Summer Breeze Open Air is one of the best metal festivals today in Europe, taking place on the sizzling summer month of August. Metal heads were in for a treat this year because of the amount of big as well as underground names playing this iconic festival.

The first day started out with huge names. Obituary was the first act on my list. They were pretty much the first big band on the main stage, starting it out and setting it off at mid-afternoon. They played a tight set with songs in their set list ranging from the old-school classic albums to the most recent one. Songs included “Slowly We Rot”, “Find the Arise”, “Turned Inside Out”, “Chopped in Half”, “Don’t Care”, and others. Nothing can even get close to Obituary live. I really liked the way they improvised their songs.

Next on the tent stage were the Polish Tech-Death Masters Decapitated. Much of their sound has changed since the last two records, but they still managed to play their old stuff. Nonetheless, Vogg is an incredible guitarist. They played some of their most famous songs like “Day 69”, “Post Organic”, “Homo Sum”, and of course, “Spheres of Madness”. The crowd was having a blast with those huge circle pits.

Next in line at the tent stage was New Yorkers Suffocation. I couldn’t be more excited because this was the band I was very much eager to see for a long time. In no time, they hit the stage and directly began with their classic stuff. “Pierced from Within”, “Thrones of Blood”, “Liege of Inveracity”, “Effigy of the Forgotten”, “Infecting the Crypts” were among the bangers played. They also belted out a few tunes from the new album, which were refined but also impressive. It’s incredible to see that how this band still manages to keep doing what they do for 25 years and running. Wild mosh pits were continuing during their set. they were the best band of the day according to me.

After Suffocation’s set, many people rushed on to the tent stage to catch Nile. I had the opportunity to stand at the barricade and watch. Also, it was fun to watch them at Wacken, and that is why I could predict what their set list would be. They took quite some time for their sound check, but everyone thought it was worth it. After all, it was Nile! They started off with the influential track “Sacrifice Unto Sebek” which was then followed by heavy-duty songs like “Unas, the Slayer of Gods”, “Kafir!”, “Call to Destruction”, “Sacrophagus”, etc. George Kollias was absolutely stunning, And the band were so tight on stage. Karl Sanders was also indulging in conversations with the crowd, which was a wonderful thing.

Megadeth was headlining the first day. Everyone was quickly rushing to the main stage, or rather referred to as the Summer Stage. Their set list was just the same as Wacken, but their sound wasn’t up to the mark. Dave Mustaine sounded a little off-tone. Also, they played most of their hit songs with no time wasted in the middle. Mild rains hit the festival during Megadeth’s set, but they managed to play songs from most of their albums – right from ‘Killing is my Business…’ to the recent ‘Dystopia’. However, their set could have been much better, since the sound wasn’t that good.

One thing I observed after Megadeth’s set was that the first day of Summer Breeze was filled with quite some extreme metal bands. Obituary, Decapitated, Suffocation, Nile. Woah! That’s a heavy-duty line-up. So as you would expect, I was eagerly awaiting the next day.