Summer Breeze 2008
After reporting about the Summer Breeze for its last five years in Abtsgmünd the festival moved to Dinkelsbühl. Due to job-/vacation-commitments in 2006 and the marriage of very good friends in 2007 (Any other marriage we would have canceled!
:-)) we were forced to send our Lower Rhein crew two years ago and our Suebe Crew last year!
So finally this year we returned with our basic www.metal-festivals.com – team to the Summer Breeze and celebrated our debut on its new location! We appreciated the festival area in Dinkelsbühl! The bands still appear on the Main Stage as on the Pain Stage, added by the new Party Tent offering more running order – alternatives for the spectators. This Party Tent stretched the program opening the festival by a couple of newcomer-acts as a Metal Blade – night with six bands each on Wednesday. The regular program on all stages started on Thursday.
This year’s Summer Breeze impressed by a very variable billing with many highlights offering acts like Paradise Lost, Helloween, As I Lay Dying, Six Feet Under, H-Blockx and Cradle Of Filth, just to name a few!
At this year’s Summer Breeze 90 bands appeared on three stages in four days for about 25000 visitors (Sold out!)
Wednesday
Partytent
Bloodwork I watched this band from Paderborn for the third time within just three months. They won the Metal Battle West Germany as the German final and took part in the international competition in Wacken. The five guys played a pretty professional Melodic Death Metal – gig entertaining the hungry fans with “Silent Revolution” and “Deathbox! In my opinion the definitely best band of the competition, but in the end the jury voted them on second rank.
A Dead Lament This quartet from South West Germany was a total contrast to the other competitors being mainly related to Death Metal / Metalcore. They performed some kind of Alternative Music lead by the female voice of Samira Dahl. But it didn’t seem the metalheads in the Partytent had been waiting for that sound. So tracks like the title track of their current output “Ravens Feast” just found low applause.
Black Thoughts Bleeding The quintet from Middle West Germany performed an ambitious gig being acoustically placed somewhere between Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore. It sounded well and the artists showed agility, but somehow I missed the vibe.
Dargolf Metzgore The fivepiece started with a cool intro into an energetic Death Metal – set and won much following while entering the stage which may be the result of the band’s hometown isn’t that far from Dinkelsbühl. They reached a singalong with the crowd and finished by a song starting with As I Lay Dying’s “Through Struggle” – Riff and a wall of death on the fans’ side. But somehow this show became like the one before. A good young band showing their abilities (Especially the guitarist!), but the vibe was missed again.
My Elegy The young band from Bruchsal showed a pretty average Metalcore appearance. They should work about it as about their hairdos. But first of all they should creat music there’s more to mention about to.
Fuck Your Shadow From Behind The very young sixpack with two shouters intoning German contents finally won the competition and qualified for the regular three Summer Breeze – days with the opening slot on the Main Stage the following day. But I still don’t know why. They just offered average Metalcore like the band before. This performance turned out to have the character of a school band show. Anyway they won the newcomer contest: Congratulations!
Anima It was up to its new signing to open the Metal Blade label night. Their sound can be described somewhere between Death Metal and Metalcore. The East Germans presented the material of their debut release “The Daily Grind” on a high energy level, but after a while they bored by their too monotonous tracks. The bad sound didn’t support them at all.
Lay Down Rotten The fivepiece from Siegen attracted many fans to come into the tent to celebrate their Death Metal containing well-known songs like “Nihil” and “Pulling The Trigger” as the new track “Hours Of Infinity” from the forthcoming album. The most celebrated highlight of the show became the Carcass-classic “Heartwork” played in a very tight interpretation.
The Rotted Formerly known as Gorerotted the guys from United Kingdom didn’t really continued with their fan-motivating shows. This one didn’t rock at all by its average Death Metal – sound and sucked totally in comparison to the band before.
Hail Of Bullets Old School Death Metal presented by well-known Dutch Metal-veterans like fronter Martin van Drunen (Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, Pestilence), drummer Ed Warby (Gorefest) or bassist Theo van Eekelen (Houwitser) was supposed to become a good show, and it became by tracks like “Berlin”, “Nachthexen” and “Stalingrad”. Performing their Second World War – relating historic material they earned loud reactions by their fans.
Born From Pain The Metalcore-quintet from the Netherlands usually know how to fascinate a crowd, but this evening somehow they didn’t. Anyway they reached applause for classics like “New Hate”, “Scorched Earth” and “Stop At Nothing” as for the new track “State Of Mind” from their forthcoming album.
Fleshcrawl Scandinavian affected Death Metal from Germany was up to close the Metal Blade label night. To me this gig became too monotonous, but most of the spectators celebrated “Flesh Bloody Flesh”, “As Blood Rains From The Sky” and “Damned In Fire” in the pretty filled tent.
Thursday
Main Stage
Fuck Your Shadow From Behind The winners of the Newcomer Stage competition in the party tent the day before won the opening slot of the official open air program. And the young band with two shouters didn’t convince for another time. Their sound as their stageacting was too replaceable. Bloodwork better should have made it!
Emil Bulls The Bavarian fivepiece had evolved from the Alternative / Crossover – genre close to a modern Metalcore-sound. They opened by their new single “The Most Evil Spell” and let follow further material from the new “The Black Path” – album. And it became obvious pretty quick fronter Christoph’s voice sloped. So just the first rows supported them and celebrated “Smells Like Rock ‘n’ Roll” and the Megadeth-cover “Symphony Of Destruction”.
Saltatio Mortis The following act was a horrible one! Superfluous Medieval Folk Rock from Germany reached lots of spectators singing their lyrics, just not me. Presenting their current output “Aus Der Asche” got co-fronted by Kissin’ Dynamite – singer Hannes during the track “Wirf Den Ersten Stein”. This appearance really stuck on my nerves.
Soilwork The Melodic Death Metal – constant from Helsingborg performed a thrilling gig causing fans’ singalongs, lots of crowdsurfers, moshpits and a respactable wall of death (Although I ask myself what does a wall of death have to do with their music? Anyway!). Front-entertainer Björn “Speed” Strid and his companions ruled the festival area by songs from the current “Sworn To A Great Divide” – album like its title track and “Exile” as well-known hits like “As We Speak”, “Bastard Chain” and “Nerve” earning much support. A convincing show, just the guitar-sound sucked.
Arch Enemy The Swedes continued the high-class-level on the Main Stage. Lead by the excellent guitar-duo consisting of the reunited Amott-brothers and grunt-lady Angela Gossow who did a few announcements in German the fivepiece caused headbanging and pit-action by “Ravenous”, “My Apocalypse”, “We Will Rise”, “Nemesis” and “Blood On Your Hands”! Angela showed herself confident against idiots just wanting so see naked women. Cool convincing show!
Paradise Lost What followed was one of the most discussed shows of this weekend. On the one hand there were fans who blamed them as being to unmotivated, on the other hand there were those ones sharing the opinion while this great music no musician has to run around on stage and who enjoyed the typical British sense of humor of fronter Nick Holmes. So these fans rocked to the well-balanced set combining old and new songs containing the opener “The Enemy”, “No Celebration”, “I Don’t Know Anyone”, “As I Die”, “Enchantment”, “Requiem”, “Never For The Damned”, “One Second”, “Embers Fire” and the final “Say Just Words”. We enjoyed the setlist, understood Nick’s jokes and appreciated the great show!
Helloween It had been a long time before I watched the German Melodic Metal – legend again. They started with their monumental epic “Halloween” leaving no doubts and continued playing by “As Long As I Fall” the only track from the current “Gambling With The Devil” – album. After the further classic “Eagle Fly Free” a total unnecessary drum-solo interrupted the set which was as negatively astonishing as the Uri-Geller-outfit of singer Andi Deris. The quintet from Hamburg continued by “If I Could Fly”, “Dr. Stein”, “I Can” and a “Somehwere Over The Rainbow” – cover. After this great part it became ridiculous again when Mr. Deris animated the fans to singalong – games while the chorus of “Perfect Gentleman” which lasted much too long and killed time for more good music. So it became stupid to perform a medley consisting of “Power” and the band-hymn “The Keeper Of The Seven Keys” just played until its first chorus. After this the band left the stage to return with the two encores “Future World” and “I Want Out”. In the end it was a show between cool classic-passages and phases of pure waste of time! I need to mention the light show was very cool as the two big pumpkins flanking the band on each side.
Pain Stage
All Ends After the newcomer contest winner the newcomer from Sweden opened the regular program. Lead by the two fine voices of Tinna Karlsdotter and Emma Gelotte (Yes, the sister of the In Flames – guitarist!) the sixpiece showed a professional performance basing on their self-titled debut entertaining by catchy songs like “Walk Away”, “Still Believe”, “Pretty Words” and “Wasting Life” which found much applause. Great voices, good music, which results in an absolute convincing gig! Hope to see and hear more of them in the future!
Aborted After this low tones with little mainstream tendencies followed a Death Metal – impact without any compromises from Belgium. Presenting their modern material from their brandnew release “Strychnine.213” as older tracks crashed the festival ground and they got support and a moshpit.
Graveworm The Death Metal – sixpiece might have participated for the third or fourth time at the Summer Breeze. The appeared in front of a pretty filled festivalsite. They decided to mainly conentrate on their younger material from the current “Collateral Defect” – and the “N(U)topia” – albums without ignoring their classics like “Abhorrence” and animated the fans to headbang and to even create a wall of death in the end.
The Wildhearts I remember the Punk Rock – band was supposed to play on my first personal Summer Breeze 2001, but they were forced to cancel their participation because of the tragic death of one band member. So now the four guys from Newcastle were back, but most of the spectators didn’t take a notice of them. The only reason for that could just have been their low popularity because their appearance was a nice variety in the billing starting with the opener “Vanilla Radio” and finding its highlight by the cool Helmet-cover “Unsung” even creating a little moshpit.
Behemoth Poland’s Black Metal – finest invaded the festival ground by a bombastic show. With “Christians To The Lions” and their final “The Aspotasy” – hymn “At The Left Hand Ov God” Nergal and his comrades thrilled the pretty huge fan-crowd and kept them being in motion.
Primordial The Irish fan-darlings presented another stirring performance like there are just pretty rare ones comparable to this one nowadays. From the opener “Empire Falls” over “Gallows End”, “Spirit The Earth Aflame” and “Rome Is Burning” to the finishing “The Coffin Ships” the charismatic frontman “Alan A. Nemtheanga and his four sidekicks fascinated by their show and art!
Marduk The Swedisch Black Metal – institution had had its best days. Anyway they reduced their newer songs to a minimum concentrating on their classics like “Oppozer/Accuser” or “Baptism By Fire”. Fronter Mortuus had seemingly improved his stageacting, while one track he got support by Primordial’s vocalist Alan. But anyway their show became boring after a while.
Partytent
Negura Bunget The secret hint from Romania fascinated Dinkelsbühl’s Party Tent as they had done in Wacken’s W.E.T Stage two weeks before by their sympathic performance, their exotic Folk – instruments and songs like the instrumental “Tesarul Lumini”, “Cunoasterea Tacuta” and their little hymn “Worldless Knowledge”. The guest appearance of Secrets Of The Moon – drummer Thelemnar made this appearance even more special
Cult Of Luna What then happened was one of the most grooving thrills I have ever experienced. Supported by four guitars and the growls of Klas Rydberg the band from Umea created a groove-monster covering the tent into a total different atmosphere considering the title track of the current album “Eternal Kingdom” as classics like “Leave Me Here”. Great as totally overwhelming!
Friday
Main Stage
Heidevolk Another Pagan-band, this time from the Netherlands, playing the same sound as the other average combos. Do we really need that? No! Anyway, the group had to appear just with one of their two vocalists mainly concentrating on their new release “Walhalla Wacht”. Because of the unfriendly weather conditions in the morning the festivalsite wasn’t filled that much, but the little number of spectators celebrated their Folk Metal – party. By the way the sound could have been much better.
3 Inches Of Blood The Canadian True Metal – band had also to renounce one of their two fronters, Jamie Hooper. But no matter to the left vocalist Cam Pipes. With his horrible falsetto siren he tortured many ears. The maple leafs presented material fom their current “Fire Up The Blades” – record without ignoring older ones like “Deadly Sinners” known from two video-game-soundtracks.
Mad Sin These Rockabilly – Punks rock for more than two decades now. And they definitely did in Dinkelsbühl. Armed with a contrabass besides the usual instrumentation and the agile fronter Köfte the capitals took the present spectatorship by storm. Especially their cover version’s of Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sherrif” and Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire” found much celebration.
Korpiklaani One of the leading bands of the Pagan-Fun-Folk-Something-But-No-Metal – scene showed the dilemma about this sub-genre: Most people didn’t care and walked to the food- / non-food-boothes or left the area. Just a crowd in front of the stage partied their own microcosm crowdsurfing or singing songs like “Beer Beer”. Personally I preferred those ones to drink in the meantime.
Exodus The Bay Area Thrash – legend presented their latest strong release “The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A”, but knew the fans wanted to listen to classics. So they got the debut-hymn “Bonded By Blood” just as opener, “War Is My Shepherd” and “Strike Of The Beast”. But I have the suggestion new fronter Rob Dukes better doesn’t say anything instead of talking redneck-shit against the middle east before playing “Children Of A Worthless God”! That would be nice!
As I Lay Dying The quintet from San Diego entered the stage while the intro “Separation”. They didn’t hesitate to begin with their complete live strength performing the new album’s opener as its first published video-single “Nothing Left” to begin with their classics from the two masterpieces before, “Through Struggle” and “Forever”, animating several crowdsurfers as moshpits. New tracks followed by “Within Destruction” and “Forsaken” which caused as much trouble on the festival area as “The Darkest Nights”, “Distance Is Darkness” and “Meaning In Tragedy”. New album’s compositions like its title track “An Ocean Between Us“ alternated with full-length-debut-classics as “Elegy”. So after “The Sound Of Truth” and “94 Hours” lead to the finisher “Confined” which closed the best performance of this year’s Summer Breeze. Great individual instruments’ abilities building up a strong band unity on a high live – level filled up the festival area and kept all the fans in action for nearly an hour.
Six Feet Under You know what you get when the Florida Deathers appear on a festival: A grunting Dreadlock-banging Chris Barnes, a motionless, but tight band and lots of fans celebrating their faves by headbanging and moshpit-action. And the fivepiece gave them enough reasons to rage by “Revenge Of The Zombie”, “Victim Of The Paranoid”, “No Warning Shot”, “The Enemy Inside”, “War Is Coming” and the AC/DC – cover – standard “T.N.T.” while they reduced material from the current “Commandment” to a minimum. The people agreed with that strategy.
Subway To Sally The Folk Rock / Metal – sevenpiece from Potsdam appeared for the fourth time on the Summer Breeze, and for the third time in a headliner position. This fact and the numerous of fans filling up the festival ground speaks for itself. Supported by a massive pyro show and a motivated band this appearance turned out to big party with singalongs to well-known tracks like “Sieben”, “Henkersbraut”, “Auf Kiel” or the encore and fans’ fave “Julia Und Die Räuber”.
Pain Stage
Dark Age The Melodic Death Metal – quintet was the ideal opener to spread good mood against the rainy weather. The sympathic band animated the present spectators to take part in, and a respectable bunch of people spent applause for songs from the new “Minus Exitus” – album (the title track, “The Dying Art Of Recreation”, “Exit Wounds”) as familiar older ones (“Fix The Focus”, “Zero”).
Midnattsol The Folk Metal interpreted by three male and two female Norwegians just found a little number of spectators depending to the rain. Lead by their singer Carmen Elise Espenaes who is the sister of Liv Kristine (ex – Theatre Of Tragedy, Leaves’ Eyes, Atrocity) introduced their new second output “Nordlys” by “Skogens Lengsel”, “Lament” and “En Natt I Nord” without ignoring the debut-tracks. By the way the band reacted pretty cool when some weird fan suddenly entered the stage.
Schelmish The medieval-related Folk Rock – combo from Bonn just played for a small crowd being interested in and celebrating their material like it had happened before while Korpiklaani. After Mad Sin the day before the second band of this year’s Summer Breeze covered Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire”, but not as felicitous as the first interpretation.
Megaherz The Rammstein-wannabes from Munich are back! The fivepiece decided two play a well-balanced set considering tracks from their brandnew “Heuchler” – release (the title track, “Fauler Zauber”) and familiar material from before the break like their biggest hits “5. März” and “Miststück” causing the most spectators’ reactions.
Pro-Pain Of course the New York City Hardcore-legend appeared again on the Pain Stage. And Gary Meskil and his companions rocked the festival again. After the German national anthem as the intro the quartet didn’t leave any doubt about who’s the chief in any Hardcore-affairs on the festival at all by “In For The Kill”. “Shine”, “Un-American”, “Fuck It” and the finisher “All For King George”. Strong!
Eluveitie It was supposed to become a special hint from a friend after which I should reconsider our friendship. Two women and six men from Switzerland performed the material of the newest shooting stars of the Folk Rock / Metal – scene. The sound wasn’t their friend while they were promoting their new release “Slania” by their hit “Inis Mona” and “Slanias Song” as the debut-song “TegernakA”. Their fans celebrated them anyway.
End Of Green The Gothic Rockers from Göppingen are kind of a Summer Breeze – home-band. I probably watched them for the fourth or fifth time on my personal sixth Summer Breeze. The sympathic fivepiece opened by “Motor” leading into a short medley before continuing with “Dead End Hero”, “Drink Myself To Sleep” and “Everywhere” showing their Rock-related side before Michelle Darkness & Co closed their set by the mainly Gothic-related songs “Die Lover Die” from the very brandnew album “The Sick’s Sense” and “Death In Veins”. Cool!
Kataklysm The Canadien Death Metal – kings arrived with no luggage as instruments in Germany because their chosen airline transferred it to somewhere else. So they got it borrowed by Aborted and Eluveitie. The quartet started with “Blood In Heaven” from their new album “Prevail”. The crowd went wild for the best-of-set containing “As I Slither”, “Manipulator Of Souls”, the also new “Taking The World By Storm” as the set-ending “Crippled And Broken” and “In Shadows And Dust”. The stage-acting was good, the band tight, the sound as the light worked well: Best conditions for another great Kataklysm – show which the fans got!
ASP The Gothic Rock – act from Frankfurt polarized the crowd: Some celebrated the group as a good atmospheric show while full moon, the rest just felt bored by the German as English sung songs. So did I. This performance didn’t rock at all. And so the festivalsite became very empty after a few minutes. The loudest reactions happened while their little as only hit “Ich Will Brennen”. Boring!
Partytent
Textures What followed after the Main Stage program had just been finished was one of the most impressing shows of the whole high-class-billing. It was astonishing how the Dutch sixpiece was able to reproduce their complex Prog Death Metal live. Grunts as the wonderful clean vocals fit with the instruments into an ideal constitution. Compositions from the new masterpiece “Silhouettes” like “Old Days Born Anew”, “Storm Warning” or “Awake” thrilled all attendants of the full tent as songs from the first two albums as “Regenesis”, “Millstone” and “Swandive”. Very impressing!
Hollenthon The second band of Pungent Stench – fronter Martin Schirenc is back, finally with a strong album! This new one seems to be owned by many fans because songs from this one like “On The Wings Of A Dove”, the video-single “Son Of Perdition” or “Once We Were Kings” achieved loud jubilations. Nevertheless the classics like “Woe To The Defeated” and the final hit “To Kingdom Come were celebrated massively, too! This appearance was a big success! The Austrians might have won several new fans.
Saturday
Main Stage
Japanische Kampfhörspiele The Extreme Metal – band with the obscure sarcastic German lyrics from Essen attracted a respectable bunch of fans in the morning to celebrate “Verrat Am Metal” or “Wir Gehen In Den Knast”. Cool day opener of the Main Stage!
Autumn The Dutch sixpiece mainly concentrated on their current strong album “My New Time” by the opener “Angel Of Desire”, the following “Satellites”, the title track and “Blue Wine”, and introduced by “Skydancer” a new song from the forthcoming album on which new singer Marjan Welman will appear for her first Autumn-studio-production. Known from Ayreon she convinced totally with her high voice abilities while her stageacting reminded me to ex – The Gathering – singer Anneke van Giersbergen. And generally the whole band had a sympathic attitude.
Endstille The Black Metal – combo from Kiel mainly attracts teenager metalheads: Listening to their music as lyrics shows why! So happened in Dinkelsbühl. From the opener “Dominanz”, the probably fan-hommage “Bastard” to the finishing track as known as salvation to any fan of Metal with approach animated the kids to headbang their heads for maybe the first time while the majority found out even a Dresdner Handbrot has more variation than this average Black Metal. The sound sucked, too. Just the reaction of fronter Iblis when some stuffed animal got thrown on stage was cool naming it “Mama”.
Dismember The Swedish Death Metal – institution around the guitarist as band founder David Blomqist and fronter Matti Kärki started with some younger tracks before the headbangers really woke up when the quintet performed “Pieces”, “Collection By Blood” and “Sickening Art”. So they closed by “Under A Blood Red Sky” a cool set celebrated by a couple of fans.
Ensiferum The same circumstances as they had happened while Korpiklaani or comparable Pagan Folk Metal – bands: It’s probably always the same bunch of people standing in front of the stage while the rest turns around. Anyway this bunch celebrated “Token Of Time” and “Ahti”. The band reacted with playing a bit of Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”. But fronter Petri Lindroos should renounce demands for walla of death!
H-Blockx The most successful German Crossover – band of the 90ies is back! And it was the right billing position in the early evening with the still shining sun to entertain a pretty filled festivalsite. The band which had shrinked to a fourpiece over the years opened after the intro by “Here I Go Again” from their new “Open Letter To A Friend” – album to continue with a greatest hits – program consisting of their interpretation of the SNAP!-hit “The Power”, “I Don’t Want You To Like Me”, “Leave Me Alone”and their first and biggest hit from the debut: “Move” which moved almost every spectator in action. After “Countdown To Insanity” and the debut-ballad “Little Girl” vocalist Henning Wehland animated the crowd to a straw-battle before they finished their regular set by “How Do You Feel?” and their second debut-hit “Risin’ High”. But they returned with the encore and second cover (This time of Johnny Cash who had been interpreted for the third time that weekend!) “Ring Of Fire” including with a sit-down-and-stand-up-interaction for the people. So a motivated band satisfied a motivated spectatorship, and most of them knew the lyrics of almost every choruses!
Heaven Shall Burn After the piano-intro “Echoes” the quintet from Thüringen entered the stage to perform probably one of the shows of their lifetime! Suited in red shirts and black pants, flanked by light columns and supported by a great light show they looked a little bit like In Flames. After opening by the strong “Final Resistance” and “Profane Believers” the first song from the new “Iconoclast” – album “Forlorn Skies” followed which motivated the crowd to jump. After some relaxing piano-instrumental they performed the hits “The Weapon They Fear” and “Voice Of The Voiceless” causing a huge wall of death with a frontline from the stage to the sound-tower. After this shouter Marcus Bischoff animated the mob to create a circle-pit around the sound-towers of both open air – stages with the wish the towers have to fall. And the fans didn’t hesitate a second to follow his demand. Well, of course with the exception they didn’t pile the towers. After the excellent Edge Of Sanity – cover “Black Tears” the band left the stage to return with the encore “Behind A Wall Of Silence” which caused another circle-pit with lots of crowdsurfers. A killer show which was recorded for a DVD-release that will be published within the next months!
Cradle Of Filth Long time no see! This might be the right description for the British Black Metal – icon. And Dani Filth, short-haired and suited in some kind of a spike-costume, and his musicians surprised with a good show. After some microphone problems in the beginning the sound worked pretty well as the cool light show did. Besides the opener “Dirge Inferno” from the current album “Thornography”, “Gilded Gunts” as “Nymphetamine” from the so-titled release and “Born In A Burial Gown” from the 2005-record “Bitter Suites To Succubi” the band including the female backing-singer whose vocals came from tape performed the fans’ biggest faves including the classics “Dusk And Her Embrace”, “The Forest Whispers My Name”, “Cruelty Brought The Orchids”, “Her Ghost In The Fog”, “The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh” as the encores “From Cradle To Enslave” and “Dark Fairytales In Phalusstein” mightn’t have left any wish open and took care of much headbanging on the festival area. I hope we don’t have too wait that long again for them!
Pain Stage
Debauchery The group from Stuttgart entered the stage covered with blood as they are known for. It was a little bit too early to attract the masses and win many new fans, but they showed attitude and played a respectable set with the most familiar track “Blood To The Blood God” in its end.
The Old Dead Tree It had taken a long time to watch this band on a big festival in Germany! And the show began with an unconscious gimmick: The quartet from Paris went on stage without an intro and nobody recognized these were the musicians entertaining them for the following 35 minutes. But the atmosphere changed very quick: Lead by a few fellow countrymen the spectators became curious after the first song and supported this very talented as sympathic band while new compositions from their current masterpiece “The Water Fields” like its opener “Out Of Breath” the hit “Is Your Soul For Sale” and “Dive” as songs from the both albums before as “Unrelenting”, “It Can’t Be” and the finishing “We Cry As One”. The talented singer Manuel Munoz impressed by his variable voice and his three comrades played very tight! And after they hadn’t even been identified as the band before the show after this all spectators spent much applause and jubilation for an excellent appearance!
Hackneyed The band consisting of sixteen-year-old boys coming from the town of Abtsgmünd where the Summer Breeze got founded and where it raised making the nowadays size possible are obvious fans of the US-Death-Metal-sound and performed their debut-record-tracks like “Gut Candy” pretty respectable. Hopefully they won’t get hyped that much because of their age in the future!
Keep Of Kalessin The Norwegians’ set focussed on their latest two albums “Armada” and the new “Kolossus” but they didn’t reach their goal to reproduce their Black Metal with approach live. Somehow the vibe was missed. The musicians celebrated tracks like “Crown Of The Kings” wild banging, and so did the first rows’ fans.
Neaera Deathcore from Münster was supposed to rule over Dinkelsbühl, and it did for sure! The quintet surprised in the beginning of its show by “Broken Spine” and “Save The Drowning Child” from their full-length-debut “The Rising Tide Of Oblivion” before they caused by “Armamentarium” of their so-titled current longplayer a huge wall of death beginning from the stage up to the sound-tower to continue with the title track and “Paradigm Lost” of their breakthrough album “Let The Tempest Come” causing several moshpits. After an intense circle-pit around the sound-tower the band around the agile shouter Benny finished with the final “Armamentarium”-smasher “Sinergy”. Great performance!
Primal Fear For ten years the German True Metal – band around Mat Sinner and ex – Gamma Ray – siren Ralf Scheepers had been fighting for their sound. On this year’s Summer Breeze which was mainly dominated by darker as harder bands an astonishable number of visitors was interested in this gig. So they watch a motivated band performing “Angels And Demons”, the ballad “Fighting The Darkness” from the current output “New Religion” and of course well-known classics like “Nuclear Fire”, “Running In The Dust” and the unavoidable “Metal Is Forever”.
Sonic Syndicate After their pretty much hyped breaktrough last year when the Swedish sixpiece played absolutely convincing shows on German Open Airs they fulfilled their appearance-list of important German open airs in 2008 with the Summer Breeze. In the beginning while their new video-single “Jack Of Diamonds” the guitar-sound didn’t work at all, but with the following “Flashback” the problems had been solved. The next half-ballad “Enclave” caught all attraction of the festivalsite population. In common I had the impression the “Only Inhuman” – songs achieved more support than the tracks from their very new “Love And Other Disasters” – longplayer. So its forthcoming second video-single “My Scape” sounding pretty mainstream reached lower applause. The band around the two male shouters offered an exclusive track: The Japan-bonus of the new CD “My Soul In Black”. So the show ended by “Blue Eyed Fiend” with catchy chorus melodies animated numerous fans to take part in, but somehow the whole show, especially the stageacting, looked pretty made. Make yourself an opinion when the DVD will be released on which they recorded the Summer Breeze- appearance.
Destruction The German Thrash Metal – icon celebrated their jubileum with a show full of pyros and special effects.The trio around Schmier also offered other gimmicks like a few naked ladies and while “Mad Butcher” the butcher himself alias his actor. They got celebrated for their classics like “Thrash Til’ Death”, “Nailed To The Cross” and “Bestial Invasion”. But in spite of all those ideas and gimmicks the pure appearance became pretty boring after a while.
Anathema Anybody present on the festival area was curious about if the British band would find back to old quality or not. And they did for sure! They started with the undying “Alternative 4” – milestones “Fragile Dreams” and “Empty” earning much support by the surprised as thrilled fans before the quintet fronted by the three Cavanagh-brothers played the newer songs “Closer” and “A Natural Desaster”, the last named supported by the wonderful female voice of Lee Douglas. After the “Judgment”-hit-single “Deep” the classics “Sleepless” and “A Dying Wish” followed as overwhelming as the epic “Lost Control”. With the Pink Floyd – cover “Comfortably Numb” and the Butcher-actor from the Destruction – show the band returned on stage and finished a fantastic gig excelling all our expectations. The definitely best band to bid farewell an open air festival program. A memorable intense gig we won’t forget!
Partytent
Hacride Another French band – sensation appeared on the tent stage. The quartet mainly focused their song choice on their latest masterpiece “Amoeba” performing “Fate”, the hammer composition “Perturbed” and the exotic “Zambra (Ojos De Brujo Cover)”, but they also considered the debut-longplayer “Deviant Current Signal” by “This Place”. The tent wasn’t really filled, but the attendant crowd celebrated and supported this inconvenient band a lot. The confident vocalist Samuel Bourreau flanked by his banging side-stringers and by the tight drummer building an unbeatable unity. I hope as I’m sure we’ll hear more from this impressing geniuses!
Mustasch Swedish Rock ‘n’ Roll at its best invaded the Party Tent for half an hour. Opening by “Down In Black” the band convinced almost every present spectator by their catchy riffs and choruses. Besides that fronter Ralf Gyllenhammer entertained very well by pointing out on his German classes in school and tried different funny language experiments. The fourpiece rocked performing their current album “Latest Version Of The Truth” by “Bring Me Everyone” and the hit “Double Nature” as encore. Those got celebrated as older songs like “Dogwash” or “Black City”. This band rocks!
Conclusion:
So it was the first time for the basic crew of the www.metal-festivals.com – team getting our own impression about the new location of the Summer Breeze. And it’s a more than a dignified one offering enough place for the raised visitors’ request! The Summer Breeze 2008 had been sold out weeks before it began!
But most of them wanted to arrive on Wednesday which caused big problems in conjunction with the rainy weather the days before melting the ground at the entrance which caused a big traffic holdup the whole street to the Autobahn exit. So people had to wait for a very long time till they had the opportunity to drive on the campsite. This will be the main defiance for the Summer Breeze 2009.
The organization at the area worked pretty well. The visitor had short ways between the stages, the little hill got ballasted and the area offered enough place to sit down without getting bulldozed. The concept with the much more involved Party Tent – stage worked very well and found high acceptance as advice by the spectators. And the billing spoke for itself! I haven’t experienced many festivals offering that many great as unique appearances!
So we appreciated our time at the Summer Breeze in Dinkelsbühl and we will return in 2010 for sure! So see you there!
Special thanks go out to David Gregori and the Summer Breeze-team!!!!!
At the Summer Breeze rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte, Yvi and Nic!!!!!