Obscene Extreme 2014: Day 3

Live @ Battlefield, Trutnov, Czech Republic

July 18, 2014

Part three 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...

Krüger, worth getting up for.  But the treat of Friday morning was Deaf Kids from Brazil.  Haunting, hanging screams over noise.  Stood apart from the rest of the bands for certain, I must see them in a more intimate setting.  Too heavy and atmospheric to be digested in a 25 minute set before noon on a weekday.  What a ridiculous festival.

Nazareno El Violento were heavily anticipated, and like everything I was looking forward to failed to disappoint.  Hard as fuck, should have bought a shirt as they seemed to have some of the best designs not involving shit, vomit, extreme gore or genitals.  Nothing wrong with that but there are only so many places you can were a Jig-Ai top if you don't want to spend the entire evening talking about your shirt.

 

Besta, wow!  Something about the Spanish/Portuguese languages, from Europe to Central and South America, just make them the most perfectly suited for d-beat and crust.  I don't even know if they sing in English or not but damned if I haven't developed a positive stereotype for d-bands from these regions.  Add Nazareno and Besta to the list.

Warcollapse remind me that Sweden isn't far behind when it comes to this sort of d-thing.  Between these guys, Massgrav, Skitsystem, it's like a warm hug from an old friend every time.

Vitamin X had insane energy.  Absurdly animated frontman who refused to stop jumping.  The bands at this festival have a knack for sounding exactly like their names, maybe it's the genrefication and generification of heavy music, or maybe it's just by confirmation bias talking.  Daresay the most energetic punk act of the weekend, rivaled only by Italian hardcore night.

Nunslaughter - the most blasphemous band I've seen in a while, hilarious banter from the drummer, great energy, a perfect band for OEF.  They have thousands of songs and played almost half of them.  I will forever associate the inverted cross drumstick salute with this band.  Good luck finding a band that hates Christians more than these guys.

Cattle Decapitation were sorely missed.  Wehrmacht did basically the same set two nights in a row, even closing with the same Iron Maiden cover and everybody-up-on-stage routine both times.  A little heavier on the Cryptic Slaughter on night two.  It seems like way too many farewells this weekend, in this case from a band I've barely met.  Will have to explore both these acts on record in the near future.

Brutal Truth were also saying goodbye.  Nothing too specific or profound in the farewell address, but you know when a band that's been in the game is stopping for speeches and each member is snapping their own cellphone photos that it's a special night.  This was perhaps the headliner of the weekend based on crowd energy and I find it hard to disagree with them.  Lucky to see this final European show, and at a club gig once before.  Dynamically different experiences between the stage diving, moshing insanity here and the (comparatively) downright sombre atmosphere at the Zoo years ago surrounded by arms-crossed headbangers.  There you can digest every note of the music, here much of it is lost in the swirling chaos that is Obscene Extreme.  But you wouldn't want it any other way.

 

Possessed, this far removed from "their" heyday could hardly have been better.  There is some sneaking feeling that what you're seeing isn't quite the original thing.  But that's what happens with so many of these long-neglected cult projects.  You could hardly expect Larry Lalonde to take a break from Primus and show his face.  That was a long time ago.  Possessed 2014?  Still worth it.  For being so influential you don't hear them covered all that much, especially live.  And Jeff Becerra still brings the black metal magic.

Eyehategod rounded out "USA night."  A bit of a sonic anomaly in this setting, but thematically they fit right in. 

Obscene Extreme 2014: Day 2

Live @ Battlefield, Trutnov, Czech Republic
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.