Written by:	Bas
Published:	January 27, 2007
Event:	End of Dayz Festival (Website)
Location:	z7, Pratteln, Switzerland

1.Table of contents

1. Table of contents
2. Prologue
3. Day 1
3.1 Soul Strip
3.2 Shorts And Churchbells
3.3 The Vision Bleak
3.4 The Order
3.5 Charon
3.6 Communic
3.7 Graveworm
3.8 Destruction
3.9 Epilogue of day 1
4. Day 2
4.1 Cryptic Voice
4.2 Mortal Factor
4.3 AKA Profound
4.4 Sybreed
4.5 Lyzanxia
4.6 Domain
4.7 Mendeed
4.8 Paul Di Anno
4.9 Lunatica
4.10 Mystic Circle
4.11 Unrest
4.12 Brainstorm
4.13 Samael
4.14 Epilogue of day 2
5. Day 3
5.1 Amnesia
5.2 Grey Monday
5.3 Abgrund
5.4 Excelsis
5.5 Daydreamer
5.6 Saidian
5.7 Eluveitie
5.8 One Man Army And The Undead Quartet
5.9 Benedictum
5.10 Perzonal War
5.11 Legion Of The Damned
5.12 Finntroll
5.13 Sodom
5.14 Epilogue of day 3
6. Epilogue

2. Prologue

From the first time I heard of it, this event seemed quite interesting to me. A festival on new year? The event was to take place in the z7, often referred to as the metal temple of Switzerland, half of it would be in the hall itself and the other half in a big heated tent. The bands taking turns with playing in the tent and the hall. 34 Different bands were on the setlist, most of them Swiss and a lot of them German. I was unsure for a long time if I should go or not, but two weeks before the event I ordered my ticket after all and expected to have a rocking new year!

Seen that there were so many bands I will not go into much details of every single band. To make up for this though, I will add a picture of each band (or part of the band) that I've seen and will also mention for each band if they were worth seeing for me and if I would go see them again.

3. Day 1

When I arrived on the first day I was eager for some metal. I deposited my bag in the tent near the entrance and then started my heavy metal odyssey. The only band of the first day which I actually knew was Destruction. Not awesome in my opinion, but quite enjoyable. Thusly I was quite curious what today had in store for me.

3.1 Soul Strip




I said I was eager for some metal didn't I? Yes I did, you all heard me. So what's the matter with that you're asking? Simple, the very first band of the festival was not a metal band. What they were? A rather boring rock band with some very minor gothic influences. Nothing of which I'd expect it to bring joy to a mob of people attending a heavy metal festival. Add the fact that it's always hardest for the first band because the crowd isn't warmed up yet and you get?? An absolutely unimpressed, bored and passive crowd. Not a single person was standing in front of the stage (not counting two drunk teens who stood in front of the stage for five minutes some time in the middle of the show and left again five minutes later) and the vocalist seemed to be very annoyed with us. I'm actually sorry for them, seen that their music really wasn't bad at all for the style they were playing. But that's how life is, having a rather average rock band open a metal festival is simply not a good idea.

I wouldn't want to see them again: -

3.2 Shorts And Churchbells




Shorts And Churchbells were up next. Let me be honest with you, I really didn't expect anything good judging purely by all I knew of the band; the band name and the logo. It turned out though, that my close-mindedness was absolutely stupid (surprising eh? ) and I had been absolutely wrong. SAC were downright awesome melodic death metal. Technical almost to the limit and with very enjoyable stage acting. The guitar and bass sounded very powerful and if I wouldn't have been seeing it, it would have been hard for me to believe that there aren't actually three guitarists on the stage. The music became a tad repetitive after a while, but it was ok since it was still great and I wouldn't have minded if the set had been a bit longer. They played a cover of an At The Gates song and a couple of great songs from themselves. A great new discovery for me, I advise to check them out too.

Would see them live again: +

3.3 The Vision Bleak



Next in line were these guys from Germany. Entering the stage with a medieval/fantasy clothing style and image they started their set with a very long (so it seemed in any case) intro. During the show I wasn't really able to recognize what music style exactly they played. I'm able to say however that their vocals were half spoken and half sung by the main vocalist and there were some growls from the guitarist. The music was headbangable but the show really wasn't memorable for me. They didn't suck at all, I even liked them during the show, but if the only thing you can remember from their whole set was to growl along "Iä, Iä, Cthulhu, Fhtagn" (hell yeah!) then you can be sure that it wasn't really one of the best bands of the festival.

I'm unsure about whether I'd want to see them again: ~

3.4 The Order




Now it was the turn of this heavy metal combo. The music was quite good, seen that this isn't really my style, the guitarist was even great actually. The sound was absolutely unheadbangable though. This combination made the show very nice to watch for a while. Just watching and listening to the music. After about 35 minutes though I began peaking at my watch and hoping that the show is over soon. They were very enjoyable for a while, then became very boring though.

Wouldn't see them again: -

3.5 Charon




Charon were absolutely not my thing. I have to admit though, despite the fact that they were the first band of the festival that couldn't speak German, their crowd interaction was very good. I suppose the music is supposed to be atmospheric on CD, but live it was just really really boring. Nothing more then that. The vocalist sang extremely monotone and flat, without any variation, nor with any emotions. The other musicians were equally boring, this band was nothing more then a complete waste of time and money in my eyes.

Definitely don't want to see them again: - -

3.6 Communic




Communic were one of the highlights of the festival for me. I had never listened to them before but I had heard quite some good opinions, thusly I was looking forwards to them a lot. Their show was simply awesome! The music they played was absolutely great and required very much skill to play, which the band seems to possess in abundance. The best thing about their concert however, might have been the lightshow. Although mainly kept in red/white and orange/yellow the lightshow was made to match the music of the band! Thus the lamps went on and off or swayed according to the beats and rhythms of the music. Next to that it was a pleasure to the eyes to see them play and although the music was great for headbanging too it was hard to keep the eyes off of the band as was the case during headbanging.

Definitely want to see them again: + +

3.7 Graveworm




The next band in line was these black/extreme gothic metalheads from Italy. I hadn't really ever listened to them before, but I liked their music. Their interaction with the crowd however was simply superb. The crowd simply loved them. And if the flying hair and banging of the heads wasn't enough proof for this you could also be convinced by the big amount of people wearing their shirts. Their setlist included a cover of Iron Maiden's Fear Of The Dark which sounded exactly as if it could have been a song by Graveworm themselves! Unfortunately the time seemed to rush by and after an hour which seemed like a quarter of it, the band left the stage. For me and many others the show seemed much to short, but alas, it was time for Destruction now.

I'd want to see them again: +

3.8 Destruction




So this was the last band of the evening? unfortunately it is also the band of which I can say the least. I was, to be honest, on the verge of just falling asleep in the middle of the show. Not because it was a bad show or anything put simply because I was extremely tired. So let me limit myself to a few very basic observations. The band was using pyros a few times during the shows and the crowd contact was good too. Overall the atmosphere was very good. It struck me as rather odd though that there were three microphones on the stage while the guitarist never used a mic and the Schmier the bassist and vocalist only used the middle one two or three times but generally kept to the left microphone.

Not sure if I'd want to see them again: ~

3.9 Epilogue of day 1

The first day of the show was over so let me hit you with some conclusions. The French fries sold at the food stand were great (so what? Food is important to me! ) and the big tent was heated enough so that we didn't have to suffer because of the coldness outside during the tent-shows. Like always the lights in the z7 were a huge bright point (hah, pun!) for the concerts and the general atmosphere was great. Another great feature of the festival was that after almost every band some other band was giving autographs by a small autograph stand in the big tent. Thus all fans had the opportunity to get their CDs signed and maybe have a small chat with their favourite bands. It was very fun and there was even more fun to come during the next few days!