Day 0 – Bring forth your weapons and swear allegiance to the kingdom!!
25 editions of SWR, what a freaking landmark!! And always with the spirit of “we are not the best or the worst, we are just different”!! Some other places call themselves the capital of Metal in Portugal, if you need to advertise that, then you are not but I’m not here for that!!!
So, day 0 and me, Inês,
Diogo and Bea, gathered in Lisbon to do the always fun, but tiring journey to
the North of Portugal for our beloved festival!! Fast forward to a few hours
later, and there we were within sight of a place we so much love, the woods of
Barroselas, which would be our home for the next four days!! This year, Inês,
tired of sleeping in very close quarters with me, bought us a mansion, a freaking
big tent which has enough space for us and for all our shit!! What a delight!!!
After raising our quarters, we headed to the supermarket to get some money and
some fuel aka as beer and this year some nice bottles of Sangria!!! Bad thing
was, we didn’t have any ice!!
Then the usual meet and greet, hugs, kisses, with fellow friends, which since we moved to London, is sometimes the only time of the year that we see them, so there’s never enough time to talk!! For me, this is the biggest difference when compared with other festivals, is almost like returning home and to a place we feel comfortable and warm (only 5 minutes of rain this year, very sad!!).
Then the Wacken Metal Battle started and the first band to go on stage was Music In Low Frequencies!! They have a very strong visual set with a kind of gorish performance, where a girl is hoisted above the band by using hooks which are attached to her body, not for the faint hearted. The only thing not so positive for me, is that it takes a bit of attention from the music, and the band, as people are in shock or awe, watching that performance. And, I must say, music wise, they delivered quite a strong set, with emphasis on the excellent vocals of Mariana Faísca, and the atmosphere the band creates. It reminded me a bit of Wolvennest here and there, and that for me, is not a bad thing. After the warm sangria and beers, it was nice to go to the bar and have some fresh Super Bock’s, it’s Portugal so don’t expect a lot of variety on the beer ahah!! And then it was time for the mighty Namek!! A veteran band, well known in the scene, they came to SWR, they saw, and they conquered (major spoiler: they won the battle and will be Portugal’s next contestant to perform on the Wacken Open Air. Always powered by the maniac vocals, and bassist skills of Simão, and the powerful drumming of Rolando, Namek showed that Grind/Death Metal is well represented in Portugal and will try to convince the Wacken jury, that maybe it is time for the old school sets to win, instead of Metalcore and shits like that. Last band to perform is also a veteran band in the Portuguese scene: Humanart, which has been spreading the wrath of Satan since 1998. They delivered a strong set of straight-forward Black Metal with no bullshit and no compromise. The riffs of founding member JJ pierced the calm night of Barroselas, like a thunderstorm of hail, always supported by the demonic vocals of Sathronus and the constant beating of the drums, courtesy of Noctvs!! Three excellent performances, that gave the jury (yours included) fruit for thought!! Unfortunately, due to those jury duties, I missed pretty much ¾ of Pitch Black performance, which was a shame as I haven’t seen them in a while. They are one of the most veteran Thrash Metal bands in Portugal and for the little I saw/heard it showed them in great form, with some thick Thrash Metal tunes. They ended the set with Slayer’s “Mandatory Suicide”, which can never be a bad thing!!!
Then we headed to the SWR Café for the after hours brought to us by Drunks on Drugs, and in the beginning, it was ok with some interesting choices but midway turned into a dance/electro party, which I have to say, is not the way I like to close a night!! Luckily, there was beer, there was new and old friends, and the night lasted way over 5am!! Then, me and Inês, fuelled by alcohol got lost trying to find our new tent, which was an adventure that could be narrated by Sir David Attenborough ehehe!!! And finally, rest!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment