A metal fest in an abandoned fortress in the Czech Republic? That right there is a good weekend.
Our pals from peculiar art and fashion periodical Gut Magazine went to Brutal Assault Festival last month. Gut editor Ami Evelyn Hughes wanted to let you know they had a pretty good time there:
For four days each August, an 18th century fortress in the Czech Republic fills with 15,000 metalheads for Brutal Assault. An open-air extreme metal festival, it began 23 years ago as a small local event focused purely on grindcore, but has now grown considerably in size and scope.
This year’s line-up included some extremely heavy bands. Gojira set our hearts on fire with their headlining Thursday night set – they played a knockout show that included the breakdown from Remembrance sandwiched between Flying Whales and Toxic Garbage. While we're on the subject of heavy, a new find for us was Ulsect, who were up there alongside Dragged Into Sunlight and Behemoth on the Friday. A sibling-duo who summoned demons through the smoke at 1am, these guys were absolutely amazing. Pallbearer were another highlight, though they’re on the opposite spectrum of what ‘heavy’ can mean - their brand of heavy is a crushing sadness.
Full Of Hell played the metal gate tent at midnight on Saturday, and no one grabs our attention like the Pennsylvanian grindcore act - this band transport you to a place of pure energising noise-grind ecstasy when they perform.
We had a great time there and our photographer Jamie Stoker took these amazing photos which we think pretty much capture the vibe of it all:
