By Hannah Straw 

Photography by Anthony Lovatt 

Brutal Assault,

Josefov @ Jaroměř, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

14-16 August 2008 

www.brutalassault.cz   

Many large metal festivals across Europe had similar line-ups this year, with organisers flocking to book reunion  gigs from At The Gates and Carcass. Brutal Assault, despite being a smaller festival, drew in the same big name bands such as Carcass, Cradle of Filth, Paradise Lost and Arch Enemy, whilst still supporting the local metal scene by providing slots for the likes of Ador Dorath and Malignant Tumour.

The thriving Czech grindcore scene was also represented, with Czech grinders Jig-Ai, Psychotic Despair and Uprise playing alongside Slovak grinders Attack of Rage. Czech thrashers Debustrol graced the stage with larger-scale thrash legends Sodom and Exodus. A wide range of metal spanning many genres and nationalities was available for the punter’s delectation this weekend in Jaroměř.

Happy campers unloaded early on Thursday to ready themselves for the festival start at 3pm. With the sun shining, spirits could not have been higher. Come Friday morning, spirits were damped by the overnight rain, and the lovely natural campsite revealed its true colours as tents flooded due to uneven ground. However, as Italian doomsters Novembre commented ‘this is the perfect weather for this kind of gloomy music’ and a good coating of mud lubes up any mosh pit.

The gem of the weekend has to be the fact that Brutal Assault secured the notoriously picky Carcass to headline. Brits like myself were expecting Carcass to confirm to play the UK metal fest Bloodstock, occurring the same weekend as Brutal Assault. Speculation over why Carcass opted for playing Czech Republic rather than UK is rife, with possible exclusivity clauses stipulated by HellFest or Damnation festival occurring later in the year rumoured, but I suspect that Carcass’s frontman Jeff Walker’s good friend Cold Hard Cash may have been the crux of choice for shows with the fruits offered by Brutal Assault being significantly juicer and more tempting.

From the moment Jeff Walker and the rest of Carcass entered the stage it was pure entertainment, banter, and amazing riffs. All the classics were played, No Love Lost, Corporeal Jigsore Quandry, Heartwork. It was very much centred towards a Czech audience with Walker reminiscing about the times Carcass have played in Czech Republic previously. There was a bit of more serious on-stage discussion about all the crazy stuff that happens in the world- Russian troops moving into Georgia almost exactly forty years on from the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Iraq and other global political issues- but the fact that metal unites people from all over the world as evidenced by the different nationalities present at Brutal Assault, was a heart-warming message felt by most.

Rather more contentious was when Polish death metallers Behemoth claimed they had arrived in the Czech Republic to ‘burn this mother-fucking country to the ground and leave nothing but ashes’, the response to which was shocked silence, with a few weak cries of ‘Polska, Polska!’ emanating from a small portion of the crowd. It might have been Behemoth’s idea of a joke, but it’s hard not to take anything the imposing and brooding frontman Nergal says seriously. However, this minor incident aside, Brutal Assault’s message of ‘against violence and intolerance’ as emblazoned on stage banners was widely accepted and practiced by all. 

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