August 21, 2022 | Eindhoven – Arriving at the ice rink, there was hardly any line to get in so that was good news! The organisation announced that there was extra personnel hired for the bars, so the lines should not reappear.
With a day with a bit more clouds – but still warm – it was going to be a good festival day!
On my first round over the grounds, I saw that a few vedors of food lowered their prices. I guess they had to, because the lines were everywhere execpt by these food trucks.
It will be a thing to recon with; not everybody is able to afford current prices and these people ultimately stay away.
The first band of the day, was also on Into The Grave 2022; Urne (GB). Where the stage in Leeuwarden was low and interaction with the audience was easy, in Eindhoven the stage was high and the distance to the crowd was big. Being the first band is lousy, but there was a decent amount of people already there. There was some movement, but it didn’t work for me.
The next band Lik (S) had a bit of the same problem. Musically I think Lik is more varied but it did not work well with a big distance between band and crowd. The band was quite stoic too and I think that this would better work out in a club than on a festival.
With Angelus Apatrida (ES) it was another story. These Spaniards played fast and moved around, but were standing half way the stage, so the first rows see only belly and up.
But that aside, this band was on fire and there were quite some people present to witness this Spanish invasion.
For the next band it is almost packed. The fanbase of Cannibal Corpse (USA) is still big and loud and the band enjoyed that a lot! The dust of the festival grounds rise up above the half open roof of the ice rink.
Singer George Fisher wore a shirt with the text “Respect the neck” and a less than flattering picture of himself. But respect is due, because what George did with his neck, no one in Eindhoven could match that!
That Jinger (UA) came to play was a small miracle. First they were on the bill, but were taken of because there were not able to come because of the war in Ukraine. Later they were announced ambassadors of their country en could play and Dynamo Metalfest quickly reserved a place for them on the bill again.
There were a few Ukrainian flags in the audience, but Tatiana hardly said anything about it. Only once she spoke out on the terrible situation and that she hoped it would end soon.
The crowd in front of her was fanatic. They sang every word with her and some were even a bit emotional. I admit that the atmosphere was something special; not better or worse… just special.
After years of talking about it, lots of plans and Covid, finally it was going to happen! Bay Area Interthrashional (USA)! Personally the band to look forward to because all the thrash bands from the Bay Area participated; wasn’t it by a member playing along, then it was by their songs being played.
The formula was setup in a way, that singers never sung their own song and that what made quite some people say in a condescending meaning that this was the biggest cover band of the world. I did not agree with that and rather had that time would tell and boy did it tell something!
Graig Locicero told some stories too about Dynamo Open Air and its founder André. This was the first time that I listened to the longer stories told by a band member without thinking “play some goddamn music!”
The fun part was, that this bunch of men brought with them a truck load of singers!
Katon W. De Pena sang most of the songs and damn that was impressive! Katon did not try to imitate the original singers of the song, but did it in his own style and that worked out beautifully! None of the singers tried to impersonate the original singer and that made it extremely interesting to see and hear.
Katon W. De Pene (Hirax) sang ‘Whiplash’ (Metallica), ‘Exodus’ (Exodus), ‘Voracious Souls’ Death Angel, ‘Mechanix’ (Megadeth), ‘Off The Edge’ (Forbidden), ‘Calling In The Coroner’ (Vio-Lence) and ‘Metal Command’ (Exodus).
Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) sang No Remorse & Creeping Death both by Metallica and Kayla Dixon ‘Over The Wall’ by Testament.
Will Carroll (Death Angel) kicked the hell out ‘Die By The Sword’ of Slayer and Randy Blyth (Lamb of God) tore op the ice rink to little peaces with ‘Fight Fire with Fire’. It was due to his ferociousness that the dust of the mosh pits, circle pits, walls of death etc. landed on the stage… against the mild summer breeze!
All songs were delivered in the spirit of the song and the electricity that most of the crowd had when they bought those albums back in the days. I certainly felt it!
The band reacted to the crowd and there was the perfect circle of thrash!
Graig Locicero said it upfront: “Thrash was never perfect at its best” and he was right; when the fun, the effort and the passion is there, the response will be equal and that is what happened at Dynamo Metalfest!
It was INSANE! I hope there will be a DVD of this gig, because I want it!
And please… Do this again any time soon!
Randy Blythe of Lamb of God (USA) had a nice warm up with Bay Area Interthrasional and took that energy with him. Even though the people in front of the stage were a bit younger than the previous performance, the energy was as wild.
Randy fired the crowd even further on and demanded a circle pit from the barrier to the sound tent and… he got it! It has been a long time since I’ve seen Lamb of God, but I’ve never seen them this psyched. Perhaps it was the flying start, but I like it!
There is not much time to recuperate; Heaven Shall Burn (D) has a swift change over and first thing I notice are the compact pyro boxes on the stage.
Right at the start there are strings of silver and black shot in the air. The aim was the audience, but the wind changed and they land on the stage.
Quickly the stage hands clear the stage and photo pit from this paper strings, as the can easily catch fire when the rest of the pyro will set off.
When everything is safe there is no wait for the pyro! Practically every song has some sort of pyro. I am in the photo pit and this is wild! There are not much bands who trust their equipment, their technicians and the photographers enough to let them stay and take pictures.
Heaven Shall Burn has lost some equipment too during transit, but I did not noticed what it was… certainly no instruments or pyro!
There are just a few crowd surfers this time. Perhaps due to the fire or the fans of Heaven Shall Burn are not the crowd-surfer-type.
This was an awesome performance too, fitting to build up to the climax…
The last band of this weekend was the mighty Kreator (D)! We got a warning that there would be very dangerous pyro during the first song and that everybody should keep his distance.
Compared to Heaven Shall Burn the pyro of Kreator was quite laughable.
The performance it self was a bit of a let down too. The high notes and screams were ‘assisted’ with reverb and not once I saw the real joy of performing on their faces. Perhaps Frédéric Leclercq came the closest when he cheered on the crowd.
Kreator too had a lame light show which consisted of mostly red light from behind. I go to a live concert to see the artists, not to look at shadows who resemble them
Conclusion
It was great to be back at Dynamo! The atmosphere was great and most of the bands were great too, except the two head liners. It seemed that Dynamo MetalFest got stuck with two headliners with diva behavior. DMF was not sold out and eventhough it was pretty busy, there have to come more people to make this work. That will be a tough nut to crack!
The lines on the second day were as good as gone and thus a lesson for the next time. Also the late opening of the ice rink on the first day set off a lot of people. A lot of people I spoke don’t get the necessity of a debit card, as bank cards are much quicker, cheaper and everybody already has one.
Oh… and I do miss the cups with the bands on them as a memorabilia.
To end on a high; make Bay Area Interthrashional the house band of Dynamo MetalFest! There are more than enough members in total and they are a huge boost for the atmosphere! And if you check the participants their social media… they had a blast too! and even called it on of their biggest highs of all time! Let’s get these Bay Area Thrashers back where it all started in Europe; Dynamo!
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