METAL DAYS 2013 (English Version) Finally.
Escrito por Luciano de Esbornia , miércoles, 21 de agosto de 2013 9:40
Well, first
of all, welcome to all the English-speaking audience. I must beging by
apologizing because I haven´t really written in English since I was supposed to
hand my essays back at university; of course I never did handle them! This
post is going to be packed with grammar and spelling mistakes, coined idioms,
made up expressions, and coherence and cohesive flaws. Please, learn to enjoy
and embrace them because I might take some time until I clean the rust from my
essay writing. Anyways, enjoy the content and don´t kill the messenger.
All the pics
are in thumbnails, if you want to see them fullsize, follow the link located at
the end of the article. I do that because I know you are all lazy bastards and
will not read the post, but look at the pictures and like it on FB instead.
It all began
on a quiet morning, in the month of July. I was looking for a way to travel
from Vicenza (Italy) to Tolmin (Slovenia) so I could attend to Metaldays. For
those who have no clue about Metaldays, I will give you a short introductory
insight and hope you have a clear idea by the end of this article. Metaldays, former
Metalcamp, is a 7-day festival which takes place in a small forest by the
mountains, with the Soca river on one side of the camping area. It is one of
the largest, longest and most hardcore festivals in the world. I said
“hardcore” not because of the music, but because camping 7 days with metalheads
is not really for the weak. You can find an air view of the event right here
. Now back
to the main story. I was looking at the event website and stumbled with the
“Press” tab. I said to myself “why not” and shifted some paradigms of reality
–in no way is this similar to lying- and tried my luck as a “Freelance
Journalist” for this blog. A blog that you have never visited before but that
has more views than the Miley Cyrus Porn. Luckily, it seems that because this
blog is extremely important worldwide and mostly because the organizers didn´t
speak Spanish that I miraculously got the Press accreditation. 5 minutes later,
Elisa signed up as my photographer.
In the
following paragraphs, I´ll write some kind of day-by-day travel diary. This
way, you´ll witness how the event developed along its´ seven days. I will try
to include hyperlinks to all the bands I consider relevant and also some
suggestions about which bands to explore or check out. If you wish to see the
complete line-up and running order, you can do it here: http://www.dominanztravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013_METALDAYS_RUNNING-ORDER_ONE-PAGE.pdf
Day 1: Arrival, camping site, beach.
On the first
day god created light, oops, wrong post… I mean, on the first day we (Juan
& Luciano) arrived to Tolmin (middleofnowhere, Slovenia) hitch-hiking
through mountain roads. This was only possible because festivals have this
metal community aura that links us all together, in order to survive and to
rock. There, we met Elisa and traded in
our VIP tickets. Even though there was a VIP camping, we decided to camp with
the peasants. And so we did, we set up camp in the forest, by the Soca river
and very close to the stages. We instantly made friends with our neighbours –
Croatians, Serbs, Slovenians, Finns , etc- and met our favorite Belgian,
Maarten. Afterwards, we went for a field trip: to the supermarket (with fairly
low prices), to the Metal
Beach (heaps of
pictures further on this article), to the rocky shores which made me curse the
heavens for not having flip-flops and to the solar apocalypse which made me
wonder how do these tit-pale (the first of many made up words) metal folks survive
and swallow beer for 7 days in a row, with temperatures in the range of 32-38
°C. During the night, the Metal Beach still blasted metal tunes and offered
Stripper and fire shows for those brave enough to defy the need for sleep, or
those who feared the possibility of sleeping due to the chances of not waking
up again, or those who couldn´t lay down because of their 3rd-degree-burns
coated asses.
Highlighted
bands: None.
Day 2: Things start to heat up
Sunburn
traces slowly come into view: red cheeks and people drenched layers of Grade 50
sunscreen. Bands make their first appearance in both stages but are mostly
ignored because of the the
beach, where the
rise of the inflatable toys with drunk riders takes over the gelid waters:
boats, floating tires, dinosaurs, dolls, dicks, boobs, swimming pools with
waterslides, and anything that can be blown. Including me; you can blow anytime
;). Still this description is not as accurate as the pictures, so watch them! I
also saw some real boobs and I believe there are pics, but can´t be sure
because I was in obvious shock after the event. Later, when the sound went
down, we head over to the press area, to recharge our electronic stuff and
found out awesome news: The interview schedules.
The band I
was looking forwards to interview was Sabbath Judas Sabbath. I know it is
impossible to guess, but they played a tribute to Black Sabbath and Judas
Priest). Unfortunately, they were not open for interviews and I had no idea
about what to ask to other bands. Therefore, I obviously decided, along with
Elisa, not to interview a band and avoid making a fool out of myself to use a journalistic technique known as “The
Conan O´Brien” (citation needed); TITS ask random bullshit with a bullet-proof
poker face. In this occasion, the victim carefully selected band was
Alestorm: a pirate core band which seemed to be able to handle our stupidity
and lack of any journalistic skills. After sealing our destinies, we head over
to check the first bands.
Highlighted Bands:
Ensiferum (Viking / Folk
Metal): The first band that made the crowd
rise, literally, because Crowd Surfing was back. A very powerful and enticing
show that almost casted a shadow over the Headliner bands of the day.
In Flames: A band with a never ending career that offered another
spotless presentation with baffling display of crowd control; something to be
expected from a band with more than 20 years on stage.
Pentagram: I had the chance to see this band
after having seen the documentary “Last days here”. The songs are not bad, even
after like 35 years: it was like a stroll through the Paleolithic Rock Period.
After the
bands, we got some sleep and well, got ready for the next of the many days to
come.
Day 3: My first interview and a whole lot of
True Black Metal
The third
day was similar to the previous ones, but now we were surrounded with metalheads
suntanned like shrimps, people wearing shirts on the beach to avoid further
burns, and the first encounters with wasted individuals taking spontaneous naps
on inflatable toy while in creative locations, accompanied by one or two clouds
in the sky. It was also the time for Juan to leave (you don´t know Juan, but he
is my awesome travel partner); he got fed up with metal after 3 days. We
decided to get some real food as a farewell gift. Finally something that was
not dry salty crackers with mysterious toppings (30 cents; flavor: unknown,
some claim it tastes like fish… or chicken, or corn salad with vanilla
pudding). Even though our mouths were watering
for edible food, we had to fulfill our calamity interview with Alestorm; so, we did it in
record time; and you can listen to it HERE. After you are done with it, you´d realize that our
kamikaze journalism showdown was a complete success and that everybody who took
part in it had a good time, except for the poor piglets and baby potatoes which
were brutally obliterated afterwards, to honor Juan´s departure with their
entrails and flesh. But the heavens wouldn´t let our crime unpunished: it
rained for one hour and made wet some of our belongings.
Highlighted Bands:
Alestorm (Bacon Powered
Pirate Core): My personal favorites of the day. They managed to convince the whole
audience to sit down and row for a whole song. This shows that attendees are
looking to have fun in festivals and shows why Folk Metal bands are generally
cheered and welcomed, as long as they don´t sound extremely shitty (i.e.
Arkona).
Samael (Electronic / Industrial Metal): Fucking nice! A show full of energy: a mix of classic EBM sounds with dark and powerful distorted guitar riffs. They also had a keyboard player who stole the show with his stage presence and the whole band provided a nice environment for head-banging or getting a nice mosh pit going.
Mayhem (True Norwegian
Black Metal): The most
true black metal band of all the true black metal bands. I must confess that is
difficult to admire for those not keen on a guy screaming like a madman and a
permanent display of demonic summoning, but the band´s obscure career made the
experience worthy. There was neither killing nor church burning but well,
Mayhem is Mayhem. In fact, we met a way more satanic and impressive band the
following day; at least regarding credibility.
Day 4: Thong
Volleyball and Space Unicorn on Fire
On the 4th
day, we witnessed a novelty in eye-candy: Beach Volleybal in Thongs… for males.
Hairy asses and beer bellies roaming free, facial and back hair rocking with
the wind, third degree burns crawling on sweaty caveman bodies: a show worthy
of the most underground European freak shows that enlightened our morning and
left us blind for hours. Fortunately, the rain washed our traumas away and
relieved our bleeding eyeballs so that we could make it on time for the bands
with full health. In addition, I got
extra relieved by the impromptu chicks´ mudfight
in front of the main stage.
Highlighted Bands:
Space Unicorn on Fire (Heavy/Progressive
Metal) : This was the first band that we REALLY wanted to see,
but we missed it due to an unexpected schedule change. Instead, we saw Parasol Caravan, which was pretty much ok, but
didn´t quite cope with our unicorns and fire expectations.
Turisas (Battle
Metal): Yet another Viking folk metal band
which encouraged crowd
surfing. Simple
lyrics with catchy choruses and repetitive melodies seem to be the formula
drive the audience crazy.
Meshuggah (Experimental
Metal): This show
was a display of impossible 8–string guitar technique with a mathematically
engineered display of composition. The audience had no idea how to headbang to
the shifting drum tempos and chord progressions. The only detail I´d have changed about the show was the cocaine
snorting pause, there was no subtlety whatsoever: they took a 3-minute rest,
came back with their jaws swinging like a cash register and played the galaxy
most difficult songs at twice the regular speed.
Oh yeas,
Sonata Arctica played on that day, but it was a boomer. We went through 1 hour
and a half of cheesy and boring ballads, just to listen to "Replica" and "Full Moon". I hope I don´t have to take part in such a boring show
ever again.
Day 5: Alotta bands and force fed suicide invitations
for everybody :)
Due to
emergency camps packed with cases of burned retinas because of the four days of
thong volleyball, the organization of the event decided to provide some visual
relief for the wounded: Topless Badminton…and yes, for females. Apart from
that, we didn’t enjoy much of the beach and camping lifestyle because there was
a shitload of interesting bands playing. Therefore, we spent most of the time
in the press area, making new friends and witnessing how everybody knew exactly
what to do… but us.
Highlighted bands:
Meta-Stasis (Death
Metal): I met them at the camping site, they
were some brits who travelled for 48 hours to play only 25 minutes, because of
technical difficulties. I recommend this band to anyone who wonders how will
Slipknot sound like if they actually made music.
Vallorch (Folk Metal): The only band that managed to get
crowd surfing going in the Second Stage. Even though none of those Italians
looked older than 20 and heavier than 50 kgrs, they had the stage presence of
Vikings and Valkiries only after 10 minutes into the show.
Subway to sally (Medieval
Folk/Rock): A show packed with energy that was totally ruined by the heat and the
sun scorching the stage. These poor Germans were not ready at all for the heat;
they were melting on stage with their leather clothes and the fire throwers
they had brought to the show. Also, there was not the amount of audience they
deserved --> Beach > Germans
Leprous (Progressive
Metal): Phew, Leprous, this was one of THE
BEST BANDS IN THE WHOLE FESTIVAL. Unfortunately, since the musicians were part
of another project with the former singer of Emperor, they only got to play
half an hour and left everybody asking for more. Not fortunate as well was the
fact that this other band sucked balls (Ihsahn) , perhaps because they didn´t
quite fit in the style of the new genre.
Iced Earth (Power /
Thrash Metal): Yes, all their songs have the exact same pattern, but they are still
awesome. The Main Stage was completely full of people and every single one of
the attendees sang until every word of their lyrics. In my not-humble-at-all
opinion, this was THE BEST HEADLINER OF THE WHOLE FESTIVAL.
Shining (Black Black Black Progressive Black True Black Suicidal Black Metal): Screw GG Allin, this guy is my new personal idol. In fact, we tried to get an interview as a part of our Kamikaze journalistic experience. Outcome: the guy was too wasted and high to interact with other beings so the interview got cancelled. If anybody cares about the musical part of the band, the whole group was a nicely oiled black metal machine: nice riffs and breaks, plus a retard shouting and threatening to cut himself with a razor. I guess they put up a fucked up and entertaining show.
Sleeping was
no longer an option, our neighbors were already partying to celebrate the fore
coming end of the festival in the way they knew best: getting wasted, shouting,
laughing and rocking until dawn.
Day 6: Farewell tastes like Sarma… not karma, S A R M
A
The day
before the last was completely devoted to take a rest from relaxing the whole
week. We had lunch with our metal family; a traditional Croatian dish called Sarma. Even though I thought it was an
Argentinean traditional dish called “Niños envueltos” (Wrapped Children), they
called me wrong and well, I got ripped off by history once again. Anyways, I
will still believe it was an Argentinean recipe cooked by 2 blondes from Zadar
and a Slovenian, but won´t complain because it tasted like heaven; particularly
because it was the 2nd “real” food in 6 days. The whole ritual had
to be wrapped up with a nap. And so we missed some bands, but it was totally
worth it and we even made it on time to see the last bands of the day.
Highlighted Bands:
Powerwolf (Power Metal): Ultimate champions in crowd control,
background and stage presence. They gave an excellent show and you might wonder
which the formula for it was. Well, perhaps it was the howling
before going on stage (even if nobody was watching). Oh, by the way, these
were the best shoots that my colleague Elisa Montero took (check the links at
the end of the article).
Wintersun (Symphonic
Melodic Death Metal): I think this was the most expected band in the whole
festival. People kept coming and approaching the stage, even after 2 black
outs. This band has long and complex songs which never turn boring. A must
listen for everybody.
Oh, and King
Diamond… fortunately I had more important things to do in order to miss the
show, like counting the amount of flies
trapped inside my tent.
Day 7: The Lord rested, I hitchhiked.
There were
no more bands and no more shows, but everybody was willing to stay longer. We
cleaned up, said farewell to our neighbors and left. Nobody said they weren´t
coming back next year, not even our friend Maarten –who woke up in the Red
Cross after falling unconscious and passing out by the river with a broken
nose. I´m definitely going back next year. I don´t know how, but I will.
Hitchhiking
took me no time since people are extremely friendly at festivals. My goal was
Vienna and I got there in just 5 hours.
Final thoughts:
Without any kind of demagogy, this was the best festival I´ve ever attended. What is even more, I´d recommend to all of my readers (yeah, the 5 of you, except for my mum) to live a similar experience, even if you are not into metal. It´s an excellent chance to see how people behave in a reduced social environment with unwritten, yet very clear laws: we are all part of the same experience and help each other. But we don´t do it out of pity or charity, we do it driven by an instantaneous brotherhood aura that engulfs us all and tries to lead everyone into making the best out of it.
Without any kind of demagogy, this was the best festival I´ve ever attended. What is even more, I´d recommend to all of my readers (yeah, the 5 of you, except for my mum) to live a similar experience, even if you are not into metal. It´s an excellent chance to see how people behave in a reduced social environment with unwritten, yet very clear laws: we are all part of the same experience and help each other. But we don´t do it out of pity or charity, we do it driven by an instantaneous brotherhood aura that engulfs us all and tries to lead everyone into making the best out of it.
Somebody asked
me if people “discriminate” between rock and metal genres and its´ followers.
The answer is a plain and simple: no, never. And the reason is because since
the moment you choose to be a metalhead, you automatically turn into a social
pariah and thus you learn how to be empathetic and tolerant with others before
judging and calling them out. It does not matter if your neighbor is wearing a
Megadeth shirt while playing Britney Spears or Bon Jovi in his/her tent, he
probably understands and agrees with you face painted like a panda bear,
listening to True Norwegian Black Metal and preaching about obliteration of the
Catholic Church. And perhaps you´ll also listen to Backstreet boys in the
afternoon while wearing your black metal uniform, because it´s hilarious to
watch and you´d have a lot of fun as well as entertain everybody around you.
Well, I´m
definitely way pass the attention span of my readers. HERE ARE THE PICS TAKEN BY ELISA IN
FULL SIZE AND COLOR:
https://plus.google.com/photos/115145127889016060816/albums/5905677428854578545?authkey=COnVpfTLn5OzVg
https://plus.google.com/photos/115145127889016060816/albums/5905677428854578545?authkey=COnVpfTLn5OzVg
LHERE IS A
VIDEO OF THE FESTIVAL SO YOU CAN INMERSE A LITTLE IN THE METAL SUMMER
ATMOSPHERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3oe-CoYF7M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3oe-CoYF7M
OH, AND THE
LINK TO THE INTERVIEW WITH ALESTORM:
http://www.goear.com/listen/12bfdfe/alestorm-interview-at-metaldays-2013-alestorm
http://www.goear.com/listen/12bfdfe/alestorm-interview-at-metaldays-2013-alestorm
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aaaaaaaaadladladlaldaldadaldtatata ya reuní los morlacos que encontré, arranco a juntar plata y el año que viene voy; de paso tengo que hacer un trámite en España que nada tiene que ver con la guerrilla ni el gobierno de Siria. ...
Sir Count Lucien! Extraño Torrentcialmente su presencia y sacrificaré una vaca en honor a su panza y los sacrificios de ayuno a los que se ha expuesto por un bien mayor.