The report: Brutal Assault # 19, 2014

The report: Brutal Assault # 19, 2014

In the past few years we told almost everything about this nice festival which we attended very often. So, so summarizing the essence: Czech Republic is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, very cool people, nice food and the very best beers on planet, missing something?

Ah yes, they organizing from year to year on of the best extreme music festival ever for absolutely cheap prices, cheap means: cheap for Eastern European heads, like us!  

And I wrote extreme music, not only metal, in the past few years we have seen on BA stages Ulver, Godflesh, Jesu, etc, etc just few names which come into my mind.

We arrived one again inside the medieval walls of Josefov army fortress, the perfect place for an extereme (metal) music festival.

Let’s start the party!

Important: I’m writing short “blitzkrieg” typo reviews about the bands/concerts I have seen, I could not see every single band sorry, I’m too old and I really like to spend some time in Horror Cinema, CD, Vinyl Market, Brutal Bar with semi-dark “world champion” beer, and so on. 

Day zero, Wednesday

After a huge vinyl market search (all hail to Doomentia Records, Monster Nation, get ready guys, we will back shortly!) the first band which I saw was Flotsam & Jetsam, the band known because of Jason from Metallica (eh I’m very vicious), and for some nice releases like the debut album “Doomsday For The Deceiver” or the following “No Place For Disgrace” from the glorious ‘80s. So these dudes are back and played a boring as hell concert, F & J performance was one of the worst concerts ever seen on Brutal Assault festival, no feeling, no spirit just some nostalgic thrash metal, all their glory remains in the past.

High on Fire, only ugly guys could play real stoner, sludge metal, Matt Pike and his company made some riff performance with edge, with real heavy weight. I’m not a great fan of Sleep (Mr. Pike original band) nor HOF, but this live action totally convinced, these guys are not kidding, crushing, working class metal with not so many remarkable songs, but with true spirit and true feeling!

Pete Sandoval after embracing the soul of Jesus, ended the collaboration with the legendary Morbid Angel (too satanic for him) and breathing new life to his proto grindcore project Terrorizer. I was very exciting to see this band live. With some random guys (not the current line-up!?) he played the entire, legendary grindcore magnum opus “World Downfall”, Storm of Stress, Fear of Napalm, etc do you remember? Cool set-list, peace of shit performance from the guitar players, Pete was awesome, but sometimes I had the feeling that the guitarists just learned the songs few hours before the show, sorrowful. Pete go back to Morbid Angel, the life is too short for this nostalgic shit.

Venom

I love Venom and I really don’t care if the glory was gone, Cronos is Cronos and Venom on stage is one of the best punk metal of black bands ever! The set-list was not so nice like few years back in Bucharest (total fucking old school set), but their shitty sounding, chaotic music works fine for me. Cronos are ugly like an old virago with his red boots, always funny, real entertainer! Welcome to Hell!

Day One - Thursday

First band which impressed me a lot was Pentagram Chile, darkened death-doom, with South American power, I would like to see this band on a full show, not half hour, too good band to playing 30 minutes in sunshine!

We just checked a short Church Of Misery, because we have some interview duties with Teglas Zoli from Ignite, and then started the real party. Interview in tour bus with Zoli, drinking a lot and have a good time with this really nice dude and his mind blowing stories! After some refreshing stuff we were in the pit for singing some cool Ignite hits. One of the best HC, punk, whatever band of today’s scene, they played songs from the “Placed called home” & “Our darkest days” masterpieces, can’t wait for the new album, the new song (Falu) works fine live, great band, power, strength with a real leader singer Zoli!

Crowbar, I’m always wondering how could catching this ugly band a lot of beautiful girls to their concerts, I saw few times Crowbar and the audience always full with beautiful ladies, Mr. Windstein is the answer!

Obituary, nice concert as always, nothing new, nothing surprising, good old school Florida death metal to the bones, the new guy on guitar is looking fine and playing awesome! Slowly we rot!

Slayer, no Hanneman, no Slayer, simple. Professional performance without any surprise on set-list, maybe Hell Awaits, which was killer! Every time I see Gary Holt with Slayer my stomach turn inside out!

Finally, the 3rd stage (Metalgate stage) moved from the old industrial hangar to a “circus” tent where we had much more fresh air, nice move guys!

Meanwhile in the Metalgate stage we have seen the mighty Inquisition once again! One of the best black metal bands ever! Fantastic songs, total killer live performance, I was in pieces after the show, magic and mayhem!

God Is An Astronaut, a great surprise for me, I’m just heard somewhere their names, and never listened a song from this Irish band, Irish bands never disappoint, instrumental music with fantastic song writing skills and fine performance, just perfect music in late night after some liter of fine beers!

I’m a great fanboy of the Norwegian Gehenna, the first 3 albums are my all time favorite black metal releases from far North. I was really excited to see this band on stage, the last album “Unravel” is great, so my expectation was high. After 4 songs I’m just leaved the Metalgate tent, I don’t know what the hell happened with them, their concert was totally boring, without fire, without feeling, never again!

We ended the first day with Khold, cold Norwegian Black Metal its best! Nice corpse paint, no fun, no mosh, just pure Norwegian forest black metal, that was my 2nd Khold concert, never disappointing.

Day Two – Friday

We started the day with Unleashed, somebody please explain me, why they do not play songs from the first classic albums? Just a few (maybe 2?), for me Unleashed starts from “Where No Life Dwells” and finishing with “Victory”, sorry, maybe I’m too old school, or call me narrow minded, but the new Unleashed albums are not in the same league as the mentioned albums above! I was angry & disappointed!

Friday was a bit day off for us, too many mainstream bands, sorry but I’m not into Devin “pseudo intelligent nice guy” Townsend, Amon Amarth, etc, so we are moved to Horror Cinema, to our national sport, called Vinyl Hunting and we ended the day in the very nice Metalgate stage.

Manes

These crazy Norwegians are played twice at BA, once electric, next acoustic, we choose electric. If I’m remember well this was their first live performance. A bit amateurish, but works fine, of course they are not played songs from the first album, just some newer ones. Asgeir Hatlen’s voice was fine live, so I was happy to see them!

Enthroned 

Corpse paint ok, appearance ok, playing skills ok, songs ok, but something missing, the spirit, the mystic, the feeling, very professional performance, but keep in mind, black metal is not just music. 

And now we are arrived to the best band and the best performance ever on this year at Brutal Assault. The enigmatic (yeah, really enigmatic, no interviews, no image, no nothing) Mgla from Poland!

The main man, “M” just came to the stage with his servants, fixed everything by himself, after they put their masks and the massacre has begun. No conversation between the songs, no nothing just pure Black Metal on high level. They played a lot from the fantastic “With Hearts Toward None” album (III, V, VII were awesome) and other great songs from the “Groza” & “Mdłości”. I was in trance, I really can’t recall how many minutes they played, maybe an hour, maybe more, maybe less, pure magic, ritual! I want more!

Worship

No Fucked-Up Mad Max, no Worship, sorry guys, your performance was boring as hell, Funeral doom bands could play well live, just check Skepticism or Esoteric, but Worship is not in the premier league with these bands! “Last Tape Before Doomsday” uber alles!

After- before Worship we meet some nice Hungarian guys, I was happy to see face to face Milan Peter from Hammerworld, after long years of collaboration, cheers and we’ll see this year!

We ended this day with Radiolokator (what a fucking name) from CZ, a nice crossover, thrash band with an insane madman on vocals Inyciator! Cooool!

Day Three – Saturday

A good Saturday starting with an excellent Impaled Nazarene concert under the burning sun! Last time I travelled almost 400 km to see Mr. Luttinen and his co. but their 1st announced show in Romania was cancelled, so I was very hungry to see these alcoholic maniacs on stage. Suomi Finland Perkele. The show was insane & dynamic, one of the best performance at the BA 19, with lots of old shit from the early masterpieces. One of the best moment was when some goats are appearing on the walls of Army Fortress during the IN show! Chaosgoat law! Goatzied, Goat perversion, The Oath of the goat, Goat War, hehe.

Sodom

Always nice, always good, Mr. Angelripper please put some surprise tracks on the set-list, the same stuff over and over again. Will be fine to see Sodom performing early classics entirely! To seeing “Tapping The Vein” entirely will be mind blowing, dream on….

Repulsion

Fucking great & priceless to see the innovators of grindcore, Scott Carlscon & Matt Olivo played a very nice concert, sadly we can’t see the entire show, but what I have seen was great. “Horrified” rules after long years too! Legend!

I have to choose between UK legend Benediction and the New Orleans giants Down (they played at the same time in different places), in retrospect I know I made a bad choice, I choose Down.

The band was good, the band was fine, they played well and nice but those motherfucker called Phil Anselmo just fucked up the entire concert with his total fucking attitude, he was drunk, he was an idiot, just spoke and spoke bullshit and scolding the audience, and everything and sadly he can’t sing the fine Down classics like Lifer, Temptation’s Wing, the absolute deep point was the “Stone the Crow” without the well-known melodic vocals. I will never want to see this idiot again! The show ending with entering his ladyboy dudes from Satyricon

Satyricon. This band is a joke, sorry I have no time & patience for this!

Converge

Never disappointing, after the fantastic “No Heroes” album I had a feeling that they can’t make another milestone in their discography, but they did, the “All We Love We Leave Behind” album is just brilliant, they played a lot from this album! If the live concerts will be a sport, without any doubt Converge will be the world champion, this is a must to see band live, the energy, the power, no words!

Aosoth    

The last concert for me on BA 19 and one of the best for sure. “Arrow in Heart” one of the best French Black metal albums ever released. Their show was a real power domination with passion, feeling and heart (with arrow in). The sound was just perfect, clear & powerful. Mkm (known from Antaeus) is a satanic madman, this guy is the voice of Satan! He was in trance, in ecstasy I don’t know if he was under some drug influence or not, but his performance was insane and unforgettable.

Cool festival area, nice people, memorable concerts, hard to see bands every year, tons of rare merchandise stuff, the best beers! Cheers,

by Mirgilus