Yeah, our first day was a bad one. There was some road construction going on on our way to Czech Republic, so we wasted almost 1.5 hours in result. When we got to the site, we had to spend another 5 hours in line to get our press passes. It was raining cats and dogs, hey. Thus, we missed out interview with Abbath and didn’t get to see some cool bands. I was damn tired and in bad mood too, so I went to my hotel as soon as I got my pass. Anyway, on the next day the situation improved.

2.

Well, ISHAHN`s performance was something I will remember for a long time, so damn bad it was. One of the worst I seen in a long time, that’s for sure. No passion. Ok, it was well performed but I almost gagged watching it. If EMPEROR plays music in a same way next year, I’ll just call it a day. There’s no barbarity, no aggressiveness in this music no more. Hard to believe this band was created by EMPEROR`s leader, and EMPEROR was a real black metal beast, wasn’t it? Dead and Euronymus wouldn’t be too pleased if they could see what`s up with Ishahn these days.

IMMOLATION wasn’t as strong as usual, with one guitarist only, but kicked ass nevertheless and washed the unpleasant IHSAHN`s aftertaste off. Their Dawn of Possession album is 25 years old this year so they performed their Despondent Souls, Dawn of Possession, and Immolation among others. I was hoping to hear some more debut album tracks but them three were awesome, no doubt. Also, they performed a brand new one called Epiphany which will be out together with their new album sometime in 2017. All in all, their performance consisted of 11 skull splitting death metal tracks. Ross Dolan with his floor-sweeping hair, massacring bass and awesome vocals was real god. Steve Sheltie`s drumming was awesome too. Bill Taylor who had to perform both guitars` lines did really ok. Shortly, this triple massacred the audience real good!

I was looking forward to EXODUS, no doubt. I got some of their music, not enough though, at their gig in Warsaw, but I was really hungry for more – to see EXODUS again with Steve "Zetro" Souza as a master of ceremonies. Lackof Gary Holt, sad as it is, came as no surprise. Tracksfrom Bonded by Blood killed. It felt like Paul Baloff`s spirit joined the band and sang together with Steve, his voice was aggressive, and considerably tougher, I would say. So old-school and wild. Tracks like A Lesson in Violence, Bonded by Blood or the last one:Strike of the Beast were all the old school fans needed to please them. Alas, the set was shorter than the one inWarsaw. Anyhow, the moshing was devastating and undeniably the best performance on day 2.

3.

I felt really sorry for Swedish GRAVE. Well, their sound was totally fucked up, indeed. The live sound engineer ought to should`ve been shot for what he did. It was easy to see that the Ola`s outfit were doing their best to please the crowd but, due to the fucked up sound, the show was flimsy. I love GRAVE, but I wasn’t able to see the whole set and just split. Some other fellas told me it wasn’t the only gig in the tent which was so fucked up. Why didn’t the guy responsible for that get roughed up in any way hey?

VOIVOD started out pretty early, at 3.40 pm. I knew it`d not be a waste of time, for sure. I seen them Canucks four times and they killed every time, no doubt. They killed again, yet it was the first live show for Dominique Laroche (or Rocky if you will) as a bass player. I love Blacky but Rocky was amazing too. The only bad thing was the set list which was considerably shorter than the one from 2010. After the intro, Pink Floyd`s One Of These Days, Ripping Headaches from immortal Roooooaaarrrwas played and got the audience into moshing. Snake was active like fuck, and kept running all over the stage. Another blow, Tribal Convictions from Dimension Hatrossmade the crowd crazy. Boy, those tracks fucking smashed everyone! Power! Another track from Dimension was Psychic Vacuum, as well as some newer cuts such as KluskapO’Kom from Target Earth. But I was waiting for old, classic ones. And we heard them awesome Killing Technology and the last one: Voivod. Dude, I tell you this band fucking killed. I wanted more and more. Damn, the festival rules are unbendable. Shit.

OBITUARY was another good band that day with their 12 song long set. So we got to see/hear Redneck Stomp from Frozen in Time,Bloodsoaked and Slowly we Rot which ended the show of theirs. Some other tracks included: Find the Arise, Chopped in Half and Turned Inside Out from Cause of Death. And more! Moshing was, in result, intense!

CORONER was another band to amaze the audience at this year`s Brutal Assault. This was the third time I seen them but I still was surprised not to find a whole orchestra but just three guys and a keyboard man. They played 10 tracks and those 10 tracks killed! Yeah, cuts like D.O.A., Semtex Revolution, Metamorphosis, Masked Jackal, Die by My Hand or amazing Reborn Through Hate made my day. It was just amazing. A real treat!

Well, I was anxious about MOONSPELL as this band ceased at some point to be interesting and became pretty much grody. When I saw them at Metal Fest in JaworznoI had enough. Interestingly, their show was ok, with a good choice of tracks and nice music. Wasn’t that bad.

I looked forward to SIGH rather impatiently, as the last time I saw them live was in 2010. It was really amazing, I tell you. I was curious to see what Mirai and his mates had to offer. The band didn’t perform at the big stage, but a small one, adjacent to the ruins. There were plenty of people present. Man, this gig was spectacular, plenty of tracks from their debut Scorn Defeat were played, The Knell and amazing At My Funeral. SIGH didn’t perform all the tracks from Scorn Defeat but they were one of the best bands at the fest.

Well, as to SATYRICON, I knew what to expect as the band was promoting the Nemesis Divina reedition at the time. They performed all the album`s songs (changing the track order a bit) and added some extra tracks such as Black Crow on a Tombstone, The Pentagram Burns, Fuel for Hatred and K.I.N.G which ended their show. A good show indeed but there were some better ones that day.

4.

I was looking forward to HOLY MOSSES but it wasn’t worth it. Their performance was a bit disappointing. They didn’t play any tracks from their Queen of Siam album and too few from Finished with the Dogs. Same with Terminal Terror. My impression was the musicians were kind of bored and Sabina was the only person to care about the crowd as she performed really well! Hard to believe she`s turnin53 this year. It was nice when she invited the audience to join the band at the stage to sing Too Drunk to Fucktogether. And the members could hardly play as therewere so many people there!

BEHEMOTH has never been my cup of tea, but they really stunned me at this festival, that’s for sure. This powerful gig-playing machine just fucking kills. The performance they gave, overshadowed other bands, and I think it is only RAMMSTEIN, KISS or METALLICA who are equally effective. Totally professional, all over, yeah, music, performance etc., fucking superb. A devilish manifesto indeed, a bloody blade pointed at the sky, a real diabolical ritual – a ceremony almost. Yes.

DESTRUCTION had to do their best to impress after BEHEMOTH. Tongues of fire and a butcher who run after a victim with a hatchet fell short as their music lacked energy. The lack of second guitar was hearable too, especially when their later tracks were performed. Anyhow, me as a fan of Teutonic metal was eager to drink their music. I have seen them a couple of times, but the said show wasn’t their best. Ofcourse, we got to see some killing cuts such as Curse the Gods from Eternal Devastation, Mad Butcher, Life without Sense, Thrash Attack and Bestial Invasion which ended their show. Well, the show apparently wasn’t as energetic as it ought to have been.

Yeah, after those two spectacular performances of BEHEMOTH and DESTRUCTION, MGLA from Cracow had a difficult task to accomplish. They managed, and proved a band can play a good live show without all this gimmickry. The music itself did very well and the audience literally absorbed what MGLA played. Yeah, the band did real ok, and when compared to BEHEMOTH, MGLA managed to impress whereas SATYRICON didn’t. I am happy to see MGLA getting better and better and, at the same time, they still remain loyal and sincere to their music.

NecronosferatuS