OBSCENE EXTREME 2012 – Day 1 – Czech Republic
- Posted on 10-08-2012
This year I chickened out from the camping experience and booked a hotel room not too far from the festival… Within walking distance, and quite affordable by taxi… This meant that I slept in and perhaps too long Thursday 12th and missed some of the first bands.
I Came to the festival area to the sound of HARD CHARGER from Canada. Crust n roll just doesn’t do it for me, but they did manage to get the crowd going.
Then PLAGUE RAGES from Brazil hit us with Grind Core as decent as any other middle field players could do. Nothing revolutionary, nothing bad, just grind core.
Next up was the Swedish band SPLATTERED MERMAIDS. They took their time getting prepared, and I was kind of expecting that the band would be cut of as far as their set went due to the looooong changeover, but the band apparently played through their set. AND THAT WAS A GOOD THING!! Every year one or more bands surprise me and give me a serious hard-on. This year SPLATTERED MERMAIDS did just that. Unaware of what was about to hit me I was expecting some sort of slam, but not this sort of slam… Brutal dance grind is printed on the back of the t-shirt, and so it was! With the vocalist more in, and on, the pit than on the stage, Splattered Mermaids gave one of the best on stage performances of OEF this year. Musically I would put Splattered Mermaids somewhere in the mix between death metal, slam and gore grind, and after listening through their album several times, I am convinced. I am a fan! OH, and the name!!!
EARDELETE was the next band on stage, and they to gave me a good experience. I have never paid any real attention to the band before, but I assure you I will from now on! Gore grind is the word, and the word is good! Absolutely sick and definitely in their proper setting at OEF.
The Swedes were quite strongly represented at OEF this year, and VON BØØM were but one of the many bands hailing from the little brother of Norway. I do not see the fascination with crust, so the band will have to excuse me, but I used this time to get some food and a new beer.
JIG-AI, local heroes form the Czeck Republic, played 2 times on this years festival. Which was quite ok. The band plays Gore grind, and they play it decent. Not bad, not bad at all, but not in such a way that I remember anything from their sets other than the energy they have on stage, and the visual joy the guys have on stage.
SPLITTER from Sweden plays grind core. With an intensity that you could feel, the band did not spoil themselves on stage, but with the screamo vocals they favor, they did not quite do it for me. BUT: not at all a bad performance, and definitely nice guys to party with…
The second hard-on for me this day came with MALIGNANCY from the U.S. Death metal like I always meant death metal should be. Apart from the apparent missing bass player, malignancy managed to show of both the technical aspects of their music as well as their groovy parts. And with a vocalist that knows what defines death metal, and also knows how to both entertain, and reply to, a crowd like the one on OEF, Malignancy totally delivered!
Hello Sweden… WOLFBRIGADE was next. D-beat/ crust was what they promised, and I have to admit: If every d-beat/crust band would play music like this, I would be a fan! With riffs and beats that really caught my attention, I was surprised by Wolbrigade even before the vocals came in to the equation. If I would not have been told that this was crust/d-beat, I would have easily mistaken this for some really decent trash band. Nothing even remotely similar to what I expected, Wolfbrigade captured the fans on OEF, myself included, with a strong performance and with an onstage appearance that reeked of experience and know how.
Following Wolfbrigade the schedule said SUFFOCATION. BUT: as some of us already knew, there has been some turbulence in the Suffocation camp, and there had been some last minute changes in the band before they came to Europe. The band that played this time at OEF had the name Suffocation, but when Frank Mullen is replaced by Bill Robinson of Decrepit Birth, I for one did not get the feeling that the band on stage was Suffocation. Not that Bill Robinson did a bad job, not by a long shot, but it just was not Suffocation. For some strange reason, it was almost better, more fitting, the vocals made this a whole new band, a really good Death metal band that made Suffocation, not better, but different, in a good way! The hour+ that they played went by way to fast, and I was left wanting more of Suffocation with Bill Robinsons vocals.
But as the case was, CEPHALIC CARNAGE was the next band out, and they quickly made me forget my want for more Suffocation. Groove, Brutality, Humor, Technicality all mixed together in a perfect harmony made for a new hard-on for me. What else is there to say? Cephalic Carnage is a must see band, and now I have done just that! And I am happy, really happy
The last band of the day was ORIGIN, and what a way to end one of the most brutal days I have ever experienced at OEF. Technical death metal at its finest, a crowd that was already inflated with death metal of all sorts, a band that was ready to kill on stage, and a head/body that was perfectly filled with beer and metal I could do nothing but just stand there smiling and enjoying every minute of Origin before I returned to the hotel, tired and happy.
Thinking in retrospect, I could have left the festival after that day, and I would have had close to a perfect experience after only one day!