Summer Breeze 2012 Review

SUMMER BREEZE 2012
Same procedure as every year: The Summer Breeze marks the great final of the most famous Metal-related Open Air Festivals! The organizers have done a great job by raising their festival step by step without losing its relaxed atmosphere deserving the chilling festival name. After 35000 sold tickets they declared Summer Breeze 2012 sold out. This resulted in a very good organized festival fulfilling nearly all wishes of its visitors.
Besides that the Summer Breeze offered an amazing variety of all the different styles hard music is able to offer as it had done the editions before. So besides the headliners Subway To Sally, Immortal and Amon Amarth there were lots of very different as interesting bands for us to watch. As the years before the weather worked well for organizers as fans, sometimes it became too hot. Another lucky circumstance was the aspect of having no cancelations this year. On this year’s Summer Breeze 102 bands appeared on four stages (including the Camel Stage) in four days for about 35000 visitors (Sold out!).

Wednesday
Party Stage
Municipal Waste After the New Blood Award – newcomer competition the time had come for the following Nuclear Blast label night beginning with the US Thrash attack. Regarding their new output “The Fatal Feast” the fourpiece must have been the act with the most played tracks besides Napalm Death of the whole festival lasting about two minutes each. The fans started the first moshpits, so the festival definitely had begun.
Bullet The Swedisch party guarantee took care of keeping the motivation of the audience alive. Opening with “Full Pull” from their forthcoming release pure Heavy Metal combined with Rock ‘n’ Roll vibes and an agile band the entertainment worked well.
Rage The German Metal icon attracted a completely filled up tent. Supported by a great sound the trio had a good evening satisfying the thousands of spectators by new “21” – songs as its title track “Twenty One” and the enormously celebrated classics “Paint The Devil On The Walls”, “Refuge”, “Higher Than The Sky” and the final “Soundchaser”. Well done!
Tankard After their instumental high-skilled colleges the Thrash Metal weirdoes from Frankfurt set their focus back on the party aspect. So to the performance of their beer hymn “Freibier” they got supported by around 30 girls. Gerre also invited a fan with the flag of their hometown soccer club.
Graveworm After keyboarder Sabine Mair had quit the band her former bandmates didn’t replace her so the guitar elements became more relevant for the sound of the Dark Metal formation. After the big exodus out of the party tent the left thousand fans headbanged to “I- The Machine”, “Hateful Design” and the final Iron Maiden cover “Fear Of The Dark”.
Tasters Just a couple of fans stayed in front of the stage when the Metalcore sevenpiece from Italy entered the stage. Probably nobody had known the band before the opener “Katherine’s Got A Secret”, “Sleeping With Spirits” and the final “Please Destroy This World” convinced and got celebrated.

Thursday
Main Stage
Be’Lakor The Australian Melodic Death Metal quintet returned from Melbourne to Dinkelsbühl to open the Main Stage. A surprisingly huge audience celebrated “Remnants” and “Fraught” from the brandnew album “Of Breath And Bone” as well as the opener “Venator” or the set finishing “Sun’s Delusion”. Cool!
Darkest Hour Is this still Metalcore or is this already Melodic Death Metal? Whatever the five guys from the US-capital Washington rocked the festival area enormously by “With A Thousand Words To Say”, “Demon(s)”, the new video-single “Love As A Weapon” and the final “Doomsayer (The Beginning Of The End)”. Fans headbanged as their protagonists. This edition’s first highlight.
Epica A much too long intro signalized the time had come for the female-fronted Symphonic Metal icon from the Netherlands. They opened with the starting tracks of the new production “Requiem For The Indifferent” (“Karma”, “Monopoly On Truth”). The nice vocalist Simone Simons and her colleges inspired their fans to headbang. To me this was too much symphonic bombast and too less Rock ‘n’ Metal.
Iced Earth One of the very few Power Metal acts of this billing entered the stage to begin with the title track of the new album “Dystopia” and the following classics “Burning Times” and “Slave To The Dark”. Jon Schaffer and his bandmates played a tight set and their new vocalist Stu Block sang well, but was incomparable to his mighty predecessor Matthew Barlow. Nevertheless the ballads “I Died For You” and “Watching Over Me” as the classics “Pure Evil” and the set closing “Iced Earth” animated lots of fans to singalong or to headbang.
Behemoth A lot had happened after their latest Summer Breeze participation in 2008. Their confirmation two years later had to be canceled because fronter Nergal got cancer. He won his fight and returned with his band stronger than before. “Demigod”, “Conquer All” and “At The Left Hand Ov God” were bombastic and found much support by the fans. Nergal’s statement “It’s good to be alive” earned much applause.
Subway To Sally For another time one of Germany’s leading Folk Metal bands headlined the Summer Breeze. Supported by a massive pyro show the medieval sevenpiece got celebrated for the opener “Kämpfen Wir!”, “Eisblumen”, “Wenn Engel Hassen”, “Kleid Aus Rosen”, “Sieben”, “Veitstanz” by a pretty filled festivalsite. To me this show hadn’t become that different to those ones they had performed on the former Summer Breeze area in Abtsgmünd.

Pain Stage
Obscure Phinx It had become a tradition the two big stages got opened by the winner of the New Blood Award underground competition happening the day before. The fivepiece around a female singer got the price and played a set consisting of the two epics “Nastiez” and “Paragnomen” from their debut record “Anasthetic Inhalation Ritual” before their time was over.
Manegarm Their latest release “Nattväsen” was published three years ago, but nevertheless enough fans wanted to party with the Pagan Metal band. To me this was just a copy of the many other boring Viking Metal bands.
Every Time I Die The Hardcore fivepiece from Buffalo performed an intense set considering by “Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space” and “Typical Miracle” material from the new output “Ex Lives”, but marking the main accent on a best of program.
Napalm Death The first four tracks “Circumspect”, “Errors In The Signal”, “Everyday Pox” and “Protection Racket” were identic to the beginning of the new record “Utilitarian”. Without bass original Shane Embury, but again with an extremely agile front-growler Barney Greenway the Grindcore institution from Birmingham animated their supporters until the great final consisting of “Suffer The Children”, “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”, “Scum”, the quickie “You Suffer” and “Instinct Of Survival”.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter Musically this band is an East German quirk, so to me it sucked. The show elements containing a confetti cannon and a lady crowdsurfing in a gum boat throwing exclusively for this event printed t-shirts while “Seemann” were cool ideas taking care of the entertainment factor, but that was it.
Eluveitie The octet from Switzerland started focusing on their new release “Helvetios” by its title track, “Luxtos”, “Neverland” and “Meet The Enemy” before presenting a best of set which let miss their hit “Omnos”. Nevertheless a respectable crowd celebrated their Folk Metal heroes.
Deathstars Often the Summer Breeze bands being set after the headliner are the best of the festival creating their own atmosphere. This combo created nothing. Unspectacular Gothic Rock with ridiculous costumes turned out to comedy. Anyway!

Party Stage
Born From Pain Somewhere between Hardcore and Metalcore the Dutch quintet always understands to mobilize the crowd. And so they did by “Rise Or Die”, “Sons Of A Dying World”, “The New Hate”, the only played new “The New Future” track “American Treason” and the final “Stop At Nothing”. Shouter Rob Franssen pointed out on some social as political issues and crowdsurfed a bit. Cool appearance!
Die Kassierer After With Full Force and Wacken Open Air it was definitely time for the Summer Breeze to host the Comedy Punk weirdoes which got welcomed by a filled tent partying to “Besoffen Sein”, “Sex Mit Dem Sozialarbeiter”, “Blumenkohl Am Pillemann” and “Das Schlimmste Ist, Wenn Das Bier Alle Ist”. Fronter Wölfi Wendland performed a few songs completely naked and the crowd had enough to laugh.
Ghost Brigade A demonstration of intensity was done by the Finnish quintet who returned to Dinkelsbühl. In 2009 they had to appear against Volbeat as a pretty unknown band. Three years later their popularity had risen, so many fans awaited their heroes jubilating the opener “Lost In A Loop”. Besides considering their new masterpiece “Until Fear No Longer Defines Us” by “Traces Of Liberty”, “Breakwater”, “Clawmaster” and the final “Soulcarvers” especially the “Isolation Songs” hits “Into The Black Light” as “My Heart Is A Tomb” rocked the tent causing singalongs as headbanging in the audience. Awesome!
Excrementory Grindfuckers One year after their latest Summer Breeze appearance the Grindcomedy madmen returned to continue their positive nonsense. And again they used their soundcheck for funny singalong games before entertaining by “Looking For Grindcore”, “Vater Morgana” and “The Final Grinddown”.

Friday
Main Stage
Roterfeld Aaron Roterfeld and his band played Dark Rock as their Italian predecessors on the Pain Stage, but in contrast to them the Austrians were completely boring. “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark” – in this case for sure.
Dew-Scented The Death Thrash commando were the first guarantee for headbangers this friday. After “Hubris” and “Sworn To Obey” the quintet performed a smashing best of program containing “Turn To Ash”, “That’s Why I Despise You”, “Cities Of The Dead”, the new video single “Thrown To The Lions” and the final “Acts Of Rage”. Many fans defied the heat and supported the band by several hair-windmills.
Crowbar The Sludge legend from New Orleans inspired by their sometimes melancholic as always really heavy riffs, so after a short time several thousand people filled the Main Stage ground. Kirk Windstein and his companions definitely rocked, especially by their great final consisting of “All I Had (I Gave)”, “Planets Collide” and “The Cemetery Angels”.
Unearth After they had canceled their Summer Breeze participation two years ago the time had finally come for the Metalcore masters from Boston. Supported by a first class sound shouter Trevor Phipps & Co turned the festival area in a whole moshpit. The opener “The Great Dividers”, the new video single “Watch It Burn”, “This Lying World”, “Zombie Autopilot”, “This Glorious Nightmare”, “Eyes Of Black” and the final hammer “Giles” inspired to several circle-pits as much headbanging. Outstanding!
Jasta vs. Windstein The collaboration between the fronters of Hatebreed and Crowbar was a pretty unique one I hadn’t seen on any other festival yet. Kirk Windstein had played as sang the first twelve songs of the project collective Kingdom Of Sorrow before he went to the background of the stage watching Jamey Jasta mobilzing the fans by material from his solo record. Those ones especially moved while the finishing Hatebreed-classic “I Will Be Heard”.
Within Temptation Long before the flood of female-fronted Symphonic Metal acts, especially from their country of the Netherlands, the band created their sound, and meanwhile the new songs sound much more rocking than the old bombast like the first tracks “Shot In The Dark”, “In The Middle Of The Night” and the single “Faster Music” showed right after an intro-movie. After these hits like “Ice Queen”, “Stand My Ground”, “What Have You Done”, “Angels” and the final band hymn “Mother Earth” got celebrated much more by the audience. Live guitarist Stefan Helleblad did a good job replacing Robert Westerholt reducing his function to the songwriter and studio guitarist. Still nice!
Immortal On my first Summer Breeze in 2001 Immortal was the big headliner, and so much hadn’t changed more than a century later, just the fact the Norwegians hadn’t played on this festival in the meantime. So they returned with the same bombast performing the opener “Withstand The Fall Of Time”, “Sons Of Northern Darkness”, “Damned In Black”, “At The Heart Of Winter” and the final “The Sun No Longer Rises”. Thousands of fans headbanged while Pyros and Black Metal ruled the Main Stage.

Pain Stage
The Foreshadowing The sun shined very hot. Probably for the chilling sound of the sixpiece from Rome. Their Gothic Rock with a little doomy influence attracted a few hundred mostly black-suited supporters. Three of the five played songs were from the new album “Second World”, including the video-single “The Forsaken Son”.
Bleed From Within After two Dark Rock acts the last visitor must have been awaken by the Deathcore fivepiece from Glasgow. “The Novelist”, “Dishonour”, “This Is Our Legacy” and “The Healing” took care of the first mentionable moshpit-action.
Mystic Prophecy As the only Melodic Metal act in the billing besides Iced Earth the Bavarian band should have had an advantage, but somehow it seemingly wasn’t just me missing any vibe. Nothing special happened on as in front of the stage.
Mono Inc. The third Dark Rock act of the day, and the second completely irrelevant one performed one of the two open air stages. Their title hit from their brandnew album “After The War” was known from the heavy rotation of the video channels and the LED walls as other special effects couldn’t hide that this band is superfluous.
Nile It fit to the ultimately hot weather the Technical Death Metal quartet with the acoustic Egyptian touch performed right then. Regarding the brandnew masterpiece “At The Gate Of Sethu” by “Supreme Humanism Of Megalomania” their set contained the opener “Sacrifice Unto Sebek”, “Defiling The Gates Of Ishtar”, “Ithyphallic”, “Sarcophagus” and the set closing “Black Seeds Of Vengeance”. Windmill banging was the reaction of the numerous fans to this great concert.
Six Feet Under The Death Metal institution from Tampa started by “Stripped, Raped And Strangled” with a hit from Chris Barnes’ former band Cannibal Corpse. Surprised by this special the thousands of fans headbanged and started moshpit-action while “Revenge Of The Zombie”, “Victim Of The Paranoid”, and the new “Undead” track “Reckless”. And at the end of the show they got another Cannibal Corpse cover surprise by “Hammer Smashed Face” before finishing with the regular AC/DC cover “TNT”.
Dark Tranquillity Pure energy was the main issue one of the founders of the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal took care about. And the setlist was a very well-choiced one: From “Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)” over “The Treason Wall”, “The Wonders At Your Feet”, “Zero Distance”, “Misery’s Crown”, “ThereIn”, “Final Resistance” and “The Fatalist”. A record number of crowdsurfers moved forward and charismatic vocalist Mikael Stanne might have won any present visitor. This gig was one of the most jubilated ones of the weekend.
Corvus Corax This year the ensemble brought a special viking as celtic set to the audience. Also the assistance by the Taiko drummers Wadoyko was a special one. But this theatre stuck on my nerves like it had done the year before. So the final pyro bang was a good signal to me knowing the aoustic as visual torture was over.

Party Stage
Black Sun Aeon Act one of two for Tuomas Saukkonen: Like two years ago on the open air stages in the noon his two bands appeared in the early evening. After “Frozen” his side-project mainly concentrated on their current album “Blacklight Deliverance” by “Solitude”, “Oblivion” and “Nightfall, co-assisted by the female voice of Janika Lönn. After she had left the stage the trio finished by “A Song For My Funeral”. Cool show!
Before The Dawn Act two for Tuomas Saukkonen: His older band had changed a lot after the quitting of bassist as backing vocalist Lars Eikind. I wasn’t the only one who totally missed his clean voice as a contrast to Mr. Saukkonen’s grunts. So they concentrated on their new album “Rise Of The Phoenix” by the opener as new video single Pitch Black Universe”, “Throne Of Ice”, “Eclipse”, “Fallen World” and the finisher “Phoenix Rising”. Definitely a good Death Metal show, but before I had been used to better ones by this band.
Insomnium This quintet is a phenomenon: After the latest strong albums they played a lot on tour impressing by their intense live shows. So after several important festivals they returned to Dinkelsbühl. After the newer “Inertia” and “Only One Who Waits” they surprised by the vocalist assistance of Mikael Stanne for “Wheather The Storm” like in its video just short time before he had to appear with his band Dark Tranquillity on the Pain Stage. The fans celebrated their Melodic Death Metal heroes enormously and banged their heads to “The Killjoy”, “Unsung”, “Through The Shadows”, “Mortal Share” and “One For Sorrow”.
Terror One of the leading Hardcore bands nowadays turned the tent into a whole massacre. The opener “Stick Tight”, “One With The Underdogs”, “Always The Hard Way” and the concluding “Keepers Of The Faith” caused several wild moshpits. The fivepiece from Los Angeles showed an agile performance, and so did their fans.
Morgoth The reunion of the first and most authentic Death Metal bands in Germany was a very good one, and all the other shows rocked. But this time two things went wrong: In contrast to most of the other bands this weekend the sound sucked. And fronter Marc Grewe talked too often about being Old School Death Metal. Besides that the setlist containing the opener “Body Count”, “Resistance”, “Suffer Life” (dedicated in a wonderful announcement to one of the Summer Breeze organizers), “Under The Surface”, “Pits Of Utumno” and “Isolated” spoke for itself showing they are Sauerland’s as Germany’s finest in Death Metal.
Ahab Like two years ago the Bavarian quartet acted in the tent deep in the night. Their doomy atmospheric sound worked wonderful for this place as time. Because of their epic sound their was just time for four of their compositions. By “Deliverance (Shouting At The Dead)” and “Antarctica The Polymorphess” they considered the new masterpiece “The Giant”. And they fascinated as the well-known “Old Thunder” and “The Hunt”. No wonder they earned much applause by the left hundreds of fans. Fantastic appearance!

Saturday
Main Stage
Night In Gales 14 years ago the young hopeful quintet from the Ruhrpott seemed to be the German answer to the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal sound and headlined the much smaller Summer Breeze 1999 in Abtsgmünd. In the meantime the musicians started other bands, but returned now with a new album called “Five Scars”. Courageosly its songs marked the main part of the setlist (the intro “Epitaph”, “This Neon Grave”, “Days Of The Mute”, the title track, “Void Venture”). Those ones earned nearly as much support by the few hundred spectators as the classics “Intruder” and “Autumn Water”. Cool comeback which should have deserved more audience.
The Unguided Founded by three former members of Syndicate it was clear what this band might sound like. But somehow they surprised by the fresh melodies from their debut record “Hell Frost” like the opener “Inherit Earth”, the video single “Betrayer Of The Code” or the final “Phoenix Down”. The crowd reacted by much applause and several circle-pits. Well done!
Naglfar It probably was a bit too bright for the Black Metal attack from Umea. Nevertheless fronter Kristoffer Olivius and his companions killed. Regarding by the opener “Pale Horse” and “III: Death Dimension Phantasma” the new output “Téras” showed the new material withstand with the classics.
Sepultura Brazil’s finest started strong with the classics “Beneath The Remains” and “Refuse/Resist”. These classics as newer tracks as “Kairos”, “Convicted In Life” or “Choke” showed this band never ever needs a reunion with the Cavalera brothers. Derrick Green got the voice power and charisma as standing a Sepultura fronter needs. This fact became especially obvious when the quartet performed the show’s great final consisting of “Territory”, “Arise”, “Rattamahatta” and “Roots Bloody Roots”.
Paradise Lost In contrast to the opinions of a few metalheads Paradise Lost are especially nowadays a pleasure to watch live. Their big backcatalogue of hits and their performance with the wonderful British humour of vocalist Nick Holmes which some criticizer probably doesn’t understand guarantee real live entertainment. The opener “The Enemy”, “Forever Failure”, “Pity The Sadness”, “One Second”, “As I Die”, “Enchantment”, “Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us” and the finisher “Say Just Words” showed how many classics of all the different albums the band is able to call their own. Besides the compositions from the new masterpiece “Tragic Idol” like “Honesty In Death”, the title song, “Fear Of Impending Hell” and “In This We Dwell” worked as well.
Sick Of It All The NYC Hardcore icon filled a high position in the billing. And the first minutes it seemed like the spectators just wanted to take a look. But from “Good Looking Out” on the audience as the moshpits raised bigger and bigger. “Scratch The Surface” was shouted by thousands and “Step Down” marked the end of a show with much action on as in front of the Main Stage.
Amon Amarth For another time the vikings from Stockholm headlined the Summer Breeze, and the masses of fans filling up the fesivalsite showed why. It seemed like a home match when the huge crowd sang along to “Runes To My Memory”, “Death In Fire”, “Cry Of The Blackbirds”, “Fate Of Norns”, “Pursuit Of Vikings”, “Victorius March”, “Twilight Of The Thunder God” and “Guardians Of Asgaard”. Surpported by a great light and pyro show this appearance was the highlight for many fans.

Pain Stage
While She Sleeps Eleven o’ clock in the morning, and the heat continued even hotter. But of course their were enough crazy fans starting the first moshpits while the Sheffield-fivepiece played a well-balanced set between their debut “The North Stands For Nothing” (title track, “Hearts Aside Our Heroes”, “Trophies”, “Crows”) and the new release “This Is The Six” (“Dead Behind The Eyes”, “Be(lie)ve”, title song).
Betontod After years of being unattended 2012 the Punk Rock band appeared on nearly every relevant festival in Germany. An astonishing number of fans celebrated “Keine Popsongs”, “Viva Punk” and “Auf Eine Gute Zeit”. To me it sounded too much like many other Böhse Onkelz copies.
Tanzwut One of the most horrible experiences of the summer should follow by the sevenpiece from Berlin. Combining Industrial Metal with medieval Folk Rock might work generally, but in this specific case it definitely didn’t.
Unleashed The biggest Manowar fan of the Death Metal scene Johnny Hedlund entered the stage to conquer Dinkelsbühl. But to me he and his band considered too many newer tracks instead of the classics. Finally “Victims Of War” and “Hammer Battalion” were the most supported tracks while their showcase.
Lacuna Coil In the beginning of their set Italy’s finest had to deal with several sound problems. But the more it got improved the fans’ support raised. The band integrated a couple of songs from the new album “Dark Adrenaline” by the opener “I Don’t Believe In Tomorrow”, “Kill The Light”, “Upsidedown”, “Give Me Something More” and the single “Trip The Darkness”. And they rocked like the familiar titles “I Won’t Tell You”, “Heaven’s A Lie”, “Our Truth”, “Swamped” and the final “Spellbound”. The unique voice of Cristina Scabbia and the tight band took care of another special live event.
Oomph!The German Industrial Gothic group returned to the Summer Breeze. But they had done better live jobs in the past than this one. Dero’s jokes weren’t really funny and the live-appearance didn’t really rock. Of course they got the most reactions for their set closing hit “Augen Auf”.
ASP Another Industrial Gothic act, but even much worse. I don’t know why that many people wanted to see this, but except for the astonishing special effects the band as the songs were completely irrelevant. After their hit “Ich Will Brennen” the horror was over.
Katatonia It had become some kind of a ritual letting the Swedes finish the Summer Breeze. Supported by a clear as bombastic sound the quintet started phenomenal by “Forsaker”, “Liberation”, “My Twin” and “The Longest Year”. Vocals, backing vocals, guitars, and so on: Everything fit and was played tight. So the still big number of fans celebrated “Teargas”, “Evidence” and “July” enormously by headbanging as by much applause. So after introducing by “Buildings” an interesting song from the new forthcoming album “Dead End Kings” which was supposed to be published a week after the Summer Breeze they bid a very jubilated farewell by “Leaders”. What an amazing open air final!

Party Stage
Audrey Horne To watch the Rock band from Bergen is always a real pleasure. Lead by the agile vocalist Toshie they attracted more and more curious spectators staying in the tent until the end of the show applauding to the starter “Straight To Your Grave”, the title track of ther current album “Youngblood” and the final “Redemption Blues”. Cool performance!
Asphyx The Dutch Death Metal institution entered the stage 15 minutes later than planned. But from that moment on the machine worked. What didn’t work was the sound with different problems, and it was much too low. Nevertheless Martin van Drunen animated the tent audience to bang their heads, and they did it massively.

Conclusion:
Summer Breeze 2012 was sold out with 35000 visitors a few months before. As the latest editions the organization worked very well in all aspects. The organizers had the luck there was no cancelation in their 102-bands-billing. What really astonished was the sound on the two open air stages which probably was the best festival sound ever. Congrats to the technical crew! Since 2008 the billing always had been the best of each summer, so it was this year. Nowhere else you can find such an interesting billing regarding nearly all hard subgenres and presenting bands you can’t see everwhere.
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 2013!!! Special thanks go out to David Gregori and the Summer Breeze-team!!!!! At the Summer Breeze rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Vera and Kathy!!!!!