Watain - The Devil’s Blood - Monstrosity - Devourment - Merrimack - Ketzer

[Dajana] The arrival was quite unspectacular. 2 jams and 5 hrs on a 400km distance, which is ok. The access to the camp ground was already a pure muddy glissade uphill, but I made it ;) Looking to the sky I decided not to build up me tent and to sleep in my car instead. Good idea… Bad idea however to build up my doss when staggering back from partying during the early morning hours… ;)

:: pics ::

[Seb] The opening band :: KETZER :: I only heard from afar since I was caught in the queue to get my wrist-band. It just has stopped to rain and everybody was on the way to the festival ground. It took me more than an hour to access. But from the outside it sounded well *g*
[Dajana] It did not only sound good from the outside ;) Also from the inside KETZER left a really good impression. The guys had fun on stage and were in best mood to heat up the early fans. It got to rock!
[Sui] Except for the in- and outro one brutal in-your-face Thrash Metal fair in the face. For every single song. Makes me hope that KETZER will tap their full songwriting potential soon. Anyway, the guys got the fans up quickly.

[Seb] :: MERRIMACK :: right after entered the stage with new singer Vestal. Generally speaking founder Perversifier had to re-group his entire band. But these French cats seem to be well-rehearsed and offered a first taste of wicked Black Metal. Luckily their set not only included raving blast attacks but also the one and the other pace-reduced headbang-suitable passage in every song. It was still a little bit too bright for the right atmosphere. Lights and smoke didn’t work the way it should and made the band looking a bit helpless ;) This or the rejected interplay with the audience left the band not that well received, feedback was actually pretty lame and the MERRIMACK left the stage without any word.
[Sui] Too bad, because musically the band’s played brand of Black Metal was diversified and sophisticated. Maybe the bands with corpsepaint shouldn’t do their soundcheck themselves… it somewhat takes away their evilness ;)

[Seb] With :: DEVOURMENT :: the first brutal Death Metal band of P:S:O:A 2010 delivered their service, and the US metallers truly lived up to this genre. Compared to the band before, singer Mike (who changed over from the bass to the micro to replace late fronter Wayne Knupp) was pretty talkative and introduced every songs with understandable comments…
[Sui] …something you cannot say about his vocals, which were so abysmally deep that they even went down in the sound…
[Seb] Some additional action came from the second guitarist who worn a horse-head mask from the second song on.
[Sui] Erm… sorry… it was the bass player. His bass by the way was one of few during this festival that was actually audible. Thanks to his more brutal technique and sound…
[Seb] Pushed by a merciless drummer DEVOURMENT delivered a powerful set and the audience thanked with the first circle pits of P:S:O:A 2010.
[Dajana] Yeah, that’s the way it has to be! No sugar dolls in the mud out there ;)
[Seb] Yep, even the fail during Fucked To Death (hahaha… how suiting – Dajana) couldn’t do any harm anymore. Said the band: „this song is fucking cursed“ and re-started, closing the show with Over Her Dead Body. Nice show! Over the lyrical content… let’s better draw the cloak of silence… *g*

[Seb] Next Death Metal band took the same line. But :: MONSTROSITY :: did it faster and more Thrash Metal influenced. The crowd needed one, two songs to get familiar but latest with Killing Summer the ban was broken and fans started to freak out again when Final Cremation got played. The set ran over 35 minutes so that even encore was given to please the crowd.
[Sui] Well, and that at least left a fishy taste. I mean shortening a set that is quite short in the first place by 10 minutes just to get begged back by the audience is at best unnecessary. Especially, since the audience wasn’t that frenetically chanting for more. Nevertheless: MONSTROSITY was the first highlight for me.

[Seb] I actually decline to write anything about the music of :: THE DEVIL’S BLOOD :: I think, there should be no room for such twerps and awful crooner g on a Black & Death Metal festival. I was even annoyed twice when this musical lapse overdraws the change-over by 15 minutes. Let them play at Rock Hard Festival or in a kindergarten, but not here!
[Dajana] Hahahaha… already heard about open-minded thinking? I still like their music and their live performances, in a homelike club. But yeah, on a huge festival stage it doesn’t work for them that well. A third guitar and even a choir didn’t have any effect on sound and atmosphere. To quote what a certain Mr. S what he left written on my notice (roughly translated): “Blood running from big boobs – pure evil” *laughs*
[Sui] Boundaries between mesmerizing and somniferous are blurred at THE DEVIL’S BLOOD. As measured by the effort the result is way to thin. It takes more than just a few arm-movements from the X-Factor finalist’s manual to make a charismatic front woman. The music for sure has its thrilling moments, but in between there is just too much of trivial blaring noise.

[Seb] Now we come to a band I wanted to be urgently here for :: WATAIN :: And as expected everything the Black Metal world has to offer when it comes to decoration got provided: candles, candlesticks, flames, crucifixes, metal, tridents, weapons… everywhere; and bloody red lights and lots of smoke to create a mystic atmosphere. After a short “prayer” at the pentagram altar and the opener Malfeitor, singer Eric praised Dissection singer Jon Nödtveid (committed suicide exactly 4 years ago) as „one oft the greatest Satanists who ever walked this ugly fuck of a planet“ and dedicated the following track Sworn To The Dark, celebrated with fire any pyros. WATAIN went back to Casus Luciferi with I Am The Earth and then towards again to the current record Lawless Darkness and Reaping Death. Monumental as always Satan’s hymn Legions Of The Black Light, again with fires, pyros and dramatic gestures. But it seems regarding content Stellarvore Watain is more important to the band, since they performed this actually boring song with even more fervor. The following cover version of Somberlain was unnecessary since WATAIN have enough own material to play (looking back on setlists of previous shows we have even luck that they only played one cover version…). But fans got promptly indemnified by the 14 minutes running highlight of the current album Waters Of Ain, which is not really heavy but great to listen to with its alternating guitar lines (suddenly there were three guitars… who was the third one? I could not identify from the distance… edit: it was one of the guitarists of The Devil's Blood - Dajana) and melodies, which especially in the last third are the best WATAIN have ever written. After the last tunes had faded away a single firework got shot in the sky, while the band vanished without a word or encore.
[Dajana] Well… to say it nicely… WATAIN became somewhat of girls. There is nothing Black or trve or or raw or underground anymore. WATAIN want to earn money and for that they obviously do what’s necessary. It’s like Dimmu Borgir without keyboards. Ok, still better musically… Not to mention the mob this band attracts… *pukes*
Setlist: Malfeitor, Sworn To The Dark, I Am The Earth, Reaping Death, Legions Of The Black Light, Stellarvore, The Somberlain, Waters Of Ain

[Dajana] Ok, that’s for the first and admittedly short day. Last band done, time to start partying… ;)

stories • Sebastian, Sui, Dajana
photos • Dajana