Brutal Assault 2009. Those words alone echo in my head as a
connection to one of the most memorable times I’ve had. I know I’m
prone to saying after gigs that I had a blast, or a great time, or that
the band was awesome, and I tend to do so in superlatives, but what can
I do. I attend really good gigs, and I’m fortunate enough to get to see
the bands play in small venues in front of not-so-huge crowds and I’m
incredibly enthusiastic about the shows I go to see and most of the
bands live up to my rather high expectations. Although Brutal Assault
was nothing like the shows I just mentioned, because there were tons of
people there and there was no venue to speak of, the concerts were
indeed awesome, with great sound (super sound if you will) and (mostly)
great artists performing. So, expect superlatives people.
Things like Brutal Assault are the kind of stuff I live for. I spend my year listening to metal and attending concerts, reading about new stuff and trying to at least catch a glimpse of all the new albums that are coming out constantly, and keeping up with all that can be hard work sometimes, but only because I impose it on myself, ‘cause behind all of that lies a passion understandable to y’all. So, that’s how my year passes, that’s how I get through the long night hours of winter and the depresso mode of fall. And then comes spring and the festivals slowly start to announce their line ups and my mana bar slowly starts rising. I start clicking on those links, trying to decide which festival I’m going to attend, strongly advocating to my friends that they should come along and not act like old farts that they are. And so comes summer, the highlight of my year when I know I’m gonna go somewhere for three days and listen to some of my loved bands, drink beer any hour of the day, hang out with cool people and browse around many, many merch stands with my money saved up especially for that occasion.
Brutal Assault was the ultimate and undisputable winner this year. I’m not gonna list all the bands that played because it would take up too much space, but if you’re interested you can see it here.
Like I said, the sound at the festival was A+, all the bands’ performances were top notch and there isn’t really a serious objection I can put in, so it’s safe to say the organizers did an excellent job. All the bands played right on schedule with one minor change and that was switching the time of Cynic and Brutal Truth (and that was due to Paul Masvidal not getting his equipment on time – and that’s inside information folks 
).
The second day of the festival was most intense because one awesome band followed another and I could hardly get a beer in between shows. It was also very hot and the fact that I was standing on my feet the entire day (actually, I hardly sat at all during the three days) made it pretty exhausting, so I hope the future festivals will have some crappy bands in between the good ones, so a girl can get some rest damn it.
Last but not the very bit least was the awesome time I had hanging out with our very own Sasha Horn. Drinking beer, eating Czech food and attending shows with him was one of the best times, so here’s to you buddy. And Novembers Doom did a kick ass performance with Sasha slaying those drums like there’s no tomorrow. The man deserves to be in a band of that magnitude (if not more).
In order for this not to turn into a 10 page post, I’m pretty much just going to post pics I took. I would’ve taken pics of all the bands that were of interest, but my fucking camera died on me. It’s because of that I didn’t take any, not one pic of Immortal for you guys, and I really wanted to, because they were so in the element that night, not to mention they had the biggest set – they played for an hour and a half. They had the smoke, the fire throwing, the lifting of the leg move, running up and down the stage, the works. That was definitely one of the highlights of the festival.
Other truly impressive performances beside Immortal and Novembers Doom were done by: Orphaned Land, Opeth, Obscura, Psycroptic, Ulver, Anaal Nathrakh, Negura Bunget and Vreid.
Now on to the pics.
Rotting Christ
Madball
Orphaned Land
Turisas
Mithras
Cynic
Obscura
Psycroptic
(The new) Negura Bunget
Vried
Novembers Doom (MR staff gets more space)
Ulver
Anaal Nathrakh
And here's a pic of me and Sasha right before Hate Eternal. (I don't know how to pose for pics okay?)
Err, I guess this did turn into a gazillion page post...Sorry. 
Posted
Aug 11 2009, 09:29 AM
by
TheSlayerM