16-07-2016 Dynamo Metal Fest

[schema type=”event” evtype=”Festival” name=”Dynamo Metal Fest” description=”By: Sabine van Gameren” sdate=”2016-07-16″ street=”IJsbaan” city=”Eindhoven” country=”NL” ]

Dynamo Metal Fest is the continuation of a legendary festival, now for the second year in a row to be held again.

With the promises of some nice weather it seems like a lot of visitors wanted to arrive early this time. Good idea as the local band Extremities was opening the festival. With a promising lineup, they have the honour to open for some of the greatest bands of the scene. The guys are making Progressive Metal and seem enthusiastic to be here. Makes sense as the guys are releasing a debut EP today and of course the songs of that one are played. The audience response is mild, but it seems like the appreciate these guys well. Early morning, early start and Extremities show potential in their overall package: good music and energetic and enthusiastic performance. All we need to start the day.

Audrey Horne are often seen in Holland. They have a good connection with the audience here, so it was good to see them coming to Eindhoven as well. We must admit that we adore this band more in a club setting for the intimacy the band has with the crowd comes alive a bit more, but even so their vocalists ended up the crowd, making it all up to them who felt some distance this time.

In between the band often remarks their Rock feel by all that’s been said in between the songs, separating them from the heavier stuff that is about to come later. A fair choice as no need to argue with that, but the visitors of Dynamo are up for a varied day and so come Audrey Horne had a nice one today, regardless their early timeframe.

It’s been a while since the guys of Textures played on own grounds, that’s what they tell us. Only a few months after their release “Phenotype” came out, the Dutch audience is showing them some appreciation for this.

The set started a bit slow and calm, but the guys are building towards a heavier climax and when they reach a point of more vehemence you see some moshing going on, some people choose to observe it with more care but overall it seems that this band has not really have to do a lot to get people along. That though, is something that is not entirely true. The band puts in some skills to elaborate it more than you realize for they tend to make it look easy. Good to see the band at its highlight of the show, but at the beginning it will require some patience for people that see them for the first time.

When Life of Agony had been forced to cancel their show due to an injury the organisation had to move quickly to get a replacement. It was found in Obituary, that did not mind coming by to Dynamo at all. Big smiles on their faces are hard to hide, no matter how tough metal living the music look they try to put on. The Death Metal formation is a welcome guest as during their set the madness starts to get going.

Crowdsurfers. Or maybe, crowdlauncers is the right word as they mainly launch themselves over the fences, starting only a few meters away from the frontrow. Moshpit is happening just as well. Sure, Obituary’s latest release is already from 2014 but who cares? The guys have quite a discography to draw from and with the loyalty of the metal audience towards a band like this and them always there to play a good show it is not a surprise that this last minute addition to the bill turned out really well!

Sacred Reich is a band that many looked forward too. Just as Obituary they are glad to be around here and with their Thrash they can get easily get the crowd going. Maybe even too easily we wondered when seeing them start their show, but it must be said that they don´t really take the lazy mode on at all. Giving their all to entertain the audience is something that they never stopped doing in the 30+ years they are around.

Good, no new material will come from them, but with “Surf Nicaragua” as one of their main drawers the band picked some wise choices for their set list today. Although they are not the most active band or entertaining band we have seen at this day, they are good entertainers. They talk a lot to the audience and it seems like Dynamo and Sacred Reich had a good reunion today.

With the release of the album “Blessed and Possessed” the band seem to have taken their over-the-top show a small step back. Still a lot of theatre in which mr Falk Maria Schlegel more than once leaves his keyboard at one side of the stage to hype up the audience and switch to the other side of the stage where another keyboard was standing. Also vocalist Attila Dorn is an entertainer but perhaps a bit more in the background. After a few songs the Powerwolf flag gets carried on and waved around, showing the audience that they have decided to take over.

Musically this Heavy metal formation reminds us a bit to Lordi, which we saw a few weeks ago. What them too have in common are the catchy songs brought with more skill you would think at first and the show surrounding it to get people’s attention. Where Powerwolf differs is that they try to make it sound a bit more elaborated. Yet, is it enough for the crowd today that likes these Death and Thrash giants on the bill? We don’t know for sure, people watched it mildly. They do have a younger crowd taking up the frontrows there though so they surely have some fans out there today.

Already formed in 1980 the band Metal Church has quite some years on the counter and during the years the band kept releasing albums. This year the full length “XI” came out. So safe to say that Metal Church has crossed paths with many metal fans through the years. With a band like Metal Church you know what to expect, you would think… after so many years and therefore we are more than proud to say that these guys managed to surprise us still.

With never-ending energy the band members move around the stage. They chose some older songs, the classics that work so well with a crowd full of moshers and yet when the band plays a song from their latest it is greeted with as much enthusiasm as it is their older work. You can hear a bit of difference in how these are made, but what stands out is that everything sounds like it could be on one and the same album and yet never gets boring. With the many shows we have seen from the band we could say this one that stands on top of our list, the band was so alive and had a great connection with the audience, one of the bests of the day!

Swedish Death Metal giants At The Gates are also part of the line up. What many other bands today had in enthusiasm is a little bit chilled with these guys. Most of the power of At The Gates comes from a bouldering set that runs over you.

The band played songs like “Suicide Nation” dating back many years as well as a couple of songs from their 2014 album “At War with Reality” so there is some for all to find. Unfortunately they do not have that same entertaining touch over them as for example Metal Church had. A tight set is played but it feels the set is two or three tracks too long and the whole starts to become too much alike. A pity but we could have seen them in a shorter timeslot as well.

Headlining was the mighty Anthrax. Scott Ian and co crossed our paths already two weeks ago and this was a great one so we knew that they would deliver here just as well. “Caught In A Mosh” is playing and the audience gets a bit wild with it. Sure, it wasn’t the largest moshpit but combined with the crowdlauncers they show a lot of appreciation for this band. Anthrax self seems sometimes a bit on an automatic mode, playing their show and planting the words, but when the band falls back to a more recent number like “Evil Twins” the whole sets a bit down. This year the band released “For All Kings” which was studio album number 12 and fell well with the fans.

There is not much the band can do wrong, they make a show and are actually a good closer for the festival.

And with them we have to wait another year for more. The organisation has already announced Testament for next year, so we are sure a good party will be ahead of us. We must give our compliments to the organisation. Last year a whole bunch of things were not really perfect, but the festival has listened to their audience very well and solved these issues. That’s how a festival can grow again and we hope to see another great edition take place next year!

Photo’s by sabinevangameren.com

Links:
Dynamo Metal Fest Website