June 10th-12th
Hünxe, Germany
By: Ingrid

2010 is only the fourth year of existence of Death Feast Open Air and already this festival has become one of the biggest names when it comes to Death Metal and (Grind)core. I have to confess that these styles of metal aren’t the ones I often listen to, so I was prepared to get surprised. The night before the actual festival started, there was a warming up party in the Partytent already. This is where I got confronted with the typical Death Feast circlepit for the first time.
This phenomenon, which simply comes down to ‘walk around in a circle and smash with your right arm’ continued the next day; already during the first band, Beneath, this circle pit started and it wouldn’t go away during the festival. The festival started of with some nice Death Metal bands like The Sickening and Vomitous, but during the day, the type of bands switched more towards the grindcore bands, and the well known Bree Bree Bree sound (where Death Feast dedicated their merchandise to this year) was finally brought to us live from the stage. Bands as Inferia and Deranged showed us how to bree and the audience was willing to respond as they should; circlepitting! With Prostitute Disfigurement the music became more Death Metal again and it was time for the first headliners of the festival. Remarkable is that though the styles are mixed, most headliners this year play Death Metal.
First headliner on Thursday was Defeated Sanity. They had to play without their lead singer Aj Magana because he had to go to court and got replaced by Konni of Despondency. Nevertheless the show was nice. Next up was the Dutch band Hail Of Bullets. Being as objective as I am about my fellow Dutchies, I have to confess that they played a nice show; though it wasn’t one of their best. I have seen this band do better. The typical sound(s) and German talking from Martin van Drunen saved the show. Last band of the day was Dying Fetus. This was their first show, since they played two evenings on this festival. This show was their normal show. Noticing the amount of people showing up for this show they were without doubt the true headliner of this day, and they proved themselves worthy with the great show they gave us!

Day two started as a normal festival day, but nothing was as it seems to be. While the first band Cerebral Bore was playing everybody noticed how more and more parts of the stage got blown away by the heavy windstorm that was raging. A bit later, when there was not much of the stage left, an official weather alarm was announced and for their own safety, the bands weren’t allowed to play at the stage anymore. Trying to make the best out of it, the organization of Death Feast moved the sound installation to the party tent which was situated on the camping ground and started building up. After waiting a while the following bands continued to play in the tent. The organization tried their very best and we were glad that these bands got the chance to play instead of cancelling them! Unfortunately though for them, it wasn’t possible to build up a stage in the tent so the bands played at the eyelevel of the audience. Kraanium had the honor to start and the tent filled up immediately. And though it got a bit hot inside, during Ingrowing and Milking The Goatmachine the amount of people inside the tent grew. Trying to make the best out of it we saw the front men of the bands try to do everything possible to get in touch with their audience. Alex from Human Rejection flew into the fences that separated the band from the audience so he raised out and Joost from Cliteater sat down on the sound installation 3 meters up from the ground.
In the evening the wind laid down and the bands continued playing on the mainstage again. First headliner this evening was Rompeprop, who replaced Illdisposed. Entering the stage as Immortal they immediately got the attention of everyone and didn’t stop making fun of everything and everybody during their show. And if it wasn’t for their jokes, it would have been their typical sound that would attract the attention toward them. Entertaining show! Next up was Grave. Their performance was one of my personal favorites of this festival. Their show was great and I desperately needed some Death Metal after all the ‘bree bree bree’ bands. The band played a really tight set and I saw a lot of headbanging! Last band of the day already; Necrophagist. Famous for their guitar solo’s, they started off immediately. And though theyplayed a good show, all the guitarsolo’s were a bit too much for me.

The last day started with some nice ‘bree bree bree’ bands again. And I have to confess that during this festival I started to appreciate and even like this kind of music more and more. I totally enjoyed myself during the show of Vomit The Soul. After a short trip to town (a cash machine at the festival would be nice!) we found out that the festival offered the possibility to watch the football games from the worldcup in the partytent. A great idea, since football and metal go together perfectly . Noticeable performance in the meantime was that of Aeon; what a great show they gave us. With Severe Torture starting we were already reaching the final bands of this festival. But not before the final headliners gave us a worthy farewell.
Dying Fetus played their second show of this festival. This show was a bit different than a normal Dying Fetus show, since this time they played a special set, consisting only of songs from the first two albums. It was one of the highlights of the festival and nice to be a witness of this special show. Lock Up was one of the few grindcore bands that were to headline Death Feast this year. And while we could enjoy the grindcore bree for the last time, the festival area was getting more crowded. Ofcourse everybody had to see the very last band; Suffocation. Suffocation was one of the few bands on this festival that I already had seen live before, and I was really looking forward to see them again. And with good reason because Suffocation proved themselves to be a worthy headliner of the entire festival. Frontman Frank Mullen knows how to rock the stage and didn’t hesitate to show this to his audience by making some funny jokes and do his famous handshake. Suffocation played a really tight show and with that, the festival was already finished. It was a great experience; one that opened my eyes towards death metal and grindcore!

Pictures of this festival can be found at www.metalshots.com