Summer Breeze 2003
Thursday
After discovering the festival in the south of Germany for three years the time had come to add this unique Open Air to our festival canon which was definitely decision. The festival took place in the picturesque little town of Abtsgmünd near Stuttgart. At the Summer Breeze 2003 played 50 bands on two stages which rotated in three days for 12000-15000 (on Saturday it was sold out) spectators.
Main Stage
Bloodflowerz The fourpiece is a local band from the region which played over the previous years each Summer Breeze. The band presented for another year their nice Gothic Metal from their debut “Diabolic Angel” as from its new successor “7 Benedictions / 7 Maledictions” with the unique voice of Kirsten Zahn.
Napalm Death As on the With Full Force Open Air the Grindcore machine from Birmingham was forced to act with one guitarist less because of the absence of guitarist Jesse Pintado and with reserve drummer Nick Barker (Dimmu Borgir/ Lock Up). Nevertheless Barney Greenway, Shane Embury and co presented themselves in their best possible condition and satisfied every fan from the oldest classic (“Scum”) to newest still unreleased material (“Narcoleptic”)
Rage Peavy, Victor and Mike showed another strong gig as they had done three weeks before in Wacken. With the opener “Don’t You Fear The Winter” the band from Herne started in a Greatest Hits-program which consisting of classics (“Sent By The Devil”, “Solitary Man”, “Black In Mind”) and material from the new Rage-release “Soundchaser” (“War Of Worlds”). This brilliant show which ended with “Higher Than The Sky” shouldn’t leave too many open wishes. Maybe only one: We don’t need any guitar-, drum- or somewhat-solo, especially not on Open Air-festivals!
Krokus The Hardrock-legend from Swiss started with the only two tracks of their new release “Rock The Block” (“Heart Strokes”, “Living In The World”) belonging to the setlist which caused irritation in the spectatorship. After the slow beginning Fernando Von Arb, Marc Storace started their Best Of-program (“Easy Rocker”, “Bad Boys Rag Dolls”, “Rock City”) which got much more celebrated and finished with the encores “Long Stick Goes Boom” and “Bedside Radio”.
Subway To Sally In my opinion the Folk Metal-band from Potsdam has to think about the aspect including seven titles from the new release “Engelskrieger” like the opener “Geist Des Kriegers”, “Unsterblich”, “Falscher Heiland” on a festival where everybody expects a few (!) new tracks added to a Best Of-program! Anyway this gig supported by an excellent pyro show was much better than their boring shows in Wacken and at the WFF. The main reason for this fact was the second part of their showcase consisting of hits like “Henkersbraut”, “Ohne Liebe” or the encores “Julia Und Die Räuber” and “Veitstanz”.
Pain Stage
Pyogenesis The Punkrock-fourpiece possesses a very multi-layered background reaching from their current Punnkrock-style over Alternative Rock and Gothic Rock /Metal up to their Death Metal-roots. So after their successful appearance on the Summer Breeze mainman Flo and his comrades decided to deviate from their usual setlist to an exclusive mixture between tracks from their new album “She Makes Me Wish I Had A Gun” (“Don’t You Say Maybe”, “I Feel Sexy”, “Punkrock Is Her Life”), show-evergreens (“Twinaleblood”, “Love Nation Sugarhead”, “Silver Experience”) and the exclusive part of classics which hadn’t been considered on stage for a long time (the opener “Blue Smiley’s Plan”, “Fade Away”, “It’s On Me”, “Sweet X-Rated Nothings”) to which Flo had to grunt and sing. Besides the fact I had never seen a bad show this gig which was supported by the first Pyo-Pyro-show (another exclusive aspect!) was their best appearance in my concert-career. Pyogenesis were celebrated by ecstatic fans and became the main winner of the evening!
The Kovenant I had seen the Norwegian band twice before Summer Breeze. At the Dynamo 1998 they disappointed totally, two years later at the same festival they surprised with a good show. While the opener I thought this gig would become another disaster, but it didn’t. From the second track on they rocked the crowd. Besides material from the current output “Seti” especially the two songs from their debut “Nexus Polaris” like the title track and “Chariots Of Thunder” and the tracks from their strongest album “Animatronic” like “New World Order”, “Shihad” or the cover “Spaceman” which took up the main part of the set helped them earning support by the crowd. So the silver medal of the first Summer Breeze day went to fronter Lex Icon and his fourpiece.
Friday
Main Stage
Heaven Shall Burn The german Straight Edge-Metalcore/Death Metal-fivepiece had already known in Wacken how to convince the metalheads by “The Worlds In Me” or “It Burns Within” from the “Whatever It May Take”-album which took up the main part of the show added by classics from the debut “In Battle” and also a new song. Supported by a very sympathic band (the fronter in the afternoon: “We have just arrived coming from the night shift. So we’re a little bit tired.”) this gig turned out to cool one!
Farmer Boys The band from Stuttgart what fronter Matze mentioned more and more often in relation to the VfB-soccer-team appeared for the third time at the Summer Breeze (last time was 2001). And again they conquered the crowd by a great mixture of their three albums (the single hit and title track from their latest release “Here Comes The Pain” or the Depeche Mode-cover from their debut “Never Let Me Down Again”) added by the new tracks “Home Is Where The Stars Are” and “The Other Side” from their forthcoming album while the sun was shining hot.
Amon Amarth The Death Metal-swedes around grunter Johan Hegg appeared the second time in a row in Abtsgmünd. The fivepiece entertained a lot of enthusiastic bangers, so for another time (year) their appearance turned into a “Victorious March”.
Primal Fear The biggest True Metal-band from the swabian region acted with their new drummer Randy Black (ex-Annihilator) for the first time. Ralf Scheepers, Mat Sinner and their group earned the biggest reactions by “Chainbreaker” and “Metal Gods”. I just don’t know why!
Children Of Bodom The finnish Power Melodic Deathies introduced their new guitarist Roope Latvala (Sinergy/ ex-Waltari/ ex-Stone) who replaced Alexander Kuoppala as the new album “Hatecrew Deathroll” by the title track or “Angels Don’t Kill”. But Alexi Laiho and co also shot many classics into the crowd (“Everytime I Die”, “Hate Me!”, “Silent Night, Bodom Night”, “Deadnight Warrior”, “Follow The Reaper”). So the Bodom-party could begin after a few sound problems in the beginning of the set.
In Extremo The other Folk Rock/Metal-headliner showed Subway To Sally how a good festival show looks like: After opening with “Stetit Puella”, “In Extremo” and “Wind” the band played just two tracks from their new output “7” (the current single “Küss Mich” and the cover “Erdbeermund”) and concentrated on their hits (“Herr Mannelig”, “Vollmond”, “Merseburger Zaubersprüche”, “Spielmannsfluch”, “Villeman Og Magnhild”). Successfully! The crowd danced, jumped and banged and the gig turned out to a party. The band acting without Yellow Pfeiffer who became father the same evening offered a cool show supported by many pyro effects.
Pain Stage
Fallen2Pieces The Hardrock-fourpiece around guitar hero Fabse Schwarz (also known from Stormwitch, Runamok, Bastard, Tyrant Pace) played songs from the debut “Prattle” as from their forthcoming album “Shapes” that it was a real pleasure. Hope to hear soon from this band coming from the near city Würzburg. Next time they probably appear later in the billing than in the noon when some people prefer to take a bath….
Graveworm Their second appearance in Abtsgmünd after 2001 happened in pure heat. But this fact was probably not the only reason why I didn’t enjoy the show again after I hadn’t done in Wacken. Perhaps the italian Blackies need to act later in the festival billings. In contrast to my opinion they got celebrated by the fans and caused some crowdsurfing.
Disbelief After Vintersorg cancelled their membership in this year’s Summer Breeze-program they got replaced by the Death Metal-band from Darmstadt. By their charismatic fronter Karsten Jäger and by a good song choice one of Germany’s best Death Metal-bands succeeded.
Amorphis A long time ago! The last time I had got the opportunity to watch the cult-band from Suomi was the same Open Air 2001. In the meantime the fivepiece had recorded two albums, but hadn’t toured anyway. The Finns played just one track from the new release “Far Away From The Sun” (“Day Of Your Beliefs”) and offered hits from the early band phase of the first three albums (“Grails Mysteries”, “Black Winter Day”, “Against Widows”, “My Kantele”). It was easy to feel the fun Esa Holopainen, Tomi Koivusaari and the other musicians had. Long awaited and just great!
Saturday
Main Stage
Darkseed Singer Stefan Hertrich played his last Open Air-gig before leaving his band which had reached the pole position under Germany’s Gothic Metal-bands. The gig was a journey of the best songs form the albums “Spellcraft”, “Give Me Light”, “Diving Into Darkness” up to the current release “Astral Adventures”. Songs like “Forever Darkness”, “Give Me Light or “I Deny You” just to name a few are definitive hits which were sung by many fan voices in the early but hot afternoon. My personal festival highlight!
Dew-Scented The upcoming band in Germany’s Death/Thrash Metal-genre presented songs from the new output “Impact” (“Soul Poison”, “Acts Of Rage”) like their well-known hits (Unconditional”, “Life Ending Path”). Leif and his colleges who got supported by ex-bassist Patrick had to fight against the sun for the second time after Wacken this summer – and they won: 2:0 for Dew-Scented!
God Dethroned The Death-colleges from the Netherlands had much more problems with the heat because the fans were too tired. Fronter Henri Sattler and his formation played a good gig similar to the one on the Rock Hard Festival about three months ago, but they didn’t earn the same reactions.
Sinner The swabian Hardrock-group played a boring show like they had done in Wacken this summer. Opening with “Comin’ Out Fighting” and “When Silence Falls” over their classics “Born To Rock You”, “Requiem For A Sinner” and “Judgement Day” up to the new previously unreleased song “Finaliser” and the Billy Idol-remake “Rebel Yell” Mat Sinner and his guys tried to convince the spectatorship and failed. And for another time: Especially on festivals where bands have limited time for their set drumsolos like the one Fritz Randow did are totally superfluous.
Within Temptation The Gothic Metal-shooting stars from the Netherlands appeared for the second time at the Summer Breeze after last year. The main role was played by the sympathic singer Sharon den Adel in a white dress whose band celebrated with the fans to their hits from the “Mother Earth”-album like the title track, “Ice Queen”, ”Deceiver Of Fools” or “Neverending Story” as older material (“Grace”, “The Dance”) or the Kate Bush-cover “Running Down That Hill” (from the new edition of “Mother Earth”). The full festival area while their show symbolised their popularity, but in this case also the quality.
J.B.O. The Comedy Metal-fourpiece from Erlangen took care about fun and pleasure for another time. And in their purple jerseys with grey points they offered a Funniest Of and reached their aim to leave most spectators in a good mood.
In Flames For the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal-milestone this was the first headliner show on a german Open Air festival. No matter to them: The swedish fivepiece presented an excellent mixture of current material like the opener “Cloud Connected”, “System” or “Trigger”, the fans’ all-time-faves like “Episode 666”, the last encore “Colony”, “Pinball Map”) as with “Behind Space” and “Moonshield” old stuff. Anders Fridén, Jesper Strömblad motivated nearly every fan to sing and jump. Supported by a fantastic light and pyro show this showcase turned out to a whole triumph.
Pain Stage
Callenish Circle The Melodic Death Metal-fivepack celebrated after this year’s Wacken another excellent gig. They reached the fans with their catchy songs and finished with the celebrated band-hymn “Obey Me” (You remember:”…two, three, go!”) a another very strong gig.
Undertow The local answer to Crowbar played for another time a nice gig on the Summer Breeze. Besides his vocal qualities fronter Joschi understood to entertain the crowd by his funny comments. Cool band!
End Of Green The fivepiece is besides Bloodflowerz and Undertow the third band playing every Summer Breeze over the last years. And they always, like the other two mentioned groups, play strong shows. This year the band around the charismatic vocalist Michael Huber introduced their new output “Last Night On Earth” (“Highway 69”), but also the real hits from the predecessor “Songs For A Dying World” (“Only One”, “Motor”, “Death In Veins”) besides a few tracks from the older releases. One word: Cool!
Hollenthon The side-project of two Pungent Stench-members played a comfortable show mainly consisting of the second output “With Vilest Of Worms To Dwell”. As well Martin Schirenc and his combo certified the good impression they had left on last year’s Wacken Open Air-festival.
The Crown The Swedish Death Metal-formation around their new as old fronter Johan Lindstrand presented material from the new output “Possessed 13” (“Zombified”) and smashed their classics on stage “1999-Revolution 666”, “Under The Whip”, “Blitzkrieg Witchcraft”, “Total Satan” and as the encore “Death Metal Holocaust. Good gig!
Conclusion:
The Summer Breeze Open Air felt to us like a holiday! Everything was so relaxed: Nice people, the familiar touch super organisation, good billing, a little bit too good weather. The Summer Breeze earned many cancellations of great bands (Meshuggah, Katatonia, Borknagar, Vintersorg, Darkane, Shadow’s Fall, 40 Primordial) this year. For many festivals this could have lead into a small catastrophe, anyway that didn’t happen to the Summer Breeze which was able to compensate those losses so that the Open Air was able to become a wonderful festival in 2003 so that we are looking forward to the Summer Breeze 2004!
At the Summer Breeze rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi and Melli!!!!!