Photos: Ana & Kabo
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 |
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
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