EIGA wanted to tear the stage and the rest of the venue apart right from the start of the festival. The band succeeded quite well with their blend of hardcore, nu metal, and screamo. The audience was into it from the very beginning, even without any animation, and there was nothing to complain about in terms of the performance. The clear sound was powerful, the lighting was perfect, and the sum of it all showed us the high level of performance at this festival, both on stage and in terms of the stage technology.

Our friend Greg, who, in addition to Loudblast, is also responsible for Locomuerte's sound, said that we die-hard Black Bomb A fans would love Locomuerte. And Greg was right; the positive energy the band injected into the audience left no one in the 500 or so in attendance unmoved. The entire crowd jumped, banged, sang, did countless circle pits, walls of death, and all with a broad grin on their faces. The French band portrayed themselves so convincingly as Spanish US ghetto kids that even during the break before the concert, Spanish gangster reggaeton played, slowly but surely warming up the waiting audience. And when B91 (Barrio 91 = Essonne department, south of Paris) was played as an encore, all dams broke, the stage was stormed, crocodiles surfed over the audience, the roof of the hall began to crumble—that was a puta madre de concierto.

We're not really into black metal because it's far removed from sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, which means joy and fun during a concert. Seth was no exception, celebrating their music with the accompanying fire, blood, and daggers. There were still parts in the individual songs that could have come straight from a symphony orchestra. Patterns from classical music were incorporated into the usual black metal shredding, and the music painted cold Nordic landscapes before my eyes. That was great, but in the long run, we couldn't really enjoy the performance.

FOSS then reduced heavy metal to what really matters: groove, riffs, proximity to the audience, and a charismatic singer who, in this case, also plays guitar. I can't remember a single song, but the concept of turning a room into an arena and standing in the middle of the crowd, watching the audience run around like a frenzied pack, jumping and going wild like a tribe, is something I remember very well because I was running and jumping around, too. A mercilessly efficient concert.

Well, and then Tagada Jones, the current voice of France's anarchists, leftists, and alternatives, took the stage. Even at an average noise level of 107 dB/A, it was hard to miss. The audience, who knew the lyrics by heart, sang along, boogied, and jumped, and even though this band was playing in this area for the first time, they seemed to be playing on this stage at home. The setlist spanned 30 years of the band's history and, of course, culminated in the song "Mort aux Cons," the band's "Ace of Spades." At some point, the song becomes a burden, and the lyrics could turn against your own worldview.

A heavy, half-day rainstorm left the organizers no choice but to cancel the three afternoon concerts at the skate park. By 6 p.m., the rain had stopped, and around 500 people returned to the festival. The band "No Deal" kicked off the festival, offering up chanson-like ballads and a very impressive vocal duet with Melo alongside their heavy-hitting Hardcore and Nu Metal. A clear musical concept wasn't evident, which would probably have been limited the band's musical range. While they moved confidently through all musical styles, the audience wasn't quite sure how to act to this broad mix of styles.

Stoned Jesus from Ukraine, like Mastodon, are compatible with all kinds of hard-rock music festivals. And so songs like "Here Come the Robots" and the new song "Low" were a perfect fit for this festival. The door opener for the audience was – as at all previous Stoned Jesus concerts – the almost 17-minute prog-rock monster "I Am the Mountain." The tension of this song has captivated every audience until the final chord. Igor is such a charismatic frontman who doesn't need any grand gestures to wrap the audience around his finger. What matters with this band is humility and gratitude, firstly, to be alive and secondly, to pursue their passion in a safe country. This humility is palpable and makes this band very unique.

Breed Machine had a clear musical concept: we let the audience come to rest as long as we don't get to rest, the audience has to move and we shoot one grooving crossover grenade after the other into the crowd. And we are merciless. That is true and, with all aversion to the Metal and everything that was declared as heavy metal around the turn of the millennium, this was one of the better concerts in this music direction. I am excited to see which of the numerous good French bands - including Breed Machine - makes a breakthrough because the competition within the country has grown very big.

Foss continued where they stopped the day before. This time with a second guitarist who contributed this brutal grooving board to Groove Metal Solis from another universe. Clearly, people went nuts again as if they were waiting all evening to let off steam in the fresh air.

SepticFlesh from Greece was the headliner that evening, and certainly not a inexpensive headliner. If an audience then has to be constantly encouraged to participate, the music is not particularly appealing in my opinion. Sure, "Pyramid God" is a fantastic song, only that is drowned under the mass of average songs and audience animation. This band, including the frontman, was also the counter-design to Stoned Jesus and although I dealt with the band in the run-up to the festival and classified it as interesting, her live performance was quite weak. Too bad about the lot of money for this band.

We missed Dropdead Chaos because we were so tired and filled with such a lot of great moments during this festival. Yes, we missed our friend Jacou´s new band and also him on stage, so this was a hard decision to go to bed instead of keep on rocking and working. At the end of a festival, the feeling counts what music, ambience, people and the organization gave you. That was clearly a lot of joy, lots of laughter and many good vibes, which lets us come to the conclusion of being there again next year.