Report: BURNING LIGHT FEST Day 2#

DAY 2#

The sunny (yet freezing) Sunday started with INFRA, the one and only corpse painted band of the weekend. Starting with the new “Communion”, this Lisbon trio showed again why they can no longer remain anonymous: their obscure death metal is too striking to be kept in the drawer. Cavernous vocals, demolishing drums and dark guitars make them stand in the first row of the bands to follow this year.

OBLIVIONIZED came next with somewhat of a prog noisy death/grind effort too disturbed for our minds, before Norwegians HYMN decided to lower the level again. But not in terms of quality, once this duo demonstrated a secure musical presence within their harsh sludge. Sharing the drummer with countryman Tombstones, the voice range of the  frontman alongside his huge number of guitar pedals made it a pleasant discover. With much more guys on stage, Dutch ACID DEATHTRIP played live their fast stoner in a very precise way, reproducing exactly what we knew from them, in a coordinated exibition. Too coordinated perhaps.

Dinner time came but still with a quick eyesight to COWARDS performance, in a very strange form of Powerviolence. After the French, MORTE INCANDESCENTE brought us the most outlaw concert of the festival. For the first time (to our eyes) without corpse paint, the Lisbon trio delivered some of their best hymns, such as “Necromaníaco” or “Black Skull Crushing Metal” in a very direct and clinic performance. They’ve closed the set with the remarcable “Desabafo”, letting everybody know that they felt what Burning Light Fest was all about.

Back to Norwegian lands, and back to TOMBSTONES, this time presenting a more recent set, focused on their latest “Red Skyes and Dead Eyes”. The surprise effect was gone as so some of the heftier songs. But their performance felt really good once again. A band to see and follow for all Stoner lovers.

As the night went on, so did the intensity of the performances, once Doom metal masters PROCESS OF GUILT  were next. They’ve played a similar set to the last time we saw them (at Reverence Valada), starting with “Empire”, followed by two of the “Liar” Movements, even if with a surprise: JP Schopfer from Rorcal came to add his synthetiser machines to the already strong atmosphere created by the band. Performing before the most significant mass of people that far, “Faemin”, their major song till date, closed the set with that insane intensity that we just can’t get tired of. But we didn’t had the chance to felt it all, because the sound was suddendly cut off before the end of the song. A rather akward moment.

Even if the second day had less audience than the prior one, when MANTAR started their performance the ambient was very intimate. The German duo had a giant leep in only one year, and at RCA their stage exhibition was even more demolishing than one year ago. Besides the tough drumms work, the frontman is each day more a “stage beast”, with an impressive high rotation. That attitude, allied to the well executed catchy sound, grabbed the audience till the end, period that was marked by the biggest momment of the whole festival: the final “Whitte Nights”, with Bolzer’s frontman on the vocals and a last shout from Implore’s vocalist. A very intense moment.

So, BOLZER’s KzR had shown a little bit of what the Swiss were up to. And when the time came, the Helvetic duo destroyed everything while on stage, in a dark, intense and very imposing performance. With the well known songs “C.M.E.”or “Steppes” oppening the ceremonies, the band did a non expected incursion to their 2012 demo with “Zeus – Seducer of Hearts”, before finalising their set with ”Entranced by the Wolfshook” in one of the highlights of Burning Light Fest. Complexity, weight and barbarianism served alltogether in a very juice plate.

These last three performances suck our remaining energies with such power that we had no strenghts left to see the final two bands THE BLACK HEART REBELLION and SCHONWALD.

But what we’ve seen during the weekend was enough to mark a positive final image of the festival, event that will be reproduced next year, in a three day format. Don’t be afraid to show up. We’ll meet you there.

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