Parasite Inc.
Interview with Parasite Inc. – New masterpiece Dead And Alive!
It's been a long time to hear you about the new release since the successful official first album “Time Tears Down” was out. (Yeah, we, your early fans still want to clarify that “Parasite Inc.” is the original first album.) Anyway, l'm totally blown away with the new album “Dead And Alive”! Even though it's a pre-final-mix version so far, it sounds total punchy and deep already. Could you tell me about the plan for the mastering process?
Kai: Yes we are currently waiting for the mastering which is done by Fascination Street Studios in Sweden. After the long work on the album we are really excited for the outcome.
The album title sounds like Schrödinger's Cat for me, haha... Joke aside, you guys kept silence about the new album for a long time. So, I can say you were almost dead, but you're going to come back to the scene with the killer second album. Yes, you are alive. Does the title actual point out about the band, or a summary of the album?
Kai: Haha, indeed. The album title relates to what we went through within the last years. There was always a lot of work behind the curtain and everything felt alive for us but to the outside there wasn’t much happening and the more time passed by the more people started to wonder if there will be another album at all. In some moments I was even not sure by myself if we can make another album happen.
Phew, sounds tough but I’m happy with the fact that you made the killer new album! Well, you guys (Kai & Benni) are very talented artists for graphical design as well. You guys managed the amazing album art, right? How did you come up with the idea?
Kai: As for Time Tears Down, Benni was responsible for the artwork again and it took over 300 hours to render the artwork alone. I can’t reveal it yet but the artwork will basically show a mechanical heart that stands for the band and it shows some elements that connect to the title “Dead and Alive”.
Yeah, the art is absolutely professional and your fans will love it! As I mentioned above, the new album “Dead And Alive” blew me away with the non-stoppable killer 11 tracks including an intro and a cover song. I’d love to ask you track by track details. So why don’t we start from the first track “Countershock”? The short intro is obviously connected to the epic album art with the sound effects and its title. Could you tell us the hidden meaning in the title once you told me a couple of days ago?
Kai: “Countershock” describes the process of an electric shock getting applied to the heart to terminate a disturbance of its rhythm. In relation to the artwork the track represents our idea to get our new album started after the long time of silence.
The second track “Once And For All” is totally appropriate for the first main song of the album. I can feel your rage, power and passion from the fast and punchy track. It could be a new flagship song for the band. Can you describe the song for the fans who are total eager for your new album?
Kai: “Once and For All” was the first song I wrote for the album. The first 1,5 years after the initial release of “Time Tears Down” were very stressful in several ways and on some points I got that feeling that I don't have the power anymore for being in a band. The song was meant to be a kickstarter to myself, to keep going and not giving up.
The metal fans who witnessed latest Parasite Inc’s shows must know “This World” already. This song is one of my most favorites in the album with the heavy tone and the cool lyrics! Your buddies from Bloodspot joined the gang-shouts, right? How did you arrange the recording with them?
Kai: Oh, that was a spontaneous thing. They played at the Metal Christmas festival on Christmas 2017, so I just took the chance and asked them and it was awesome that they joined the session and contributed to that song.
What was on your mind when you were working on the ironic but cool lyrics?
Kai: Uh, I felt a lot of frustration and hate for some happenings and individuals in the world and then I recognized that my own feelings and thoughts basically didn't make any difference compared to these people. The conclusion was kinda that we, the crown of the evolution, are far away from behaving like that.
The track 4 is another in-your-face song: “Fall Of The Idealist”. It’s obvious that the whole album has stronger and heavier sound than the previous album and that is why I’m crazy about it! What did you want to tell via this song?
Kai: Fall Of The Idealist is a song about letting go of your ideals. Ideals can give you structure and help you going through the days. However, not all ideals are doing well to you and on some point you should reflect and rethink them.
Here we go with the fastest kickass track “Headfuck Rollercoaster”! I feel this one has the most typical Parasite Inc style and every PI fans would love it. In the chorus part, I even feel like ‘Yeah, that’s Parasite Bodom!’, haha. What do you feel about the song?
Kai: Ha, great. Everyone who already had the chance to listen to it told me the same. Personally, I have a love hate relationship with the song. I like that pushing atmosphere but the opening riff always bothers me since it’s difficult to play on my guitar. Need some extra rounds of practice with that one for sure.
You used many digital sci-fi sound effects like Transformers movies in the album. It boosts up your modern melodeath color and makes difference from “Time Tears Down”. Why did you give that sprinkles to the album?
Kai: Oh we had these sounds already on Time Tears Down but we gave them more presence this time. It's fun to use effects and keyboard stuff and I like to spice up the songs with it.
Heaviness is a distinctive matter in the album for sure. “Flesh Decadence” is one of the great heavy and furious pieces. Why are you so angry all the time? Joke aside, I think you’ve been dealing with themes like ‘degraded humanity’ or ‘machinery society’ for your music. Could you tell us your thoughts about your anger in the lyrics?
Kai: Well, why is it okay to eat a cow or a cat but it's not okay to eat a human? At the end of the day it are all living creatures, with a beating heart, red blood and the wish to live and to exist, right? “Flesh Decadence” deals with the question about our ethical and cultural values and rules how we justify our meat consume.
Agree! And the next song “Red Wine Collider” is another favorite for me and I’m curious about the distinct title. “Collider” gives me some images of quantum mechanics, haha, but why red wine?
Kai: The origin of the name came with the song itself. It’s an old ritual of me to get some inspiration for the lyrics with a glass of red wine while listening to the music. But with that song I got writing blockade and ended up having a couple of bottles somehow, haha. So the song worked as a “collider” to me in terms of my wine consume.
Comparing with typical Parasite Inc style, “Sunset Overdrive” sounds something new. It has positive and nostalgic vibe and I feel good with the mood. How do you feel about the song?
Kai: Sunset Overdrive is my favourite song on the album. After all the heavy stuff and especially after the more complex “Red Wine Collider” it was great to have a “no brainer” song without complex arrangements and just some light mood.
“Cold Silent Hell” just stands for headbangers for sure! I love it especially with the first and second verses because of the heaviness! You should add this song to your regular live set-list seriously. How about your opinion?
Kai: Agreed, the song has some heavy shit going on and a decent guitar battle. I'm excited to try it live with Dominik.
Here comes the Parasite Inc’s new anthem “Dead And Alive”! This one should be played at live as well! The song is really exciting not only with the killer tune but also with the epic gang-shout by some of New Wave of German Metal buddies (Bloodspot, Soulbound, All Will Know and Burden Of Life)! Could you tell us any episode about the recording session?
Kai: Yeah, it was super chaotic and in hurry, haha. I remember that we scheduled the session around 12:00 a.m. the day after the Metal Christmas festival in Bielefeld. But I first didn’t find the way and got late, then we couldn’t get into the rehearsal room because no one of the Soulbound guys had a key to their own room and last but not least the guys from All Will Know were missing their band register and got late as well. So things went not as planned but we somehow made it and it was a lot of fun though. We are really happy that our friends contributed their time and voices to our new album. Thanks a lot guys!
Hahaha, sounds chaotic but great outcome! Well, to tell you the truth, I’m totally not familiar with the cover bonus track! (Unfortunately, I can’t utter the title of the track so far though.) Is it a hit pop-song around 80’s or 90’s or so?
Kai: Oh it's actually a newer song that I found last year. I can't reveal much about it but it was pretty fun to do that cover and turn a 80s synth pop song into a punk metal number.
It seems 80’s pop-culture is a trend these days for example “Ready Player One”(Spielberg’s movie) or “Stranger Things”(TV drama). Did you get some influence from the trend for the album?
Kai: Yeah, seems like the 80’s pop culture got some revival these days.
Though I didn’t get any influence from what you mentioned. As you know I’m a kid of the 80’s and my earliest memories are like watching cartoons and series from that time. So this was always was a part of me and even on Time Tears Down there are 80’s metal influences and even movie based samples. At the time we finished Time Tears Down I was already playing around with that classical 80’s synthesizers, so it’s rather a natural process to us than a trend thing.
On the bonus track, I recognized Johnny from Soulbound did a great job with his bravery clean singing. And I remember once you gave your epic growls for “Neverland” on Soulbound’s album “Myllennium”. How was the reunion with Johnny?
Kai: Working with Johnny was a lot of fun. When I did the first demo for the bonus track I soon felt like that his vocals would be a perfect addition to our version of the song.
Your only one official music video “Pulse Of The Dead” from the previous album got a big success. Do you have any plan for a new clip from “Dead And Alive” so far?
Kai: Indeed we are planning on a new video or more. We have a bunch of ideas about at the moment we can’t plan anything without knowing our budget for that.
Well, we should talk about a very important thing now –crowdfunding! What do you want from the financial project?
Kai: We’ve started a campaign for our new record on May 11th..Usually we are not that kind of band that asks their fans for help because we basically want to give and not to take. But with the goal to make “Dead and Alive” better than its predecessor we came to our financial limits and paying the entire production on our own became no option. So we decided to ask our fans for help to deliver them the new record in the best way possible.
Do you have any message to your fans who want to support Parasite Inc. through the crowdfunding?
Kai: Thanks a lot to everyone out there who has supported us so far. We feel totally proud and thankful to have such a supportive fan base and friends! The funding is running until June 10th, so if you missed that we are doing it, you can still help us here and get some specials in return: Parasite Inc Crowdfunding!
Okay, it's gonna be the final question. You guys will be back on stage at Summer Breeze Open Air this year, right? So, will it be the album release party for you?
Kai: Indeed “Dead and Alive” is going to be released on this year’s Summer Breeze festival and we are happy to be able to celebrate it with a release show there. We are totally looking forward to that.
Parasite Inc. Page on Kumi666com here
You can check lyrics of Parasite Inc.'s releases on Lyrics Library
Short Interview with Parasite Inc. – Summer Breeze 2016 and the future
Hey, you guys have been quite silent these days, so I ask you about your highlights of the year so far and your upcoming activities. First of all, did you enjoy the show at Summer Breeze? How was the audience there?
Kai: Hell yeah, we did. In general the audience at Summer Breeze is always great and it was really fun to play for them. I only wish we would have had more time on stage.
Did you feel any difference between your on-stage experience at Summer Breeze 2010 for the first time and this time?
Kai: Hmm, compared to nowadays we were really not well prepared for that kind of stage - probably even for any kind of stage. There was a lot of chaos in the band and around the band at that time and chaos is truly not your friend when it comes to show preparations. I remembered that before I walked on the stage this year and it felt great to see how things have progressed.
I heard you played a new song “This World” for the first time at that time. Is it true? I’m curious about the reaction you got from the people there.
Kai: True it is: “This World” is one of the new songs and we played it live there for the first time. To be honest, I didn't check for any reactions but I guess they just listened to the song?
Did you have time to enjoy the fest as a metal fan? Any favorite show?
Kai: We had some schedule this year, so we missed some bands but I think everybody in the band managed to check his favorites. My personal highlights were Lost Society, Arch Enemy and Evil Invaders.
Funny story: I ran into Lost Society and took their stage picture. Since I'm not an actual photographer I simply added our logo to their stage picture that they used later for facebook. They will never know, hehe. You can check it out here: Lost Society Summer Breeze photo on facebook
Of course you also should check them live!
Do you have any plan to show us “This World” within a couple of months in any way? For example: a lyrics video.
Kai: Unfortunately, there is no such plan. I mean, we are working on a video for that but it won't be released before the next album.
Well, you played in Norway this year for the first time, didn’t you? How was the trip to the land of mighty Vikings?
Kai: It was really awesome: Intense audience, great people all around and too much moonshine for me, haha. Good times!
Did the people there go crazy with your show?
Kai: Yes they did. We never had such an intense audience before. Big kudos to the people at Karmøygeddon!
As far as I know, “Time Tears Down” is still selling well and you have passionate fans from all over the world. How are you feeling about it?
Kai: The success is still kinda surreal to us for sure and we are still often surprised what our music moves for us and for the people. At the end of the day we just feel very thankful that it is so much appreciated.
So, time flies so quickly, we are all curious about your new record. Is everything going well with the song writing process so far?
Kai: It's annoyingly slow but beside that it's going well. The songs are growing step by step and to me they sound much more focused and intense with a tighter connection between music and lyrics. I'm pretty optimistic that people who dig Time Tears Down will also dig the new material.
How long should we be waiting for your new album? Sorry, it must be a nasty question for you, haha.
Kai: Does it count when I say “It's going to be released before Wintersun's Time II”? :P
Indeed it's a pretty nasty question and I get it almost every day these days. I'm currently at a point where I've become very hesitating with any predictions about a release date. We really want to make sure that we are as happy with the new stuff as we were when we did TTD and the last thing we will do for sure is to put something out that we are not satisfied with.
Anyway, don’t you think it’s about time for making a new official music video, do you? It’s been a long time since you released “Pulse of The Dead” and the video got a big success for spreading the word about the band then.
Kai: You mean like before it's too late and we get old and crumpled? ;)
I don't think so. I even don't want to waste too much thoughts about it now. The most important thing is the music itself... everything else comes later.
Will you play at Metal Christmas, won’t you? Could you tell us about the fest?
Kai: Yes, our last show for 2016 will be at Metal Christmas in Bielefeld alongside with Nothgard, Suidakra, Soulbound and a bunch of other bands. I'm really excited for it since I've never seen some of those bands live before and it's been a while since we had the chance to see our friends in Soulbound and All Will Know.
Thanks for your TIME!
PARASITE INC. OFFICIAL HOMEPAGE
PARASITE INC. OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE
SUPPORT PARASITE INC. ON BANDCAMP
ALL ABOUT PARASITE INC. ON KUMI666COM
Don’t miss Parasite Inc. at Summer Breeze 2016!
Our finest straight melodeathers Parasite Inc. are going to be back at Summer Breeze this year.
Here's some info about it. So, don't miss it!
All about Parasite Inc. on Kumi666.com
Parasite Inc. info on Summer Breeze.de
Summer Breeze 2015 Day 4 – Live Photo Report by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Day 4
Kai: The final day and I actually had a tight running order with Pripjat, Dust Bolt, Breakdown Of Sanity… and I just missed them all when I got hired as an “undercover beer server” for those two guys in the picture. So I started late on that day with the dudes from Hackneyed. Tobi (the preferred sound engineer of Hackneyed and also my band) packed their songs into a punchy and crisp sound! Good sound to a good show – did anyone expect something else?
When I reached to Cannibal Corpse the band had already started their set. The securities seriously had no easy job with the waves of incoming crowd surfers and the head banging people seriously had no easy job with keeping up to the merciless head banging of Corpsegrinder, haha. Hm, he has that big tummy actually just to keep a proportion to his neck, does he?
Exactly 10 years ago I have seen Dark Tranquility for the last time on Summer Breeze. Haha, those dudes have become pretty old… oh, wait…
Let’s better continue with the next band: Nightwish. Once after the split with Tarja and the entering of Anette I lost my interest in that band, because I never could get much into Anette’s voice in combination with the band. With Floor they got a powerful and versatile voice back to the band and I enjoyed almost every minute of that show with its huge sound and stage effects. Almost? Yes, because giving the audience almost 8 minutes of stupid outro music is just not sugoi! Or did I miss a point with that?
With the last canned tones of Nightwish and the beginning of the rain I went to my last band that was just perfect to end this final day with another wonderful sound robe: Ghost Brigade. Only 365 days until Summer Breeze 2016…
PS: So far announced for the next year are Sabaton, Subway To Sally, Korpiklaani, Exodus and Kärbholz... Looks like I am going to have a lot of beer pause beside Exodus!
All photos at Summer Breeze 2015 Day 4 taken by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Check Parasite Inc. Official Web Site
Summer Breeze 2015 Day 3 – Live Photo Report by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Day 3
Kai: On that afternoon the buds from Necrotted had their show on the camel stage. I and Benni were joining them to film their show a bit (I suppose the video will be revealed later this year - If you want to see what they made out of the material you can follow them on Necrotted Facebook.
While I was just enjoying the brutal sound of Thy Art Is Murder the festival organization gave a warning for an incoming thunderstorm and since I was still carrying all my camera and PC gear with me I felt like it would be better to bring it to my car. As it turned out that was not a bad idea, because soon after I reached to my car the storm hit and the festival got stopped for around an hour.
As the rain was almost gone I continued with watching great shows of Suicide Silence and Ektomorf. Btw. obviously Ektomorf enjoyed their intense show so much that they just ignored any stage time rules and overran their stage time for around 7min.
Time for my personal festival headliner: Trivium! I think I missed the joke with an Iron Maiden song as an intro (even when it’s Trivium). However, the band started with “Silence In the Snow” into an hour of their greatest hits – performed ridiculously tight and supported by a great light show and a lot of steam fountains! Awesome!
I can’t say Matt’s talking between the songs was really entertaining but it just reflected how overwhelmed the band itself was with the possibility to headline this event. Btw. did I already mention that they were insanely tight?
Despite the release of their new album, “Cradle Of Filth” surprised the audience with a simple backdrop from “Bitter Suits To Succubi” (wtf?) and started with Cthulu Dawn into a set that covered actually everything I was wishing to hear from them, hehe. Only the sound felt a bit disappointing but that’s not uncommon for the pain stage.
All photos at Summer Breeze 2015 Day 3 taken by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Check Parasite Inc. Official Web Site
Summer Breeze 2015 Day 2 – Live Photo Report by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Day 2
Kai: Who the hell left the heater on 35°C? Maybe I should have waited ‘til the evening before I try to get a Summer Breeze shirt. I had luck and “only” had to wait around 45 min at this time.
The handling of the official merchandise was a bit disappointing again. 40000 people on the festival and they make limited shirt editions to 333 piece? Some persons I talked to were even like “I won’t get a shirt because I am just not willed to wait 2 hours in a line” … sounds not really economic to me. At least they split the band merchandise from the official merchandise – great!
However, after I got my shirt I started my band day with Rogash. We already shared the stage with them earlier that year and it was great to watch them playing without being busy with my own band.
The drum tech from Black Stone Cherry must be a good paid full time member of the band because without him the band never could make it past the first song for sure. Why? Because Mr. Young (drummer) was beating the drum kit so badly and messing up all the time with throwing sticks in the air that the tech was constantly running around to tighten screws, collecting lost sticks or even holding a microphone to the drummer’s mouth. Anyway I enjoyed the performance and music of the band.
I’ve already seen Onkel Tom some weeks ago and now I was finally able to get my Sodom debut! Damn that was old school but punchy!
For the next band I was curious if people are now throwing beer mugs to the singer ;) From all the shows I have seen this year, John Coffey did the most sympathetic one. I couldn’t really decide who had more fun with that show: The band or the audience?
After that I checked a bit Opeth just to feel vindicated again that progressive metal will just never ever be my kind of music. Beer pause.
Kreator is Kreator. I mean, you can’t do anything wrong with Kreator: The show, the lights, the sound – The Thursday headliner did a seasoned yet great show. Amorphis finished that hot and dusty day for me.
All photos and videos at Summer Breeze 2015 Day 2 taken by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Check Parasite Inc. Official Web Site
Summer Breeze 2015 Day 1 – Live Photo Report by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Kai: October 2014 – Summer Breeze is over, my camera seems to be finally broken and the lineup for the next year looks like it won’t be my taste at all... I guess I won’t go there next year.
2015 – 12 August … It’s a sunny afternoon and I’m on my way to the festival ground. The lineup is great, I got a new camera and a year without Summer Breeze is just like having no summer holidays.
So here we go with another fast personal report of the festival in 2015. Short side note: I try to do a bit less blabla so there’s more room for pictures (which are probably more interesting than my words)
Day 1
Kai: For the first time the campground already opened on Tuesday and it obviously helped to avoid some of the traffic jams – at least I didn’t run into any bigger on this Wednesday afternoon. Overall you can find a lot of tiny improvements along the way to the stages: Separated footpaths for the people, more entrances to the stage area, a slightly grown camel stage and more…
I first wanted to wait for Deserted Fear with listening to Thränenkind but quickly skipped to Panzer at the T-stage. (Note to myself: Post black metal is not your kind of music).
In general the T-Stage had a great sound this year! Leaving my position at the Camel stage was not that good idea, though. After I was back from Panzer the whole area was crowded with people who were waiting to celebrate Deserted Fear. I never experienced so many people in front of the camel stage but Deserted Fear definitely deserved every ear for their (what I would call) “modern old-school death metal”!
Actually I’m not so into Sonic Syndicate but I totally enjoyed their live show! They sounded harder than on CD and started a good party with the crowd!
After that I was just walking around for a while, meeting with friends and enjoyed the lights of that tiny town from the main stage area. Day 1 over and out.
All photos at Summer Breeze 2015 Day 1 taken by Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Check Parasite Inc. Official Web Site
Parasite Inc. – Interview about the play through video “In The Dark”
One of my beloved melodeath bands (and my most familiar support band) PARASITE INC. released their first play-through video "In The Dark" a couple of weeks ago after the big success of their very first official music video "The Pulse of the Dead". I had an interview with Kai from the band about the play-though video and their upcoming plan. He also showed me some outtake photos from the video shooting.
Hi, how’ve you been?
Kai: Pretty busy as always but fine, thanks.
Through the latest play-through video “In the Dark”, I’m pretty happy to see that you are still fully active in the scene! And, this time, you are going to show us some outtake photos and some off-topic episodes about the video, right?
Kai: Yeah, at least that’s the plan.
Okay, first, could you tell us about the location that you filmed it?
Kai: We filmed at the bar below our rehearsal room. The bar is well known among local musicians and the whole building is often “misused” for photo and video shoots. For example you can check out the latest music video from our colleagues of Skeleton Pit:
In those pics, I recognized there were two different locations. Could you give us any explanation about it?
Kai: Oh yes, we first wanted to shoot it at Stefan’s living room to have a more comfy ambience but things didn’t work out well and after we checked the (not so great) results we decided to do it again.
You guys look very relaxed in some pics. How many times did you do another take for that?
Kai: After our first try we didn’t want to do it in hurry again and took a whole day for setting up everything. Since we only had a single camera we played the song a couple of times in the main angle and later filmed it additionally from different angles – you know, just tried a few things to see what would work and what not.
Did you use any special equipment for the shooting?
Kai: Nope, we just bought 2 additional lights to get a better lighting. We had a laptop connected to a stereo for the backing track and our ordinary gear - that was all then.
Did you feel nervous about the camera that filming up-close view of your guitar play especially the solo part?
Kai: As for me: Sure, haha. I’m not so into being filmed. I dunno about the other guys though.
There was the former guitarist Kevin at the shooting, right? Did he join to play there?
Kai: No no. He kinda belongs to the inventory of the bar and is often there and I only took some pictures of him for his personal purposes.
By the way, did you start writing new songs for the next album?
Kai: Yes, we are currently writing on new songs and preparing first steps for the next release. Everything is still in an early stage so I can’t give you any further details about it yet.
Do you feel huge pressure for making another great album after the smashing success of “Time Tears Down”?
Kai: Hm, it’s so-so. I think there’s basically no feeling of pressure when it comes to the quality of new songs – we just do what we always did then. But seen by the matter of “time” there is surely some pressure because the challenge is to write the next album in a much shorter period of time. Anyway, at the end of the day it’s all about the song and we’d never compromise a song over time.
Will you plan to release the new album next year?
Kai: We can’t be more concrete about that yet but yes that’s the plan.
Are you excited to play in Norway next year?
Kai: Of course, we’re totally super excited to do that!
Could you tell us your upcoming live schedule?
Kai: Next we’re going to have a show in Regensburg on 10th July and the day after we’re going to play the only festival show this summer at the Sunstorm festival. There will be some more shows later that year but we mainly keep it rather quiet and just focus on the next release. (Btw: This time we won’t promise to be faster than Wintersun with the release, haha).
I’ve just remembered the saying “Once bitten, twice shy” somehow, hahaha. Seriously I’m happy to hear that you already started writing new songs for a new album. Thanks a lot for your time for this interview!
PARASITE INC. Official Facebook
Get your ticket for Sun Storm Fest 2015 at PARASITE INC. Bandcamp
Summer Breeze 2014 review by Kai (Parasite Inc.) – Day4
Bands bands bands bands and shitty weather - Summer Breeze 2014!
Day 4 – Metal Marathon
Saturday – I must admit that 4 days of rainy and cold festival weather can be exhausting and so I changed my plan a bit, skipped Callejon, Texas in July and some other bands and started late on that last day with Impaled Nazarene.
There are bands that need a huge stage set and sophisticated lights to make their show perfect. Impaled Nazarene is one of that bands where it works the other way around: It just wouldn’t fit to their music. Luttinen (vocals) started the show with preaching and drinking beer but switched soon to whiskey to get his vocals in shape for the 14 songs of devastation that were hitting the T-Stage. I loved it!
Wintersun - Almost 10 years after their first show in Germany (also on Summer Breeze) they were finally back and it was great to see the huge steps they made with their show, especially with the sound and the perfection of playing. However with all that delay of Time 2 it felt almost like derision when they introduced The Way Of The Fire as a new song. I think I am going to check the band again in 2020 (after they finished building their studio palace in 2016 and releasing Time 2 in 2018, haha).
Speaking of time: Right after Wintersun it was time for me to finish Summer Breeze 2014 with the Saturday’s headliner Heaven Shall Burn. Like Machine Head they awaited the fans with an impressive stage decoration and an awesome light show – inclusive huge fire and steam fountains. From the opener Counterweight to the encore Valhalla – HSB destroyed the whole place with a set of their greatest songs. Maybe you like their music or not but HSB are just an incredibly strong live force!
1. Counterweight
2. Land of the Upright Ones
3. The Omen
4. Combat
5. Voice of the Voiceless
6. Hunters Will Be Hunted
7. The Martyrs' Blood
8. Behind a Wall of Silence
9. Godiva
10. Black Tears
11. Awoken - Endzeit
12. Die Stürme rufen Dich
13. Of No Avail
14. The Weapon They Fear
15. The Disease
16. Trespassing the Shores of Your World
Encore:
17. Valhalla
In the end this was a hell of a festival – the weather sucked many times but the line-up was one of the best line-ups ever and it was fun to watch every single band. I only wish I had seen more of them - haha. Anyway, after Summer Breeze is before Summer Breeze. See you next year hopefully – cheers.
Kai (Parasite Inc.)
Parasite Inc. official website
Summer Breeze 2014 review by Kai (Parasite Inc.) – Day3
Bands bands bands bands and shitty weather - Summer Breeze 2014!
Day 3 – pink mud
Kai: Friday –Dark clouds, rain, mud and cold temperatures were welcome me on the festival ground. Most of the people didn’t care about the rain at all but you could feel the mood is not the same without that sunny weather.
Okay not at the t-stage: Omnium Gatherum delivered some great moments to forget about the shitty weather and took the audience through an exciting set with their great songs like “new dynamic” or “the sonic sign”.
Right after Omnium Gatherum I rushed over to the camel stage for the old school death band Wound. Actually I only wanted to check them out for some songs but since I like old school death metal I got stuck there and missed Primal Fear.
Next band should have been JBO but I decided to stay away after I saw them throwing pink dust bombs all over the area. And I don’t like to wear pink. Machine Head must have been not happy about it as well because their stage set got covered with pink dust as well. Even the rain that started after their show couldn’t wash away the pink color… to the joy of many pink colored people that had to wait for the next real shower.
My next band was Ignite which started under massive rain but made the sun shine for their fans with a lot of hits from the album “Our darkest days”.
You know it is too much rain when the camera gets wet inside your jacket and so I decided to skip Gamma Ray for a rest and a quick stop at Annisokay.
Jesus, their singer looks like Jesus… with glasses. Okay I didn’t like the Miley Cyrus Cover “Wrecking Ball” but their show was really great. Wall of death? Circle pit? They made it happen in front of the small camel stage.
August Burns Red entered the stage and for once on that day the sun came out to support their show with a red burning august sunset… what an atmosphere and what a 1st class metalcore show that found its climax with a huge audience choir at “Empire”.
I can’t say a lot about Carcass… again… I mean once I saw them at Wacken in 2008 and was disappointed with their “reunion” show. This time I was able to get more into it: Jeff made a lot of funny comments and tried to speak some words in German (which was probably as horrible as my English here but it was fun). I think I don’t need to say anything about the hits?
After having a rest it was time for Machine Head. Gosh, I expected much but I even got more. From the stage to the music from the lights to the pyros: Machine Head gave 100% and hijacked the audience entirely with a catchy set. Latest when thousands of people sing along to “darkness within” you know that Machine are the perfect band to lead this festival.
...to be continued
Summer Breeze 2014 review by Kai (Parasite Inc.) – Day2
Bands bands bands bands and shitty weather - Summer Breeze 2014!
Day 2 – good bands – bad bands
Kai: Thursday – hell that’s going to be the best metal day ever! First band: The Unguided.
Okay forget about The Unguided… I missed it. Let’s get over to the good stuff:
Of Mice And Men cancelled their appearance, so it was a pleasure to see Hackneyed instead of them on the Pain Stage. Hackneyed surely have not won the price for the best sound on that day but on the other hand, who needs the perfect sound when you can simply crush everything away with freakin’ low ends and an agile appearance?
Kai: Next Band: Caliban. Circle pits, wall of death, flying people, flying shoes... the whole area was moving from the very first second to an excellent sound and show! Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the show ‘til the end because of one of my main acts this year: Arch Enemy.
Kai: And with Arch Enemy it’s time for <Face palms round 2>: Who the hell placed them that early in the running order? The venue was definitely more packed than at the headliner later.
Just let that short video tell you everything you need to know:
Kai: It’s been exactly 10 years since I have seen Equilibrium for the last time on Summer Breeze and a lot has changed in the band: The original line-up is almost gone and the feeling has changed from “viking honey wine” to “Bavaria beer party”. However the music was still the same and the party was big as usual with their old and new hits.
Kai: Actually I was looking forward to Down but I decided to ignore them entirely and take some pictures of the venue instead. I seriously don’t want to watch a band that blames the audience for being boring while the band itself is playing boring music and the singer is drunk on stage…
Kai: At least I had more time to enjoy God Dethro… I mean Winter Of Sin: The band around Henri Sattler is one of my latest death metal discoveries and a real sinister jewel. That was fun… death metal fun, hehe.
Kai: I skipped the awesome show of Behemoth for a better position at Children Of Bodom but honestly I had very mixed feelings with their appearance. First: A big “thumbs up” for the great sound and a sober band that smashed through a set packed with nothing but hits. Musically it was perfect for me and I enjoyed every single song but beside that everything had just that gigantic taste of routine and seen by the non-existent light-show and the non-existent stage set it even didn’t feel right to have them as a headliner on the main stage.
Sure, in the end it’s all about the music and possibly it’s complaining on a high level but damn it, if you are one of the main acts on one of the biggest metal festivals in Germany you may please act as one.
Kai: So after their last song “in Your Face” I left the main stage with some mixed feelings about one of my favorite bands and quit day 2 with a bit Testament and Eskimo Callboy.
… to be continued.
Summer Breeze 2014 review by Kai (Parasite Inc.) – Day1
Here is the fabulous review of the incredible dream fest SUMMER BREEZE 2014 by Kai from PARASITE INC.! Since I knew the fest had such an amazing lineup including 3 gorgeous headlining bands: Children Of Bodom, Machine Head and Heaven Shall Burn, I was extremely curious about everything from the fest. Thanks so much Kai for his huge efforts for the review! So, let's start from the beginning!
Bands bands bands bands and shitty weather - Summer Breeze 2014!
Kai: Ladies and gentlemen, guess what? It's 2014! And guess what? My this year's Summer Breeze hvacation probably contained the best line up of bands since I visited the festival for the first time back in 2002.
I'm not that guy who's actually drinking a lot on festivals anymore. So I can remember more of the bands and write it down in another tiny report for you guys. So, enjoy some notes and impressions from Summer Breeze 2014!
Day 1 - Nuclear Blast Label Night
Kai: As usual, Day 1 belongs to Nuclear Blast and the renamed party tent that from now on is called "T-Stage" in memory of the late Michael Trengert who was one of the organizers of the festival.
So it's a rainy Wednesday afternoon when I reached right in time to the T-stage for Lost Society. From the shoes to the music the band is the full evil reincarnation of pure 80ies thrash metal mixed with some sweet guitar solos and an insanely agile performance. Awesome! If you have the chance to watch those guys live you better do.
Lost Society
Actually I only knew some videos before of the next band: Tenside! A very pleasant modern metal appearance and a fat sound started the party on the Camel stage. Who cares about rain with such a great band? Obviously no one because the area in front of the stage was already well visited.
Btw. it was awesome to see that the Camel stage well visited all the days and a lot of people joined the smaller bands there. Many bands were acting highly professional and sometimes you had to wonder how those bands could still only play on such a small stage. More about that later ;)
Tenside
A huge facepalm to the merchandise booth: Seriously, 35000 people and they can’t manage a merchandise booth where you don’t have to wait 2 fucking hours to get a shirt before it is even sold out on the official opening day? At least crowdsurfing wasn’t necessary this year and it was less chaotic. Anyway I experienced not less people avoiding the merchandise booth because of the long waiting times.
Back to the bands: I should mention that somehow after Lost Society’s appearance every band felt like acting in slow motion and so did Unleashed. The Swedish viking death metal forefathers were not running around like crazy on stage but finest death metal classics don’t need an agile appearance… they just need to be smashed into the audience.
Unleashed
And here ends my first day. I was not that much prepared for the cold rainy weath and decided to safe my energy for the next days. Time to get my pants tightened and start the Summer Freeze.
... to be continued.
