11-07-2009 Fortarock

Location: Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren & Elvira Visser

This year it was the first Fortarock, and many was written about this festival as yet another attempt to create something that looks like the old Dynamo Open Air. The festival took place in a small park, not too bit. The organisers kept it realistic and the space was nice enough for the amount of metallers they attracted. The festival ground was easy to reach with a free parking in front of the entrance. The food was something that can be really bad at a festival, expensive and only two types of food. Here were enough different corners for the meat eaters and also the veggies. Enough toilets and no long walking distances from stage to stage. A nice small festival with big names from the metal scene in a great atmosphere.

Fortarock must have been very blessed, it was to take place in a weak where rain ruled the days but on the actual festival day it remained dry the whole day. This made quite some metal fans go on the road to Nijmegen and see the bands that would play today. Warbringer was honored with kicking off on the tent stage. The American Thrash metallers formed in 2004. They seemed surely enthusiastic to open the festival. They made a nice show and mentionable is the way that vocalist John Kevill brings the emotions to the audience. If you can’t feel it through the music, a single look on the face and the body language is enough to experience it. The two guitarists both were really into the show while the bassist seem to be more in the background. Warbringer was mighty as an opener, perhaps they could have been playing a longer set later on the day as well with the same success.

The first band playing on the Open Stage was Heidevolk, a band from the Netherlands. The flag from province Gelderland as their backdrop and nice crowd waiting for them even though the festival has just started. Tempelores has seen this band before, they make metal with folkoric influences and lyrics about myths and sages about the province of Gelderland. They sing in Dutch but even if you don’t understand the lyrics they music is catchy. Dressed up in folkloric style they have created their own style of music which has a lot of followers, as the crowd screams for certain songs. With two singers, two guitarist a bass player and a drummer on stage there is always something to see. Like today where they entertained the audience.

Deathcore formation All Shall Perish was up next in the tent. The band from the USA showed to be a technical band when it comes to riffs. The band played balanced and secure on the stages of Fortarock. It was to be seen that the band has an professional approach comparing to others in their genre. In front of the stage there was a aggressive pit in just a couple of seconds but All Shall Perish pays attention to all the audience instead bringing the focus on the most hyper active fans. Therefore they got more respect from the rest of the festival visitors.

Delain is a band that was originally found by Martijn Westerholt as a project in 2006, this Dutch symphonic band gained a lot of fans. It started from a project with guest appearances but because of the demand for live performances they decided to stay together as a band. After their album “Lucidity” they recently released their second CD “April Rain”, from which they played a lot of songs. In the first rows in front of the stage there were enough fans s they were singing along every song. Female Vocalist Charlotte was singing a little off key at the first two tracks, which were also a lot higher then the songs on their former album. Personally I like their old songs better, her voice is a lot more powerful on those tracks. The newer tracks are a little more metal, mainly the guitars and less pop-like.

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a Mathcore band from the USA who were next on the tent stage. The band is literally flying all over the stage. They like to jump on amps, boxes and everything that is in their way. This is what gave them their reputation and they surely made it true. As highlights are to mention the bassist who seemed a little calmer than the others, more playing his own parts and focus on that only. Even though he might seem to take a little distance from the hyperactivity from the others, there is no debate about him being a great add to the music.

Keep Of Kalessin was formed back in 1994 and it took the band some years to find their own unique atmosphere. After a line-up change in 2000 the band now consist of Vyl (drums), Wizziac (bass) and Thebon (vocals) together with founder and composer Obsidian C. With this line up they released “Armada” which gained a lot of credit from press and fans. This Norwegian band had released their latest album back in 2008, “Kolossus”, which was recorded in their own studio. With the slightly changed sound on their last albums they reach a bigger audience and not only the black metal fans. They have great melody lines, bombast and the band can be brutal with fast riffing while staying very melodic. This is something what they delivered on stage as well. They were great to watch and hear, they sure leave a good impression to the crowd.

Kataklysm brings a change in the tent. From active stage performance to a more static way of performing. This does not mean the music got less intense. The Canadian Death Metal band. Kataklysm brings music with a hellish skull crushing blast beat contributed by drummer Max Duhamel. Their performance was impressive, but when seeing the bands before them it might come a bit cold on the plate. Musically the band brought nice selection of their songs and fans of Kataklysm will be satisfied with the performance.

The Swedish Doom band Candlemass has been around since at least 1987 and has seen their old vocalist Messiah Marcolin come and go. In 2007 they teamed up with Robert Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus) and recently delivered their “Death Magic Doom” CD, which a lot of people in the crowd seem to own, as they recognised the songs played from this album. Their vocalist Robert Lowe is something to watch on stage, his eyes all white and scary while walking around in his own world it seems, is something that gets a little boring at the end of the set. Although I can imagine people keep watching him. Band leader and songwriter Leif Edling created slow, epic and yet danceable doom. Not a bad performance, but not the best of the day.

Death Angel was a band that I could not miss out on. In the past, I ran into them on several festivals but always scheduled against another band I could not miss out on. So now it was time to keep up and see what I have missed out on the last years. The band is not a new one in the scene. Actually they have made an important mark on the Thrash Metal scene of the 80’s and The Netherlands have been important ground for the band through the years. After the break up they played some gigs at Dynamo Open Air en Effenaar (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and then decided to go on with the band. Anno 2009 the band playes Fortarock and that they have fans in here is clear by seeing the tent filled up. Vocalist Mark Osegueda is quite an entertainer on stage banging his long dreads all around the stage. He even steps in front of the monitors to get in touch with the audience. The band surely has fun in playing still and I was impressed by their performance.

Another Norwegian band today was Satyricon, who used to be compared to other Norwegian metal gods. The band formed around vocalist Satyr and drummer Frost has been experimenting with their sound for the last couple of years. This meant loosing fans but also gaining others. They used synthesisers and used industrial influences. Last year the band released “The Age of Nero” which showcase tracks that have more depth. Today on stage they proved that they are a good live band. Many people in the audience seemed to enjoy theirselves. The band sounded very good, in my opinion who never heard work from them. Nice tight diverse music and a good vocalist.

The Swedish band Meshuggah was headlining in the tent today. They play music which is quite experimental. Through the years the band released quite some albums and their set was varied with songs from all times but main focus on their recent work. The band has a quite static stage act and therefore the focus is mainly on the music which seemed to be played by a bunch of perfectionists. The only thing that was left out of their performance was that element of them having fun in what they do. They did not really seem to motivated today, or at least not as much as expected. This was slightly disappointing.

Links:
Fortarock Website