Metal Exposure » Dong Open Air 2009

Dong Open Air 2009

Oct-22-2009

Of course Metal-Exposure was present again this year on the Dong Festival! Our experiences with this small but great festival make us want to come back every time. So this year, your reviewers from Metal Exposure faced the Dong hill again, to have our tents ripped by the wind and our ears mutilated by the music.
Unfortunately, we were unable to see the first band. (Wind catching tents and running off with them) But since Interrobäng is power metal, we didn’t grief for long and got on with it.

The second band of the festival was In December. (Ha-ha) It started off very well with an awesome intro which really added to the atmosphere. The singer treated us to both clean vocals and grunts, which he both did excellently. The bass-player did some backing vocals, and the two voice parts we really liked. Apparently, the audience liked it too, because they were already pretty energetic for the time of the day. It is also important to mention that one of the guitar players was hot. And not just him.. nice band!
At this part Ingrimd found it necessary to mention that the beer was awful. (Sorry Dong, but German beer in general isn’t great, and this just tasted like piss. But for that price one can’t complain really).
But we were glad that there was more than just beer, so we survived this festival on the Warsteiner lemon beer.

Having overcome the taste of the beer, we were ready for The Splatter and Gore Department! And what a carnage awaited us. In typical German style the BBQ was ready on stage while the musicians produced their groovy Death Metal. Luckily, the quality of their performance didn’t suffer from the silliness on stage and under the guidance of the Splatter and Gore Department the first pit of the festival was born. (There also was a polonaise but that’s not very true now, is it?)
So after the songs about wieners and other meaty subjects, Clanrock was coming to bring us some serious folk rock music. But alas, our expectations were too high. Apart from the sound being awful, the musicians didn’t interact with each other very well, the singer looked like he was drunk and the bagpipe was electric. Apart from the bagpipe-player, the presentation lacked conviction. This show was somewhat of a disappointment, therefore.

The next band, Elexorien, consists of our friends from back home. They are another example of a talented Dutch band with a female and a male singer, and therefore we were looking forward to their show here on Dong. We were not disappointed. After from some intro-difficulties (the intro couldn’t be played, which is a shame for it is a great intro) they started playing with an enthousiasm that the audience picked up immediately.
The epic/battle/gothic/fantasy/viking/black/death-metal was very much appreciated by the audience, and apart from some very respectable moshpits, a few crowdsurfers were also spotted during this show. It was a great show and we regretted the end of it.

Due to some line-up changes, the next band to play was Ravage. This thrash metal band with old school death metal influences had some pretty looking band members to offer as well as a wall of sound that didn’t even sound too bad! Of course, the occasional sound-problems did hamper the show a bit, but otherwise it was a fine performance!

Time to eat. We were glad to see that there was more choice when it comes to the food than last year. While we were still eating we watched a part of The Very End, that played later on the day, also due to the line up changes. It was nice to watch while eating and they did play a good show. Death metal is one of our personal favorites, but we missed something that makes this band unique.

Dornenreich, next up, is one of Ingrimd’s favourite bands. Apparently there weren’t that many fans, because the crowd was awfully small during Dornenreich’s show. This might be due to the different music-style Dornenreich has compared to the other bands. The performance gradually became better towards the end of the show, with a mix of black metal songs and some calmer songs. As a fan, Ingrimd wasn’t very enthusiastic about this show.

Headliner for this day was Rage. They were obliviously more popular than Dornenreich because the tent was completely filled with people. Catching ourselves dancing every now and then while this band was playing, we understood why there were so many people. The music was catchy en a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. And we have to confess that we enjoyed it too, even though this really isn’t our kind of music. A good party to end the day!

Saturday

“Not another one of those female fronted bands”. That’s what you might think when Orphan Hate enters the stage. Well, in this case you’re WRONG! Yes the band is female fronted, but they aren’t like any typical female fronted band, where the singer tries to sing as high as possible. This girl knows how to scream and wake everybody up, this early on the day. A good start of the day.

The third band of this Saturday was Kingdom Of Salvation, a thrash/death metal band with very good looks! Not only their looks were good, the music blew us away as well. The music was brutal and awesome, the singer was great (although small) and the drummer did very well. They also treated us on a fine version of Amon Amarth’s Pursuit Of Vikings. We really enjoyed this show, as well as the rest of the Dong audience. The crowd was very enthusiastic, and apart from some technical difficulties, we would like to say, perfect show!

As the audience receded to get some well-earned rest, Sycronomica was up next. They played an excellent show, with some handsome band members (especially the keyboard player, who did the singing very well) and some handsome song. The Dimmu Borgir cover was a bit of a shame, because they played their own songs much better! Even though there were less people and the people who were there were a bit dull, the performance by Sycronomica was very nice!

Then it was time for Sheephead. This death metal band sounded a bit American although they are surely from Germany. Some of us really liked this band, and those of us that weren’t really into it had to admit that the stage performance was excellent. The singer was very energetic and did his low and high grunts very well, but the audience didn’t respond very much. All in all, this is a very good band with a fine drummer, and later this summer they were to play at the Summerbreeze Festival, where they got the audience and the response they deserve.

Cheeno, the female fronted band that was up next, was really not our thing. But they did well and the audience had time to admire the singer, Jennie. Fine show, not much more to say.

Hatred was more to our liking however, and they made us sweat with their brutal music and great show! The fast thrash metal they made us endure really got the people going. But however much we liked it, since our stomachs were almost louder than the band, for us it was time to eat!

And oh my, what a desert we had in the form of Failed Perfection! The singer was dressed in white, but took his shirt off after a while, for which we were very thankful. It was a pleasure to watch. But the point was of course the music they played for us, and that was as pleasant as the sight! It was awesome and brutal, a very convincing show with a very good singer. The audience loved it too and there was a lot of response, and as a thanks a lot of merchandise was thrown at the crowd by the band.
Succeeded Perfection it was!

It’s not an extraordinary grave, no random grave, not a special grave, but it’s Common Grave! After having a good laugh about the name of this band (good choice, you will never forget such a bandname!) we of course had to check it out. First thing we noticed is something rare on most festivals, the sound was pretty good! Unfortunately the musicians were a bit stiff on stage. They seemed to be really good musicians, but they should cooperate a bit more with each other on stage.
While people were getting more drunk, you should expect more party and craziness. For some reason, the crowd was a bit boring when Skyclad started playing. Something we think is very strange because this is a good band to have a party on. We were happy to see this change after a couple of songs when the crowd was getting a bit more alive and started a party. A nice surprise to see was the young son of the bass player joining the band on stage for one song. It was really cute and everybody adored him.
Fin(n)ishing band of the festival was Amorphis. Being famous for headbanging with his long dreadlocks, we were curious if their singer would manage to perform without hurting someone on this stage. But everything went okay for as far as we noticed. By even getting members of other bands enthusiastic and going crazy we can’t conclude anything else than Amorphis was a worthy headliner of this festival. A nice variation in their repertoire and a good show made this festival end awesome!
And so it was the end of Dong 2009 already. Time went fast, but we enjoyed every minute of it, like we do every year. We can’t say it enough that this festival is unique. It’s location, the people and everything about it makes Dong one of our personal favourite festivals. There’s just one thing we missed… and that’s VODKA at the bar!!