The second day of Summer Breeze Open Air was filled with quite some good bands which I already knew and some bands which I didn’t hear off before but were so impressive live. The first band which I watched was Memoriam. They were playing on the main stage in the morning. I hadn’t heard a lot about this band. The only thing that I knew about this band was that the members of this band belonged to different big bands back then like Bolt Thrower and Benediction. It was a nice tight act on stage. Old School Death Metal done well. Even though the band is just an album old. They were good.
The next band in line for me was this Melodic Death Metal band from Sweden called Mors Principum Est. I am usually not a big Melodic Death Metal fan but this band was far ahead than any other Melo Death band. It was quite fun watching them. I dig melodic death metal bands which don’t have a keyboardist. Maybe it sounds a little less cheesy that is why.
Benighted was the next band on the tent stage. I couldn’t wait for them. I had heard about them years ago and this was the first metal band which I knew before seeing. Their played a kickass set with songs mostly from the new album called ‘Necrobreed’, but also, they belted out a few classic ones for the fans. The drummer of this band was so good. They were so spot on with their stage presence. The vocalist too was like a beast. He called out and appreciated the crowd was sticking by The
The next band coming on the same stage was none other than the Canadian Tech Death Giants Gorguts. Luc Lemey and the influential group probably played one of the best sets ever in the entire festival. They played songs from the Coloured Sands record but also songs from the Obscura and From Wisdom of Hate album. I was just a little bummed by the set list because they did not play any song from the Considered Dead record which is my favourite record by them. They played songs like Obscura, From Wisdom to Hate, Nostalgia, An Ocean of Wisdom, etc. It was a wonderful time. I was really amazed by their song writing and their level of complexity. They were one of the biggest names in the extreme metal scene coming out of Canada in the early 90s.
Havok was playing next on stage after Gorguts. One thing to be noticed in the entire festival was the amazing bands which are playing on the smaller stage. Havok ripped it real hard with their Thrash Attack. Brutal Moshpits, Insane Crowdsurfing and continues wall of deaths were prominent. They played well. These were the bands which I had heard a lot about regarding them playing live. I loved them. 80’s style thrash metal riffing based with a little technicality and some new age thrash elements. A perfect combination.
The next band which was Sacred Reich. It was the 30-year anniversary set of their debut album ‘Ignorance ‘. They played a wide range of epic songs right from the title track “Ignorance”, to “Independent”. There was a surprising Black Sabbath cover of “War Pigs” which they played. Rightfully ending their set with “Surf Nicaragua”. Phil Rind also thanked the audience by rightfully addressing them by saying that “Thanks for remembering us even after all these years and thanks for giving us the opportunity to play this insane festival”.
The last band that I watched was Hatebreed. According to me Hatebreed was indeed the best act of Summer Breeze. They were celebrating their 20 year anniversary of their debut record called “Satisfaction is the Death of Desire” which happens to be my favourite record by them. They played a whopping 25 song set. They played the whole album plus tracks from other records. Driven by suffering, Burn Their Lies, To the Threshold, Burial for the Living, etc. You name the song and they played it. It was a crazy time for me as it was raining a little and the crowd couldn’t stop moving during their set. There were people who were crowd surfing on one above the other. Without wasting any time they were playing songs back to back. In a way the festival was doing a great job of selecting bands from all various genres so that everyone to relate to it. It wasn’t just a old school-new school affair.
In short the second day of Summer Breeze Open Air was fun and I came to know about quite some cool bands.