“The Deathship Has A New Captain” is he name of the current 2nd album and so they took control on the ship called pain stage. Might sound a bit like RUNNING WILD but apart from the fact both bands are german they haven’t got much in common. 40 minutes of gothic rock in the vein of FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM. Deep vocals, a dark atmosphere and a cowboy attitude, just the way we wanted it to be. The audience gave them a warm welcome and didn’t take it easy when the boys had to leave stage again.

Setlist: Intro 1. Secrecies in Darkness 2. Wolfmoon 3. Carpathia 4. Kutulu! 5. The grand Devilry 6. Deathship Symphony 7. The Lone night Rider

PAIN were to close down the SUMMER BREEZE 2005. And again they did just great. Workaholic Peter Tägtgren and his boys did improve. Two ladies were acting next to him on stage and not just for optical reasons. What’s the point for moaning about women in rock music? These ladies knew how to rock beyond any technical criticism. As PAIN is the more “poppy” project, compared to Peter’s main band HYPOCRISY the music is based on catchy melodies, driving beats and screaming guitars. An ideal band make the crowd give its best. They acted powerful and shot hit by hit into the audience. Even heaven was impressed and stopped raining. “Dancing With The Dead” and “Same Old Song” from the current album as well as “Suicide Machine” were the undefeated highlights of the set. This excited not only the fans but also Cristina Scabbia and many more musicians and journalists who were watching the show from aside of the stage. What a festival, what a show, can’t wait for 2006.

Setlist: Intro 1. Super Sonic 2. End Of The Line 3. Dancing With The Dead 4. Eleanor 5. Greed 6. Bye Dye 7. It’s Only Them 8. Shut Your Mouth 9. Same Old Song 10. On And On 11. Suicide Machine

Nearly 11 o’clock it was when the lights got switched off on the mains tage. The 2nd coolest intro of the day started: Francis Ford Coppolas theme “The godfather”. Just perfect as Cristina Scabbia and her boys are from the land of “La Familia”. Compared to their last appearance at SUMMER BREEZE one has to admit that Cristina’s English has improved a lot. The big success in the states and the tours, for instance the Ozzfests, probably helped a lot to achieve this. “It’s been a shitty day, but who cares?” stated Mrs. Scabbia to start off into a set of dynamic, power and emotion. The weather seemed to run out of water so it was less rainy during the set. Guitarists and bass performed actively and the entire band’s stage acting was impressive and exciting to look at. The mix of modern riffing and mid tempo gothic parts combined with Cristina’s and male bandmate Andrea’s singing made this music distinctive. Their intention to communicate with the fans worked out well. But it wasn’t as successful as AMON AMARTH or IN EXTREMO did. In addition to “A2” which is a brand new track of the soon coming album they performed “No Need To Explain” from the first EP. The great final was “Heaven’s A Lie” to end up a great show.

Setlist: Intro 1.Swamped 2. Self Deception 3. Entwined 4. 1.19 5. Senzafine 6. Halflife 7. Humane 8. A2 9. No Need To Explain 10. To Live Is To Hide 11. Tight Rope 12. When A Dead Man Walks 13. Daylight Dancer 14. Heaven’s A Lie

3 vocalists, that’s what these norwegians came up with. The one with the Wattie-ish hair cut was the man to scream. Quite differing to the curly blond guy and his female colleague Vibeke Sten, contributing the more melodic singing. Everytime Vibeke went on stage in her beautiful black dress the band went on to a supreme performance while Vibeke moved to the sounds theatrically. The atmospheric sound contained many keyboards and samples such as the Gregorian chant. The really took the chance of 8 songs to show what they are all about. And the audience responded positively.

Setlist: 1. Libre 2. Worl Of Glass 3. Beyond The Veil 4. The Wretched 5. A Sequel Of Decay 6. Circus 7. Angellore 8. Angina

You love them or you hate them, there is no in between. And it’s not easy to love them I’d say. Camouflage is definitely a trendy thing to wear. But in pink? You must have a good sense of humour to go along with this. And plenty of fans do so. Probably the funniest performance on the festival. Two huge balls were thrown into the audience to be played with. Adapting popular tracks, give them new lyrics and make them metal is what these boys are doing. And they are successful enough to go on with that. Technically the band has the ability to do so and it simply doesn’t make any sense to do further explanations as you need to understand german to see. At least everybody had a funny time and they were in interesting contrast to the black metal shows we had that afternoon.

Setlist: Intro 1. Verteidiger des Blödsinns 2. Bolle 3. Gesangsmedley 4. Ein bisschen Frieden 5. Roots 6. Glaubensbekenntnis 7. Wir ham ne Party 8. Arschloch und Spaß dabei 9. Gänseblümchen 10. Ein guter Tag zu sterben 11. Ein Fest

Is there any band who played the SUMMER BREEZE more often than END OF GREEN? Well, it actually doesn’t matter, does it? Band and festival grew equally during the last years so it’s just fair enough to come together again. As the new record “Dead End Dreaming” was to be released the following Monday they started with “Weakness” just from that album. And they went on their victorious march as they presented themselves perfectly well during the 45 minutes playing time. The goth rockers have almost been in trance due to the power the audience gave back on stage. No other band could hear we-want-more screams that loud. After the show guitarist Michael was swimming in the crowd and the rest of band couldn’t hide they were really touched by that situation. A night to remember.

Setlist: Intro 1. Weakness 2. Motor 3. Evergreen 4. Dead End Hero 5. Demons 6. Tragedy Insane 7. Death In Veins 8. Highway 69 9. Everywhere 10. Drink Myself To Sleep

A huge back drop was put on stage to make sure really everybody knows who’s next to play. The moment the band went on stage the entire crowd forgot about the rain to celebrate a big party with the band. Next to the new single “Sieben” of course loads of old tracks were played. Pyros were set and the band showed they were enjoying it. Banging through the entire set the bassist must have had a bad headache afterwards. Eric spit fire and the show ended impressive. Whoever did miss this, they are on tour currently. So make sure you’re better off this time.

Setlist: 1. Veitstanz 2. Knochenschiff 3. Unsterblich 4. 2000 Meilen unter 5. Die Schlacht 6. Sieben 7. Mephisto 8. Henkersbraut 9. Sag dem Teufel 10. Ohne Liebe 11. Falscher Heiland 12. Die Räuber

Due to the heavy rain some people thought it was rather nice to jump into the mud for overall body painting. The rest of the crowd had a different point of view so the audience got divided into two. Singer Andy didn’t really care and he went on with the show and he did good. Powermetal at its best. Andy once again proved to be one of the best metal singers in germany. His voice in combination with his stage acting is always an entertaining thing to watch. 90% of the existing metal bands should have a look, too. Take it as a lesson to learn. New album “Godspeed” is the new record and “Nowhere” from that album was the only new track played and marked the end of a great show which should be an example for oh so many metal bands calling themselves powerfull!!!

Setlist: Intro 1. Fallen 2. Whatever Hate 3. Tears 4. Cause of Laughter 5. Touched and infected 6. Two Seconds 7. Nowhere 8. Slowdown

Under the sign of the gorilla the cross-over heroes entered the stage. Surprisingly heavy they started off with “Radiosong”. A few years ago the germans were one among many. These days they are just on their own. Well, that’s what trends are all about, when they’re over good and bad go separate ways.
Their sound definitely was an exception on this year’s festival. Probably that’s why the black frontman and his bass player put on a black metal body paint. Also they concentrated on playing the heavier stuff. After a short period of “finding out” the fans realized it was just great and so they went along perfectly well.
A convincing performance and I am sure they made a bunch of new fans that day.

Setlist: 1. Radiosong 2. OK 3. Ideale 4. Alles Muss Raus 5. Mein Weg 6. Chaos 7. Überfall 8. Ma Chair 9. Under Pressure 10. Dare Devil 11. Schatten

Saturday morning and BARCODE did the job somebody had to do. Unfortunately only a few people showed up but the Danish did not care at all and performed as if it was totally crowded. It was quite obvious the band enjoyed what they did. Especially guitarist Jacob whom some of you might know as the singer of HATESPHERE couldn’t stop smiling. Though it was early in the morning the band’s performance was powerful and not boring to look at. Old school hardcore added by punchy breakdowns, that’s what BARCODE did. And they did well. Covering “Breaking The Law” to end their set was their way to pay tribute to the metal god.

Setlist: 1. Shots Out 2. Rise To Dignity 3. In The Pit 4. Fanatics 5. Intolerance 6. Don Ron 7. Vcr4c40 8. Kreuzberg Hustlers 9. No Lust For Life 10. Showdown 11. Borsing 12. Supreme 13. Breaking The Law

CALIBAN is one of the most popular metal core bands of the times. HATEBREED and CALIBAN shirts were gathering to build mosh pits. Phat grooves and razor blade sharp breakdowns, metal core to break your backbone. Even catchy melodies were supplied. And the order to build a wall of death was followed by the crowd. The same goes for requests to do circle pits, just as if everybody was just waiting to do so. The show was a real killer and together with BORN FROM PAIN, MAROON and BARCODE they proved that metal core has a bloody right to be at the “Breeze”.

Setlist: 1. I´ve Sold Myself 2. Forsaken Horizon 3. Stigmata 4. Between The Worlds 5. My Little Secret 6. Beloved & The Hatred 7. Vicious Circle 8. The Revenge 9. Good Bye

“Just 35 minutes to hit the gas. Not enough, that’s for sure.” Well, he could say that again. Though frontman Jagger and his boys had been playing the SUMMER BREEZE various times already this short set left everyone unsatisfied. But what’s the point then? So they started off immediately and played their death metal like noone else plays it. It’s been astonishing again to see this intensity and possession on stage. Jagger is the main acter on stage undoubtfully. But the band him behind stands like a solid rock. On and in front of the stage every head has been banging. Final track “Rewind It All” was the crown on a fulminant gig.

Setlist: Intro 1. For God 2. Sick 3. God Master 4. To the Sky 5. Misery 6. Crawl 7. Rewind It All

The fact there are not too many bands coming from Israel gave ORPHANED LAND an exotic touch. In addition to that frontman Kobi was wearing an oriental shirt and the music was packed with oriental elements. The “land” in front of the stage was rather packed when the six boys entered the stage. Their epic songs, of which the most were longer than 5 minutes combined prog elements with their oriental roots. The catchy choruses had been singing along by the fans enthusiastically. On of this year’s suprises, no doubt.

ENDSTILLE 13.55 – 14.30 PS
ENTHRONED’s follow up was ENDSTILLE and watching them I had a deja vu. Both bands were really looking alike. Just the quantity of fans had grown. And more water has been falling down from above. Was it with melodies every here and there at ENTHRONED’s show ENDSTILLE were just straight into your face. No compromise. Again the children of darkness were ruling the “BREEZE”. The audience highly appreciated the show and the songs. So did the acters on stage as one of them jumped into the crowd immediately after the show.

Austria’s Synth-Goth-Rocker started off with a big pyro effect which seemed to cause a heavy rain immediately after. Remaining people in front of the stage must have been real hardcore fans. Visually reminding of H.I.M.’s Ville frontman Christopher Schmid surprised with funny statements such as “for the next 30 minutes we’ll be your fucking slaves” or “this song is for strange women”. All in all it was all about gothic rock the british way.

Setlist: Intro 1. Black 2. Sarah Lou 3. Without 4. Amber Girl 5. For bad Times 6. One Hopes evening 7. Ave End

Clouds and rain, a perfect background and an addition to the show. Being around for a long time they motivated a lot of fans to come around to see the Belgians do their black metal overture. Dressed up in spikes and leather and corpse paint they shot their stone cold black metal into the audience. No keyboards, no female vocals and no popular folk parts, just brutal black metal, raw and straight. High speed or sharp as a knife mid tempo bombs, the band did professionally well and left some people lost in memories of the mighty IMMORTAL. If the religious leaders of Abtsgmuend would’ve known…

Setlist: 1. Into A.M.S.G. 2. Deny The Holy Books Of Lies 3. The Ultimate Horde Fights 4. Vortex Of Confusion 5. Radiance Of Mordacity 6. Scared By Darkwinds 7. Hellgium Messiah 8. Outro

Quite a lot of people showed up not to miss the swedes. Spending nearly two days on the Autobahn to get to the festival perfectly fitted to the “romantic Doom” they do. Not mentioning the bad weather which rounded up the dark atmosphere perfectly. Lyrics as “the sun will never rise again” apparently made the sun go away forever. Sharing the vocal parts between one of the girls in the band who did the cleaner parts and Anders who did the rough parts the slow and quiet tracks were not too welcome while speeding up again fists were put in the air. Actually the perfect band to wake up slowly. One of the four tracks they played within this 30 minute set (!) was “The Dying”, a brand new one.

Setlist: 1. Heaven Laid In Tears 2. The Dying 3. Daylight Misery 4. The Cry Of Silence

When SUIDAKRA went on stage the place in front of the stage was surprisingly packed. The germans who developed from an average black metal band to a varied and up to date metal band did a set which was beyond any criticism. Technically on a high level they went through their set list. And the new tracks proved the band is still developing as the diverse singing left a good impression. Melodic singing and evil screams as well as changing rhythm made the songs sound more diverse. The fans appreciated this and had a good time though it was raining.

Setlist: 1. Darkane Times 2. Reap The Storm 3. Wartunes 4. Loch Loment 5. Pendragon’s Fall 6. Gates Of Nevermore