presentation of their debut-longplayer “Blood On Snow” their bald bassist walked around with his make-up.
The Very End The quintet from Essen performed on the Dong stage for the second time and they can call a solid fan base their own. So the support worked from the opener “Memento” over “Flatline”, “A Hole In The Sun”, “Sewn Eye Sleep” and “The Loss Theory” till the encore as cover “Maniac”. The audience got convinced and celebrated a cool Melodic Death Metal show.
Omnicide Their brandnew debut record was just released by the Death Metal band from Berne, they had to appear in front of a much smaller crowd than their predecessors. Of course concentrating on their just released material they played a solid gig which got finished by the self-titled encore “Omnicide”.
Black Blitz The following Bavarian band took care about some good mood in the tent by their Hardrock. Those visitors who had stayed partied to the opener “Road Runner”, “Point Of No Return” and the final “Kicked Out Of Business”. The last title could have also meant they weren’t allowed to play an encore. Anyway nice appearance!
Drone The first winner of the Metal Battle competition in Wacken had already played on the Dong hill four years ago . But this time they filled a later as more important position. And the fourpiece from Celle showed they are absolutely worth it, and so did the numerous supporters in front of the stage. The action on both sides reached a high level to new “For Blood And Torch” – tracks like the opener “Deepest Red”, “Croak In Your Waste” or the final title song as to “Boneless”, “Motor Heavy Pisstake” and “Theopractical”. Their Neo-Thrash Metal worked very well as the funny comments of fronter Mutz did.
Knorkator What then happened were 85 minutes of total madness. After their reunion in 2011 Knorkator seemed to be even better than before. From the beginning by “Der Ultimative Mann”, “Buchstabe” and “Ich Will Nur Fickn” the tent filling crowd became totally euphoric, especially while the cover versions of Ace Of Base’s “All That She Wants” and Boney M’s “Ma Baker”. Vocalist Stumpen wanted the audience to participate by lifting one person up and to throw her like a missile forward where they got caught by other spectators. Just one example of Knorkator’s madness, and we haven’t talked about the instruments, the stage setting and the costumes yet. While that Stumpen of course ironically demanded to let fall the other crowdsurfers as ‘Störkörper’. Musically new compositions from the recent “Es Werde Nicht” – masterpiece like “Du Bist Schuld”, “Bleib Stehn”, “Du Nich” and “Warum” as classics like “Alter Mann”, “Klonen”, “Böse”, “Weg Nach Unten” and “Wir Werden Alle Sterben” were celebrated enormously. Awesome!
Sepultura And who thought this was it, was completely wrong. The probably most famous band ever played at Dong Open Air started impressive by the classic “Beneath The Remains” to let follow the hit “Refuse/Resist” and by “Kairos” the title track of the current album. Headbanging action as moshpits ruled the first rows of the Dong tent while the Brasilians played a well-balanced set between old (“Dead Embryonic Cells”, “Attitude”, “Septic Schizo”/“Escape To The Void”-medley) and new (“Relentless”, “Choke”, “Sepulnation”,). The sympathic as sometimes German speaking fronter Derrick Green introduced by Eloy Casagrande his new bandmate on the drums who played a solo which didn’t excite me that much. But the final consisting of “Territory”, “Inner Self” and “Arise” did as well as the encores “Ratamahatta” and “Roots, Bloody Roots”. Amazing appearance!
Soldiers Of Rock Some kind of an after show party was up to be produced by this formation whose members are friends of the DOA team. Equipped with perukes and bandanas they performed Hardrock cover versions of “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, “You Give Love A Bad Name”, “Holy Diver” and several other familiar hits. A bunch of visitors stayed and partied, others disliked it and went away. Besides the weather this day rocked!
Saturday
Aardvarks Their latest album “Conglomerate” had been released a whole decade ago, but the Death Metal quartet from Bonn had nothing lost of their quality. Great guitar leads meeting a hard rhythm section and grunts. After another rainy night as morning the audience was surprisingly big supporting “Profondo Rosso”, “Klendathu”, “Homeless” and the final Sepultura cover “Desperate Cry”. No wonder the fans claimed an encore they couldn’t give.
Revolving Doors It’s part of the DOA booking history to invite usually two pure Rock bands. And again this worked very well. Of course the rain outside as the three female band members might have been a reason, but anyway they showed their abilities in songwriting as in live entertainment. Supported by two nice female voices they earned a lot of applause for “Belongs To You”, “Selaphobia”, “Bulldozer”, the new “Life’s A Bitch” and the final “Goodbye”, and a wall of death for “Perish”. Cool performance!
Burden Of Grief I remember my first Dong Open Air nine years ago which also was the first one on the hill. Now it was the tenth one and the fivepiece from Kassel was back still playing good Melodic Death Metal. From the beginning marked by “Follow The Flames” and “Swallow The Sun” over the Iron Maiden cover “Aces High till the finishing “Running Scared” they got headbanging support by several fans.
Collapse The Thrash Metal formation came all the way from London to host the emptiest tent of the whole day. I have no idea why. Their sound was solid, their live-performance tight and tracks like “I Sacrifice”, “Acolyte” and the final “Forsaken” should have satisfied every present Thrash fan. Maybe the publicity of an underground band from far away was the reason for that.
Cyrcus Pretty heavy for a so-called Alternative Metal band was my first thought, but on the other hand the description fit to their sound. The voice of singer Jan switched between clean, melodic parts and aggressive shouts, and so did the music. In front of the stage many fans had waited to see the seemingly popular artists celebrating the opener “Echoes”, “Raise Your Voices” and their hit “From The Ashes”. Vocalist Jan did entertaining jokes like naming the DOA in Dong-Not-So-Open-Air because of the tent stage, and the show was a blast taking care of a good mood while all the rain.
Night In Gales And so did the Melodic Death Metal quintet from the close town of Voerde. After headlining the first DOA taking place on the Dong hill in 2003 the band returned and played an inspiring show. Many songs of their new strong “Five Scars” – album got included in the setlist. Its opener “This Neon Grave”, “Days Of The Mute”, the title track or “Tide Of November” got as much support as the classics “Sylphlike”, “Intruder”, “Razor” and the encore “Autumn Water”. Fronter Björn showed for another time his entertainer abilities, the band rocked and the crowd partied. Cool show!
Armored Saint By the Californians the DOA team confirmed a cult band for many Metal fans as for me. Those probably filled half of the tent. But by time many visitors outside noticed the sound and stepped into the tent to join the party. And this was a real one! The quintet around the Sandoval brothers considered by the opener “Loose Cannon”, “Head On”, “Little Monkey” and “Left Hook From Right Field” four songs from the new “La Raza” masterpiece which got as much celebrated as classics like “March Of The Saint”, “Symbol Of Salvation”, the singalong hymn “Last Train Home”, “Reign Of Fire” as the two encores “Can U Deliver” and “Madhouse”. Their voice John Bush, also well-known for his long time as Anthrax-singer, entertained by making fun about themselves as old men just producing one album per decade as by climbing up the stage traverse. That’s how Melodic Metal has to sound and to be performed like!
Napalm Death Wow: 25 songs in 75 minutes, not too bad! Anyway, the British Grindcore original set a new speed level by starting live the same as their new output “Utilitarian” does by “Circumspect”, “Errors In The Signal” and “Everyday Pox”. Before the show front-grunter Barney Greenway had mentioned this mud-rained DOA would be ‘quite a fuckin’ experience’, but on stage every circumstance seemed to be forgotten. So after the Dead Kennedy’s – cover “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” Shane Embury & Co left the stage under much applause to return by the encores “Scum”, “Human Garbage”, “You Suffer” and “Instinct Of Survival”.
Rage Just three years ago the trio appeared at Dong Open Air, and I reminded their everlasting soundcheck. This time it took a while, too, but without to exaggerate that much as in 2009. In the beginning of their set they focussed on their new album “21” by the intro “House Wins”, “Twenty One”, “Forever Dead” and “Feel My Pain” before Peavy, Victor and André were going ahead with the classics “Solitary Man” and “Refuge”. And this was the moment the packed tent turned into a whole party place jubilating and singing until the encores “Empty Hollow”, “Don’t Fear The Winter”, a maximised “Higher Than The Sky” and “Soundchaser”. But the fans still weren’t satisfied shouting for another encore which they finally got by “All I Want”.
Conclusion:
In 2012 the Dong Open Air had its first total rainy as muddy mess. No matter, every festival has to live through this some year. What really counts was the fact the organizers did all possible to let their guests feel as comfortable as possible under those circumstances. And the Dong-fans are really special ones. They made the best they could do and rocked as partied as all the years before. Such visitors you just don’t get, you deserve them which says a lot about the unique and mighty Dong Open Air. More luck the DOA team had by not to announce any cancelation. The food as the drinks offered for another time in a big variety for fair prices. The toilet situation stayed the same by mobile Dixi-toilets getting cleaned continuously. We’ll return in 2013 for sure to report for our own 10th DOA-anniversary, and its 6th year of reporting!
Thanks go out to Benjamin “Colamann” Munsch and the DOA team!!!!! At the Dong Open Air 2012 rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Dumbo!!!!!