Venue: Schlachthof, Wiesbaden (Germany)
By: Nina Mende
Vainstream Beastfest was hitting Wiesbaden for two days: Friday and Saturday with about 16 bands were going to rock the Schlachthof. Thinking of how steaming hot it was outside and how much the sun was burning pretty much everybody was happy that Beastfest was taking place indoors. Even though the venue was heating up pretty much throughout the second day. But with all these awesome and rocking bands, how couldn’t it?
 Friday began at 7pm with a band called “War From A Harlots Mouth”. War from a Harlot’s Mouth is a German metalcore band from Berlin, formed in 2005. Consisting of vocalist Nico, guitarists Simon and Daniel, bassist Filip, and drummer Paul, the band is noted for a distinct musical style consisting of infusing many different genres into their songs, such as math metal, death metal, and jazz. A young but very energetic band opening the festival and warming up the audience. It wasn’t too crowded yet, but people kept coming. In the beginning a circle pit looked more like kids trying to catch each other because it was still so empty. But everybody was rocking and jumping along to War From A Harlots Mouth. The band gave everything in their 30 minutes playtime and put up an amazing start for the first day. |
| After them, Deadlock was up on stage. Deadlock is a German melodic death metal band from Schwarzenfeld, Bavaria, Germany founded in 1997. In 2010 they supported Lacuna Coil. Deadlock incorporates melodic death metal as well as some melodic metalcore aspects. What makes Deadlock different is the combination of death growls by vocalist Johannes Prem and the clean vocals of Sabine Weniger. Also included in their sound is techno sections, often used as intros but sometimes used as a whole breakdown section, where the ‘metal’ completely cuts out and a techno beat starts. Really thriving and amazing was their sound and show. The entire band put up a strong performance that everybody enjoyed big time: either because of the shouted and harsh sound and male vocals or because of the strong female singer Sabine that knew how to rock on stage as well. With a full load of energy they pushed through their 30 minutes and dragged everybody along. The venue had gotten more crowded and the mosh had grown much bigger by now. Deadlock is definitely a band I can recommend, even to people that don’t like metal. |
| Another awesome band of the night was Bleeding Through. Bleeding Through is an American metal band from Orange County, California, formed in 1999. The band blends influences stemming from modern hardcore, symphonic (black) metal, and melodic death metal. Although the band is often labeled as simply metalcore, when Brandan Schieppati was asked if he considers Bleeding Through a hardcore band, he said: “I think we’re a hardcore band and I’ll never say we are a metal band, we’re all hardcore kids and we came from the hardcore scene. Ours is just a different version of hardcore, we’re trying to do something which adds a different variety to the hardcore scene, which has been sounding the same way for so long.” They jumped around on stage a lot and got the audience to go along. The singer was climbing up on the boxes on the side of the stage to rock from there. The kids moshed to the music and rocked out big time. |
| Probably a highlight for many people at Beastfast today was Alexisonfire. Alexisonfire is a five-piece, Juno-nominated post-hardcore band that formed in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in 2001. The band consists of George Pettit (vocals), Dallas Green (guitar, piano, vocals), Wade MacNeil (guitar, vocals), Chris Steele (bass), and Jordan Hastings (drums). Crazy and powerful they whirled across the stage, jumping around and never standing still for any second. The audience went just as wild. They were singing along to some songs and moshing a lot. 40 minutes of Alexisonfire screaming and rocking their guts out in front of their fans definitely was heating up the air. Especially as Alexisonfire played their hits the kids in the audience went wild. The band’s performance was quite aggressive and reckless. |
| Getting closer to the end of the first day it was time for a heavy metal band again: DevilDriver. DevilDriver is an American heavy metal band from Santa Barbara, California, formed in 2002. Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Fafara was disappointed with the direction Coal Chamber was going musically, and met musicians who had a similar music interest at a barbecue and bar. Fafara, guitarists Evan Pitts and Jeff Kendrick, bassist Jon Miller, and then drummer John Boecklin formed Deathride. However, due to copyright issues and the name being taken by several bands, Deathride changed its name to DevilDriver, which refers to bells Italian witches used to drive evil forces away. The band’s self-titled album was not well received by some music critics. The primary writer of the album, Pitts, left the band and was replaced by Mike Spreitzer. Their second album, The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand received a better reception with critics, and entered the Billboard 200 at number 117. The band embarked on several tours including Ozzfest. A Guinness world record was attempted at the 2007 Download Festival for the “largest circle pit” and again at Download Festival 2009. DevilDriver was rough and harsh, aggressive and right in your face. The guys themselves seemed very nice though. They talked quite a lot to the audience and thanked them a lot. The audience loved them not only for that but also for the terribly energetic and powerful performance. Everybody went wild, there was a circle pit and other little mosh pits going on in the audience, the front row was filled with headbangers. Their show lasted for 40 minutes only, as well. |
| Last band of the night was Snapcase. Snapcase is a Straight-Edge Hardcore band from Buffalo, New York. Their records were released on the Chicago record label, Victory Records originally founded in 1991. They took a break between 2005 till 2010 with only some band activities in 2007. But now they are back on track, headlining today’s Beastfest. The venue was quite crowded by now and everybody was ready for the last band. Snapcase came on and blasted out their Hardcore music right away. Somehow they reminded me of Bouncing Souls, even though Snapcase is much rougher. The guys put up a perfectly professional and passionate performance. You could feel that deep down inside they do love what they are doing. Snapcase played for about an hour and ended the first day with a big bang. |
Day 2
| The second day dawned at noon with Skinred. Skindred is a Welsh rock band from Newport. The band was formed in 1998 following the disbandment of vocalist Benji Webbe’s previous band, Dub War. Skindred’s musical style mixes alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and reggae. The group refers to this style as “reggae metal”. The Schlachthof was surprisingly full for that time. But with the fresh music of Skinred getting up wasn’t hard at all. The band spread so much happiness and positive vibes you simply had to have a smile on your face and have a good time. Unfortunately they played for only 30 minutes, but these 30 minutes were definitely worth getting up so early. Reggae and metal sounds amazing together, at least when it comes from Skinred. |
| Up next was Horse The Band. Horse the Band is a band from Lake Forest, California who are best known for their 8-bit Nintendo-influenced sound combined with metalcore. Frontman Nathan Winneke once described their sound as “Nintendocore”. Another totally crazy yet great band. The singer pretended to be all depressive and self hating but the way he said it made clear that he was being all sarcastic in a way and everybody simply had to laugh. Horse The Band talked quite a lot with their growing audience and when not talking they were jumping around on stage playing their catchy Nintendocore music. The guy on the synthesizers totally reminded of Napoleon Dynamite, unsure whether that was intended or not, but it was sure fun to watch. An awesome set of 30 minutes made time fly even faster. |
| Third band of the day seemed to draw many girls. All the sudden the front row was filled with teenage girls all being totally excited about what was to come: Callejon. Callejon is a screamo band from Germany founded in 2002. The five guys seemed to have quite a huge fan base because many people could sing along to their German lyrics. The girls were screaming out loud as the singer came close to them, I still wonder why. Anyway, everybody seemed to be enjoying the screamo music of Callejon. Callejon thanked their fans for the support and were done after 30 minutes showtime. |
| Next band before the soccer match Germany – Argentina was Job For A Cowboy. Job for a Cowboy is an American death metal band from Glendale, Arizona, formed in 2003. Job for a Cowboy started as a deathcore group, and evolved into a predominantly death metal sound with their full-length debut Genesis. Their influences include bands such as Decapitated, Hate Eternal, Mastodon, Nile, and The End. They have been defined by The New York Times as “an Arizona band with a guttural, brute-force sound descended (indirectly) from hard-core punk” and “straightforwardly brutal act” by Rolling Stone magazine. The band has played in several festivals, including Download Festival, Sounds of the Underground, Mayhem Festival and Wacken Open Air. The current line-up of the band consists of vocalist Jonny Davy, guitarists Al Glassman and Bobby Thompson, bassist Brent Riggs, and drummer Jon Rice, with Davy being the only original member. Their music was fast and killing. With double kick and fast harsh riffs they blasted through their 30 minutes of showtime with all the metal heads in the audience going wild. |
| After a for Germany successful soccer match Danko Jones entered the stage to rock the masses. Danko Jones is a Canadian rock band from Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of Danko Jones (vocals/guitar), JC (also known as John Calabrese) (bass guitar), and Dan Cornelius (drums). They only had 40 minutes showtime but it seemed like Danko Jones talked through it most of the time. They played all their hits and the audience sang along, cheering out loud for whatever Danko had to say and did whatever he demanded them to do. During the worldcup somehow every band seems to talk about that on stage, with success. The audience got all hyped up, especially because of the German team winning and the confidence in them to also win the next matches. Danko Jones had a strong appearance on stage and was shouting out strongly as well, iron will and witch a clenched fist he stood up for whatever seemed right to him and made everybody follow. Some of his speeches seemed like the ones you hear during elections. After 40 minutes his time was over though and the next band came up. |
| Kiz was a New German Wave band from Reutlingen, Germany. Founded by Joachim Gaiser, Ulrich Herter, Thomas Dörr, Chutichai Indrasen in 1982. Their biggest international hit was “Die Sennerin vom Königsee”. Ulrich Herter has worked with many other bands and musicians – Two of Us, Fools Garden, Camouflage (band), Sandra Cretu, Hubert Kemmler known as Hubert Kah. I didn’t expect the metal crowd to go that wild to that kind of music but they did. The stage looked like out of the US court, with the DJ being behind the judge’s desk. The three other guys spread fog all over the audience and looked like out of Ghostbuster’s. For each song they had an idea like that. Whether they sprayed fog, let it rain money – fake money that looked like the good old Deutschmark -, bombed feathers into the audience or whatever. Their songs were all in German and it seemed like everybody could sing along. At least everybody jumped along and cheered out loud. The air in the venue had gotten steaming hot by now and it got harder to breath. After 40 minutes we had a break to get some fresh air. |
| Up next was metal again: Caliban rocking the stage. Caliban is a five-piece metalcore band from Germany. They have released seven studio albums to-date, and two split albums with the band Heaven Shall Burn. Although the band’s sound is mainly described as “metalcore”, the band has stated that they have come from a hardcore scene and are a hardcore band. As Caliban entered the stage you could tell they felt home there. Their performance was strong and the audience followed them, there were big circle pits going on in the audience and everybody had a blast. Caliban had screamed as well as clean vocals which gave the entire music more balance and melody. Caliban was a great band, their show lasted 40 minutes as well. |
| A day To Remember brought the punk back into the festival. A Day to Remember is an American rock band from Ocala, Florida. Founded in 2003 by vocalist, Jeremy McKinnon and guitarist, Neil Westfall, the band has released three studio albums, nine singles and seven music videos. They are mainly known for their unusual amalgamation of metalcore and pop punk as a musical style. A blasting and fresh performance got the audience even wilder. Not only the kids wearing the band’s merchandise could sing along, but many more also did. There was still a mosphit and a circle pit going on. Nobody was standing still in the venue. A Day To Remember rocked through their showtime and definitely made it a day to remember. The Florida boys are more than home on stage and you can feel the passion they put into their music. |
 Up next was another amazing band that especially brought several older people into the audience: Ska-P. Ska-P is a ska punk band formed in Vallecas (Madrid), Spain, in 1994. The band can be categorized, politically, as an anti-establishment musical group. It is one of the most popular ska bands in Spain, Europe, and Latin America. Musically, despite their fun image, Ska-P has well-rehearsed and tight arrangements, and as of 2002, includes among its members a small but striking brass section which gives the band a powerful sound. Their nonconformist attitude is also evident in their eccentric haircuts. Some band members have mohawks while others are almost bald-shaven (with a ponytail at the back). Their songs are all in Spanish and the singer mostly talked in Spanish as well, but nobody seemed to care and just cheered and went along. Ska-P spread such a good mood throughout the venue, everybody had a blast. Their music made it impossible to just stand still and watch so you could see the entire audience jump along. A really energetic and pushing performance by an amazing band that consisted of quite many members in the most different styles. Their songs were quite political. For one song the singer dressed up as police officer and pretended to beat up one of the crew members. Ska-P was amazing. Their 40 minutes went by way to fest. I totally hope to see them again very soon. |
| Last band of the night and a highlight for all the punks amongst the audience was NOFX. NOFX is an American punk rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1983 in Los Angeles. The band was formed by vocalist and bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined them shortly afterward. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up. The band rose to popularity in 1994 with their album Punk in Drublic which was certified gold. Total punks and seemingly drunk or on drugs the guys came on stage. Unsure whether it was all show or real, but who cares, it was punk and it was NOFX. They played their songs like they never did anything else in their lives and talked quite a lot to their audience, addressing single people, sometimes in a very rude way as well. But everybody had a good time and took it as a joke. NOFX played an amazing strong set of about an hour. People loved it big time. What a pity that the end of NOFX meant the end of this year’s Beastfest. It has been amazing. |
Links:
Beastfest Official
War From A Harlots Mouth MySpace
Deadlock MySpace
Bleeding Through MySpace
Alexisonfire MySpace
Devildriver MySpace
Snapcase MySpace
Horse the band MySpace
Callejon MySpace
Job For A Cowboy MySpace
Danko Jones MySpace
KIZ MySpace
Caliban MySpace
A Day To Remember MySpace
Ska-P Official
NOFX Official
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