After a twelve hour trip through a Germany that was traditionally tormented by road maintenance works, we finally arrived at our destination: the picturesque village of Jaromer, Chech Republic. Situated within the inner walls of the impressive Fortress Josefov, many of its inhabitants had fled the scene of the barbaric invasion that was about to take place by Brutal Assault Festival, whereas the stores had stocked up on ridiculously cheap beer, rum and any other liquor you could think of.

Day two: Thursday August 9th

Day two! We hit it off at the main stage with Diabolical (***1/2), one of the few black metal bands you can watch in broad daylight just as well as in darkness. First of all because they play heavy and melodic deathened black metal in the style of Belphegor and Goatwhore, but also because they aren’t too shy to rile up the audience and create a party. They must have been suffering like hell in their Nazgul-like cloaks under the merciless Czech sun, and the presence of Gandalf the White on the first row can’t have helped either. Too bad the heat had scared off a lot of people, a gig like this deserved a bigger crowd…

Next up: local blackgaze talent Daerrwin (****) in the Metalgate oven – errm tent. This was one of my personal highly anticipated bands and I was not disappointed, even the soundcheck gave me goosebumps (that is, if my arm hair would still have been able to rise under all the sweat). Musically Daerrwin kicked ass, alternating strong and fast black metal-inspired pieces with more contemplative, emotional interludes, but I kinda had to get used to their high rock and roll attitude. Raising horns, fancy solos, actual interaction with the audience… All features you won’t see in our own strong post-metal tradition. For me personally, it kind of took away the magic of the atmosphere and the integrity of the music… Too bad about the intensive use of guitar samples, but overall a very pleasant discovery and definitely something to check out if you like bands like Alkerdeel and Wiegedood!

We stuck around to see dark ambient legend Mortiis (*) live at work. A lot of people showed up to check out this childhood idol, but unfortunately the general feeling was disappointment. Once again, the stage was soaked in smoke so there wasn’t really much to see or check out, apart from two pointy ears peeking through the fog every once in a while. There is a difference between creating atmosphere with some fog, and smothering everything in it. There really isn’t any added value in seeing Mortiis live, so we took the opportunity to sit on the grass and chat with the soothing background music. Cozy, but definitely not a festival highlight. By the time Pallbearer started their show, we got so lazy that we just kept laying in the grass and enjoy the impending doom (metal). We needed to save our strength for the party of the day…

Way ahead of time, the Oriental stage got flooded with fans, squealing Be My Hiroshima for minutes on end. The Fins of Grave Pleasures (****1/2) started their show with high energy and all was good. Exquisite sound, great lighting with beams like the Japanese rising sun in nice accordance with the lyrical theme, wild and sweaty dancing all over the square, a rocking performance… It was too good. All of a sudden, everything went dark and silent. Nobody really knew what was going on, but a true artist like Mat McNerney always comes prepared. Lit only by smartphone lights, he asked us to stop cheering and be quiet so everyone could hear him. He shouted at the top of his lungs and invited us to all sing Dead Reflections acapella with him. This brilliant motherfucker turned a power outage into a campfire moment! A nice solution, but unfortunately it did not resolve the technical problem and after a couple of minutes, Grave Pleasures reluctantly left the stage. Did they literally kill the stage? Apparently not, there seemed to be a power outage in the entire region and unfortunately, it was impossible to get a backup-generator through the narrow tunnels to the Oriental stage. Simultaneously, there was a fire on top of the walls next to the main stage, but it’s still unclear if both incidents were related. Either way, all shows at the Oriental stage were cancelled for the night, but we were promised another show the next day.

With the exclusive Obscure Sphinx show cancelled, we had to choose between Moonspell and Laibach at the main stages or Bölzer and Pillorian at the Metalgate stage. I’m not gay and I don’t do drugs, so Bölzer and Pillorian it was! The straightforward black metal of the Swiss Bölzer (***) never disappoints and never gets old, even though they played pretty much the same show as on Metaldays two weeks earlier. Same goes for Pillorian (***); as Agalloch fans (RIP), we couldn’t miss an opportunity to see John Haughm at work once more. It wasn’t their best show – I liked them better on Metaldays and later on Metal Méan, but that was largely due to the fact that we couldn’t see shit (yes, it was at the Metalgate stage). Every once in a while, you could still hear an Agalloch sound in the guitars, especially in the more tranquil intermezzos, but live, the sound is mainly overwhelmingly heavy and we don’t have a problem with that!

At the end of day two, it was time for a personal headliner: the rare opportunity to see Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta’s side project, inventively called Jasta (*****). The start was a bit weird with a track instead of a live song, but mostly because of the worst job in stage lighting history. After two songs, Jamey had to literally ask to put the front lights on and throughout the show, every cue was missed. Other than that, the rest of the show was a classical Jamey Jasta party! Ahh, such energy and joy every time he can get on a stage! If Jamey says jump, you jump. Another great thing about Jasta is all the famous friends they take with them. The first guest was none other than Dino “the riff beast” Cazares form Fear Factory, treating us on nice groovy versions of Bodyhammer, Edgecrusher and Replica.  Big party in the pit! Cazares was then joined by Down and Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein, Jamey’s partner in crime with Kingdom of Sorrow, who played such heavy riffs on Buried In Black and All I Had (I Gave) that the backdrop came down, and finally Exhorder’s Kyle Thomas. As a splendid finale, this merry band of misfits then nailed Down’s Bury Me In Smoke and Jamey was having so much fun that he stopped singing for a while in order to film the show with his mobile phone! It was indeed a great and entertaining show and it was totally worth missing out on Marduk. Time to get back to the camping and get hammered on cheap rum!