SUMMER BREEZE 2010
The Summer Breeze has established as one of the three big German Open Air Festivals! Over the latest decade it has evolved step by step and got by 30000 visitors the second highest attendance in Germany for the first time! The organization went ahead investing in their festival area: After tarmacing the car entrance to the campsite they did the same with the ground in front of the Main Stage up to the two wave-breakers. The organization on as behind the festivalsite worked very well as it had done the years before!
The program began by a newcomer contest which got its new name “New Blood Award” marking a cup for the newcomer contest winner. The following label night in the Party Tent was entitled by Nuclear Blast instead of Metal Blade, the Open Air billing started with the newcomer contest winner on thursday.
Next to the Party Stage Tent the organizers used the Camel Stage giving underground bands a chance to rock for three times each while the Party Stage changeovers. We concentrated on the three regular stages anyway.
For another time the Summer Breeze presented a very varied billing of good taste showing you highlights like Subway To Sally, Heaven Shall Burn, Children Of Bodom, Sepultura, Agnostic Front, Hypocrisy, the European farewell shows of Despised Icon as of Dark Funeral’s fronter, etc.! At this year’s Summer Breeze 95 bands appeared on three stages (+ 7 on the Camel Stage and one Comedian as Surprise Act) in four days for about 30000 visitors (Sold out!)
Wednesday
Party Stage
Suicidal Angels The Greek Thrash Metal fourpiece welcomed a tent filled with motivated fans by “Mourning Of The Cursed”. During their set they concentrated on their “Sanctify The Darkness” output, but also giving by “Bleeding Holocaust” as “Dead Again” an impression about their forthcoming release.
Suffocation Last year the quintet from New York City smashed their fans deep in the Summer Breeze night. This time they had to appear in the sunny afternoon, and they fascinated the crowd by their brutal, tight Death Metal as well. Tracks like the opener “Blood Of Thrones”, the newer “Blood Oath” and the finisher “Infecting The Crypts” left no wish open.
Rage The first highlight of the evening was up to follow by the German Metal icon. The trio considered their new album “Strings By A Web” by the opener “The Edge Of Darkness”, “Hunter And Prey”, “Into The Light” and “Empty Hollow” enormously. The tent was completely packed and the fans celebrated their heroes from Herne, especially while the classics “Higher Than The Sky”, “Down” and “Set This World On Fire”. The only aspect to criticize was the fact Peavy & Co didn’t play more older ones and concentrated on their younger albums. Anyway: Cool gig!
Unleashed The Swedish Death Metal commando brought higher speed as more heaviness back into the tent. But first of all the sound sucked which got improved during the show. Besides “Wir Kapitulieren Niemals” from their new “ As Yggdrasil Trembles” – release their set consisted of real classics like the opener “Winterland”, “Blood Of Lies”, “Shadows In The Deep”, “Hammer Battalion”, “Into Glory Ride” which got dedicated to the departed Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio) as Pete Steele (Type O Negative) and the final “Death Metal Victory” which found much support from the audience.
Equilibrium Germany’s leading formation in Pagan Metal introduced their new fronter Robse to their fans. But this didn’t mean they filled their set just with tracks from their new record “Rekreatur”. Besides the opener “In Heiligen Hallen”, “Unter Der Eiche” and “Die Affeninsel” they entertained their fans by older material which stuck on my as on many other’s nerves as well. And the track “Die Affeninsel” leads us to the question how the next titles could be named: “Pavian Palace”, “Schimpansen-Schande”, “Gorilla Genocide” or “Orang-Utan Wotan”? We’ll see!
Annotations Of An Autopsy The fivepiece from United Kingdom brought back the violence into the tent. Blastbeats mixed with Gore elements and Breakdowns were the right medicine for the crowd which reacted with a respectable pit. The band considered tracks from their new strong “The Reign Of Darkness” album as from their full-length debut “Before The Throne Of Infection” as even from their EP before. In my opinion this was the best performance of this day! And “Cryogenica” is one of the Death Metal hits of this decade!
Milking The Goatmachine The caprine quartet closed wednesday night with their Grindcore concentrating on their debut “Back From The Goats”. It was astonishing how Goatleeb Udder grunted while drumming the up-tempo-tracks. The tent was emptier, but the left people celebrated the caprineheads.
Thursday
Main Stage
Barren Earth It wasn’t a coincidence the sixpiece seemed to be familiar, it’s line-up consisted of several members of well-known Metal formations like vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow The Sun), guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö (Waltari, Kreator), drummer Marko Tarvonen (Moonsorrow), bassist Olli-Pekka Laine and keyboarder Kasper Martensson (both ex-Amorphis). Just the second sixstringer didn’t seem to be that known. But while their slot the band showed their class in cool Finnish Melodic Death Metal. They played the first five songs of their new full-length debut in a row before closing with the older “Floodred”. More of that!
Napalm Death The Grindcore icon from Great Britain was back to cause blastbeats on stage as pit action in front of it. In total contrast to this stood the intelligent announcements about fascism and religious issues of shouter Barney Greenway which wasn’t a disaccord to the wild party going on to “Unchallenged Hate”, “Suffer The Children”, the newer “On The Brink Of Extinction”, the following oldie “Scum, Life?” as the smashing final containing “You Suffer”, “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” and “Siege Of Power”.
Parkway Drive It was the first time for the quintet appearing in Dinkelsbühl and it became a real triumph. After beginning with the new “Unrest” the quintet performed the hits “Idols And Anchors” and “Romance Is Dead” which caused the first really huge pit action on the festivalsite. Supported by the hot sun the Australians must have felt familiar pretty soon and presented besides the mentioned opener by “Sleepwalker” as “Deliver Me” songs from their brandnew “Deep Blue” album. So they finished by “Carrion” and “Boneyards” a much jubilated show.
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter The sixpack from East Germany caught numerous fans in front of the stage and got celebrated while starting with “Wir Sind Das Licht”, “Revolution” and “Unter Der Asche”. Honestly, this wasn’t really a good gig, but their fans didn’t care and jubilated till the end which was done by “We Will Never Die” and “Seemann” to which fronter Fuchs entered a rubber-boat getting carried by the crowd.
Obituary The Death Metal machine from Florida had an easy game to reanimate the real Metal fans by tight riffing combined with John Tardy’s unique shouts. So the Florida fivepiece caused a lot of headbanging by smashers like “Evil Ways” or the finisher “Slowly We Rot” in the prime time evening.
Subway To Sally The leading German Folk Rock / Metal formation besides In Extremo returned as headliner to the Summer Breeze after several years. And the sevenpiece from Potsdam chose the right decision to perfom a best of program: Supported by pyro effects they entertained from the beginning “Henkersbraut” over “Kleid Aus Rosen”, “20000 Meilen Unter Dem Meer”, “Maria” and “Veitstanz” to the fans’ fave “Julia Und Die Räuber”.
Pain Stage
Bleeding Red The official Open Air program got opened by the newcomer contest winner of the day before. Honored by the New Blood Award the fourpiece from the close town of Aalen took their chance preseting their Death Metal a bigger audience and outdared technical problems.
Dream Evil The Melodic Metal act from Gothenburg stuck on my nerves for another time. Simple melodies meet stupid lyrics as a too high-pitched voice like in the classic “Book Of Heavy Metal (March Of The Metallians)” as in the new “In The Night” – track “Bang Your Head”.
Ill Nino The quintet from South America was the first highlight of the day. As always they combined heavyness and melodies with their Latino percussion. And they’re still pretty popular. So from the opener “If You Still Hate Me” over “Corazon Of Mine”, “Alibi Of Tyrants”, “This Is War”, “God Save Us” and the amazing final consisting of “What Comes Around” and “How Can I Live” they earned much support and jubilations. The very agile band deserved it doubtlessly.
The 69 Eyes The Finnish Gothic Rock act started with the title track of their recent longplayer “Back In Blood” into their set through which it became clear for another time the five guys (?) from Helsinki are just a boring rip-off of HIM. The current single “Kiss Me Undead” and the classic “Brandon Lee” got the most applause.
Agnostic Front It was a cool decision by the Summer Breeze organizers to confirm the NYC Hardcore legend for the first time. Roger Miret & Co spread real party atmosphere by their powerful agile performance. Biggest highlight was for another time their anthem “Gotta Go” sung by thousands of supporters.
Dark Tranquillity The Gothenburg quintet ruled for another time. Beginning with “At The Point Of Ignition” and “The Fatalist” from the new “We Are The Void” masterpiece the band put straight this show was supposed to become a further success. And the numerous fans celebrated “The Wonders At Your Feet”, “Final Resistance”, “Therin” and “Misery’s Crown” singing and headbanging. Lead by its fantastic vocalist as performer Mikael Stanne the Swedes ruled Dinkelsbühl enormously and accomplished their appearance with the jubilated “Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)”.
Raised Fist Another cool billing position was filled by another Swedish fivepiece closing the first night on the Open Air festivalsite. But instead of Melodic Death Metal time was up for Hardcore. Just a few hundred were left, but those had fun with this refreshing appearance which had its highlight while the single-hit “Friends And Traitors”.
Party Stage
Dew-Scented After the “Downfall” intro the German Death / Thrash attack started with the new video-single “Arise To Decay” into a powerful appearance in which they considered by “A Critical Mass” another smasher from the new “Invocation” album. Neckbreakers like “Never To Return”, “Cities Of The Dead” and the final “Acts Of Rage” didn’t leave the audience any choice than just to headbang or to join the pit.
Insomnium This quartet from Finland is a great example for the influence of word of mouth. Two years ago they had been pretty unknown, they had raised their popularity by their live shows besides their releases before acting at Summer Breeze in front of an astonishable crowd. The introducing instrumental “Equivalence” was just the calm before the storm going chronologically ahead with “Down With The Sun”, “Where The Last Wave Broke” and “The Harrowing Years” from the new album “Across The Dark”. The Finns concentrated on this one as on its predecessor “Above The Wheeping World” by the hits “The Killjoy” as “Mortal Share” ignoring their first two releases. Band as audience acted completely headbanging celebrating this awesome show. By the way: Fronter Niilo Sevänen did all announcements in pretty fluent German.
Swallow The Sun Another band from the land of the thousand lakes which had raised over the latest years followed. In contrast to Insomnium the sixpiece creates more complicated song structure instead of catchy choruses. Nevertheless they succeeded as well. From the newer compositions “These Woods Breathe Evil” and “This Falling World” the Finns caught the audience’s attraction. For keyboarder Aleksi Munter this was the second show in a row because he had also played with Insomnium. Vocalist Miko Kotamäki also acted for the second time this day after he had appeared with Barren Earth on the Main Stage in the early afternoon. After the older “Plague Of Butterflies” and “Don’t Fall Asleep” he announced the title track of their new masterpiece “Full Moon” with the words: “And this has nothing to do with that vampire shit!” Nice! Amazing atmospheric show!
Necrophagist Who thought technically high approached Death Metal can be just expected from North America must have been proved wrong by the four guys from Karlsruhe. Playing a well-balanced set between their both albums “Onset Of Putrefaction” (“Foul Body Autopsy”, “Extreme Unction”, the finisher “Fermented Offal Discharge”) and “Epitaph” (the opener “The Stillborn One”, “Only Ash Remains”, “Stabwound”).
Ahab Walking into the tent I got introduced by the sound of waves bringing me as the spectators in the mood for what was up to follow after this intro. It was an atmospheric gig including long epic Doom Metal compositions. Four songs were enough to fill the 40 minutes. From a blue-lighted stage the trio from Munich hypnotized the left crowd by the opener “Oh Father Sea”, the title track as the final “Redemption Lost” from the recent longplayer “The Divinity Of Oceans” as by the debut track with the suitable name “Old Thunder”. Epic in deed!
Friday
Main Stage
Inme Last year each morning I got woke up by some avarage-sounding Gothic Rock / Metal band with a horrible female siren. This year this circumstance got improved on the billing. The British trio were the right opener by their fresh Rock including some electronic overdubs. Nothing spectacular, but entertaining as well.
Mono Inc. That changed by the Gothic Rock formation. Boring tracks that rock as much as a summer party in the rest home and a not mentionable performance. Even the cover of D:A:D’s party evergreen “Sleeping My Day Away” bored.
Fiddler’s Green The exercise to entertain the spectators positively got solved much better by Fiddler’s Green. Although they’re probably as less Metal as their predecessors they understood how to rock. So my doubts about German bands playing Irish Folk music didn’t get fulfilled.
Ensiferum The quality got reduced by another Folk-related act. But the crowd didn’t care about that fact celebrating simple Pagan Metal like the demanded “Into Battle”, “Token Of Time” or the final “Iron”.
Cannibal Corpse When you watch the Florida Death Metal machine you know what to expect: Blastbeats, grunts and a heavy performance. After playing younger material the Corpsegrinder & Co considered several hits like “The Wretched Spawn”, “I Will Kill You” and the final “Hammer Smashed Face” as “Stripped, Raped And Strangled” supported by a motivated crowd as a good sound.
Hypocrisy Peter Tägtgren and his band started strong with the fabulous “Fractured Millenium” into their set, and that became a killing one. Supported by a clean sound and a good light show it seemed pure pleasure for band as fans to celebrate a gig of the Swedish Death Metal icon after a long time of live absence. So after much headbanging and several moshpits the Swedes left with an excellent final consisting of “Fire In The Sky”, “Warpath” and “Roswell 47”.
Heaven Shall Burn Two years after the German Metalcore icon had played their first big festival headliner show succeeding completely which they put on their wonderful DVD the fivepiece returned to do it again. With the new strong album “Invictus” they had a great choice which they took to present a hammering set. From the beginning with “Architects Of The Apocalypse”, their first hit “The Weapon They Fear” and “Counterweight” they ruled the festivalsite and the crowd raged in several pits. The stage production was remarkable as well: A great light show, the huge ligthened letters HSB and different pyro effects made this show unique. So especially was the big screen, clips got projected on, dealing with the song’s issues like war (“Combats”, probably the best video ever, watch it!), ecology, factory farming as handling animals in general. So “Endzeit”, “Voice Of The Voiceless”, “Forlorn Skies”, “Behind A Wall Of Silence” and the final Edge Of Sanity cover “Black Tears” got celebrated by the masses of fans. Music, live performance, stage production and the attitude pointing out on serious issues made this show for another time very special! Not to forget the Bretzel-Mann-circle-pit, but this is another story!
Pain Stage
Cumulo Nimbus I don’t know why these high class billings of the Summer Breeze always contain those few horrible medieval groups. The Bavarian one wasn’t better anyway playing their Folk Metal with usual as exotic instruments.
Deadstar Assembly The following Florida fivepiece didn’t offer much better music by their Nu Metal / Crossover mixed with lots of samples. But the band rocked the stage playing their first European appearance. Even the “Send Me An Angel” cover turned out to a good one.
Letzte Instanz Another Gothic Rock Horror was supposed to bore me, and the formation from Dresden fulfilled my expectations. But they had an astonishable number of fans in front of the stage celebrating the Inchtabokatables cover “Wir Sind Allein” and other tracks of the 14 year old band history.
The Black Dahlia Murder The quality raised a lot when the madmen from Detroit entered the stage to kick ass by the opener “Everything Went Black”, “Statutory Ape”, “What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse” and “Funeral Thirst” causing massive moshpit as crowdsurfing action. Trevor Strnad showed again he’s a great fronter unifying with his tight band.
Anathema Two years ago the Cavanagh brothers and their band concluded the Summer Breeze with a phenomenal show. This time they had to deal with the sun while daylight and hot temperatures. And they did well: Beginning with “Deep”, “Empty Words” and “Lost Control” followed by “A Simple Mistake” besides the later played “Universal” one of two compositions from their new masterpiece “We’re Here Because We’re Here”. The atmosphere was a very special one. And the audience made this clear by their massive applause to “Closer”, “A Natural Disaster”, the classic “Sleepless” and the final rocker “Fragile Dreams”. Just wonderful!
End Of Green To combine Gothic-influences with solid Rock is the discipline of the local heroes from End Of Green. And they rocked the Summer Breeze for another time by “Killhoney”, “Drink Myself To Sleep”, “Goodnight Insomnia” and “Tie Me A Rope… While You’re Calling My Name”, from the brandnew album “High Hopes In Low Places” which got released the same day, “Die Lover Die” and the final hymn “Death In Veins”.
Gorgoroth After all these juristic controversies against his ex-bandmates Gaahl and King it was time for Infernus to let the music do the talking. But a Gorgoroth show has nothing to do with music whether its protagonists are named. Strengthened by Obituary’s Frank Watkins this show became a parody of itself. Ridiculous!
GWAR They weirdos from the USA had never tried to be taken serious, so they didn’t in Dinkelsbühl. The presented themselves as pure entertainers with their show killing several well-known but disliked persons or figures from the pope to satan itself in their splatter way covering the first few rows with fake blood in different colors. Nice entertainment!
Party Stage
Destinity The French fivepiece opened the Party Stage in the afternoon. Their Death Thrash attracted a few hundred curious metalheads into the tent and convinced. “A Dead Silence”, “In Sorrow” and the final hammer “Your Demonic Defense” showed their new album “XI Reasons To See” offering new interesting content besides their older ones. Fronter Mick animated the crowd to take part in headbanging and it worked. Good band!
Kylesa The only act appearing with two drumers for a long time convinced as well, but with a completely different style. Their US-Sludge filled the tent acoustically, and the male as the female vocalists guaranteed variety. Besides “Hollow Serverer” and “Where The Horizon Unfolds” the quartet concentrated on their recent release “Static Tension” by “Scapegoat”, “Said And Done” or Running Red” which found much applause.
Disbelief The Psychedelic Death Metal quintet from Germany has a very own distinctive sound which relates to the voice of Jagger as to the atmospheric but hard riffs. They began by “A Place To Hide” and “Hate Aggression Schedule” to let follow the classic sound monsters “Rewind It All”, “Navigator”, “Sick”, “The One” and “Misery”. What a setlist! With the new “Heal” track “The Last Force Attack” the band left absolutely satisfied fans. Intense!
Origin The US Prog Death Metal fivepiece usually is a real live experience, but this time the sound sucked. The band interpreted the opener “Staring From The Abyss”, “Implosion Of Eternity” and the title track of their current album “Antithesis” live well anyway keeping the fans headbanging, but it could have been much more exciting with a good sound. Shit happens!
Despised Icon This was the last time to watch the Deathcore ensemble from Montréal before the planned split, and so the tent got filled. The Canadiens and their fans took care about a lot of motion and trouble by the opener “All For Nothing”, “Day Of Mourning”, “In The Arms Of Perdition” and the final “MVP” which all got celeb massively by several circle pits as by a big wall of death. What a good-bye!
Hail Of Bullets Old school Death Metal was brought by the bunch of well-known Dutch Death Metal musicians. They played a good choice of their debut release “Of Frost And War” (“Red Wolves Of Stalin”, “Nachthexen”, “Berlin”) as the new track “Operation Z” for the very first time. Their fans were thankful headbanging and making noise.
Long Distance Calling It was time for the Postrock overnight sensation from Münster to present their innovative instrumental compositions to a bigger crowd. The billing position was a good one. The opener “I Know You, Stanley Milgram”, “Aurora” and “Metulsky Curse Revisited” spread an atmosphere deep in the night fascinating fans as just curious spectators who discovered the band which also performed two new songs.
Saturday
Main Stage
The Foreshadowing The Gothic Doom sixpiece from Rome appeared to early. Just a few people cared about their a bit too pathetic performance which mainly considered their new output “Oionos”.
Van Canto The German formation which covers Metal classics as own tracks by drums and five voices interpreting vocals as the other instruments attracted many supporters in front of the stage. But this gig showed for another time how an interesting project can become boring by the time.
Frei.Wild The next band from South Tyrol, Italy had even more fans waiting for their faves. To them the Rock in german language probably was a good concert, to me as to many others just ridiculous trying to be the next Böhse Onkelz rip off.
Eisbrecher Another German Rock act followed, but this has not to fill in a vacuum which had seemingly been left by a former band. The formation around ex-Megaherz fronter Alexx Wesselsky returned with a best of program to Dinkelsbühl and entertained well.
Sepultura Another best of setlist was played by the legend from Sao Paolo. Of course the classics “Arise”, “Refuse / Resist”, “Troops Of Doom” and “Schizophrenia” dominated the crowd’s reactions. The quartet played as performed well and took the right decision to consider that many evergreens as they hadn’t done a long time before. The final consisting of “Territory”, “Innerself”, “Rattamahatta” and “Roots Bloody Roots” was awesome as celebrated a lot in the numerous pits.
Bülent Ceylan The surprise act was the comedian who explained it’s no case of coincidence he’s wearing long hair and outed himself as a big Sepultura fan. In his 20 minutes he entertained the spectatorship very well by his little stories and crowdsurfed in the end.
Sick Of It All Then the time was over for funny jokes and up for NYC Hardcore. Motivated as everytime the Koller-brothers & Co entered the stage and started with “Death Or Jail” and “Good Looking Out”. The fans knew what to do celebrating this aggressive appearance inlcuding “Step Down”, “Built To Last” which got dedicated to Sepultura and “Scratch The Surface”.
Children Of Bodom The Finns attracted lots of fans filling up the festivalsite. Alexi Laiho and his comrades played a well-balanced set considering the opener “Follow The Reaper”, “Hatecrew Deathroll”, “Everytime I Die”, “Sixpounder”, “Angels Don’t Kill”, “Silent Night, Bodom Night” and “Needled 24/7” which satisfied their fans obviously. Not too bad, but even not too good!
Pain Stage
Be’Lakor The fivepiece from Melbourne was the best opener of this year’s Summer Breeze. To the Death Metal underground band this probably was their biggest gig ever played whích they had come such a long way for. Cool gig!
Undertow After a long time the local heroes published a new strong release. So reason enough to return on the Summer Breeze stage. The setlist contained besides “Crawler” and “Stomping Out Ignorance” just new songs. To the last one The Very End fronter Björn Gooßes entered the stage to join.
Psychopunch Another band which had often played at Summer Breeze is the Swedish Rock ‘n’ Roll foursome. So the crowd rocked to the opener “Long Time Coming”, “Lost Highway” and the ABBA cover “SOS”.
Leaves Eyes Liv Kristine and Alex Krull returned with their cabinet of Horror to Dinkelsbühl. I have no idea why this act still can count on a bunch of fans, but they bored enormously. And from the musical aspect: The band was pretty untight and the singers’ voices improvable.
Poisonblack For Fans of Sentenced the new band of their vocalist Ville Laihialo probably is the right continuation. But they consequently performed own material like the new songs “Rust And Bones” “Leech”, “Casket Case” and “Buried Alive” as “Love Infernal”, “Rush” and the final “Bear The Cross” earning pretty much support.
Korpiklaani Right back out of the forest seemed to be another Finnish formation. But this one decided not to rock. Instead of that they bored by Pagan Metal. Of course a crowd jumped and felt funny, but nevertheless: Boring!
Dark Funeral A goodbye gig followed. For the last time Emperor Magus Caligula fronted the Swedish Black Metal institution. Supported by a great sound, several pyro effects and enthusiastic fans celebrating this dignified farewell gig which got concluded by nice words from the mentioned fronter and the suitable “My Funeral”.
My Dying Bride The Death Doom Metal institution from Great Britain was the right band to close this year’s program beginning at midnight. In the dark night the compositions created an amazing atmosphere. After opening with “Fall With Me” and “Bring Me Victory” vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe pointed out original drummer Dan Mullins was missing because he had broken his leg, and added the reason he was too fat. But Aaron advised this was just a joke which was even cooler because of the serious band aura they had spread before again. David Gray from Akerkocke replaced him for this show they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the band’s existence with. Expecially “Turn Loose The Swans” and “She Is The Dark” caused intensive headbanging action in front of the stage. By “My Body, A Funeral” the British closed a great atmospheric show which could have contained a few more classics.
Party Stage
Hacride Two years after the innovative quartet from Poitiers had rocked the Summer Breeze tent they returned with a new masterpiece called “Lazarus”. So the French started with by “My Enemy” with a new epic song from it. Because of the hot weather conditions the air was pretty bad. So there could have been more visitors celebrating Prog Death Metal compositions like “Perturbed”. But it was an awesome show anyway!
Callisto The Finnish Sludge Doom sixpiece needed even one song less than their stage predecessors. The epics “In Session”, Wormwood”, “Rule The Blood” and “Providence” showed the band had decided to mainly concentrate on their new album titled “Providence”. The band rocked, played tight and created a wonderful atmosphere in the tent where they might have won a few new fans.
Solstafir Even two songs less were played by the innovative foursome from Reykjavik. After 15 minutes “Köld” and 20 minutes “Ritual Of Fire” the 35 minutes limit was reached. The pretty filled tent celebrated both songs which got the vibe to catch the motivation of nearly every present spectator to listen carefully. Amazing!
Maroon One of the leading Metalcore bands in Germany opened with their new hit “Stay Brutal”, and it got clear from the first tone this wouldn’t become a pic nic. Fronter André Moraweck stagedived into the crowd, the band acted agile and the mad fans reacted with several pits to smashers like “The Worlds Havoc”, “Reach The Sun” and “Wake Up In Hell”. What an intensive gig!
Asphyx Death Metal the old school way competed with the neo-Death headliner Children Of Bodom on the Main Stage. Besides “Scorbutics” and the title track from the comeback album “Death … The Brutal Way” the Dutch played a best of program including the opener “Vermin”, “Bismarck” and the final “The Rack” causing a lot of fans headbanging. I can’t remember a festival with Martin van Drunen fronting Asphyx as Hail Of Bullets. Good decision!
The Crown The reunited Death Metal institution reconquered the stage. And how they did! The beginning consisting of “Deathexplosion”, “Executioner” and the phenomenal “Under The Whip” set standards for an excellent classics show which contained by “Doomsday King” one brandnew track from the forthcoming comeback album. The new shouter Jonas Stahlhammar convinced and the fans celebrated their comeback enthusiastic.
Count Raven The good old Doom Metal legend was back. The trio welcomed a few hundred spectators to close this year’s edition of the Summer Breeze. The trio considered by “The Poltergeist” and “Scream” two new songs from their comeback record. Besides that they performed their greatest Doom hits from the opener “Yen” to the final “High On Infinity” and deserved their applause. Cool!
Conclusion:
The Summer Breeze 2010 turned out to a big success. It was sold out months before. The organization on the festivalsite convinced as it’s well-known. The investments in the area took care about much improved conditions in front of the stages. And most visitors arrived on wednesday without to have wait too long to get in, so this either worked well as in 2009.
The ways between the stages were pretty short, the hill on its way got ballasted again. The concept with the two open air stages alternating each other and the parallel tent stage showing you bands until the deepest night worked very well. The Camel Stage next to the tent filling its changeovers worked as well. For another time the Summer Breeze offered a well-balanced billing concerning the quality as the variety of music. The food mile also impressed by a big variety and the prices for food and beverages were fair (e.g. 3,- € for a 0,4 l can of beer or softdrink).
We appreciated the Summer Breeze 2010 and will return in 2011 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!!!!!