Hi, and welcome to the report for the last day of this great festival. The final day and I wake up frozen with a real sore and painful throat. I did not even know yet that I will get wet in the evening due rain as well. I looked at the forecast, it showed some rain, but weather was so nice, I have left my jacket in the car anyways…

On a paper, Saturday was not a highlight for me by any means. But when I have seen bands with my own eyes and heard by my ears, I was very, very happy. Hideous Divinity from Italy rocked on the main stage with thrashy Urne who opened the festival day for me. In the early afternoon it was the Haemorrhage from Spain and their bloody grindcore. It was fun from start to finish and Lugubrious’s face made many of us laughing every second. I thought the sound was nice and dense.

Urne, Hideous Divinity, Haemorrhage

A bit later, Undergang from Denmark unwrapped it fully in guttural style. I saw them once earlier when the guys from Kreas made the event here in Czech and guys didn’t disappoint me a tiny bit. If any death metal smells like a rottin pile of crap, it’s definitely this pack. David not only plays skillfully his guitar, but his vocals are something so disgusting and vile that it belongs to my death metal top. Many people bet on Cannibal Corpse this year as for death metal headliner, but for me, the top death metal of the festival was Undergang.

Undergang

Not to be left only with an uncompromising brutality… I would deserve a tiny smack for my ignorance, because I did not pay much attention for Dool before. For me, one of the best concerts of the festival! The doom and psychedelia of occult rock left pierced me through the whole set and left me wanting more. The light filth in the sound combined with some soothing melodies – hypnotic perfection. Certainly not sleepy, though. Frontwoman Elle, who is no princess by any means, held her hounds on stage in control and showed that darkness is not just three hundred and sixty BPM and permanent tremolo on the guitars.

Insomnium, Dool, Melt-Banana

After finishing of Dool, the stoic Gaahl and his Wyrd appeared on the same stage. The performance was that classic quality of his. But playing black metal during the daylight is not exactly ideal for the atmosphere… The last time I saw them in a darkened club, the atmosphere, or at least my perception, was completely different, and it really suited the band much much better.

Gaahl’s Wyrd

Because raining appeared and I started to be quite cold, it was time to go to the car and put on a sweater, I even managed to fall asleep a little and the plan was to take my feet out of the car until the legend Mayhem in the night, so I skipped bands like Arcturus or Ad Nauseam. Surely, I do not deserve medal for it, but we are all humans, right? As soon as the first song started, I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy the concert. Neither musically, nor visually. Not much light on the stage to enjoy guys with the eyes and musically, too. Sound lacked the definition and was way too sharp to my ears, even for my black metal standards.

Mayhem

It was impossible to go to sleep after quite a dissatisfaction. I went to see Die Krupps for a change of a genre. This different version of Rammstein was not bad, but one of the highlights of the festival was still waiting for me. The mix of psychedelia and black metal performed by lovers of old vintage instruments, Oranssi Pazuzu, was flawless. Both if it was the generally slow start of the compositions or, on the contrary, the chaotic running around the stage of the imp and the guitarist – Ikon. Many layers of samples and electronics in combination with classical instruments created so many hypnotic moments and an incredibly dense atmosphere throughout the whole concert. I’m happy!

Die Krupps, Oranssi Pazuzu

Lets mention Saturday’s stuff other than a music. I had a great time at the Tin mouth competition at the Bastion stage, where even the Mad Max fans from the Convoy.pa (check them out in iG!) group had a nice time in all their cool costumes and with interesting machinery. The competition itself consisted in the fact, that some individuals, without an instinct for self-preservation, threw a large amount of health-threatening peppers into themselves. Of course, it was controlled, but even the paramedics had to come anyways. I have a feeling that the guy who had most fun with this show was the moderator of the competition. There is the winner Alexandra on the last pic.

Victims of chilli pepper competition

Another words about the festival. At the start, some stuff seemed to be quite unpolished. One tent for charging up the chips for paying was not enough and some guys, me included, got chip charged in the night or even the second day. I am happy, I had some friends with me, otherwise, i would die due thirst. Even some balcony ceilings were not finished and it was getting completed during the first bands playing. Fortunatelly, the issues did not last for whole festival and it was fine from the second day and on. I am really satisfied with variations of the food tents. Both meat eaters, but also guys who does not like animal products, could be satisfied with plenty of nice meals available.

No one shall stay hungry

If you were tired and needed to chill out, KAL stage (which I musically relatively skipped now than in previous years) was nice with its sofas and warm inside. This was what I needed to survive to the other days in cold nights. Quite a bit of aggressive EDM could be found here. But not only that. Also some lectures could be available in daylight time here. For example and introduction to a budhism, craving, death by a one of the real lamas. Again, for some, maybe the stuff not needed at the musical festival, but considering human rights and personal difference respect have big meaning for festival creators. It was fine and nice bonus if you ask me. Same with horror cinema under the firm roof, if you needed to sit down and rest a bit

Decorations, Tibetian scripts, lama talking at KAL stage, horror cinema

To the stages, festival had four. Five if you count Keep Ambient Lodge. Two big and two smaller one. One at the end of the fortress and another one in the end of one inner side of fortress. Great for isolating the sound from each, but sometimes a little tiresome if you wanted to from the main stage to the one on the end. Because that was quite frequent process. But I understand it. The previou event had (for me the best) so called Octagon stage, relatively in the middle of the fortress inside, but that place presented quite a choke point for people moving from place to place, so the new Bastion stage made perfect sense. Sound-wise, I really think most of the stuff was really fine. Almost everything. Some of my friends had a problem with the sound quality tho, so to each his own. I am sure most of the 140 bands playing here and most of the fans were happy with the quality of the sound, even if there were some tiny issue with mics on a few occasions. It was impossible to check most of the stuff myself. There were much more bands I have not even mentioned, tho.

I have mentioned the post apocalyptic dudes from Convoy.pa. For many people, unnecessary. for me, surely not a problem and actually really nice feature to see these guys walking around or even being part of some stuff, like to do company to Slagmaur. Big hails to one of their ladies who competitioned in that chilli pepper event and made it damn far.

Post-apocalyptic group Convoy.pa

Athother stuff could entertain you. If you were in mood for some funny horror stuff, guys from Pit of Doom were appearing during a noon at the gate of the festival and marching to the new horror survival game. Their costumes were great, but not only that, the guys were dark, scary a bit, but the two girls in „fluffy“ costumes were more on a funny, crazy side with their laugh of madness and funny walking. While it does not sound like much, these ten minutes of their procession were craaaaaaazy big fun. You could also spend a time in colder catacombs to stay away from the heat, which was part of the most of the day.

Pit of Doom show

For the fans of art, you could also buy prints of paintings of one really talented painter Mr. Glomba

Painter Mr. Glomba

But he was not the only artist with exposition of the art. Another painter was Mr. Kůrka with his thick paintings full of woods, women and another creatures.

Mr. Kůrkas painting and info

I would like to praise nice personal who was so cool and helpful whole the time. Also, it was great to be able to pick from quite a bit of beverages, being it strong absinth or various kinds limos and beer. My Favourite was 18° Master. Really lovely fuller groundy type of a beer, tho not very dry. I could drink it all the day! And I did for one or two! One of my favourite!

I would like to send many thanks to the people who made this year of anniversary Brutal Assault possible to happen. Cannot wait for the next one! Thanks for the reading up here and there will be one more post about the most important people of the festival. You, the fans.