Heavy metal at the end of summer

My brother and I went to a festival on saturday: The Summers End [sic]  at Andernach! I originally saw the poster advertising it at the Rheinkultur festival a couple of weeks ago, and research showed that it was a small festival on some field outside a village.

Hoooowever, and this is big, there were several of the major names of the german gothic metal scene there: Subway to Sally, Letzte Instanz, die apokalyptischen Reiter. A quite amazing line-up actually, not to mention a good supporting casts with old friends like Van Canto, the 100%-guaranteed bravest band in the history of metal. Also, the only a capella band in the history of metal.

The drive was a little bit longer than we’d expected, but weather was excellent, the sun beating down and a light breeze cooling all the black-clads. We missed Van Canto (longer drive, remember?), but the first band we saw turned out to be the surprise of the evening: The previously-unknown Coppelius, styled after Hoffmann’s The Sandman (meaning 18th century garb, white make-up and a rather florid style of speech) presented themselves with Cellos, Oboes and interesting song-writing. A pleasant surprise, and I took a CD home with me.

The rest of the festival varied between excellent and okay: Saltatio Mortis and die apokalyptischen Reiter were not as appealing as Coppelius had been, but Letzte Instanz and particularly Subway to Sally showed their full abilities – these two bands are not my longtime favorites for nothing.

I think Andernach will be seeing me again next year – the field-and-forest atmosphere is kinda nice, and the bands were a really good deal for the low price.