Summer Breeze
The great finale of the open air festival season was about to happen in Dinkelsbühl, same procedure as every year before as after the pandemic break. The festival set up pretty much stayed the same due to the stages, the label matinees, etc.. So no wonder the organization ran ideal. Most obvious innovation were the two side banners flanking the T-Stage and showing the portrait of the passed SB-organizer Michael Trengert the T-Stage is named for. After the rainy 2022-edition the Summer Breeze got its eponymous sunny weather back. Sometimes a bit too hot, but anyway better than the constant rain one year before. Thunderheads got sighted, but passed Dinkelsbühl.
Megadeth, Trivium, Powerwolf and In Flames headlined a well-balanced billing showing a high-quality as diversified billing with several subgenres. At this year’s Summer Breeze 131 bands appeared on 4 stages in four days for about 40000 visitors (Sold out!).
Wednesday
Main Stage
Corvus Corax Era Metallum The huge backdrop showed what the Main Stage opening slot was about. The Folk Rock ensemble performed by numerous electric as Folk instruments their current output “Era Metallum”. Fans and early-arrivals on the festival area seemed to enjoy this start and applauded.
Kataklysm Just five days after the release of their album “Goliath” Montréal’s finest in Death Metal started the real action at this year’s Summer Breeze. They considered by “Bringer Of Vengeance” just one track of their brandnew masterpiece. The rest of the hour stage time the quartet focussed on well-known songs. After “Narcissist” and “Thy Serpents Tongue” fronter Maurizi Iacono demanded a bigger moshpit just to receive it seconds later while the first tones of “At The Edge Of The World”. “In Shadows And Dust”, “Manipulator Of Souls” and “Taking The World By Storm” got celebrated by moshpits as well. After saying hello to the family at home into the camera the security stress test got announced before numerous crowdsurfers headed to the pit during “As I Slither”. By “Serenity In Fire” and “The Black Sheep” the Canadiens concluded a triumphant performance.
Epica The Dutch Symphonic Metal band brought an astonishing production to Dinkelsbühl. Besides numerous pyros the stage set got flanked by two huge metal snakes also spitting smoke as pyros. Vocalist Simone Simons throned by her voice as visually over all. “Cry For The Moon”, “Beyond The Matrix” as “Consign To Oblivion” even inspired to a wall of death as a circle-pit and Coen Janssen went crowdsurfing with his round mobile keyboard during “Martyr Of The Free World”.
Megadeth Supported by visuals on the huge digital backdrop as on two further screens next to the drum riser the Thrash Metal icon started by its classic opener “Hangar 18”. The following 90 minutes showed great instrumentalists (especially guitarist Kiko Loreiro) on the one hand as a somehow uninspired frontman as scene original Dave Mustaine on the other one. Often staring to the floor while mumbling the vocals occasionally wasn’t what we had expected. The setlist contained a real best of by “Angry Again”, “Sweating Bullets”, “Wake Up Dead” and “In My Darkest Hour” as the thrilling final consisting of “Trust”, the wonderful ballad “A Tout Le Monde”, the band hymn “”Symphony Of Destruction” and the classic “Peace Sells” (again with great visuals on the mentioned screens). The quartet returned with “Mechanix” and after more jubilation for a second encore phase with “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”. A part of the audience applauded, others didn’t look convinced. So we weren’t.
In Extremo The Folk Metal sixpack from Berlin left no doubt about entertaining the filled infield. From “Troja” on they inspired the crowd to jump and sing along. No matter for them, after several Summer Breeze participations of the bagpipe-riffs-drums-collaboration over more than two decades tracks like “Vollmond”, “Sternhagelvoll” as “Frei Zu Sein” were more than well-known in Dinkelsbühl. So the atmosphere was on top when the band finished during “Pikse Palve” by a huge fireworks.
U.D.O. Sadly most of the audience left the infield before the German metal voice entered the stage with no one less than bassist Peter Baltes following him from their former iconic band Accept to U.D.O.. The opening classic “Animal House” showed they still harmonize brilliantly. Powered by drumer as Udo’s son Sven Dirkschneider “They Want War” and “Man And Machine became the highlights of this midnight slot.
T-Stage
Soilwork While their ex-drummer Dirk Verbeuren was appearing with Megadeth on the Main Stage his ex-colleagues did so on the second biggest SB-stage. Those of us who prefered to watch the Swedes should be much happier with their decision later on. “Stabbing The Drama”, “Is It In Your Darkness” as “The Chainheart Machine” caught the crowd celebrating Helsingborg’s finest in Melodic Death Metal. Mainman Björn “Speed” Strid invited vocalist Scott Kennedy of Bleed From Within to perform “Death Diviner” together. After this the band finished by “The Ride Majestic”, “Nerve” and “Stalfagel” a
jubilated show.
Sepultura Winner of the day became Brasil’s Metal icon. Entering the completely red enlighted stage the fivepiece brought a groove to Dinkelsbühl which got unreached for the other bands this day leaving no doubt with the opener “Isolation” as the following Territory”. Older classics like “Propaganda” and “Dead Embryonic Cells” inspired many headbangers, newer tracks like “Kairos” and “Guardians Of Earth” (introduced by Andreas Kisser with a little acoustic guitar solo on some exotic guitar) nearly did as well. Besides that fronter Derrick Green knew how to entertain a bit in German. So the awesome final
consisting of “Refuse/Resist”, “Arise”, “Rattamahatta” and “Roots Bloody Roots” left nobody motionless. Headbangers as moshpitters didn’t hesitate to freak out.
Thursday
Main Stage
Gutalax This Czech Porngrind-fourpiece was the right combo to assemble lots of supporters in the early noon. Many of them looked well-prepared and brought their toilet brushs to celebrate “Robocock”, “Fart And Furious”, “Total Rectal” and the unavoidable cover version “Strejda Donald” in circle-pits.
Be’lakor The Melodic Death Metal band from Melbourne appeared several times at Summer Breeze. The Australians, probably more used to the heat, played a very tight set considering “Venator”, “Remnants” and “Countless Skies”. Although many of the Gutalax-lunatics had left the infield others stayed applauding as headbanging.
Terror Starting with the title track of their current album “Pain Into Power” in front of the so-entitled backdrop the leading LA-Hardcore-band even raised the heaviness level. Lead by their front shouter Scott Vogel the fivepiece let follow by “Overcome”, “Spit My Rage” and “Stick Tight” classics which animated the crowd to move. The moshpits reached its peak level with the final “Keep Your Mouth Shut” and “Keepers Of The Faith”.
Grave Digger In total contrast to before the sound turned to traditional Metal. Chris Boltendahl and his comrades appeared for the very first time at Summer Breeze. The highlander-hit “Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching)” got the most support as singalongs. After this the classic “Heavy Metal Breakdown” finished their SB-debut.
Versengold The Folk rockers attracted lots of fans on the infield which celebrated the following hour byloud singalongs. In front of a nice backdrop showing some kind of an old saloon bar everything was set for a party which ended by two of their musicians inside the crowd performing “Die Letzte Runde” and “Butter Bei Die Fische” together.
Stick To Your Guns Californian Hardcore raised the brutality level again. From “Nobody” and What Goes Around” on the agile fronter Jesse Barnett and his bandmates set the energy level high resulting in numerous crowdsurfers. The hard breakdowns combined with the variation between shouts and clean melodic vocals resulted in a great show ending way too early by “Against Them All”.
Beartooth A few years ago the fivepiece from Columbus performed on the smallest SB-stage, this year they were the band before the headliner. Speaks for itself, but they showed why derserving this position. Fronter Caleb Shomo animated the crowd each break and inspired numerous crowdsurfers, headbangers as moshpits. And songs like “The Lines”, “Disease”, “Hated”, “In Between” as “The Past Is Dead” were pure invitations nobody on the infield could resist. Besides a best of program the quintet introduced by “Sunshine”, “Might Love Myself” and “Riptide” three previously unreleased songs from the forthcoming album coming in autumn. Even while those unknown compositions lots of hands were in the air. So in the end Caleb Shomo did some crowdsurfing with his guitar during the last tones of the show and a wonderful sundown. What a picture while getting applauded and jubilated a lot.
Trivium Forida’s finest returned to headline the Summer Breeze for another time like they had done in Matt Heafy, suited in a shirt showing quite the same Japanese comic as the backdrop did, started strong with the newer “In The Court Of The Dragon”as the hymns “Down From The Sky” and “The Sin And The Sentence”. With effect: During “When The World Grows Cold” and “Strife” the whole audience sang along. Due to some injury before it was one of the first shows of bassist Paulo Gregoletto. He needed to have his bass leaned on some rack, so he couldn’t move that much as usual. But that couldn’t disturb this jubilated headliner show finished by “A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation” and the celebrated encore “In Waves”.
Frog Leap After their successful show at last year’s Full Force we knew what to expect from the Norwegians around mainman Leo Moracchioli. By their very own interpretations of Rock as Pop classics they held many spectators on the infield celebrating Billie Eilish’s “Therefore I Am” as the jumping, headbanging and later moshpit-participating bunny mascot did. After this co-singer Hannah Boulton entered the stage, her presence as voice made the cover versions of The Beatles’ “Come Together”, Adele’s “Hello”, Toto’s “Africa”, Roxette’s “Listen To Your Heart” and The Cranberries’ “Zombie” really brilliant. The crowd didn’t negate this party invitation and danced as sang along.
Sleep Token The masked Prog Metal shooting stars from London attracted an astonishing number of fans in front of the stage deep in the night. And those ones seemed to know every word of compositions from their new masterpiece “Take Me Back To Eden” like the opener “Chokehold”, “Granite”, the brutal “Vore” and “The Summoning” as classics like “The Offering”, “The Love You Want” and “Alkaline”. Besides the tight instrumentalists fronter Vessel didn’t just impress by his voice supported by a female choir trio, but also ran the stage up and down to inspire the fans. They definitely did, so “Higher” marked the end of an outstanding performance.
T-Stage
End Of Green The Dark Rockers surely are the band with the most performances at Summer Breeze. So they returned for another home game by “Pain Hates Me”, “Dead City Lights” and “Demons” enthusing the crowd. The constantly smoking frontman Michael Huber aka. Michelle Darkness entertained by his announcements spoken with much local slang and the band played a tight rocking set culminating in the hits “Killhoney” and “Goodnight Insomnia”. After this the fivepiece finished by their new unreleased songs “Ashes & Gold” and “Wasted Time” which was unusual, but got much applause as well.
Wera Tool Rebel Stage
Chaosbay Many years after I had seen this quartet at the Euroblast Festival it was clear to watch them again in the early noon. And we quickly noticed they evolved their Prog Metal with several Metalcore reminiscences. Especially the performance of the songs “New Age”, “What Is War” as “Passenger” from their recent album “2222” impressed, but also older compositions as the strong refugee statement “Amen” did. Sure about to see them on a bigger stage at the SB in the future.
Of Virtue For the first time I had the opportunity to see the Metalcore fourpiece from Michigan. They had to deal with some sound problems, but enthused by an energizing show with the highlight “Cannibals” and made curious for the forthcoming new album being released next month.
Friday
Main Stage
Nasty The fourpiece from Belgium did the right wake-up-call. Including the previously unreleased tracks “Resurrection” and “Nobody Cares” from their forthcoming output being released in september their Hardcore brought a couple of supporters back to festival day mode.
Skalmöld It was like an album release party when the sixpack from Reykyavik entered the stage tocelebrate the brandnew “Ydalir” coming out this day. Presenting its tracks like “Verdandi” and“Ratatoskur” as older ones being more familiar with the supporters the vikings had to deal with technicalproblems.
Imminence From the beginning by “Ghost” and “Paralyzed” the quintet from Sweden showed heaviness as variation factor of their Metalcore. Especially vocalist Eddie Berg impressed by shouts as clean vocals and his violin abilities. After “Heaven In Hiding” and “Temptation” he went into the photo pit to thank each fan by handshake for minutes.
Lionheart Bay Area Hardcore is an unusal mixture, but worked very well with the five guys from Oakland. By new material as “Hell On Earth” from their current release “Welcome To The West Coast III” as classics like “Hail Mary” they knew how to shake the audience jumping as raging in moshpits. By integrating “Break Stuff” from Limp Bizkit into their track “Born Feet First” the lionhearts inspired each spectator to move.
Mono Inc. The Goth Rockers from Hamburg considered by “Princess Of The Night”, “After Dark” (supported by Storm Seeker as on record), “Lieb Mich” “Heartbeat Of The Dead” material from their new output “Ravenblack” as older ones like “Arabia” or “Voices Of Doom”, but all appeared uninspired. Even their cover version of Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” didn’t rock. So just the first few rows with die-hard- fans celebrated this lame gig.
While She Sleeps This atmosphere changed completely when the fivepiece from Sheffield entered the stage and started with “Sleeps Society”, “Anti-Social” and “You Are All You Need” in front of their backdrop looking like a huge wimple. The band performed agile on stage, and numerous fans followed the animations of fronter Mat Welsh to join crowdsurfing. Besides that many circle-pits took place and thousands sang along with “You Are We”, “Four Walls” and “Sleeps Society”.
Beyond The Black Time for Germany’s leading Symphonic Metal formation to enter the Main Stage. The infield was pretty much filled, singer Jennifer Haben of course got the main spectators’ focus. Performing in different outfits the show undoubtedly based on her voice as presence. By the opener “Is There Anybody Out There?”, “Reincarnation”, “Dancing In The Dark” and “Save Me” she and her band considered material from their new self-entitled album. With the sunset in the background the quintet played a best of set including several pyro-effects the audience applauded for.
Powerwolf Even more pyros and special effects could be experienced during the following 90 minutes. But it wasn’t just that, band as the numerous fans on the packed infield seemed to be just had been waiting for each other. By their loud support this headliner show became triumphant. So vocalist Attila Dorn seemed to be in his best mood dancing some waltz with keyboarder Falk Maria Schlcgel right before “Dancing With The Dead”. His announcements between the songs were pure entertainment (like animating the crowd to do some SB-chants), in the songs itself his strong voice as the tight band convinced completely. By “Sainted By The Storm” and “Beast Of Gévaudan” the wolves presented two songs from their new album “Interludium”. The support especially got loud for classics like “Army Of The Night”, “Amen And Attack”, “Resurrection By Errection” as the encores “Sanctified With Dynamite”, “We Drink Your Blood” and “Werewolves Of Armenia” thousands of voices sang along with.
Eluveitie After a few minutes it became obvious most spectators wanted to stay after the headliner had finished while the Main Stage got more populated by the musicians of the Folk Death Metal ensemble. The contrast between the rough vocals of Chrigel Glanzmann and the clean ones by Fabienne Erni in combination with the different medieval as Metal instruments were the right sound to inspire the crowd. So “A Rose For Epona”, Thousandfold”, “King” as the encore part consisting of “Aidos”, “Ategnatus” and “Inis Mona” got celebrated by a motivated audience.
Long Distance Calling By their opener the quartet from Münster began into an atmospheric hour of Progressive Metal without any vocals. Performing tight and supported by the light show this night slot in the end of the festival friday had its pure effect on their fans who had been staying awake for this show as for visitors just being interested for the last band of the night. The classics “Black Paper Planes” and “Metulsky Curse Revisited” got the loudest applause.
T-Stage
Bloodred Hourglass A few years ago the Finnish sixpiece appeared on the Ficken Party Stage in between the campsite. This year they made it to the main festival area where spectators also could see advertisements banners pointing out to the forthcoming Bloodred Hourglass album to be released in autumn. Maybe because of the early time and the sunny noon they may have missed a couple of possible new fans. But the smaller crowd who was there had fun from “Nightmares Are Dreams Too” until “Where The Sinners Crawl” with their Melodic Death Metal including three guitarists.
Soen From the first tones of “Monarch” melodic heaviness ruled the T-Stage area. Lead by the wonderful voice of Joel Ekelöf the audience obviously enjoyed this hour of strong riffs as musical feeling during “Deceiver”, “Antagonist” and “Lunacy”. The quintet from Stockholm ruled on the same stage five years ago in the evening, this time they did in the afternoon.
Saturday
Main Stage
Excrementory Grindfuckers To assemble the party-motivated madmen again the Comedy Grindcore formation from Hannover opened the Main Stage program for the last day of SB 2023. Besides material from their new output “Ohne Kostet Extra” like “Is Aber Nich” their evergreens as very own versions of I’ve Been Looking For A Grindcore (David Hasselhoff) and “Vater Morgana” (EAV) took care about the early morning/noon party.
Twilight Force Suited in capes, the Swedes performed material from their new release “At The Heart Of Wintervale” by the self-entitled “Twilight Force”, “Dragonborn”, “Sunlight Knight” and the title song as classics like the final band-hymn “The Power Of The Ancient Force”. Just a few supporters in the first rows supported them, to me as obviously most spectators this was too much fantasy pathos.
Trollfest I expected another Fantasy Metal boredom and got surprised by the Norwegians entering the stage in pink flamingo costumes performing tracks as “Flamongous” or “Dance Like A Pink Flamingo”. Besides that the musicians’ instrumental abilities were obvious. So the fans who wore pink customs themselves celebrated a mentionable party with their faves from Oslo who should have made it to the final when they had competed at the ESC 2022.
Knorkator Humor and high-skilled musicians are always guaranteed watching a Knorkator-show. This time pure family inclusion became part of the show when keyboarder Alf Ator’s son and singer Stumpen’s daughter got the microphone, especially she impressed by her voice singing tracks with the father’s higher tones. The filled infield especially sang along while “Böse”, “Alter Mann”, “Ding Inne Schnauze” and “Wir Werden Alle Sterben”, and Stumpen’s demands to jubilate from the first to the last row got fulfilled.
Dragonforce Time for the speed kings from London who stormed the stage highly motivated. The guitar duels became pure pleaure to watch for average sixstringers in the audience. Between the oepner “Highway To Oblivion” and the band-hymn “Through The Fire And The Flames” their Melodic Metal version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” got the most interaction with the crowd.
Hatebreed Ten years after their first SB-appearance the NYC-Hardcore-fivepiece returend to Dinkelsbühl to get its moshpits started again. No matter with evergreens like “Destroy Everything”, “Live For This”, “This Is Now” the crowd moved to. Lead by fronter Jamey Jasta the breakdown thunder reigned over the infield until “I Will Be Heard” marked the end of an agile show on as in front of the stage.
Killswitch Engage The quintet from Boston appeared for the first time in Dinkelsbühl. Starting with “My Curse” fronter Jesse Leach, mainman as weirdo Adam Dutkiewicz and their comrades couldn’t hide their pure motivation. Adam animated the packed infield to chant “You’re just a fucking piece of shit!” after he had misplayed some riff. The amazing setlist containing “The Arms Of Sorrow”, “The Signal Fire”, “Hate By Design”, “Rose Of Sharyn” as the debut-smasher “Fixation On The Darkness” got crowned by the grand finale consisting of “This Is Absolution”, “The End Of Heartache”, “My Last Serenade” and the Dio-cover “Holy Diver” which left no other option for the crowd to jump, headbang and sing along and fulfilled Adam’s circle-pit-wishes.
In Flames In contrast to past In Flames appearances at big festivals like SB this time they didn’t appear with many pyros and other special effects. It became just Metal supported by a cool light show. And that worked very well over 90 minutes. The co-founders of Melodic Death Metal sound from Gothenburg presented a well-balanced setlist considering the most albums of their band hystory. Besides songs from their new album “Foregone” (the opener “The Great Deceiver” as the later played “Foregone Pt.1”, “State Of Slow Decay”, “Foregone Pt.2”) their best of set thrilled the crowd celebrating “Pinball Map”, “Where The Ships Dwell”, the debut classic “Behind Space”, “Cloud Connected”, “Only For The Weak” as “The Mirror’s Truth” by crowdsurfing, singing along and much jump- as pit-motion. Fronter Anders Fridén didn’t just tell to be impressed, he authentically looked like. So “Take This Life” marked the end of an amazing show.
Hammerfall The Main Stage welcomed the next band from Gothenburg, but instead of Melodic Death Metal the sound turned to Melodic Metal without any Death. Since 1997 Hammerfall have evolved to an icon in this subgenre, so many spectators had stayed on the infield for them. But they couldn’t hold the energy level of their “neighbors”. The show as announcements of singer Joacim Cans looked as sounded a bit too uninspired. The debut classic “The Metal Age”, “Blood Bound”, “Renegade” and the pyro-flamed “Let The Hammer Fall” got the most jubilation by the crowd wich also celebrated the encores “Hammer High” and the band-hymn “Hearts On Fire”.
Zeal & Ardor This kind of Prog Black Metal Fusion from Basel was supposed to finish this year’s Main Stage action and to hold the quality level high till the end. The formation around mainman Manuel Gagneux played tight from “Church Burns” to “Baphomet”, just the technics stopped “Death To The Holy”, but not the magic of the show. So the left spectators seemingly as acoustically enjoyed “Blood On The River”, “We Can’t Be Found” as the band’s Gospel / Black Metal classic “Devil Is Fine”. So they left to the outro-tones of the pop-hit “Scatman” with much applause by the audience at 2 a.m.
Conclusion:
After last year’s rainy edition the Summer Breeze got it’s weather back. As mentioned the organization ran well and the line-up rocked.
So it will in 2024 the Summer Breeze organization announced the first bands for:
After The Burial, Amon Amarth, Architects, Asphyx, Behemoth, Blind Channel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Bodysnatcher, Burning Witches, Brothers Of Metal, Crypta, Dymytry, Feuerschwanz, Future Palace, J.B.O., Lord Of The Lost, Megaherz, Mental Cruelty, Motionless In White, Neaera, Nachtblut, Paleface Swiss, Rotting Christ, Subway To Sally, Ten56 as Warkings will appear in Dinkelsbühl next year.
After the rearranged food mile the visitors could again enjoy the variety of food as beverages to the prices of the post-pandemic editions before (e.g. 5€ for 0.4 l can of beer including different types or softdrink). We are looking forward to Summer Breeze 2024!
Special thanks go out to Tony Brehm, Jagger & the SB-team! On the airfield of Dinkelsbühl / Sinnbronn rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Nele, Wirwa, Fleiter and Nina!
