BURDEN OF LIFE at OUT & LOUD 2014

Many guys from NWOGM told me Kötti from BURDEN OF LIFE was totally drunk all the time at OUT & LOUD, so I didn't expect he could manage such a brilliant review about the fest with the heavy volume! Just check this out.

Kötti: It's already been a little more than a month since we, Burden Of Life, played at Out&Loud Festival in Geiselwind, Germany. Believe me, however, that the memories we made on these three days – some crystal clear, some booze-fueled and hazy – will stay with us for a much longer time.

Before we got the offer to play at said festival we had not played too many shows of that size and so we were more than excited to get yet another chance to prove ourselves in front of the audience which would (hopefully) be a little bigger than what we were normally used to. But first things first: most of us arrived almost exactly 48 hours before stage-time so there was still some time to kill, some music to absorb and some beers to consume. Sleep was a little scarce but hey, it's a festival ain't it?

So with our tents set up in between the camps of our friends in Soulbound, The Last Hangmen, Parasite Inc., Mnyded and many others we made our way to the stage area at around three p.m. on Thursday for the first time. The first band we watched was Sólstafir which is one of my current favorites so I was really psyched and the guys did not disappoint! The slight showers of rain even amplified the atmosphere of their epic compositions. Right after that we went to the Newcomer Stage and witnessed the extremely professional and sympathetic show by our friends in Soulbound. And to be honest; before we arrived at the site I was a little worried the people wouldn't really pay attention to a stage full of relatively unknown bands. Oh boy was I wrong and this show was the first proof. The people, including us of course, went crazy and they were right in doing so. Johnny even started the show off in his leather jacket as a favor to me. I do not exactly remember why I asked him to do it but the fact that he did do it made me smile and once again proved that these guys are not only good musicians but also incredibly nice and fun-loving people.

The rest of the day was spent with more music, booze and joking around and we had a really good time with all the guys from the other bands. Johnny took it a little too far I guess threw and his voice out completely over the next 24 hours. Good thing their show was already over! :D

Friday fortunately greeted us with the weather situation a little improved over the relatively shitty Thursday. The first band I watched on the second day of the festival were the guys in Parasite Inc. All of you Kumi friends and supporters who are reading this surely know that their debut effort “Time Tears Down” made massive waves in the German underground scene and it did so with good reason. So I expected a lot of people in front of the stage. And indeed, the hall was packed. Packed enough even, to make Kai speechless in between songs. The band is a well-oiled machine and they presented their songs as professional as ever. Their new guitar player also fit in seamlessly. Way to go guys!

The Last Hangmen were the next band on my schedule. These guys have become really good friends of ours over the last three years and playing shows with them is always a highlight. Driven by their Blast-beat-O-Meter Ronny they shredded their way through 40 minutes of their signature Melodic Extreme Metal.

Unfortunately shortly after their show  –  which was no later than eight p.m. I think – it was already time for me to hit the hay. For one thing I've had  a little too much to drink and for another I needed to get as much sleep as possible for it was show-time for us on Saturday. But I was told that the others had a fun time drinking and talking late into the night and in the process make Johnny eventually lose his voice entirely.

The time in between getting up and playing the show was mostly used to welcome the rest of our band at the camping site and getting ready for the show. Of course, shortly before hitting the stage we all got a little nervous and the obligatory “What if we're the exception to the rule an nobody shows up?!”-question entered our minds. But as soon as we hit the stage people started cheering and shouting and from the first note onward they were head-banging and partying along to our music. It was without a doubt one of the most awesome shows we ever played and we had an absolute blast. The 40 minutes rushed past us and as the last notes of “Breathing The Soil” faded away we enjoyed the applause for a little bit and then started packing up our things.

The last few hours we had left we spent at the New Wave Of German Metal booth, hanging out with our friends, and watching some more bands like our friends in Mynded (awesome Thrash Metal, check them out) and the mighty Blind Guardian. Shortly after the headliners ended their set we said goodbye to all the other bands and made our way home through the night.

Overall it was an absolutely amazing experience and we hope that there will be more opportunities like this in the future. There are a few people I would like to mention here, for they particularly helped to make it a wonderful weekend: First of all our thanks go to Flori who spearheaded the New Wave Of German Metal through this experience and made it possible for all eleven NWOGM Bands to play at the festival. We also would like to thank the people organizing the O&L Festival for believing in the idea of a stage full of newcomers, this is not a common thing and we know and appreciate that. Furthermore we would like to thank Bettina of Dark & Sweet Things and Natts of Shoother for their incredible endurance and passion taking really awesome pictures which make us once again look way more cool than in real life. We also say thanks to our friend Bergi who was not only our Merch Guy/Roadie but also a valid force of entertainment on the campground for everyone present. Oh and of course thanks as always to Kumi for her support and interest, you rule!

Last but not least we want to thank all the guys in the other bands we spent these three days with. YOU.ARE.AWESOME. Hope to see you all way more often in the future! Now back to songwriting for Burden Of Life – Album III!

Kötti/Burden Of Life

BURDEN OF LIFE Official Facebook

Check following awesome live photos by Bettina ( Dark and Sweet Things ) !!!

THE LAST HANGMEN at OUT & LOUD 2014

Here's a brand-new OUT & LOUD report by my favorite extreme metal force in Dresden - The last Hangmen. Those hangovermen made their impression about the fest in the unique way. Enjoy!

Jason: Hey Kumi,

After Simon and me met at 7 o’clock to write this report for you, we drank some soft-drinks to improve our English.  We had a little brainstorming and now it’s nearly midnight. So let’s start!

Hangmen: Even though we’ve got good memories about the Out & Loud Festival, there are significant blackouts which make it harder for us to write this report. Thursday, as Hangmen we arrived – Friday, as Hangovermen we awoke. Afterwards we had a few hung-over hours in Geiselwind and had to kill some time. After that the worst 40 minutes of our lives were to begin. We had to play a concert even though we had just one thought: where’s the next toilet!?

After a great piss we’d like to describe the most explosive memories to you. Let’s come to some facts. We met Kai from Parasite Inc. who was seemingly too sober for the whole time; compared to Kötti, who was always perfectly performing on the bottle climaxing with his performance on Friday night by puking in front of his tent. But one thing that animated us all to puke was Haimi’s hairdo. Haimi namely has got a girlfriend. She’s made him wear this ­sausage dog hair style; a sausage dog that loves to leave his tiny shit piles on the sidewalks. That’s what his hair looks like! Saturday morning we had an extensive discussion about our penises which we then showed to each other while downing uncountable beers. In the following piece of video evidence you see that Schafi couldn’t keep up with us:

Hangmen: Now, tits on the table. We had a great time at the Out & Loud Festival and met wonderful people (except Haimi). As you can see, we came home safely to Dresden looking most forward to finally take a massive shit.

Unfortunatley we lost our good, beloved friend and reliable companion Meick. RIP – you will never be forgotten.

We’d love to write much more, but unfortunately we’ve run out of beer and consequently run out of inspiration. Hope to see you soon!

THE LAST HANGMEN

The last Hangmen Official facebook

Here we go with the awesome live photos by Bettina ( Dark and Sweet Things ) !!!

PARASITE INC. at Out & Loud 2014

Ladies and gentlemen, here’s a complete impression of OUT & LOUD by Kai from PARASITE INC.. The lovely and talented metal guy made it with his good humor, with a lot of snap shots.

Kai: Hey folks,
it took me a while to write down some words and now after I finally found some time to finish my report, a lot of things have been already said. Time tears down, ya know? Soo expect some compact impressions and thoughts from the Out & Loud happening.

Day - 1
First day, rainy day and a late arrival after we got stuck in a traffic jam. The first impression? Friendly security staff! Yes! Well informed? Definitely not! It's not easy to find the artist check-in if no one even knows what an <artist check-in> is.

I felt a bit annoyed of all that because I seriously wanted to see Bloodspot but in the end I only could enjoy their last 2 songs. However, watching them live is always like, you know, just imagine a giant tank with 2 horns that is rolling across you while shooting thrash hits into you without a break. Annoying fact of the day:  they had the ingrate opening slot.  Not cool.

Awesome fact at Soulbound: "Classical" metalheads (you know the guys with the 1000 patches on their jackets) head-banging and clapping to their modern alternative metal. Genre bitching? Not at Soulbound. Their sympathetic appearance brings their unconventional metal hymns to just everyone around the stage! Awesome!

Quick facts: Festival just started - Kötty (singer/Burden Of Life) is already drunk +++ Genius: Passionate and growing crowd at the newcomer stage +++ Small talk with Danny from IAMENEMY - cheers +++ bad multi-tasking abilities - can't have small talk with several persons at the same time.+++

While listening to Legacy Of Vydar I got thoughts like: A guest appearance of Johan Hegg in that band could be the most useless guest appearance in metal history because you can't make out any differences in the power of their vocals. Enjoyable and passionate show with a great sound and epic songs of the 6-piece heavy weight . Only their announcements could maybe require some little tweaks ;)

Day - 2
Friday is play day. First discussed with the uninformed security staff to reach to the equipment, which was stored in our car at the backstage area. Later I wanted to drop my guitars to the wall because of the cold night outside they were entirely detuned. I had to spend the whole time before the show with tuning my guitars instead of doing my regular warm up to be in a usable condition for the show. Personal consequence: I missed Sapiency – damn it.

Quick facts: +++ no broken strings - yay +++ acceptable in-ear monitoring - nay +++ didn't expect so many people in front of the stage - totally overwhelmed and speechless +++ Dominik was clearly nervous and screwed up the verse of <Armageddon in 16 To 9> - that’s live +++ almost no time to watch All Will Know because of too many people around the NWOGM booth +++ would have loved to thank every single person who came out to see us +++

The next band: The Last Hangmen. A hot show? It could have been one without the many windmill head-banging of everyone. What else could I say about them? Freaking awesome appearance with a tight playing... Sick!

Wisdom of the day: Drunk promoters seem to have the ability to work like the Bermuda triangle.
Never give away anything to them except you want it to be gone. We still miss some Soulbound CDs and NWOGM sampler - haha.

Day - 3

Screw some incorrect times on my running order - I almost missed the entire show of IAMENEMY and was only able to listen to the last 1,5 songs of their set. I guess they did a great show - at least the applause of the audience gave me a hint that it was a great one!

Back at the newcomer stage it was time for Burden Of Life. As for every other of the kumi666 supported and NWOGM bands, the stage was more than well visited from the start and got more filled with every further song. A bunch of their hits supported by a crisp sound only can work as a magnet for metalheads.

After 2 days of hanging out with all those great people, bands and friends, I felt a bit too bad that the dudes from Bleeding Red arrived that late on Saturday afternoon to join the party. Anyway it was awesome to meet the guys again and later watch them bringing the newcomer stage to its final with their blackened death smashers!

Quick facts: +++ compared to Johnny, Kötty still had a respectable singing voice after 2 festival days inclusive drinking +++ unknown plush toy owl made me smile +++ 3 days are far too short for such a great time +++ doing a group picture is not that easy since drunk musicians and a schedule can never exist in the same universe +++

Frankly it’s impossible to catch all that great moments in only a few lines, so for now I just want to thank and greet all NWOGM and kumi666 bands as well as all involved persons who made this great time possible. Also, a huge cheers and thanks to all the people and fans that came out to see and support the young bands on the festival!

Horns Up and hopefully see you all again at a second round!
Kai ( PARASITE INC. )

Parasite Inc. Official Facebook

Following cool shots of Parasite Inc. at Out & Loud taken by Bettina (Dark and Sweet Things)!!!

ALL WILL KNOW at OUT & LOUD 2014

Let’s go on with the brand new OUT & LOUD impression by ALL WILL KNOW! They told me about Newcomer Stage, about the special show with their former clean singer Mo.

ALL WILL KNOW: When we arrived at the Out&Loud Festival, the first thing to acknowledge was definitely the kind and helpful security and organization personnel. Whatever question or problem there was, they gave their best in finding the right solution or someone who could give further information. Very dedicated and focused. They certainly gave us the first sense of comfort and ease.

 After setting up the camp and having the first few drinks with our New Wave of German Metal friends we enjoyed some of the shows at the newcomer stage. And what is there to say? It was amazing! With a line-up containing so many classy bands on the other stages, you could expect that not too many metalheads would stick around to listen to bands they didn’t even know until this day. But every band had an amazingly huge and party-willed crowd in front. It really gave us a great feeling that the whole NWOGM was so well received.

 ALL WILL KNOW: On Friday it was finally our turn to bring ALL WILL KNOW to the stage and give the crowd the best of us. Looking into that sea of faces mixed with new ones and some friends that came along to celebrate with us was such an awesome moment to remember for a long time.

 What made it even more special was the fact that we had Mo on stage with us to celebrate the “contact.” songs with his great voice once more. The concert had been one of the most fun to play and we thank everyone in the audience for sing-along and sharing this positive energy with us on that very special day.

 We definitely want to come back if they’d like us to be on their billing again. And of course Flori did a great job managing the newcomer stage and helping out everywhere – so big props go out to him as well!

 ALL WILL KNOW

You can see their kick-ass performance through the following awesome photos by Dark and Sweet Things. Thanks a lot again, Bettina! 

ALL WILL KNOW Official Facebook

Soulbound at Out and Loud Fest 2014

Here’s another awesome review of OUT & LOUD 2014 by my beloved alternative metal band SOULBOUND. They talked enthusiastically about the three-days-metal-party with the legion of New Wave Of German Metal!

Oh. My. God.

Who would've thought of that? A band from out in the sticks plays on a stage almost 220 miles away and the crowd goes freakin' nuts.

Thank you, Out&Loud! We couldn't have asked for more! Absolutely incredible! It was a big family reunion more than "just" a festival. The New Wave Of German Metal met for the very first time in it's entirely. A bunch of tents, lots of booze, awesome concerts and a whole lot of fun.

Arriving at 6 in the Morning, we set up our tents and filled the fridge. It was the 29th of May and we were about to hit the stage in 10 hours. Enough time for us to get to know the festival area a little better. The camping site was already packed and full of people. More or less sober. We entered the actual festival area and checked out the stage we were gonna play on later that day. The stage was already set up and we couldn't wait any longer to get up there.
Unfortunately we still got some time to kill so we strolled around the festival, had a few pints and made friends with the security guys.

Finally, 2:45pm, off to the stage! Bloodspot were already tearin' it up and the crowd was goin' crazy. Aw yeah! They put on one hell of a show and more and more people bulked up in front of the stage.
We never had this much time to prepare, 1 hour! We all went through our warm up routine (naked push ups ;-), power-slides, amp-curls) and got on stage at 4pm sharp. And… holy shit. People everywhere. People who have never seen us before were down there screaming our lyrics in our faces and went completely insane! Our sound engineer Holger did a great job and we had an awesome time up there in the spotlight!
Be sure to check out the pics Bettina from Dark and Sweet things shot during the concerts!

We cleared the stage for Spirit Of The Future Sun, Legacy of Vydar and Rotovathor who continued the party!

We went back to the camping site and… let’s say, things got a little crazy. As the night progressed, the ground got covered with empty bottles more and more and the talking got a little out of hand. Parasite Inc. were convinced about the Egyptian pyramids actually being rocket launch pads, Flori was constantly talking about UFOs and at 7am Johnny’s vocal chords gave up and his voice went completely down the drain. Time to hit the bunks. Even after a couple hours of sleep, he still sounded like a chipmunk with asthma.
The next two festival days can easily be described as “epic”. Yeah, we hate that word as much as you do, but there’s no way around it. Blind Guardian, Saxon, Amon Amarth, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Powerwolf, Sepultura, Behemoth, Rage, Xandria and many more shared a festival with us! Couldn’t get better than this.
After 3 days of music and partying we loaded up our stuff and headed back northwards. As we arrived at our rehearsing room to unload, we were pretty worn out but couldn’t stop thinking about the past few days. We had an amazing time and were absolutely blown away by the festival crowd!

That's how it's done, Out&Loud!
See you on stage!

 Soulbound

Check SOULBOUND Official Facebook

Find SOULBOUND on Kumi666.com Supported Bands section

www.kumi666.com bands @ OUT & LOUD2014

Such an overwhelming view of beautiful guys from the bands on www.kumi666.com at OUT & LOUD 2014!!!

Thank you so much for those amazing bands:
PARASITE INC.
BLOODSPOT
THE LAST HANGMEN
BLEEDING RED
IAMENEMY
LEGACY OF VYDAR
BURDEN OF LIFE
SOULBOUND
ALL WILL KNOW

My special thanks goes to Kai from PARASITE INC. and Bettina from Dark and Sweet Things for all your efforts!!!

Legacy Of Vydar at Out and Loud Fest 2014

Here’s the first review about OUT & LOUD Fest by one of my support bands LEGACY OF VYDAR. Daniel from the epic melodic death metal band told me about their show and some interesting stories of what happened behind the scenes.

Daniel: Oh my God, the Out&Loud 2014. What should I say... it was fucking amazing, in every kind of view. I will just start with the festival itself and then talk about our Newcomer Stage and Bandcamp.

So the Festival itself was actually very good. It was small, but that was a good aspect. You were able to reach the Festival ground within 5 minutes from the Campground. All of the 3 stages were very close to each other and everywhere were possibilities for eating, drinking and listening to music. And one of the most important aspects: you didn't have to wait long for beer! haha.

And now comes the important part. So when we arrived we had to get some VIP shit and then were able to enter the festival ground with our cars. The Securities just opened the gates for us. Later one Security told us they can't let us enter the Festival ground with cars anymore because their boss got angry and they even had to tell Blind Guardian to fuck off. So they had to camp on the Parking lot with their tour bus! They refused to let the fucking headliner enter the Festival ground!!!! hahaha

As we had to play on Thursday we quickly built our tents and then went to our stage. And the stage was awesome! When I arrived at the stage the first time, Soulbound was at the end of their set. The sound was awesome and Soulbound made an awesome show. Johnny's just a show-master! The sound-check before our concert was the longest we've ever had. We had 1 hour (1 HOUR !!!!!!) for the sound-check. Usually we got a short line check and then we have to get over it haha. While preparing backstage, all the people already arrived at the stage. On every band the stage was full of people. That was because of the good organized playtimes. While a band on the Newcomer Stage was playing, the Indoor and Main Stage had a break. So all the people went over the festival ground and stopped where the music has been playing - at the newcomer stage.

Daniel: And now I have to tell something about the crowd. The crowd was so awesome! There was no grumpy idiotic moron metalhead that had some problem with the band because of no long hair or whatever. Every single one just was there for music and having fun. And they had! You only had to raise the metalhorns and eeeeevery single one raised them too without waiting for someone to do it first. That was really awesome.

Daniel:  When we were done with the gig we had some talk with the fans, hang around with them at the merch table and then left to the camping ground. The Bandcamp was awesome. We've met a lot of the other bands and had a lot of fun with them. And Johnny had a bit too much fun haha. One night we had some beer at our place with Johnny until 4-5am. Flo woke up in the night and stood up to get something to drink. This was around 6 or 7am. And Johnny still was sitting there having some beers haha. When I woke up I've asked him if he slept at all and he said with almost gone voice "3 hours". Haha his voice was sooo damaged, on Saturday he wasn't able to talk at all. Kai from Parasite Inc. was going to get him some spray for the voice, but I don't know if it helped.

Saturday was the day with the big bands. Vader, Ensiferum, Amon Amarth, Blind Guardian. And on Sunday morning the last bands left, including us. I was really sad when I had to leave and get back into normal life. It wasn't just because we played on an awesome festival as a band with big bands like Amon Amarth. It was because I enjoyed the time with all the other bands so much. Supporting each other and raising something together makes me actually very happy. And proud. And I will give all my energy and passion to get every single one of our brothers where they belong - on the Main stage!"

A new Legacy Of Vydar's interview will be coming up soon, stay tuned!!!

Legacy Of Vydar Official Facebook

Check Legacy Of Vydar’s music on Supported Bands section!

You can find some beautiful photos of Legacy Of Vydar at Out & Loud here:
Dark and Sweet Things :)