Autopsy - Sarke - Dying Fetus - Asphyx - Ofermod - The Crown - Demonical - Origin - Suicidal Angels - Lividity -
Milking The Goatmachine - Onheil

[Dajana] After a very short and sleepless night, uncomfortable but dry and cuddly-warm I got up early. It’s fresh outside, the mud still omnipresent but first shafts of sunlight tickle my face. No rain, weather is keeping up… ;)

:: pics ::

[Dajana] My neighbors are already awake and sooo busy… damn… wtf? Oh, that’s the guys from Dutch Black/Death Metal band :: ONHEIL :: who get prepared for their opening gig. Axe-man Sadist looks like as he could bear more sleep, or much more coffee respectively, while four-stringer Nomiis and singer/guitarist Amok seemingly got an extra dose caffeine for the energy they showed on stage, while moving and pulling faces all the time. Sadist additionally seemed to have many technical problems and disappeared every now and then completely. There was not such much going on in front of stage, but hey... I could see the faces getting lighter and the smiles wider with every new song ;)

[Dajana] Aaaaaaahhhhh… and now I got totally blown away! *screams* The funniest band on this festival and the biggest surprise to me :: MILKING THE GOATMACHINE :: I didn’t know them before, never saw them live and had the fun of my life during their show. It’s not only their goat masks (behind a few known German musicians hide), also their blend of grooving Grindcore and the fun they had on stage with a certain little cutie wolf and lotsa things to blow up (a purple elephant, crocodile, shark, dolphin, baseball bat… did I forget anything?). I guess the wolf is there to fill the gap of the missing singer, since the drummer has these duties. So great, so asskicking. Goats everywhere. Also in the songs like the cover version of Sacred Reichs Surf Nicaragua entitled Surf Goataragua… hahaha. Not necessarily innovate but fun as hell. Me’s now goatarized! *laughs*

[Dajana] Next up was :: LIVIDITY :: administering the first brutal Death Metal treatment of the day, grunting and growling as if there is no tomorrow. Especially guitarist Dave Kibler was pure aggression. I’d say that’s the final wake-up call for the ones still sleeping ;) Yessss!

[Sui] After the jobless-administration kept me away from the first three bands (I hope they get struck by lightning during their coffee break!) I at least caught the last tunes of :: SUICIDAL ANGELS :: Cool stuff, old school Thrash Metal, definitely being apprenticed to Slayer, although the Greeks don’t reach the level of their idols. But they have fire in their bellies and play with dexterity, which got much honored by the audience.

[Seb] On our side it was the car that has bitten the dust and so we arrived not until :: ORIGIN :: was about to enter the stage. And I have to admit, I was hardly ever that impressed by a bass player! Incredible with what speed that guy was playing, and it looked so easy…
[Dajana] Yeah… it’s like watching Gene Hoglan playin’ drums…
[Seb] Unfortunately it started to rain again and the presence of fans restrained. But the ones moving in front of stage got accomplishedly animated by ORIGIN’s new singer Mica „Maniac“ Meneke. Although everybody got stuck in mud ORIGIN made it to set the crowd in motion. Technically sophisticated and brutal Death Metal, awesome bass player!
[Sui] Too bad that you could hear the bass player only sporadically. The sound mix especially with the more technically advanced bands left a lot to be desired. But the few sound shreds from the bass that managed to cut through the mix and made their way to my ears really kicked ass, seeing many jaws hitting the ground.

[Seb] Now some confusion was caused. According to the running order Ofermod should have been the next, instead :: DEMONICAL :: got pushed up one slot and onto stage. In my opinion the Swedes delivered just average Death Metal fair, but good enough to stay and watch the mud-divers ;) Inventive and stirring is something different.
[Sui] The brute-force approach of the Swedes right after Origin sounded like any other and made the show to a more difficult task for DEMONICAL. Not so many people in front of stage, but the few at least in best mood. If the changed running order is to blame for the interim low is anybody’s guess really.
[Dajana] I’d like to answer this with a clear “yes”! Because I met many friends and people who did not realize the changes and were really pissed off that they have missed DEMONICAL instead of Ofermod. Nothing was announced, except the announcement before the Swedes, which was only heard by the fans around the stage. Not even backstage someone had a plan what and who was going on…

[Seb] Also pushed up was :: THE CROWN :: but they seemingly didn’t care any bit. Despite of this fkg weather they seemed to be in best mood and played their asses off, shooting one classic after another among the crowd. Back From The Grave was played, Blitzkrieg Witchcraft, Black Lightning and of course Crowned In Terror. Also the title-track of the upcoming album Doomsday King proved itself to be a real headbanging smasher.
[Sui] The band definitely deserved more attention but the poor form of the audience went on at this shitty weather.
[Dajana] I was somewhat skeptic regarding the new singer Jonas Stahlhammar (cool name ;)) Nobody new who he is where from he came, but hey, he did a really good job, I like his style and yes, THE CROWN has blown me up! Great show!

[Seb] Now time has come for :: OFERMOD :: Mystically robed with magic wand (erm… looked like a celeriac bar… *lol* - Dajana) and corpse-paint they thought it might be a good idea to start the set with over 10 minutes running evocations of Seth and other Egyptian entities, partly read off from a lectern. The scenery was bathed in gloomily red lights accompanied by occult whisperings and voices that sounded like a Didgeridoo. Oh, and they are really serious about that! Anyway, I was sort of glad that the guys were not jailed this time, making an OFERMOD possible at all. Great Black Metal hymns as Khabs am Pekht and Chained To Redemption made up the first 10 minutes again. But fate or whatever gave only room for a handful of songs until the guitar failed (I think it was in Death Cantata) right when a creature with scull’s rod entered the stage to kneel down for the rest of the band’s show. Bridging the break with the outro the sound-techs tried to master the probs but after 5 minutes they gave up. With a plain: „sorry, shit happens“ OFERMOD left the stage right after, which was a pity since the current album Tiamtü is really great.
[Sui] Ok, I have to admit, I’m not a Black Metal fan and OFERMOD actually proved almost all my prejudices concerning this genre right: pseudo-darksome theatrics that do not get any better by being meant seriously. What the hell has Egyptian mythology to do with corpse-paint? The weird preacher in a Star Wars Imperator look would not even scare an Ewok and just went down… “cute” (to quote Dajana). All that could have been outweighed by the music but except for some nice approaches OFERMOD didn’t do anything good. And for a comedy show it was too lengthy, sorry.

[Seb] The next turn went to the great Dutch guys of :: ASPHYX :: Since Thursday heaps of fans with ASPHYX shirts were walking around and I bet every single one enjoyed the show to the max. Well… except for the fact that ASPHYX only played 45 minutes maybe… Martin thanked the audience already in advance, also for the chance sharing stage with legendary Autopsy and for the fact that without the 2007 (official reunion) P:S:O:A show the band wouldn’t have went on. Then a three-fourths hour of thundering and massive riffwork rolled over the audience and I think I’m right to declare ASPHYX to the best moshing band of the festival. The Dutch gents delivered a killer set with highlights such as Death… The Brutal Way (yesssss!), Wastelands Of Terror and Asphyx (Forgotten War), also the freshly recruited bass player introduced himself the best way. Really great show! But no encore…
[Sui] Being the old headbanger I am I most of all welcomed the groovin’ mid-tempo parts that make ASPHYX stand out of all the blastbeat fetishists at PARTY.SAN OPEN AIR. With their Doom Metal influences the Dutch Death Metal veterans truly displayed how real heaviness works.

[Seb] More Death Metal, but the different way. No doomy leaning, instead :: DYING FETUS :: do it the Grindcore-touched and bludgeoning way. Technically brilliant they could not reach what Asphyx built up before, although tracks such as One Shot One Kill and Grotesque Impalement still mastered the crowd. Generally I’d like to know how often singer John used the words: „fuck“, „shit“ and „motherfucker“ ;) Seems like after 20 years of stage experience (or maybe because of that) he only knows these three words for his communication ;)
[Sui] Bassist Sean Beasley created some vocal diversity with his more Death Metal like growls.

[Seb] :: SARKE :: - is the new Norwegian Black’n’Roll project by Khold/Tulus drummer Sarke. Live he’s playing the bass, accompanied by Satyricon’s axe-man Steinar Gundersen, Cyrus and most of all legendary singer Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone). The band does not have so much material yet to play, only the tracks from their debut Vorunah, all the more I was surprised to see Nocturno Culto creeping on the stage’s ground to read the lyrics? However, they played raw songs such as Primitive Killing next to more solemn and less bloodthirsty tracks like Old. With the entire record played it was closing time for SARKE. Hope, they won’t stop doing music together.
[Sui] I’d like to subscribe too. With their merciless blend of Motörhead-, Black Sabbath- and Celtic Frost influences SARKE was the best band of the day for me. Black Rock’n’Thrash… so to say. Powerful and evil. Perfect!

[Seb] Soaking wet and muddy till the ears our day ended up here. We still had to go back to Jena so we had to unfortunately cut Autopsy. Only a few sound shreds accompanied us when leaving…

[Dajana] No, for nothing in this world I would have missed :: AUTOPSY ::! And this show almost brought tears of joy to my eyes! What a stunning show! Oh, by the way… who was wondering why Danny Lilker was around… he of course played the bass in AUTOPSY. Too bad on the other hand that Chris Reifert was sitting behind the drums and thus most time “invisible”. Also the sky opened its gate again and it started heavily raining. But that didn’t scare too many people, nope, they all wanted to see AUTOPSY playing live, with many songs from the early records (Severed Survival – almost completely played, Mental Funeral) with Gasping For Air for example (killer song!) and Twisted Mess Of Burnt Decay and a song from the brand new EP The Tomb Within. As I said… melting faces… Definitely THE highlight of PARTY.SAN 2010!

[Dajana] Ok, a little bit of more drinking and partying and back to my lovely car. This time I slept like a dead…