The first time I went to Obscene was way back in
2008 and ever since I have wanted to go back but never got the chance until
this amazing 2022 edition. There were tons of last-minute plan changes and I
feared it isn’t gonna happen this time, but being the most persistent person on
the planet, I managed to turn everything around and on Tuesday evening of the
12th of July we were off to OEF! Kabo, Taliban, and I were the initial trio,
but we picked up another OEF fanatic Vilča at the bus station, then met another
cool guy Simon that joined in Maribor, upon arrival we found out that another
guy from Zagreb, Ivan, was also on our bus to Obscene and in Prague one Kabo’s
friend, Ivan the Russian, was waiting for us to join our mad crew from hell.
The three-hour train to Trutnov was a hell of a
pre-party with basically the entire train full of us Obscene maniacs traveling
to the battlefield. Upon the arrival at the train station, someone was filming
the arrival of the wild horde from the Krakonoš train. That must have been a
great scene from the other perspective! So we arrived in Trutnov and the first
step - our hotel Alfa and our host Norman. His name is not Norman, but I call
him that, will let you know later why haha
We just left our stuff and a minute later we were
on our way to the battlefield. The festival was as I remember it, and in some
ways better as the camping area has moved, if I remember correctly, and now
it’s in a better spot. Or maybe we were just idiots back in 2008 when we put
our tent on the landslide and the beautiful Czech wetter did its magic with
it…Oh well. So after 7 years in a row of camping at the festivals, for the past
10 years we were mostly looking for hostels or to stay with friends. We might
try the camp next year though, who knows. Anyway, we arrived at the battlefield
and as mentioned, everything was amazing as I remember it, and better. From the
locker place to the amazing food and drink tents, the distro market, and
finally the best auditorium with unbeatable acoustics where every band sounds
perfect wherever you might be standing - even during wild thunderstorms! Yeah,
the Czech weather again!
The first day was more exploring and hanging out
so, unfortunately, I didn’t give the program my fullest attention and we missed
Vole, but I did catch Masaž and the Deaf Kids which were great. For the past
two years, I got a bit more flexible with my musical taste, they say this comes
with age haha so Masaž with their jazz psychedelic and Deaf Kids with their
tribal psychedelic intermezzos were a refreshing novelty, so I’d recommend
checking them out. I was never a fan of the slow stoner sludge doom sounds so I
skipped the bands that played in that style. As we were dead from the travel
and wanted to be refreshed for day one, we went to the hotel around midnight.
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| Social Chaos |
Thursday was maybe the best
day for me bendwise, since there was not a single band on the lineup that I
wanted to skip. It was a really good mix of hardcore/crust/trash/death and
grindcore in all possible combinations. Heresy and Crisix brought the best in
class trash metal, Ona Snop and Infest served us a good dose of uncompromising
fast core and the old school legends Onslaught, Memoriam, Skit System and
Incantation performed some of their best stuff and, in, my opinion, all of them
offered excellent performances. Phantom Corporation and God Macabre were also
amazing. These were the bands I most clearly remember, but all the other ones I
caught didn’t disappoint as well so I’d recommend checking out all the bands on
the Obscene’s 2022 Thursday lineup. The first band started at 10 AM and the
last one ended at 2 AM so my plan to see them all was very ambitious. In the
end, we came around 11 and I managed to catch almost all the bands until 11 PM,
so that ended up decent. It needed a nice amount of discipline - so I had
enough sleep and took my food, water, and beer in just the right orders and
amounts to fully enjoy the fest and see all the bands.
The Ever flowing stream India pale ale beer was this year’s Obscene beer and it
was awesome. I’m not much of a beer drinker but I enjoy a quality IPA and this
was it! The only minus was the Czech weather that started to unleash its wrath
on us. It started in time Memoriam started to play if I remember right, and it
lasted forever. The festival, in Obscene tradition, continues regardless of the
weather conditions so if you need to enjoy your band in the pit and it’s just
your luck the storm hit, I’d advise you to get some rain- and mudproof gear.
But if you don’t, it won’t be tragic. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality
of the Trutnov soil. It’s red and thick so if you don’t try to wash it - and I
recommend you don’t, it dries nicely on its own very fast! The ground we’re on
is on our side!
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Heresy
|
Friday and Saturday were equally amazing, but
unlike Thursday, I wasn’t dying to see every band, so it was way more relaxing.
We came early both on Friday and Saturday as well so I did get the chance to
see loads of bands again, and from all that I’ve seen, I’d say maybe I went to
leave for the beer tent during only two of them. Now that’s a line-up!
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| Benediction |
The first band that I saw on Friday was the
female fronted power violence/ hard core Hetze. The energy and performance was
outstanding. I think they’re more hard core/fast core than powerviolence since
I’m not much of a fan of powerviolence and this band was just my fit. I’d
highly recommend catching them while. Vomi Noir provided a decent classical
gore grind set and Galvanizer exploded with their grind death masked into their
trash metal outfits. With Aggressive Tyrants we finally got our first dose of
the llegendary Czech grindcore that never disappoints. Along with Skitsystem,
Social Chaos and Mob 47 were the only bands I’ve seen before and they nailed it
again, no surprises there. The legendary Benediction put on a hell of a show.
That was the band i have the most filmed footage from and I’ve been replaying
it since I came back. The performance was A+
and it was great to see the band enjoying themselves as much as we have.
By the time Dismemeber and Midnight performed, I was so tired and wet from that
lovely Czech rain that I can’t say I was enjoying myself as much as I wanted
to, so hope to see both bands again when I’ll be in a better shape - nedless to
say, they were both fenomenal.
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| Crisix |
For the last day, Saturday, I have only three
bands to mention. Everything else is brain fog I’m afraid haha. Indian
Nightmare, as expected, put on a wild show, both musically and visually
impressive. Carnal Diafragma were another classic Czech gore grind, pure
perfection of the genre - and the audience were the wildest on them - at least
compared to everything I saw for the past three days. Check out the circus on
YouTube! Finally, Hellbastard played mostly their early stuff what was a
pleasant surprise.
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| Indian Nightmare |
As a recap - well, you already read it - everything was amazing.
The organization was flawless, nothing was missed. If I were to change something,
I’d maybe add more bands to Wednesday to have fewer bands for each day,
just for us fanatics that find the lineup so good they need to catch them all,
but physically find it hard ‘cause we’re not young anymore haha
There were some complaints about the food and drink prices.
I really can’t comment on that before I organize such a festival myself.
They were expensive for Croatian standards, especially the food,
but I still think it is way more affordable compared to some other festivals.
And it was top quality! The one thing I’d need to comment on is that the bartenders
tried to cheat us for cups and billed them twice multiple times.
I hope this won’t happen again.
I haven’t been to festivals in many countries,
just Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, and the Czech Republic so it’s a small sample
to compare - but for me, the Czech republic was always something special and
when I look to travel to a festival or to see a gig of a band that’s not coming
to Croatia, I always choose Czechia. The people are very friendly, easy going
and even among the civilians, I can’t remember if I ever had any bad
experiences with the way we look. We never even got a bad look from anyone -
young or old.
Obscene Extreme is one of these places where you
can feel welcome, and comfortable, and be whoever you want to be. In that
spirit loads of people put on all possible crazy costumes, some for fun, some
to shock and surprise, and some use the opportunity to dress up at least once a
year like their hearts desire. Obscene Extreme is the only festival where you
can see bands like Bendetiction seriously pulling some hard riffs while a bunch
of cartoon-like characters are dancing on the stage and stage-diving with
inflatable children’s gear. If you by any chance - not sure how that’s possible
- but if you accidentally come to the festival in a bad mood, I guarantee you
that these scenes will put a smile on your face!
2008 was insane, 2022 was mad, and I hope to
revisit Obscene Extreme for many more years to come.
I totally forgot about Norman, and I promised you
I’ll tell you about him that haha. Well, when we came drunk the first night at
the Hotel, it was very dark, we weren’t sure where the entrance was, and in
front of the entrance was one old lady sitting in the dark - and if my memory
is not playing games with me- she was knitting as well. We tried to explain
that we are the hotel's guests but she was distrustful and went to catch Norman
who approved and let us in haha. Later we were joking that she was his mom and
that they run the place together. Bad joke, I know!
So, there you have it, my sweet little Obscene
report. Can’t wait for the next year! I started planning already!
Ana
