Summer Breeze 2014
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.
