Written by:	Bas
Published:	January 10, 2007
Event:	End of Dayz Festival (Website)
Location:	z7, Pratteln, Switzerland

4.0 Day 2

Today I knew a lot more bands than on the previous day and was looking forward to Brainstorm but even much much more to Lunatica. The previous night I slept at a friends house and we had decided that sleeping is more important than the first two or three bands. So we just slept a bit longer than we had previously planned and arrived at the z7 right before the third band started their set. While yesterday was great, I was expecting even more of today.

4.1 Cryptic Voice

I didn't see this band due to the fact that a healthy amount of sleep was more important to me at the time.

4.2 Mortal Factor

These I didn't see either out of the same reason. I had already seen this band some time ago as support act of the great Darkmoon and they had completely failed to impress me. Thus I and my brother, who was also at the Darkmoon concert back then, were very surprised to hear that Mortal Factor had won a band battle. The prize being a slot at this festival. Also to my great surprise I was told that I had missed an awesome show. This makes me wonder... maybe I should rethink my stance towards this band and give them another chance the next time they play here.

4.3 AKA Profound



I had already seen this gothic metal band before. A while ago as support band of Paradise Lost. Back then I wasn't too impressed by them, just thought of them as good support band for Paradise Lost, but nothing more. This time however they greatly surprised me. I don't think I'm overdoing it if I say they played three times as well this time as they did back then. A shame that the crowd watching them was so small, they would really have deserved a bigger one. I don't know how exactly to put it but they really had "class" for me in a way. Their light show was comparatively simple and the bassist occasionally played some of the more simple stuff with slap bass. The music was atmospheric yet it "rocked" very much.

I'd want to see them live again: +

4.4 Sybreed




I think I'll be a bit mean and just directly tell you readers the same as I told a friend upon having listened to half of a Sybreed song. "Lets go get something to eat instead, I don't feel like wasting my time listening to noise that every twelve year old could produce in a more professional way." So that's what I said and that's what we did. We listened to the half of one song of this metalcore band and then couldn't take it any longer. We quit the tent and got ourselves some lunch.

I definitely don't want to see them again: - -

4.5 Lyzanxia

I had heard quite some bad comments about this band before, thus I didn't even bother to check their concert. Although maybe I would have given them a chance, if an acquaintance of mine wouldn't just have come out of the hall and told me that their show was pure crap. Upon this I decided to stay away after all and instead look forward to the next bands.

4.6 Domain




During Domain's show the crowd was first conspicuously quiet but became very enthusiastic later on. Their music was old school power metal, really not my thing. And it seemed it "really wasn't the thing" of most of the younger festival attendants. So the largest part of Domain's audience were older people, the people watching however all seemed to enjoy the show a lot. The keyboarder, however, didn't, or so it seemed to me. I got the impression that he was looking at the crowd in a really bored manner most of the time, but well, I'd probably be doing so too if I'd have to do so little during a concert?

I personally wouldn't want to see them again: -
If you are into old school however, go ahead, the people that were loved them.

4.7 Mendeed




Mendeed are a bit complicated to explain musically, but my best guess would be "deathcore." Some songs had a bit of a death metal approach but most parts of the music sounded like metalcore. Luckily Mendeed were a bit more than that, though. With two guitarists and a shitload of guitar duels they were a lot more interesting then their genre description would usually imply. They weren't extremely technical and I greatly doubt I'd want to listen to them on CD, but live they were great. Very headbang-able music. The band, or in any case the vocalist (screams) and bassist (plus melodic vocals), moved around a lot on stage. Usually not my thing, but good in concert.

Wouldn't mind seeing them again: ~

4.8 Paul Di Anno



Before today I had no idea what to expect of Paul Di Anno live. Of course I knew that he sang on the first Maiden albums, but to be honest I like Maidens two newest albums the best anyway. The bassist of AKA Profound (mentioned earlier in this article) however told me that I must look forward to Paul a lot and his shows are awesome. Thus I was looking forwards with pleasant expectations. Were they met? They were exceeded by far! The music was immaculate and the crowd interaction was superb. The man of the evening (till now in any case) was making jokes and telling us stuff on stage and the overall atmosphere was great. The band played some of their own songs, one song by The Ramones (Blitzkrieg Bop) some Iron Maiden songs (to whom the ex-member referred to as the Spice Girls) and a few of their own songs. In contrast to covers, which often sound very watered down, this bands versions of a few Maiden classics (Wrathchild, Murders In The Rue Morgue, Running Free...) didn't sound the same as the originals either though, they sounded much stronger! Add of course that the whole hall knew the songs and you get a great live experience. The own songs of the band were very great too. Definitely a highlight of the festival.

I would definitely see them again: + +

4.9 Lunatica




I was happy long in advance that I'd be finally able to see this band. I knew Lunatica since quite a while but out of certain circumstances had never had the chance to see them live before and especially after such a killer album as The Edge Of Infinity (feel free to check my review here) the desire to see them got bigger and bigger. So finally the time had come... my expectations were extremely high, so I'm rather surprised that they were actually met. The show started with the spoken intro from TEoI. To me Lunatica sounded extremely much different live then on CD, so I needed a while to get used to this "new" sound. At first I was a bit disappointed by them because of this, but already after one song I was used to it and loved it, I was headbanging and singing along as if my life depended on it. One song more and I decided that for live this "different" sound is even much better. The difference I'm talking about is that the music wasn't quite as atmospheric as on the CD but sounded more "metal," the guitars were a lot more dominant too. Also almost all (except for the growled parts on The Spell) backing vocals and choirs weren't sung by the band, but were samples. The band made a very sympathetic impression on stage, an impression I was able to confirm after the show during my interview, and the crowd loved them.

Would definitely see them again: + +

4.10 Mystic Circle

I missed this band due to them not being my thing and me having an interview with Lunatica (check the interview section if you're interested). The reactions I heard from friends however were all very positive. So if it's your music, check them out.

4.11 Unrest




I must say I can't remember very much of Unrest's show, so I'll limit myself with my criticism here. They played some kind of old school heavy metal, quite heavy for the style though. The band had very "professional" stage acting but I didn't like it too much. They played quite a number of older songs.

I wouldn't want to see them again, not my thing: -

4.12 Brainstorm




Brainstorm is also a band I know since quite a while, I never gave them very much attention though and viewed them as not bad but totally unoriginal. I suppose I still do. But now I can add that they are a great live band. Let me put it like this. They actually controlled the crowd. The vocalist told us what he wanted and we followed his whims. He, and the whole band, just had this certain live-"charisma". Needless to say that we all loved them. There seemed to be a few technical problems as there was someone else on the stage regularly, doing something with the drum kit, taping something on the mic, giving the guitarist a new plectrum, etc. This didn't affect the bands playing though and there weren't any audible problems, so all was ok. Everyone was having a great time but after a while the band had to leave the stage of course, the crowd was still chanting long afterwards, though.

I'd want to see them again: +

4.13 Samael




Due to certain circumstances I'm not really able to recall much of the music or the show of this band... I won't give any more details here and instead just tell the few facts I can actually remember. The band didn't have a drummer and the drum parts were only samples. The guitar and vocals were very heavy with effects, most notably echo effects. Despite the syntheticness of the music it (apparently) sounded extremely awesome and just about everyone who saw them was quite euphoric.

4.14 Epilogue of day 2

Again it was a great day. Granted, I didn't like half of the bands and only actually watched one of the first five bands, but especially AKA Profound, Brainstorm, Paul Di Anno and last but not least, Lunatica, gave us such great shows and such great music that this day was an awesome metal experience. Very tired, but happy, we laid ourselves to rest, looking forward to another day of pure heavy metal.