OUTRAGE and ARKHAM WITCH at Metal Magic VIII.
On July 10th and 11th, at the last Metal Magic festival (which was the first MM festival for us) we had the pleasure to see two of "our" bands: OUTRAGE and ARKHAM WITCH. The whole festival was a fantastic experience for us. It was a very well-organized event with the crew and volunteers being really friendly and helpful. What makes it unique is the care they put into designing the stages and the whole area. The open air stage has a row of nooses hanging in the front, some with creepy mutilated dolls (wrapped in bandages, with syringes stuck into them...) and at the bottom: a row of painted tombstones with names of some recently deceased musicians and actors. The indoors stage is even more impressive, with iron fences on both sides, decorated with lots of animals skulls, human skeletons' parts and massive chains. And all around, several really cool, hand painted posters with some horror movies characters. The sound was very good on both stages, and the fact that the bands playing open air and indoors were never overlapping was something we really appreciate. We also had a table space for selling our stuff there in the official and bands merchandising tent. Our German and British band were the main reason for us to travel almost 2000 km to the north, but obviously we watched and enjoyed plenty of other bands, most of all CANDLEMASS, OCCVLTA, ATLANTEAN KODEX, SLAUGHTER MESSIAH, WASTED, HORACLE and BOMBERS, to mention but a few.
It was the second time we saw OUTRAGE live (first time was at Malta Doom Metal fest last October), and hell, did they deliver! Old school ripping Teutonic blackened thrash with a bit of a theatrical show (thanks to their vocalist, Frank) with songs so catchy that even people who had heard them for the first time there were headbanging (as we heard from some guys after the show). A great, crispy sound and the horror stage decorations helped a lot too. It was awesome to see people going nuts in the first rows and to see quite a packed room for them (as they played indoors). Check the photos below for the proof!
ARKHAM WITCH played the day after, on the outdoors stage. A great, fun show, as always from these British lads and lass (we had seen them 4 times before). It was also the very first show with their new guitarist, Dirty John (who is not the same as Kinky John). They played a mix of old and new stuff, including a few THE LAMP OF THOTH classics. One of the most headbangable gigs, and also one of the highlights of the whole Metal Magic VIII, definitely not only for us.
Here are some photos I took at both bands' shows:
