- Posted By: Dark Emperor
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As one of the festivals we have attended the most, Brutal Assault (BA) has a special place in our hearts. From the two/three days we spend exploring Prague, before and after the festival, to the journey to Hradec Králové to our accommodations, to the expectation that heading to Jaromer and the Josefov Fortress generates, this yearly ritual is always pre-booked on our calendar. What we love about this festival is the fact that while booking solid and traditional headliners, the organizers also manage to book smaller and ‘unknown’ bands that cater to more selective music listeners. Additionally, the organization of this event is top-notch, with everything running right on time and with excellent quality, so we know exactly what we are getting. These are our daily impressions of the 2023 edition that we just witnessed.
Day 1 (see photo gallery here)
Starting early with the American outfit Fit For An Autopsy, we kicked off our sixth time attending this excellent event. One thing we noticed is that even being this early, there was a sizable crowd already on the festival grounds ready to mosh and drink. Our real reason for being this early was to actually make it to see Be’lakor, a band that we have been huge fans of and never been able to see live.
After an intensely awesome set, we managed to catch Bleed from Within, followed up by Immolation, a band that had a pretty intense mosh pit and crowd-surfing activity.
Next, we made our way to the Octagon stage to a local Czech band, Forgotten Silence, which we have been fans of for quite a while but never really managed to see them live. We also sat down with them for a lively interview, so check that out here.
Things really got heated with Tribulation rocking the Obscure stage with their dark and catchy tunes.
Followed by the legendary Sodom on the main stage with waves of crowd surfers and massive amounts of headbanging.
As the sun was setting, I am Morbid, Meshuggah, and Heilung closed out the day for us.
This was definitely an intense opening day with tons of beer breaks, just warming up for the rest of the festival.
Day 2 (see photo gallery here)
We are early risers, at least on the first few days of the festival, so we made our way to catch Malevolence as our first band of the day, and again, to our surprise, there was a pretty large crowd of people ready for battle on this day 2.
I think we have seen Moonspell live like 50 times, and more than a couple on their recent USA tours, but since we love them, we had to catch them on one of the main stages.
Immediately following, we had Dismember and their crushing Death Metal, which completely leveled the place down.
One of the big highlights for us today was French avant-garde outfit Pensées Nocturnes and their super weird and awesome music.
Seems like we were not the only ones waiting for these guys, which canceled last year by the way, as they filled up the area around the Octagon stage very quickly.
Next up we had Kurokuma, a very interesting Doom/Sludgey band from the UK that was a total treat to have them play at BA. This is exactly why we love this festival, while you get some of the same headliners from other festivals, you also get plenty of weird and niche bands that we haven’t seen already live, so this works greatly for us and keeps us coming back each year to this event. We also had a chat with the band’s mastermind, Joe E. Allen, which you can find here.
With darkness settling in again, we made our way to catch Belphegor and their blasphemous show over to the Obscure stage. We actually never saw the band live, and it was good to hear that their live show is as intense and engaging as their studio stuff.
The second highlight of the day had to be Messa, playing on (and packing) the Octagon stage. We have seen these guys before, and we love how enveloping and hypnotic their music is. We sat down with a few members of the band and discussed their future plans (listen here), which include a future USA tour, so be on the lookout for these guys.
As one of the pioneers of Swedish Melodic Death Metal, In Flames was one of the headliners of the day. While we had written them off for a few years due to lackluster releases, they made a strong comeback recently, and we had to catch them live. We were quite surprised as their show was bad-ass and full of intensity, not to mention the main stage area was super packed for it.
Getting old sucks, and we were already tired from a long day, so we made it our goal to catch Watain and their intense live shows just before heading back to our hotel. This Swedish Black Metal band certainly did not disappoint with an impressive live set-up filled with fire and foul smells.
It was quite crazy to see the front-man, Erik Danielsson, toss a lit torch into the crowd… and that was just the start. After a crazy, intense and imposing set, we made our way out of the event through a sea of people. Every year it feels like there are more and more attendees to this event, and we love it, showing that the organizers are doing something right, and this festival continues to grow, while not feeling too crowded like others.
Day 3 (see photo gallery here)
Making it half-way through the festival always feels like such a feat of endurance, and we are ready for another day of killer music and searing heat. Again, with an early start, Sacramentum, a band we hadn’t seen before that recently returned to the stages, was our first band of the day. Nisse Karlén puts on a crazy intense show, and they definitely woke up the early crowd at the Obscure stage with their antics and crafty music.
After their set, we made our way to the main stage to catch Krisum, a band we haven’t seen live in a while, but that we have seen quite a few times in the past. For a three-piece, they packed some heat and delivered a truly punishing performance.
Changing gears a bit, we went to catch both LLNN and Saturnus on the Obscure stage. The first we had never seen live and delivered a killer set, and Saturnus, a big favorite band of ours, was interesting to see them playing live in broad daylight. Their highly melancholic Death/Doom Metal was exactly what the doctor ordered on a hot day.
Back on the main stages, Borkangar was set to unleash their very melodic and engaging Progressive Black Metal, a band that we were not going to miss for any reason.
With Vortex and Lars Neeland alternating in vocal duties, this was one of the most intense and engaging sets of the weekend. We made our way back to the Octagon stage, for one of those ‘smaller’ bands that we wanted to see live: Nero di Marte and their highly experimental music.
After their very engaging set, we rushed over to the Obscure stage to feel the raw power of Wiegedood, which features some members of Oathbreaker.
Back on the main stages, Zeal and Ardor delivered another one of the most intense performances of the festival with their unique take on Black Metal.
The band definitely had the crowd going nuts with their very lively and layered music, which works brilliantly in the live setting as well. The day quickly got super rowdy with the Tardy brothers and Obituary, which made the crowd go nuts and got all the photographers kicked out quickly due to the massive number of crowd surfers. Definitely one of the wildest, and awesome, scenes we have encountered in our years of going to this festival.
With a full on pyro show, Nordjevel brought the house down with their piercing Black Metal over at the Obscure stage. While their live set-up was not as elaborate as Watain’s, their performance was quite punishing and intense.
We might be getting too old, but we just don’t get what bands like Perturbador are doing at Metal festivals, but the crowd seemed to like it. We just checked them out as a morbid curiosity.
As this was the Black Metal centric day of the event, local heroes Cult of Fire completely hypnotized the crowd with their sublime music at the Obscure stage. With their live show being amplified by massive backdrops and the usual rituals table, this set was definitely, for us, the highlight of the festival.
Definitely past our usual bedtime, Gorgoroth (minus all full-time members as Infernus was sick) took on one of the main stages to a massive crowd and delivered their raw and brutal Black Metal. Every time we see this band, the crowd goes wild, and this time was not the exception to that rule.
After the band’s set, we made our way back to our hotel, reeling from a day of intense performances. The adrenaline kick after witnessing some intense shows is one of the reasons we continue to attend festivals.
Day 4 (view photo gallery)
With some sadness, and also a bit of a sense of relief, the last day of the festival is upon us. Keeping up with the tradition, we got up early and made it to catch Aussies Caligula’s Horse and their catchy progressive metal/rock. Braving the heat and with a solid turn-out, the band certainly met our expectations as we had never seen them live before.
The advantage of waking up and going to the festival early is that we get to catch bands like Hypno5e and their crafty avant-garde Metal. The Obscure stage was definitely one of the places we spent the most time this year. It is great that it has evolved from being a tent stage, to an open-air one.
Another band we can’t get tired from watching live, Omnium Gatherum, was playing early on one of the main stages. We have seen these guys probably 25 times, and every single time they deliver unrivaled intensity as they unleash tons of musicianship and guitar wizardry.
One of the interesting things about Brutal Assault is that they always have some Hardcore bands in their line-up and people that turn out for their sets always tend to make some crazy mosh pits with plenty of crowd-surfing, so we made our way to catch: Downset and Terror that day.
Back at the Obscure stage, another band we wanted to see delivered a hypnotic set: Maybeshewill. With a solid Post-Rock/Post-Metal core, this band created a very unique and magical atmosphere, with plenty of attendees as well. This goes to show that the diversity at BA is very well respected and embraced by fans of other genres, as you can see some people discovering and loving a band like this one.
One of the bands that always delivers an insanely intense show has to be British outfit Anaal Nathrakh and their Industrial Black/Grindcore noise. Pummeling the crowd from the first song, and with Dave Hunt being most likely quite drunk, the show was a total blast and our ears were definitely ringing after this one.
As one of the pioneer Death Metal bands in the USA, Deicide has not released anything in a while. However, they always have massive support and while the organizers have been getting them to play for a while, it was finally in 2023 that this was going to happen. Glen Benton and company took the stage with authority, and once more, the crowd just went completely nuts.
What better way to come down from the Deicide high, than with one of our favorite Progressive/Psychedelic rock bands: Crippled Black Phoenix. Being one of our bucket-list bands, we made sure we were at the Obscure stage ready to experience their captivating music in a live setting. With a very complex sound, we were quite surprised at the number of musicians on stage, bringing the band’s music to life in a perfect way. Definitely one of the highlights of the festival for us.
Trivium is one of those bands that we have never really been fans of. However, we don’t have many opportunities to shoot them live, so we made our way to the main stages to catch their performance, just before Hypocrisy was set to take the stage right after them.
We have seen Peter Tägtgren and company plenty of times, but their live show and music is always spot on, perfect for a nice and balmy night in the Czech Republic.
With our feet hurting and our nostalgia of the event almost being over, we wanted to check out Cult of Luna to end our festival trip. This band was the last we saw just before COVID-19 hit, so it was a bit cathartic after all these years and everything that happened to see them live once more. With a super tight and perfectly polished sound, the band really delivered one of the most intense sets at the festival and a perfect closer (for us) for this edition of Brutal Assault.
Overall Impressions:
2023 was another flawless Brutal Assault experience. The weather was not too bad, with some searing hot days, but there are places to hide from this. The areas the organizers have opened to the public continue to increase and so are the available activities for attendees to partake in. The beer and food continues to be top-notch and reasonably priced. Another important aspect is the community aspect of this event. We have rarely seen any fights happen and when people stumble in the pit, somebody is always there to pick them up. The same goes for crowd surfers. The crowd is always helpful and gets them to the front quite efficiently. Overall, our experience at this festival is always more than positive, and we will continue to return each year. So, if you are on the fence about attending, don’t think about it too much and just do it. It will be an insanely fun experience.
Thanks:
Massive thanks to Pavel Pavlík and the BA organizing team for the press accreditation and the excellent treatment while at the festival. We also appreciate their help in making our interviews happen and allowing us to do our work with such ease.
After movie:
And check out our image galleries for day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4
