Grand Massive, the locals, opened with their Doom influenced Heavy Rock. We saw them already a couple of times, but this one wasn´t their best gig due the missing tightness and 5-10 bpm would have fitted better to their songs.

Rezn sat between Postrock, Doom, Psychedelic and took a bit from all the mentioned styles and the crowd nodded all the songs. Not our thing.

The band had a day off so they played a kind of secret show.  

Speck from Vienna was brilliant; Hawkwind and Monster Magnet without posing and jingalingalings, most of the time straight forward pushing instrumental Space Rock with a fantastic leading bass. It didn´t matter that the songs lasted around 15 minutes or so; they went by like a multiple 3 minutes song set. The lights fitted well because the band played and never went in contact with the audience.

Messa are professional enough to perform in complete darkness. That means, the light was completely blue and the band was not visible, so we left after three songs. So did a lot of people. They went to see Valley of the Sun, but the venue was full packed, same as the small club. A pity.

A lot of Kraut was blasted into the venue by ze German band Kant. Sounds nice for all english speakers. A relaxed and varied start into the second day. They sounded like a harder version of Hällas, influenced by Color Haze jams and ze German Kraut history between 1970 and 1975.

This band acts always close to madness when they perform on stage. Same at the Desertfest, same here. And I guess we will see them one week later at Munich´s Feierwerk again. The lights made a shadow puppet theatre out of a band which needs to have contact with their audience. The sound was brilliant.

Since 2015, when we saw Samavayo for the first time, this band never disappoints, concerning musical skills, performing, tightness and interacting. It is and was always a joy to see and hear a band of friends playing their music what they like. We managed to see 30 minutes in the full packed Halle. The lights fitted so the audience could see the band interacting with them.

At the certain age you´re convinced that you will still play heavy and rough music, but not with the intensity of Hardcore, Metal or Punk. 4 dudes from Yorkshire do this since 2016 and they keep on carrying the torch of Desert Rock in the tradition of Fu Manchu or Kyuss by adding some Doom or Boogie. This band is actually the synonyme for being humble and all the members are so overwhelmed after each concert, after they moved about 800 people at the Werk. Great concert, good light and a lot of fun on and off stage.

Thanks to Greenleaf for not using fog for their performance and thanks to the light tech to present this band without backlight and without candy-colored lights so the audience could see the band and vice versa. The band created a brand consisting of dry humor announces, smiling band members, one of the best rhythm sections in heavy rock, Tommi as unstoppable riff machine and Arvid has the best trained voice in that genre. So the band achieved a very high level in their music which was obvious to see during the concert. Fantastic concert.

I quote the French guys from Desert-Rock.com, concerning this concert. "It was the hell for the eyes and honey for the ears". For a few moments the band was visible, I don´t know if the members wanted it like that. Of course the Werk was packed, especially with the younger ones among the people and the sung along, danced and banged. But you shouldn't hide such a great band that reacts to the audience behind backlighting or fog.

I guess, I will never buy and listen a record from Inter Arma. It is not a music to listen on your sofa or during tidy up the household. This was the second time we saw them and again, we were blown away by 40 years of extreme music packed in each and every song. I cried when they played "The long road home", which is one the most intense and extreme songs (IMO). Musically the most interesting act of the festival and we enjoyed the music and the lights during the whole concert. Fantastic.