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Live Review: Amphi Festival VII – Cologne, Germany

August 30th, 2011 Filed under: Reviews - Live by Editor in Chief

Live Review – Amphi Festival VII
July 16-17, 2011
Cologne, Germany

If you are talking about dark festivals, Germany has always been the ultimate place to go. Looking at industrial history one can’t help but notice the importance and the contribution made by local bands to the genre. For decades they have been defining the music and turning the movement into what it is right now.

Out of over 300 festivals that take place in Europe during summer alone (!), Germany presents the most interesting industrial variety. Amphi Festival’s first installment happened in 2005 and since then it has been steadily growing and reaching into the realm of the best that the dark scene has to offer. This year’s Amphi Festival was again traditionally held in Tanzbrunnen, Cologne on the bank of the Rhein river. The seventh gathering of Amphi sported one of the most interesting line-up’s in the event’s’ history and an overwhelming 16,000 visitors from all over the world, all-in-all sold out long before the beginning.

The programme was so interesting that you literally had to run between the two stages, barely having enough time to drink the fantastic local beer and observe the most advanced outfits out there, ranging from cyber and steam punk to conservative goth and old school EBM. People sure know how to dress here and that doesn’t come as a huge surprise: half the territory was occupied by stores, which had just about enough merchandise to last a lifetime. The most interesting of course were the Queen of Darkness and Out of Line label shop.

At Amphi, chances to see an icon were in the vicinity of 100% even if you completely missed the signing sessions. Bumping into Johan Van Roy from Suicide Commando or Bon Harris from Nitzer Ebb was a completely natural thing. And then, if you got bored with that, you had talks, book and art presentations and countless other little activities.

All of that was squeezed into two days and hard choices had to be made, but it was the live bands that prevailed.

Day 1 Highlights:

The first day began at 12:00 with [X]-RX and their sheer aggression woke everybody up from the rainy slumber. The band gave a massive jolt to those lucky enough to go through the entrance line quickly. Following them were Staubkind and a complete change of audience. Amphi traditionally features a variety of genres and attracts people coming from very different backgrounds. Staubkind’s gothic rock sank in very well and provided living proof that no one would get bored in hours to come.

At about the same time, the closed stage (Staatenhaus) featured Mind.in.a.box, complete with two live guitars. Bearing in mind that their last album was predominantly 8-bit, the festival set was something different. Tracks from older albums sounded really heavy and the synths filled the venue to provide an immersing experience.

The first truly serious strike on the head came from Grendel, who experimented with softer sound on 2009’s Chemicals and Circuitry but still stayed completely true to their core while playing live. The Danish non-compromising trio: VLRK, M4R and S42H have shown what aggrotech is all about with tracks from Harsh Generation.

As the daylight was still nowhere near to be gone, heavy artillery began taking the stage of Amphi Festival. In Strict Confidence presented a fantastic one-hour set featuring the return of their vocalist Nina de Lianin. Not only did she revive their live output, but together with the Antje Schultz they arranged a stunningly beautiful stage show. With hits like “Promised Land”, “Set me Free” and a fantastic ending with “Zauberschloss”, In Strict Confidence have once again proven their leading status on the electro-industrial scene.

Industrial giants Die Krupps and Leæther Strip were playing at the same time, feeling as young and energetic as in the beginning, when they’ve been forming a path for generations to come. Claus Larsen from Leæther Strip gathered close to ten thousand people under one roof and spawned a vortex of emotion attributive only to old school industrial. As you were looking at the veterans, you could almost feel all moods of the time that provoked and disturbed and in the end laid a fertile ground for what we know as electro-industrial music.

Without giving anyone a chance to catch breath, Johan Van Roy appeared on the stage of Staatenhaus and the public exploded. The Belgian icon has delivered a mind-grabbing performance, complete with a swiftly formed mosh-pit and greatest hits alongside tracks from 2010’s Implements of Hell. Suicide Commando were ripping the space open with heavy beats while the video reminded us all that one million suicides are committed every year. That left everybody counting how many were gone by the time Suicide Commando’s set ended (which lasted more than an hour). The public absolutely adores Johan and were singing along in creepy unison:
“BIND, TORTURE AND KILL! BIND, TORTURE AND KILL”.

While the legendary Deine Lakaien were singing anthems (or rather their long-awaited return with Indicator) to everything goth and synth, the one and only Mexican duo occupied the stage to headline the first day of Amphi Festival. Hocico are and have always been the face of dark electro. To be more precise that face is a goat’s one, stuck on a human body. Hitting the crowd with a mix of solid hits ranging from “Spirals of Time” all the way to “Dog Eat Dog”, Erk Aicrag and Rasco Agroyam stole the day with piercing synths and harsh vocals. Nobody could expect a better ending to the day one of Amphi Festival.

With the energy completely sucked out by the live bands some of the attendants still left to rock with the best dj’s all the way to 4AM.

SHOOTING GALLERY: Amphi Festival, 2011 (Click any image to open up the set on Flickr)

Day 2 Highlights:

The first memorable performance of the day was by Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, who are extremely close to being a true martial industrial icon. They have numbed and relaxed the tired bodies and sleepy (or hungover) minds which still have not recuperated from day one. With their highly graphic video stream they touched every little nerve in our dark souls: BDSM, depression, melancholies, love and death were all there, flowing between the video, the music and the voice of Thomas Petterson.

Diorama were the first synth-pop band to play at Amphi Festival and Torben Wendt sure lit up the crowd while Dreadful Shadows on the main stage were trying to prove that they are still going strong after all these years. After that it was time to see Clan of Xymox, a legendary band who have been heavily experimenting from day one with genres ranging from electronic rock to darkwave. Having released a new record in 2011, The Darkest Hour, Ronny Moorings and Co are still in great shape and their transcending performance confirmed that. At the same time, DE/VISION have been continuing the synth-pop part of the day trying desperately not to look like one particular band we all know very well.

Finally, the crowd began gathering in front of the main stage to see one of most striking and interesting bands on the agro-tech/harsh ebm scene: Agonoize. The brilliant trio gave one of the most intoxicating performances of Amphi Festival: strap-jackets, knives, blood-spilling on the audience and shots fired on the stage. Fictional of course, yet deadly for the lead singer Chris L. who minutes ago was screaming “Staatsfeind” along with thousands of people and hitting himself on the head with a microphone so hard, that a couple devices actually broke. Absolutely fucking awesome!

Coming next were Saltatio Mortis, who were representatives of folk metal at Amphi. To be fair, their wild blend wasn’t out of line but still nowhere near industrial. Quite unlike the Das Ich, the German duo, who have a unique ability to stick in your head, be it their musical experiments, the face of Stefan Ackermann or their live performances. Going forward, the so very much awaited performance of Nitzer Ebb proved to be a minor disappointment. One would expect more from the “big guns”, but that may be attributed to the long hiatus in the past.

While Subway to Sally are often headlining festivals in Europe, they don’t ever seem to surprise anyone, playing well-rehearsed professional sets. For people who wanted something a bit more intense, Staatenhaus held Feindflug, the industrial mad men, or so it seems. Featuring four people on percussion they left a mark with their sound and we are not forgetting about guitars either. There is so much content behind their music that no vocals are required to slap you in the face. Images of wars in Afghanistan, Soviet horrors and the past but not forgotten homeland history flashed and made your intestines turn. Take that and a wall of sound and you’d be lying flat on your back. Feindflug are fucking massive!

Finishing the evening were two very well known synth bands, as if rounding up the festival and making everything even. Kirlian Camera are the first and most famous Italian synth-pop band. Their lead singer, Elena Fossi’s voice went through every single person in Staatenhaus leaving nobody partial with “Eclipse” and “Nightglory”.

The last to play at Amphi Festival 2011 were Covenant, who have recently added Daniel Myer to their line-up and released the new album Modern Ruin. That night they were the champions in the quality of light and sound. Playing new hits like “Judge of my Domain”, “Worlds Collide” and classics like “Dead Stars” and “Call the Ships to Port” they have created an atmosphere that will be remembered for months. Covenant’s frontman Eskil Simonsson left everyone with one extremely important piece of thought: “celebrating who we are”.

One couldn’t think of more apt thing to say as this is what Amphi Festival is about: celebrating who we are, being content, being wild and different, living a life most people wouldn’t dare to. We were all one big united entity on that July night in Cologne and we have to thank Covenant, all the bands that performed for us and of course the organizers and crew of Amphi Festival. It was perfect!

amphi-festival.de

By arceon

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