DONG OPEN AIR 2013
The 2013-edition of the Dong Open Air was a special one for us: It was our tenth participation and our own ten-years-anniversary as well after pausing in 2005 due to familiar reasons. And it also was the ten-years-jubileum for the organizers taking place at this unique festival location. After the mud experience of DOA 2012 the typical Dong-weather returned to the hill. That meant sun instead of last year’s notorious rain.
Besides the well-known good organisation the Dong-team realized the option of running water toilets which had been too difficult in the past because of strict local regulations at the hill. Furthermore the fans could count on the familiar atmosphere, the amazing location, fair prices (e.g. 2,00 € for a 0,5 l – bottle of beer) and an attractive billing containing Sodom, Powerwolf, Soulfly, Dark Tranquillity, Finntroll, Born From Pain, Skyclad, etc. On the Dong hill 28 bands appeared in three days for about 2000 visitors.
Thursday
Aeons Confer Eight years after their longplayer debut the sixpiece from Hamburg returned acoustically with their new release “Symphonies Of Saturnus” and qualified German Metal Battle final. And so the set exclusively consisted of tracks from this album. Sad circumstance was the sound which didn’t work well. So it took some time till their Symphonic Black Metal supported by two keyboards reached its potential like by the final “ESP”.
J.T. Ripper The second competitor of this German Metal Battle final was a quartet from Chemnitz, East Germany. They played traditional Thrash Metal which turned out much too old-school. Their montonous sound didn’t attract at all and there was no stage-action which lead me to the question: How did they make it to the final? And in the end they won it which meant a place in the Metal Battle – world final as a position in the Wacken billing. Is the German underground that weak? I think the many underground bands of the latest ten Dong-editions definitely negate this question.
In Arkadia The first regular band of this year’s Dong Open Air set new standards in comparison to what had happened before. The quintet from Lyon presented a fresh Deathcore sound and their breakdowns invited to headbang. So after a while more fans filled the tent to do so. The set mainly consisted of the new album “Eyes Of The Archetype” except for the also pretty new demo-track “Scriptures”. The most well-known one of course had been the Hatebreed cover “I Will Be Heard” causing a circle-pit in which even both guitarists had taken part in before the band finished by “Recurrence”.
Crossplane The following act was able to count on a pure home match. It was acoustically obvious the fourpiece from Essen had many fans in the tent who took care about the atmosphere as the band’s entertaining Rock did. And although they mainly concentrated on tracks from the forthcoming previously unreleased output the party continued until the two encores “Real Life” and “Rollin’”.
Fyrnreich It’s no secret I can’t call myself a big Pagan Metal fan, and this shouldn’t change after this appearance. Anyway, the pretty slow music created its atmosphere that showed potential. However, the musicians were allowed to move, but they didn’t. And by the way, titles like “Met Und Bier” or “Heldentod” are a bit ridiculous.
Truckfighters The following trio presented Stoner Rock at its best. Grooving rhythms met great melodies supported by an energetic performance. The Swedes convinced the fans as me by a set considering all three released longplayers by “Desert Cruiser”, “Atomic” or “Last Curfew”, and they also played a new seemingly still unnamed track from the forthcoming album. Cool show!
Dark Tranquillity It was the third time the Melodic Death Metal icon from Gothenburg appeared on the hill and somehow it felt like they had ever belonged to the Dong-family. So they got jubilated a lot when they entered the stage causing by “Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)”, “Zero Distance” and “The Wonders At Your Feet” a completely headbanging tent. To my own surprise they acted without any bassist after Daniel Antonsson had quit the band, so those tones got sampled. Besides classics like “Lost To Apathy”, “Misery’s Crown”, “ThereIn” or “Final Resistance” they considered by “The Science Of Noise”, “Endtime Hearts” and “Uniformity” three compositions from their new masterpiece “Construct”. Mikael Stanne appeared as agile and sympathic as always probably running several kilometres on stage as before it and handshaking the whole first row. “The Fatalist” marked the end of the best show of the weekend in my opinion. Next time as headliner again, please!
Sodom The German Thrash Metal legend could also be called as local heroes this evening or night. But somehow they weren’t able to attract the same filled tent as the co-headliner had done before. Anyway, mainman Tom Angelripper and his two comrades seemed to enjoy this venue presenting a best-of-set by “Outbreak Of Evil”, “The Saw Is The Law”, “Ausgebombt”, “Wachturm”, “Blasphemer” just filled by two tracks from the new release “Epitome Of Torture” (“Stigmatized”, “Into The Skies Of War”). The trio animated their supporters to headbang and finished their regular set by “Remember The Fallen”, the Motörhead cover “Iron Fist” which got dedicated to their sick fronter Lemmy Kilmister and “Bombenhagel”. But the fans didn’t have enough, so they deserved the encore by “Nuclear Winter”.
Friday
Scornage The local heroes – aspect also matched to the fivepiece coming from a suburb of the close town Aachen. And so their Thrash Metal attracted an astonishing number of supporters in front of the stage. Anyway, to me their sound became too montonous. But to get called back on stage by the audience to play an encore as an opening band is really mentionable.
Spectral Viking Black Metal from Trier was up to follow. For another time this turned out to become not my cup of tea as beer. But the protagonists took care of the entertainment factor by giving their former evil sounding titles nicknames and taking themselves not too serious. In the end a raised audience celebrated the final “Bang Your Head” in just that way.
Elvenpath Typical Power Metal with the well-known lyric cliché got offered by the fivepiece from Frankfurt. Titles as “Battlefield”, “Priests Of War” and “War Of Steel” spoke for itself. It might have been enjoyed by a few spectators, myself got bored.
Despise & Conquer The fivepiece from the close town of Herten replaced Rotting Empire after they had canceled their participation very short-termed. And it didn’t take much time their live-vibe caught the crowd managing the first moshpit of the day. Besides that their fronter entertained by funny comments between the songs. Of course the band mainly concentrated on their only longplayer besides the newer “Cassandra Complex” and the Massacre cover “Dawn Of Eternity”. More of that!
Kadavrik Quite from the neighborhood this quintet from Wesel came. Opening by “Adiposit Obstipation” and “Legacy” they set their main accent on material from their latest album “N.O.A.H.”. Their sound might have been too complex to some of the spectators, to me their technical style was just the right music. Their motivated and agile performance won the majority of the tent celebrating them.
Exotoxis Just one three-song-demo released, and now on the DOA-stage. Not too bad. Founded just one year ago the special element of this Power Metal band is the female vocalist. Becky Gaber and her bandmates did a good job, but somehow most of the spectators had left the tent. Anyway, it will be interesting to watch their development within the next years.
Hatred Their second appearance at Dong Open Air started with bad-luck. Because of a traffic jam they were forced to begin 20 minutes too late. Even more motivated the Franconians opened by “Follow The Leader”. Just a song later fronter Bacchus went into the crowd and animated the moshpit. Even in this 25 minutes the Thrash Metal formation made no compromises and the fans celebrated “Moshpit Ritual”, “Fractured By Fear” as the final “Pokers Revenge”. Hopefully they’ll get the opportunity to return and to play a full-length show.
Words Of Farewell This sixpack played for their second time at the Dong hill as well. Also coming from the mid-western region they fascinated by their technical Melodic Death Metal. Their varied sound as the performance convinced the crowd supporting the last underground act of the day. The band of course concentrated on their up to now only album “Immersion” by the opener “Project: Daybreak”, “Urban Panorama”, “Ever After” and the final “Sorae”, but also considered two new tracks from the forthcoming new release which should have aroused some interest.
Finntroll After seven years the Finish Folk/Black Metal icon returned to the Dong hill to celebrate another Pagan party. This time they entered the stage with ridiculous fantasy mask ears, but anyway got jubilated from the first tone on. By “Häxbrygd”, “Skogsdotter”, “Midwinterdraken”, “När Jättar Marschera”, “Ett Folk Förbannat” and the opening title track they played several tracks from the new output “Bloodsvept”. But of course the most celebrated ones were the set closing classics “Trollhammeren” and “Jaktens Tid”.
Powerwolf The following apprearance turned out to a complete triumphant march. The fans filled the tent just after Finntroll had finished before awaiting their faves. From “Sanctified With Dynamite” and “Prayer In The Dark” the whole tent celebrated a Metal party searching for its own. By the following “Amen And Attack” and “Coleus Sanctus” the quintet presented two compositions from the new album “Preachers Of The Night” which had just one week before its release. The two Greywolf brothers on guitar often switched their positions, the keyboarder used his orchestral breaks to animate the fans on the edge of the stage, the drummer took care of the beat and vocalist Attila Dorn sang as entertained with funny comments very well. So it was no wonder the fans celebrated the best-of-set containing “Resurrection By Errection”, “Werewolves Of Armenia” (including the known ‘Hu, Ha’ – games), “Catholic In The Morning, Satanist At Night” and “All We Need Is Blood”. After the regular set finishing “Lupus Dei” they returned to perform “Raise Your Fist, Evangelist”. After the concert Attila Dorn showed himself impressed and emphasized as his colleges how awesome this festival felt to the band. But they didn’t have much time to enjoy the atmosphere because a short time after the show they had to travel to the Czech Republic by their bus.
Saturday
Act Of Worship The Black Metal formation from Darmstadt with diverse Death Metal elements in their sound was the right wake-up-call in the early saturday noon. Their set consisted of their several demos and Eps. The band’s biggest minus was the pretty motionless, nearly shy performance of its grunter, but which looked somehow sympathic as well.
Godslave The following fivepiece from South West Germany offered Thrash Metal what first didn’t find that much attention. The opener “Here Comes The Crew” from their forthcoming record just heard a few left metalheads. Its number raised in the end of the show which got finished by the band performing “Vodcarnivore” in the photo-pit, except for the drummer of course. And they returned with the encore “Our School” playing right in the audience.
Acyl To whom the band before had been too monotonous had the opportunity to discover by the quintet from France an interesting as rare till unique mixture between Metal, Folk Rock, World Music and other different influences. It was easy to see as hear the roots of the percussion-based sound are African. And after a long intro “Gnaoua” and “Obduracy” showed how hard this exotic music sound like.
Ravian The German band who won a band contest to appear at Dong Open Air played Melodic Metal. Especially their singer’s voice reminded me on Sonata Arctica. And propably fans of this band might have enjoyed “The King Is Dead”, “Back To My Land” or “Victoriously”.
Superbutt It was the final show of the fivepiece from Budapest under this name. Obviously they signed a contract, and the new label had other band name ideas than Superbutt. Anyway, the Hungarians showed their massive stage experience musically as by their performance. Even vocalist András Vörös seemed trying to break Mikael Stanne’s kilometre record of thursday. Just the audience wasn’t that massive. But those ones who had stayed had fun with the Crossover Rock of a band that seemingly had brought many family member to the Dong hill.
Any Given Day So-called one-hit-wonders always have the difficullt perspective to fall even faster than they have raised before, especially when their hit is a cover version of a popular song. But this experience doesn’t fit to the quintet from Gelsenkirchen at all. Their brutal version of Rihanna’s “Diamonds” is a rocking one, but shouldn’t hide the band’s songwriting abilities which became clear while their energetic performance by the opener “Darkness Within”, “My Own Sweet Hell” and the finisher “The Beginning Of The End”. Of course “Diamonds” as the only well-known song attracted the most reactions from the fans, but the band convinced by their diversified sound as the varied voice of shouter Dennis Diehl in general.
The Other The most well-known Horror Punk band besides the Misfits had the advantage of a filled tent. The majority stayed celebrating a best-of-set from the opener “My Home Is My Casket” over “Back To The Cemetary”, “Puppet On A String”, “Lovers Lane” until the final “End Of Our Time”. Fronter Rod Usher took care of the communication with the audience, and so nobody could worry about this concert.
Skyclad The Folk Metal institution from Newcastle can be called as the steadiest member of the Dong-family. This was now their sixth appearance on the hill. And whatever the personal flavor was, nearly nobody in the tent was able to elude the positive attitude of the band. So everybody took part in the party celebrating “Inequality Street”, “Great Blow For A Day Job”, “The Well-Travelled Man”, “Anotherdrinkingsong”, “The Widdershins Jig”, “Penny Dreadful” and the final cover “Swords Of A Thousand Men”. Sympathic as always!
Born From Pain The contrast couldn’t have been more drastic between the melodic Folk Rock band before and the brutal Metalcore from the Netherlands. The quintet performed a well-balanced set between their albums by “The New Future”, “State Of Mind”, “Sons Of A Dying World”, “Stop At Nothing”, “Rise Or Die” and “The New Hate” which motivated to the most active circle-pits of the weekend. Of course they didn’t attract as much fans as the Dong-darlings Skyclad, but the intensity of the Dutch gig happened on as in front of the stage. Also mentionable is the comment of shouter Rob Franssen about Edward Snowden and how the irresponsible politicians handling this case showed they are brutal, but with brains.
Soulfly Nearly the whole Dong-community awaited Max Cavalera and his band. They opened by the hits “Prophecy” and “Back To The Primitive”, and the tent started for the last 90 minutes of action this night. The most celebration of course earned the Sepultura classics “Refuse/Resist”, “Territory”, “Arise” / “Dead Embryonic Cells” (medley) and “Roots Bloody Roots” after which they left the stage. But “Seek ‘n’ Strike”, the new track “Bloodshed” from the forthcoming release and the encore-medley consisting of “Jumpdafuckup” and “Eye For An Eye” caused headbanging and moshpit action as well. Mr Cavalera didn’t just stuck on my nerves again by integrating his family members in the show. Whatever, there wasn’t much more to worry about the show.
Conclusion:
After the notorious rain in 2012 this year the weather was nearly perfect: No rain, always sunshine, but not too hot.
These conditions turned over on the festival atmosphere and the fans’ mood which generally can be described as very relaxed.
The organisation worked well. Just one band change had to be done when Despise & Conquer replaced the short-term-cancelation of Rotting Empire. The food as the drinks offered for another time in a big variety for fair prices. The toilet situation got improved by the mentioned running water toilets added to the known mobile Dixi-toilets getting both cleaned continuously.
Thanks go out to Benjamin “Colamann” Munsch and the DOA team!!!!! At the Dong Open Air 2012 rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Julia and Dumbo!!!!!