Foreword
Nebel: The time has come to assess and recount the event that has now become, one can say, an annual fixture in Yevpatoria — namely, the three-day Metal Heads' Mission festival. This is already the sixth edition, and with each passing year it delights us with increasingly better music and a greater diversity of participating bands. The festival venue is the "Sonechko" leisure complex right on the shore of the Black Sea. I think the organisers clearly understood that getting the location right is already half the battle. This place is simply perfect for events of this kind. What could be better than crystal-clear seawater, sunshine, and soul-satisfying music right on the coast? (Well, perhaps the snow-covered, icy peaks of the Norwegian mountains in their primordial natural state, or a dark underground chamber with an atmosphere blacker than night, filled to the brim with unbroken gloom.) As it has evolved, this festival is at its core a brutal-death-grind event — bands playing music of that kind occupy the majority of the setlist — but despite that, every year we see expansion in the direction of black metal, pagan, thrash, and even progressive. Whether this is the right move is a question with a rather ambiguous answer: on one hand, there's the risk of losing the status and image of a purely brutal festival, and accordingly a portion of the fanbase who are utterly devoted, body and soul, to that kind of music; on the other hand, there's the opportunity to win new followers through stylistic diversity. Each of us naturally has our own opinion on this — but the organisers will stubbornly keep looking at the financial side of the coin. I should also mention, for those who may not know, that the principal organiser — the person without whom none of this would happen — is MENTAL DEMISE bassist Bolt, who has been at the helm for several years now.
I think we can skip the details of how we actually got to the destination — we'll also pass over the 3 smashed train windows and 2 smashed faces on the same train. Thank God that train made it to Yevpatoria at all, because the probability of it leaving the tracks was directly proportional to the amount of beer consumed by the metalheads on board, of whom there were at least forty. That's nothing to be proud of — on the contrary, one ought to think very seriously about the impression such behaviour leaves on bystanders, because it's always the worst that gets remembered, never the best. But that's a digression, and a sad one at that — though it's worth dwelling on, because frankly, at the festival itself there was no shortage of genuine social rejects; no other word fits those perpetually drunk individuals. But in the context of everything that happened, that was a drop in the bucket…
Scorpio: The portal's Kyiv delegation, as you can see, made it to the destination with some adventures. For my part, I travelled with three companions — including fellow accredited colleague Violetta Karlashchuk a.k.a. Sister Sinister (radio "Bukovyna") — and we made every leg of the journey without incident, arriving safely at "Sonechko." All portal members arrived the day before the festival proper, on Thursday, to have time to acclimatise, meet up with friends, and drink to the occasion. Some simply relaxed and swam in the sea, offering their practically white bodies to the merciless Crimean sun.
On Friday morning we headed to the hall — a large hangar covered with a canopy — for the general assembly of bands. After reviewing the performance order, we hung our sizeable portal banner-flag in the hall and went off for our own portal-internal gathering to divide up responsibilities.
Before beginning the account of the first concert day, I'd also like to note the significant leap forward of the metal bazaar at the festival. Last year it was just a single stall to the right of the stage; this time around it was considerably larger. On the second floor, surrounding a small 2×2 stage, anyone who wished could purchase cassettes and CDs — mostly Ukrainian, russian, and Belarusian bands — as well as t-shirts, patches, and other merch. Incidentally, in addition to the traditional festival t-shirt (the design of which was clearly better this year), you could also pick up the Metal Heads' Mission 5 DVD (I'm pleased to note that our portal has successfully obtained a copy, so expect a review shortly).
On to the music. Nebel, you're up.
Day 1 First Half
Nebel: Now let's get to the music itself — which is, after all, what interests everyone most in this report. I hope this account will give you a fairly complete picture of everything that happened at the festival. It should be useful not only to those who weren't there, but to everyone who was. After all, no one person can notice everything or be everywhere at once, and we tried as best we could to hear and see everything happening not just on the stage but behind it too. No doubt, many things will be a revelation to the person who woke up one morning on the beach and asked, "Guys, which day of the festival is this?" — and upon learning the sad news that it was the last, unleashed a rather impressive string of obscenities and cursed the day they ever started drinking.
To the matter at hand: the proceedings began as scheduled on August 5th at 14:00 — until then, people were finishing their queuing for tickets, completing their last few hundred metres in the sea, absorbing their final doses of ultraviolet radiation under the blazing sun, or simply sleeping on the beach or in a tent after the previous night's overindulgence. And then the MCs appeared on stage — two of them, in fact: one already familiar to us from the previous Metal Heads' Mission, Bohdan from Rivne (Ukraine), and the second, the well-known Kyiv MC Krokodil.
This was actually a smart tactical move: one of them hosted in Ukrainian, the other in russian. (Last year this very issue had caused considerable conflict between the MC and the audience, since not everyone understood Ukrainian.)
To begin, let's list the bands that performed in the first half of the festival's first day:
I.N.F. (Brutal-Death/Core) – russia HELLION (Thrash Metal) – Ukraine CHORDEWA (Sympho Black Metal) – Moldova MURK EXHORBITANCE (Brutal Death/Grind) – russia GLOBALIZED ABSTRUSE (Brutal Death/Grind) – Ukraine KAMAEDZITCA (Pagan Metal) – Belarus THELEMA (Doom/Death Metal) – Belarus
First onto the stage was the russian band I.N.F. from Tula. I doubt anyone will be surprised to learn that they took quite a long time to set up, and the sound turned out terrible anyway. This apparently infuriated them considerably — they didn't even play the half-hour allotted to them (as to all the other participating bands, excepting the headliners). Their own sound engineer, who was working quite actively at the mixing desk, couldn't salvage the sound. The end result was a rather indistinct brutal-death-core without bass guitar (simply inaudible on stage), and a glimpse of the guitarist's not-bad technique — he was doing his best. Overall I'm quite certain that even the band itself came away unsatisfied with their own performance — this was evident from the sad expression on the vocalist's face, who could be spotted in the hall repeatedly throughout the rest of the festival.
Next to greet us were the Zaporizhzhia band HELLION, who were preparing to impress with solid death/thrash metal. I can't say they fully managed it; the reason was once again probably the sound quality, as in the hall it seemed like the musicians were playing completely out of sync with one another. I'm quite certain this band's studio recordings sound entirely different. It seems I'd come across their compositions on one of the metal compilations at some point, and the impression had been quite different. Stylistically it had the flavour of classic METALLICA; the guitarist's solo work was also noteworthy. A particular pleasure was their cover of "The Trooper" (originally performed, of course, by IRON MAIDEN). Looking ahead, I'll note that playing covers became something of a recurring tradition throughout the festival.
I'd been genuinely looking forward to CHORDEWA's set — the excellent impression from their playing at the previous MHM was still fresh. It's not the festival's usual practice to have a band play two years running, but they must have pleased the audience so much at MHM 5 that an exception was clearly warranted. So: the set from the Chisinau symphonic black metal band — this was, perhaps, the first thing to disappoint me during my time at "Sonechko." Wrong people, wrong instruments, wrong sound, wrong energy. The band had changed beyond recognition. This time the musicians from OFFERTORIUM were no longer with them (the drummer and the violinist); there was no violin at all, so that sense of mystery and melody was absent — the music felt dry and harsh. On top of that, the keyboards were inaudible, which was not reassuring. Even the appearance of a female vocalist after the second song (the first two were performed with male vocals) didn't sweeten the pill. In short, we heard what we heard… and what a shame.
Next, ready to tear us apart with their brutal-death assault, were MURK EXHORBITANCE — guys from Ivanovo, russia. They were the first band that day to sound something approaching decent. Their musical parts, honed to perfection, freed them to concentrate not on their instruments but on the audience. Have you ever tried headbanging continuously for half an hour, with only brief pauses between songs? You've probably tried — and you know just how hard it is afterwards to hold your head up unaided. The band not only did this on stage — two of them were simultaneously playing instruments, and not just playing — they were executing their furious, high-speed, mega-technical bass and guitar parts. One of the reasons for all of the above is that the band had recently recorded their debut album, a review of which you'll be able to read on our site shortly.
Less spectacular but no less brutal was a band previously unknown to me, GLOBALIZED ABSTRUSE from the city of Burshtyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (Ukraine). They subjected the audience to an iron, monotonous, impenetrable wall of sound. Classic brutal grind compositions in principle; the only slightly non-standard element was the presence of two vocalists on stage — who not only made a striking visual contrast (one bald, the other his polar opposite in that regard) but also complemented each other quite well. Overall, nothing mega-outstanding, but entirely satisfactory.
What was seen and heard on stage next completely exceeded my expectations — it was a stunning performance by the Minsk (Belarus) pagans KAMAEDZITCA. Why do I say I wasn't fully expecting it? Simply because I'd listened to their album at some point and it hadn't impressed me at the time. The guys were superbly prepared for the show — not just musically, not just in terms of stage presence and crowd engagement, but also in their pagan image, which they maintained not only during the performance but afterwards as well. It was fascinating to learn what this mysterious word — the band's name — actually means. As the musicians themselves explained, "Kamaedzitca" is the name of a pagan festival honouring the bear. I was particularly struck by the band's greeting: the vocalist raised his hand, and in turn said "russia," "Belarus," "Ukraine," curling a finger for each word — then unexpectedly said: "And together — a fist," as a symbol of the unity of the fraternal Slavic peoples. Musically, the band opened their set with a prayer to Veles, which fit organically within the framework of pagan metal. Overall, in my view they were among the best of the first day — for which enormous thanks!
Next on stage was another Belarusian band, this one from Gomel: THELEMA. Whether it was the impact of the preceding band, or whether it was simply the truth, they sounded rather nondescript; the band impressed with neither their guitar work nor their vocals (which were performed, incidentally, by the same guitarist).
Second Half
Scorpio: Having grabbed a collective bite to eat after the first round's assault on our ears, we headed back for the second dose, in the form of:
WITCH HUNTER (Heavy Metal) – Ukraine PORTAL-Z (Nu-Core) – russia ABNORMYNDEFFECT (ex-BUTCHERS) (Grindcore) – Moldova ANCESTRAL VOLKHVES (Black/Death Metal) – Slovakia AHUMADO GRANUJO (Brutal Death/Grind) – Czech Republic
Fess: The second half of Day 1 was opened by the Kyiv band WITCH HUNTER. First song — the already well-known "Crazy Machines." The sound is immediately recognisable as not particularly well-tuned, but you can get the general feel. Classic heavy/power metal: crisp, high-pitched guitar tone, clean male vocals, fast rhythms. On stage, the same deadly solos from guitarists Rostyk and Andriy, the same frenetic rhythms from drummer Vitya, the same precise movements from vocalist Oleg. The same loud "Are you ready? Are you fuckin' ready for heavy metal tonight?" Overall, those who'd been to previous WITCH HUNTER shows saw nothing new… except perhaps the "Surprise for Kirik from NATURAL SPIRIT" — a cover of the ARMY OF LOVERS classic "Sexual Revolution" (quite an interesting surprise, in my opinion). I wonder what he did to deserve that surprise.
Next on stage was the moscow band PORTAL-Z. Despite playing with only one guitar, the speakers pumped out a very driving, punchy sound. I'd describe the music the moscow guys presented as a kind of Nu-Core. Through the fairly primitive riffs you could occasionally make out fragments of "intellectual" lyrics, which somewhat undermined the impression of the band. But when the guys launched into their PANTERA cover, the hall simply exploded, and all the negative aspects instantly fell away…
The guests from Chisinau, known to us as BUTCHERS, took the stage under a new name: ABNORMYNDEFFECT. The vocalist explained the reason for the change quite plainly and simply: "the old name was crap." The band continued the festival's sad tradition of playing with one guitar (though really, why would grindcore need two?). After the first sounds expelled by the vocalist into the microphone, it became clear — at the very least, this guy would find ways to surprise people. I wouldn't have thought that grindcore could accommodate such a range, but this guy showed what he was capable of. You could savour the squeal of a piglet with a sharp spike through its heart, and the rumble of a spacecraft at launch. The entire audience's attention was fixed on the vocalist — he was giving everything. Short but extremely concentrated tracks conveyed to the audience the full philosophical meaning of the brutal-grind-core reality of the "Abnormal Defects." The guys played several covers (MESHUGGAH, NASUM), but the one that tore the crowd apart was a COCK AND BALL TORTURE cover performed jointly with the vocalist of DISENTOMBED. It'd been a long time since something got to me like that…
ANCESTRAL VOLKHVES (guests from Slovakia) presented an appreciable audience with solid aggressive black/death metal. Their riffs didn't exactly dazzle with originality, but the drive was something else. From the speakers, death itself seemed to breathe over the raging metalheads. The vocals slightly overpowered the guitars, but that was probably the only shortcoming. The band left no particularly vivid impressions, but there's nothing bad to be said about them either.
Closing the day were the already celebrated representatives of the Czech metal school, AHUMADO GRANUJO. Special commentary is frankly unnecessary here. As the day's headliners they were given the most powerful sound, which was literally blowing away the people in the front rows. The guys made full use of every decibel available to them. The tooth-shattering workout delivered by the band kept ringing in metalheads' ears long after it ended…
Day 1 done, and the heavy music faithful disperse in all directions: some crawl back to their tents to shut down until morning, tired but satisfied; some head to the bar for a beer recharge; some simply walk to the beach and crack open a bottle or two with friends — but everyone is eagerly anticipating the next day, with new bands, new experiences, and new music…