Shred Room 56: Saqqara

The Hirsch Effekt: Germans who switched really well between some metalcore-like stuff and more serious and rough sh*t, some pretty epic songs

Gizah: My friend wanted to see Sithu Aye but then we found out he couldn't get a band together and had cancelled so we went to this one instead because Kaoteon on the other stage had a singer constantly running through the crowd shaking people up and screaming in their faces. All I remember from Gizah is that it was some pretty technical metal

Then we left for dinner which was pretty f**king expensive because Jason 'knew a place' and he still lives with his parents and as such doesn't know the money struggles but at least the food was good.

PoiL: French avant-proggos who were indeed a bit out of place between mostly more metallic artists, started off slightly clunky, some of the crowd a bit confused by the slow chanting and keyboard tinkling until they slowly picked up some freakish groove which got everyone going. I saw them walking around later on looking a bit uncomfortable in their summery button-up shirts amongst all the black band t-shirts but I didn't get a chance to talk to them

Dodheimsgard: Yep, my main motivation for coming here. They really outdid themselves on the costumes and facepaint so that I was unsure if it was really them who I saw sitting at the bar later on until one of them pulled the setlist out of his pocket and started discussing it or something... They were with only guitars and drums so the keyboard bits had to be done offstage (as with a lot of other bands that night), which weren't played all that well but that wouldn't harm Vicotniks fun. He has dancing and screaming like a madman and everything in between the shows was a maelstrom of self-depreciating humour. They played a tight and varied show nonetheless, only when they went into the more extreme black metal parts that basically no melody was discernable over the speakers. Then Vicotnik violently took off his guitar for some more theatrical singing, which then 'sounded like absolute sh*t' according to him, 'but perfection is overrated'. Then one song later he said 'okay, the next one is going to be a little bit gay', but they were called off this stage because their time was up... All in all not a very good show but a very amusing one.

Toska: Jason's favorite here, instumental djentish stuff, flowed very well, sounded very good but sticking close to their tricks and becoming pretty monotonous after a while, so it was good but not that memorable.

The Faceless: A tech death type band with very good musicianship but not too much emotion, basically just really alright tech death. Then they had only three minutes left and they said 'we've got one song left... but what if it's a 17 minute song?' So they played a 17 minute song which tbh didn't reeeaaally need to be that long but it was funny enough to watch the crew trying to get them cut it short in the middle of yet another breakdown.

The Voynich Code: A little known band on the tinier stage who were basically deathcore but with plenty of technical energy and a punk no-bullsh*t attitude which was quite refreshing that night. I just went and listened to their EP this morning and it's alright too

SikTh: Highest billing of the festival I believe... I had heard of them before but basically they didn't really surprise me, the crowd was into it but my ears were getting tired and I was sort of waiting for...

Three Trapped Tigers: The second main reason I wanted to be here. Clearly no-one knew who they were, as I heard everyone around me wondering if anyone knew what it was gonna be but they were amused soon enough. Extremely tight and technical keyboard and guitar work, I could barely distinguish Cramm from the studio version and if you'll listen to that song you'll realize how hard that is. They didn't say a word to or look at the audience once, it was like three autistic kids playing with their toys and it was great. Unfortunately I got picked up twenty minutes in but I was satisfied with what I saw.

that's all ~~