Live @ Battlefield, Trutnov, Czech Republic
July 16, 2014
July 16, 2014
Part two of a planned five-part photo-essay, covering five days at OEF Europe 2014. Events were recorded in the moment (gonzo-lite). Transcribed directly from my notes, with after-the-fact (mainly day 5) recollections in italics. Some days were more comprehensive and professionally journalistic than others...
Implore is fast fucking grind touring with ACxDC. They almost lost the bass for a minute there, vocalist quickly adapted, techies attended to the weapon as he went mic-only and threw the stand momentarily aside. Shitloads of those little black and yellow bugs, must relocate!
Sperm of Mankind slams the brakes just when things get rolling. The riffs get more slammy and groovy and the vocals get burpy. Not just the turn to goregrind pace, but the vocalist even has a weird slow-motion effect going at all times. Makes for some amusing sounding but indecipherable banter. Charlie Brown's teacher basically. Good shit.
Some rain already, still very hot and humid. Still anticipating a thunderstorm but the rain continues to come down gently upon us. Taking refuge beneath the one mainstage viewing tent, which crowds and thins with the volume of liquid falling from the sky.
Suffer The Pain - Not the rapper/singer/autotuner. Slovakian gore is an easy sell to this crowd of predominantly Czech grinders, Swedish d-beat hardcore not so much. Strangely feels like the most old school band yet, even compared to est. 1981 Raw Power. Basically a faster Skitsystem. Most of the regulars in the pit seem to be taking a break for this one. Their last song - time to do something about this can of beer hiding down my pants. Girls checking my junk like damn! Sorry babe it's just a can. Apologies for this misleading preview, still happy to see you still practically need you.
Ojciec Dyktator - More my kind of old school grindcore, deathy spazz, songs under ten seconds coming fast and dirty. Not so fast or modern as Implore. Rain gone, blue skies and hot as fuck all of a sudden. This flat-lander is not prepared for the fast-changing climes of the Czech hill country. The pit seems to share my appreciation of the Dyktator and is swarming the front once again. Love my d-bands but they seem to get the de facto filler slots between the crazy grind sets making for a natural lull. "The one and only song without the blast beat... d-beat!"
Clitgore - First danceable grind of the weekend, timed pretty perfectly. The retention rate of this festival must be fantastic, so many familiar faces from last year. We have yet to see if an act can harness the raw freak energy to the extent Ahumado Granujo did last years, but that may have been a rare combination of a local favourite, just the right amount of dancegrind weirdness, and the placement of the performance so close to the imminent breakup (hiatus? one can hope). "I want all of you to dance like fucking zombies, and come up on the stage of course." Romanian accent is one of my favourites. Speaking of that energy, things got a bit nuts when Clitgore brought out Luisma from Haemorrhage! Emerging from backstage, covered in blood like a newborn baby, he only stayed for one song but it was a cool surprise. Another surprise, even to the vocalist, was the abrupt end to the set. "Apparently, that was our last song!" These sets come fast and furious, especially this early in the afternoon. A gamer attempting a drink per band pace would surely find themselves dead before Saturday. I might know a few Georgians who could accomplish such a feat, hard to say.
Livstid - Following the warm pants beer with a cold one. Really can't complain with €1 drink tickets. Livstid taking us back to last night with some fast and fucking heavy hardcore. People old enough to be my parents are waving big pink cocks around. Shade is at a premium, you can watch the seats fill in as the setting sun extends the shadow of the tree line across them. I don't think you could do an all black metal show like this but something about punk and grind in the blazing summer heat just feels right.
Chiens was fast and insane, everything I had hoped for. At home with other tattoo-faced punks, which they probably don't get at every show. Sorry to have missed them live until now, this should have been my third encounter, not my first.
Whoresnation - "Hey we need speed so if you have some then come to us." Fast grind, dedicated one song about being dead to Seth Putnam. Or maybe it was about Seth Putnam and dedicated to being dead. Good set either way. I missed Dark Horse, had to buy a cup-holder, charge my cell phone, eat meat clandestinely at the campsite away from the vegan militia and refill on beer.
Gutalax - Beach balls, confetti, inflatable floating alligators, sharks, sex dolls, banana, albatross, pig, zebra, Jesus, transvestites, fake cocks, real cocks, Japanese school girl, toilet seat and cover, "Slowly songs for slowly people!", frog, nun, cookie monster, chicken, king, spider-man, and so many people on stage you can't see the band. Found that Ahumado Granujo substitute.
ACxDC, the antidote to Gutalax. Another of my most highly anticipated and another band I've recently missed out on. Killed, no bullshit, and for an American band very all-business and straight to the point.
Katalepsy delivered the most brutal slam/death of the weekend. As the proxy war waged in Ukraine with much loss of life, these Russians attacked OEF almost (not really) as violently. Here in musical war and brutality there is peace and brotherhood. This is how far removed from the real world we are. Or hoe insane reality appears from this annual temporal pocket of sanity.
Final Exit - Absolutely absurd. Teased the beginning of the set for what seemed like hours, struggling both with English and to contain their excitement. The most spastic, animated drummer I have ever seen, he barely even needed a stool. Like a friendly version of Sete Star Sept by way of Bathtub Shitter if I have to confine myself to Japanese comparisons. Set felt like maybe 25% noise (music?), 75% anticipation. A brilliant segment of performance art. They probably played less than two hours of actual music on their entire European tour, not bad work if you can get it.
Zombie Inc. seemed trapped behind a force-field, but that was probably just the return of lighting effects as the sun began to mercifully decline. I expected goregrind but instead got some straight up, disturbingly competent death metal of the old school flavour. Pretty sure there was an Incantation cover in there at some point. Is there a weakness in the lyrical department? What's with the gimmick? It seems extraneous. Blood and costumes, chewing "human flesh" and tossing it into the crowd, and (presumably) every song is about Zombies. Yet they're actually really musical, the best and perhaps only new old school death metal we heard this weekend. Strange band.
The Kill killed it. Seemed at first like many were unaware of them, this being their first foray into Europe. I myself only came across them due to a Birdflesh split. Now they know if they didn't know before.
Master couldn't help but trump Zombie and most of the rest with old school old school death metal. Disproportionately famous in the Czech Republic apparently due to an early relocation from stateside. Paul Speckmann has the look of a metal master, and the new could not be differentiated from the old in this drunken live setting. Lots of fun.
Inhume were nice but fuck that first long day is a tough one. Missed the Hellcore show thing for the second year running, but from what I've witnessed there's more to be seen early at the mainstage than late.
