Dong Open Air
It was time again for the “Call Of The Mountain”, this year’s slogan of DOA 2023. But after a dozen of Dong-participations we just were able to arrive for the third day due to sickness reasons. Anyway, the saturday offered a strong billing lead by the Scandinavian triple attack. After changing to an open stage as rearranging the whole set-up of the hill moving the stage to its other side there weren’t that many organizational changes in 2023 than they had happened for last year’s comeback after the pandemic break.
The prices for food and drinks pretty much stayed the same (4,50 € per 0.4 l beer). On the Dong hill 28 bands appeared in three days for about 4500 fans.
Saturday
Hans Lazer Alien Slam To our complete surprise the festival area was pretty filled for the opening band. Their Synthesizer-Death grooved the hill, their wig wearing fronter entertained well and the audience supported the opener right before noon, so very, very early. Respect!
Disquiet After this pretty much populated as a bit self-ironic beginning the program turned to serious Thrash Metal. The fivepiece from Utrecht returned to the Dong hill after they had appeared on it nine years ago. By “Rise Of The Sycophants” and “No More Dignity” they presented material from their recent output “Instigate To Annihilate” and convinced a couple of headbangers.
Sapiency Another return happened by the following act from Frankfurt. After 2015 the double-frontedsixpack impressed by their variable Melodic Death Metal. The interplay between both very different looking vocalists (age, outfit, seize)in combination by the riffs of the visual guitar-Gandalf-lookalike resulted in one of the highlights of the day as probably of the weekend which attracted several metalheads to come back in front of the stage after they had left because of stormy winds. So all of them could join their cover version of “Maniac”.
Contradiction The fourpiece from the close town of Wuppertal didn’t just return to the Dong hill, they performed on it for the fifth time. So it was no surprise numerous headbangers were awaiting them. Their Thrash Metal convinced for another time and earned much jubilation as headbanging action.
From Fall To Spring A complete sound change got performed by the following much younger quintet. Their Crossover reminded a bit of Linkin Park and added a modern sound to this year’s diversified billing. A couple of spectators left, others stayed and watched a show mainly basing on their brandnew longplayer-debut “Rise” which the band had released after a few EP’s and singles. “Br4infck” and “Supernova” concinved as the older “Hear Me Out” resulting in the audience’s applause.
Motorjesus Without original sixstringer Andreas Peters the high octane Rockers from the close town of Mönchengladbach returned for their sixth DOA-show. Lead by front-entertainer Christoph Birx and his cool comments the fivepiece taught another lesson in what Heavy Rock is all about. “King Of The Dead End Road”, “Fist Of The Dragon” as “The Howling” left no other option than to celebrate this performance.
Kanonenfieber In front of a huge backdrop showing a zeppelin with the band’s name on it the masked formation started into their set. But their Black Metal dealing with war themes bored after a while, so we preferred to take a walk around the marvelous hilltop.
Insomnium The Finnish quartet returned five years after they had enthused the Dong-fans for the first time to start the Scandinavian finale of this saturday night. By several songs from their new concept album “1696” as its title song, “Godforsaken”, “Lillian” and “The Witch Hunter” fronter Niilo Sevänen and his bang commando inspired the audience to take part in an hour of pure Melodic Death Metal magic. By the classics “Mortal Share”, “And Bells They Toll” and “While We Sleep” they had everybody on their side.
Hypocrisy Opening by the classic “Fractured Millenium” the Swedish Death Metal institution caught the supporters from the first tone on. Animated by bandleader Peter Tägtgren 60 minutes of complete Metal madness followed uniting band as fans to one unity. The band was performing, the fans were in motion. So after the melancholic “The Final Chapter” the quartet finished an inspiring show by their hymn “Rosswell 47”.
Amorphis After appearing in the smaller long tent in 2009 and in the larger circus tent in 2016 the melodic as melancholic Death Metal sound from the land from the thousand lakes returned to the Dong hill onto its open stage. 14 years ago they were the huge super stars of the billing, this time they still headlined as a part of an even much better billing. And again Helsinki’s finest performed one of the highlight shows of this year’s DOA. After an intro with red flashing lights those ones turned constantly blue to welcome the Finns starting with “Northwards”. By “The Moon”, “Into Hiding”, “Black Winter Day” and “Silver Bride” Tomi Joutsen (with a regular microphone instead of his classic one) & Co got complete support by the whole audience. The vibe between band as crowd worked well, so the Finns finished a jubilated performance by “My Kantele”, “House Of Sleep” and “The Bee”.
Conclusion:
Sad enough we couldn’t see all three days for the very first time since 2003. Sick indeed! Anyway, we stillwere happy to enjoy the DOA-saturday and are looking forward to Dong Open Air 2024. Thanks go out to the DOA-team! At the Dong Open Air drank, rocked and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi & Nelestor!
