So after a very slow night at the pre-DOOM fest for Obscene Extreme Festival (OEF), it later turned out we had quite a massive night. The bands might have ended just past midnight, but the noise didn’t, as our fellow campers with automobiles managed to keep the night alive by blasting grindcore from just past midnight and beyond the night. As the sun rose on the first official day of noise, the casualties of Barmageddon were quite evident, with grinders passed out everywhere. By avoiding various passed out “people”, if you could call it that, I managed to get me some coffee.
Early OEF Victim
Slowly but surely people attempted to get some breakfast and face the perpetual hangover that was by no means going anywhere anytime soon. I got up pretty early as I was under the impression that the bands started at 10am, but instead it only started at 2pm. I didn’t mind that one bit as I attempted to mingle with some very serious people at that point. Didn’t you know? Grindcore is serious business. Dickheads aside I found my mates who were still hungover and they convinced themselves that keeping on drinking would be a good idea.
Roll on the noise was the cry from those of us who were suffering from grind withdrawal. As 2pm came round and we were finally set to grind our heads in. Smashing Dumplings, which seemed like nothing more than a shenanz band, kick-off proceedings followed by Ape Unit who were a grinding powerviolence band with some disgusting riffs and wall-to wall noise from the offset. It was pretty fast, but we were looking for something faster. They did deliver well-rounded performance and the crowd, be it small, went ape!
The first death metal band of the fest Graveyard took the stage. Before you even start to think “Hisingen Blues”, can you not? Don’t confuse Graveyard with the stoner band form Sweden. These guys hail from Catalonia, Spain and are one of Spain’s most prominent death metal acts around. None of this technical death metal gash kids are into these days. Solid, mid-tempo crushing death metal with great body and amazing riffs. They formed in ’07 and recently released The Sea Grave. Performance wise, they created an awesome morbid atmosphere, being daylight and all, it was pretty fucking cool and they just tore into us like a fucking meat cleaver. They basically do death metal right; sticking to the original death metal recipe and executing it live with flying colours.
A few more bands came and went, eventually it was Chapel of Disease’s turn as the German death metallers took the stage and just clawed into it from the offset. Uncompromising, “evil as fuck”, heavy death metal and the crowd really got going. It was like a breath of putrid air that was needed just to get people out of their dormant/hung-over state, with some help from Czech beer. The Germans had killer riffs with amazing leads and the rhythms were nice and full so you could really bang your fucking head. They’re no slouches when it comes to speed as it just keeps getting faster and faster like a fucking juggernaut. It was an outstanding display of music showmanship from the German lads, a superb live performance.
Putting the death metal away for a while as the female fronted Canadian noise/grindcore act Fuck the Facts took the stage. The band has been going since ’98 and the change in the vocals department no less than 3 times has really evolved and shaped the bands sound to what it is today. Lead out by a petite fiery redhead they took the stage and as it started you heard a vocal ranger from the underbelly of the abyss. Backed up by some fast, unforgiving grind as they absolutely killed it! The noise would be pretty chaotic at times with regards to song structure. If you close your eyes it’s like the demon king is yelling at you and you’re not quite sure what you did wrong. They really got the crowd involved with some on-stage crowd shenanigans. It was an impressive performance to say the least and it was the first real noise/grindcore band that was unrelenting from start to finish.
Malignant Tumour was probably the biggest crowd puller of the day as the kings of “Rot ‘n Roll” emerged from back stage. Being a local Czech band, one would understand why they’re so popular. The music on the other hand speaks for itself as you’re bombarded with catchy riff upon catchy riff as the bearded hat/aviator sunglass wearing band just plough ahead. Before you know it you’re yelling, “Saddam Hussein is Rock ‘n Roll” and the on-stage antics makes for a very fun experience. They were excellent and the stage diving and beard pulling was a feature of the show as the crowd went ballistic.
Finally it was time for some hardcore punk as the legendary Negative Approach from Detroit took the stage with a no bullshit, no fun attitude and delivered an amazing show. No bullshit, no crowd interaction between songs, just taking care of business and why not? They’re NEGATIVE FUCKIN APPROACH, that’s why! The guitarist was a bit odd, as he never actually faced the crowd. Who cares, they put on what can only be decried as swift roundhouse kick to the kisser!
Negative Approach
Next up was Cryptopsy, they didn’t really do it, for me or the avid tech death Aussie mates from Perth. I managed to find myself in a moustache bar, for obvious reasons of course and it turns out that it was nothing more than a drunken karaoke. Seems that when grinders get drink, they know all the lyrics to the Backstreet Boys and Britney, BITCH! Most of them were so intoxicated, they wouldn’t have noticed the lyrics on the tiny screen anyway.
Read Berns' review of Day 2 tomorrow, including Captain Cleanoff, Napalm Death, Grave, Anaal Nathrakh and many more!
