Live Report | Party.San Open Air 2012 - Schlotheim Germany
Party.San is an Extreme Metal Festival that takes places
every year in mid-August since 1996 in Schlotheim, Germany. It has grown over
the years, and this year’s fest held around 10 000 visitors. It has only one
main stage, however this year a new smaller stage was introduced for ‘smaller’
local bands to perform.
We arrived in Frankfurt on August 8th and we
drove 260km to get to the festival area. When we finally got the camping site,
we parked our car and we raised our tents on the grass, which seemed to be an
old airport site. The festival area was not opened but a smaller area was
prepared for a metal party until late in the evening.
The gates of the festival opened at 4pm and we were amongst
the first to enter. The area was surrounded by merchandise stands. The first
band to perform was Dead Congregation.
The Greeks put on a solid performance even though they were unfortunate to face
problems with the lead guitar and had to stop their show for several minutes. Their
setlist included tracks mainly from their album ‘Graves of the Archangels’ such
as ‘Martyrdoom’, ‘Teeth Into Red’ and ‘Vanishing Faith’.
Second band to get on stage was In Solitude, the only heavy metal band to play in Party.San. We
watched their 40 minutes performance from distance while talking with the Dead
Congregation guys.
Around 18:30 Necros
Christos appeared on stage and played their unique death/doom metal with
Arabic melodies, warming up the crowd for songs such as ‘Necromantique Nun’,
‘Baal of Ekron’ and ‘Doom of Kali Ma’.
Having seen them again 2 years ago at RockHard Festival, I have to
confess that their improvement is undeniable.
We didn’t get the chance to see the next 2 bands, Vallenfyre and Sólstafir, since we decided to check out the merchandise stands and
spend some time backstage talking with the bands.
Sodom were the
co-headliners of the first day and they are a band that we will never get tired
of watching as they get better and better every time we see them. Their show
included classics such as ‘Agent Orange’, ‘M-16’, ‘Blasphemer’ etc. as well as
the new add to their setlist ‘Surfin Bird’ cover from Trashmen. We also had the
chance to ask their guitarist Bernemann about the show in Cyprus. He told us
that he really liked the show and he thought that the venue and the crowd were
great. However, he mentioned that they would have liked to play for longer than
they did and they would like to come again in the future.
Day 2
We woke up the next day exhausted from our flight and
headbanging from the previous day and we rushed to the festival area as this
time the bands started playing at 12:00.
The first band to perform was Malignant Tumour. The Czechs played for half an hour and then the
Australian thrashers Assaulter got
on stage. They played songs from their 2 albums ‘Salvation like Destruction’
and ‘Boundless!’ and despite a problem with the lead guitar at the beginning
they were very energetic on stage and delivered a great show.
Iron lamb played
after and then another Australian band, Gospel
of the Horns. Matt Razor and Mersus from Destroyer 666 accompanied them on stage for the show. Their set was very
impressive and the crowd enjoyed it with tracks such as ‘Vengeance is Mine’ and
‘Slaves’.
We watched the next few bands from distance, saving our
energy for the headliners. Entrails put
on a great Death Metal show, followed by Skálmöld
a recently founded Viking/folk metal band who were somehow a bit ‘off’ for
this festival. General Surgery’s
performance was interesting as they got up the stage dressed as doctors and
covered in blood. One thing is for certain, I’d rather die in pain than having
to be examined by these guys! We managed to watch Dark Fortress for 10-15 minutes and then we headed to the signing
session waiting for Nile to show up. After about 30 minutes we were informed
that their tour bus broke down and the session was to be delayed for another
two hours. By the time we got back to the stage, Immolation was finishing up their set and unfortunately we didn’t
get to see much of them.
As the night was coming to an end, Nile got on stage to warm up the crowd for the mighty Gods from the
North- Immortal-. George Kollias,
their drummer, honoured us by wearing the “Cyprus Metalhead” T-shirt we gave
him backstage just before the show. They started off with “Sacrifice Unto
Sebek” and kept us headbanging relentlessly for another 45 minutes till their
last song, “Black Seeds of Vengeance”. It was the first time most of us had
seen them and they left us all with great impressions!
Day 3
After 2 amazing days, the festival was coming to its end on
Saturday, August 11th. The day started with Rectal Smegma who played instead of Rompeprop who had to cancel their performance a few days before the
festival due to some illness of their drummer. Trash Amigos and Cattle
Decapitation followed them, each playing for 45 minutes.
Black metallers Nocte
Obducta took over the stage playing their unique melodies in German,
preparing the mood for Archgoat who
played after. The Finns put on a great show playing songs from their 2 albums
‘Whore of Bethlehem’ and ‘The Light-Devouring Darkness’.
Ragnarok were
scheduled to appear next but Warbringer
got on stage instead! Apparently the Norwegians had a small accident on their
way to the festival and their show had to be delayed. Nonetheless, Warbringer
put on a killer show firing up the crowd that awarded them with many moshpits
throughout their whole performance. Their setlist was inclusive of their whole
discography with tracks such as ‘Shattered Like Glass’, ‘At the Crack of Doom’
and ‘Severed Reality’. I must admit that I was certainly not expecting such an
incredible show but the Americans surprised us! They even played for more than
they were supposed to, adding a cover to their set ‘We are the Road Crew’ by Motorhead.
Having arrived at the festival, Ragnarok finally played
their set. They put on a decent show even though I was not really excited.
Compared to Toxic Holocaust, they could only lose. Incantation who played next were amazing! Unfortunately their
drummer could not make it to the show and had to be replaced by Sam Inzerra of Mortician. Apart from that, their set
was remarkable, including 2 covers in their list. A fact worth mentioning is
that John McEntee’s voice is far better live than on the CD recordings.
We watched Insomnium for
about 40 minutes and after they played ‘Mortal Share’ we left the main stage
going to the smaller Tent-Stage where Venenum
were about to start. They are a death metal band from Germany having only released
an EP until now. We were completely blown away by their performance. They
played their whole EP and left everyone in awe. In my opinion they are
definitely one of the best new acts out there right now. As soon as they
finished playing, we rushed to the official market tent and bought their EP.
They were amongst the best live bands of the festival and maybe the biggest
surprise of all.
We enjoyed Tankard from
distance as Gerre moved tirelessly on stage exciting the German crowd with the
band’s beer anthems ‘Stay Thirsty’, ‘Die With a Beer in Your Hand’ and ‘Empty
Tankard'. As the end of the festival was drawing near, it was time for Naglfar to perform. They played for
nearly an hour, creating a dark and majestic atmosphere and the crowd seemed to
enjoy their show. Although I was unfamiliar with the band, I found their show
very enjoyable.
We had an amazing time at Party.San throughout our stay
there and it was absolutely worth all the money and exhaustion. It is one of
the most well-organised festivals I have ever been so far with great billing
every year. We had a great time at the camping site as well as in the market.
We met a lot of new people and it was a great experience meeting with the bands
and chatting with them. We managed to talk to most of the bands there as well
as to guys from other bands just attending the festival like Tormentor and Odin
from Desaster, Alwin from Asphyx and Vassilis Mazaris from Daylight
Misery. The sound could have been better
during some performances but that was not a major setback.
Thanks to the PSOA organizers for the amazing experience and
for providing us with VIP Passes.
See you next year at Schlotheim!
Alexandros
Vacanas, Harris Charalambides and Manos Falelakis
August 2012
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