I had never been to a festival before, not in the European sense: I went to Family Values 2001, Ozzfest 2002 (looking back at the lineup I 100% do not remember Andrew W.K. or Otep being there at all, much less playing, and that pisses me off), and Edgefest in 2003 (was there mainly for Bad Religion, got an autograph from someone from Yellowcard on a yellow piece of card-like paper completely unintentionally, no joke), all in Phoenix, but for one day each, and there was no camping involved.
In 2018 we went to three festivals, in three different countries. They were:
Soulcrusher in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in early October.
I found out about this, basically fell in love with the lineup because I'd never seen one that suited me better, and kind of just told Hannes that I had to go. For my 30th birthday. That is what I want, I want literally nothing else, so let it be done.
And though I quickly felt bad for essentially asking for a significant gift but presenting it as an ultimatum, I got my wish, and we both had a great time, even if we absolutely couldn't stay awake for Dragged Into Sunlight, which was way sad. But this was also a one-day festival (that should seriously be two), and we travelled for I think 5 1/2 hours to get there after waking up at 5, dropped our stuff at the hostel, and went straight to the venue for something like 13 straight hours of long sets in packed crowds, with a train to catch at like 8:30 the following morning.
Without stimulants or superpowers or something it couldn't be done.
Oh well. No ragrets. 10/10 would recommend and do again.
Nijmegen is also an absolute treasure of a Dutch city, it's like being in an idealistic concept sketch of what the eco-friendly future should be like, but based upon the rich architecture and history of the medieval past.
Reload Festival in Sulingen, Lower Saxony, in late August.
Apparently mixed-bag, "what the fuck" lineups like this are what's to be expected from these bigger, more mainstream festivals, and oh boy did it feel "what the fuck"-y too. Every year a group of Hannes' friends from when he was younger decide on a festival together, and this is what happens when some people in the group have no taste or preference and yet are insistent that there isn't too much death metal.
Don't get me wrong, it was fun: the point was that it was a social thing. The guys getting together, including a few I had never met before, cracking jokes, cracking open beers and grilling meat and.. me.. being the only woman there. It wasn't awkward, but definitely something a bit new or with a twist for us all.
The only band I actually, actively wanted to see was Mantar, and they were devastatingly loud and great. Eskimo Callboy is devastatingly bad and the kind of thing that makes you hope the entire planet just blinks out of existence at some point soon. Actually, the sound quality at this festival was really bad in general, and caused some major issues. The fact that the parking and camping area was in a cleared field so dusty and full of dry shredded chaff that I was visibly and painfully coughing it up before long was also pretty shitty, but I mean, I'm also sitting here typing this while trying to get over my yearly bout of broncihtis, so that's my problem.
Would not recommend but at the same time wouldn't completely hate going back this year if the group decides on it again; something much bigger and better like Summer Breeze is out of the question because it's just too far to travel. My impression is that Reload is the poor man's Summer Breeze. ... But I mean, they do have Agnostic Front this year, and Walls of Jericho, and lol, Lordi...
And finally, though this was actually the first one, and the first-ever festival I went to: the 20th anniversary of Obscene Extreme, in Trutnov, Czech Republic.
An entire post of some kind about this will come at some point.
I got an Access Pass courtesy of Aaron and Matt at kaala and took a huge collection of photos, which I arranged mentally into about 15 possible articles with summaries and accompanying galleries, aaaand then about a week later a handful of particularly special people from all over the world flew in for our big wedding reception garden party on August 4th, along with two full weeks of nonstop activities all over northern Germany. And then I ended up with probably another two thousand photos from that, many of which I had to wait quite a while for even though I needed to organise them and send them to everyone, and.. I just couldn't keep up.
I couldn't scroll through or edit photos anymore. I couldn't choose the best out of a series of 8 or 9 quick in-motion shots anymore. I couldn't even begin to think about watermarking them all and finishing the articles. I didn't know where to start and was totally overwhelmed even thinking that I needed to pick anywhere at all and just start there.
Things never slowed down, birthdays, trips, weekends in Rostock and concerts continued, we both got new jobs in October, and then it was Christmas, and now it's 2019. Articles and photos from Obscene Extreme 2018 will happen at some point.
Oh, and, 10/10 would recommend. We're almost certainly going back this year, and Jharrod and Meika are going to try to come from Japan to join us!
But so, now: the ranking!
Many of these bands are wildly different, like apples and oranges, or like, I don't know, string cheese and alpacas. Just.. not comparable in any meaningful way. So, of course, this is all my opinion and preference as a non-musician, and the best I could do in terms of putting some people at the top and others at the bottom, but definitely considering them worthy of being on the list, and seeing again. Every band on this list I would happily or even gleefully see again.
And actually, I was also meant to see La Dispute with Hannes and Lars but was sick, and they sold my ticket at the venue. They and Touché Amoré are really not my thing at all, but they are extremely emotionally intense, and I would have liked to have seen their singer cry and felt those hard-hitting feels.
Back in May I also really really wanted to see Eivør (bam, alpacas and string cheese again), but she was playing in an artsy town called Worpswede outside Bremen, and it's a pain in the ass getting there even if you have a car; with public transit it's just unfeasible.
Four days after Obscene Extreme this year she's playing at a dark alternative and electronic festival in a sick-looking old castle in Poland that's actually and seriously a straight shot on the highway an hour or so from Trutnov, but once again, there's.. pretty much no way that's happening. Sadface.
But, okay, so now: the ranking!
(Videos will be uploaded later!)
1. Deafheaven
(Post-metal, blackgaze; San Francisco, United States)
2. Pagan
(Blackened punk 'n roll; Melbourne, Australia)
3. Napalm Death
(Death metal, grindcore, crust punk; Meriden, West Midlands, England)
4. Downfall of Gaia
(Post-black metal; Berlin, Germany)
5. Phantom Winter
("Winterdoom"; Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany)
6. Wiegedood
(Post-black metal; Ghent, Belgium)
7. Mantar
(Blackened sludge/doom metal, crust punk; Bremen, Germany)
8. Thanatology (now Unidad Trauma)
(Death grind; Tijuana, México)
9. Demersal
(Blackened hardcore; Odense, Denmark)
10. Flagitious Idiosyncracy in the Dilapidation
(Grindcore, death metal; Tokyo, Japan)
11. Self Deconstruction
(Freestyle grindcore, power violence; Tokyo, Japan)
12. Gogol Bordello
(Ukrainian gypsy punk; Lower East Side, New York, United States)
13. Vulvodynia
(Brutal death metal, deathcore; Durban, South Africa)
14. God Mother
(Hardcore, mathcore; Stockholm, Sweden)
15. Telos
(Blackened mathcore; Copenhagen, Denmark)
16. Beartooth
(Hardcore; Columbus, Ohio, United States)
17. Hamferđ
(Operatic doom metal; Tórshavn, Faroe Islands)
2019 is off to a strong start, too - expect another one of these posts at the end of it!
... or probably more like halfway through 2020! ^^;
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