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What Do Push Ups And A Full Orchestra Have In Common? The Answer Is Brutal Assault Day 3.

If any of you happened to read my Road Report of Brutal Assault Day 2, I pointed out that today (Day 3) was going to be extremely busy day. I wasn’t lying. By the end of the night, I had stage hopped 10 bands and it was exhausting. Not in an I couldn’t take it anymore sort of way but more of feeling that I survived the day. If you were expecting to read about all ten bands in detail, well, I have some bad news…that’s not going to happen. I wouldn’t be doing the bands justice with a two-sentence report on each one. However, what I’m going to write about is who the most memorable bands from Day 3 were and what made them stand out from the rest that played that day.

I have never been motivated to see any band that plays during the hours of breakfast. That is just asinine. Today, that all changed. After only getting 3 hours of sleep (we arrived back at our hotel room around 2:30 a.m.) my wife and I woke up at 6 a.m. and I somehow inexplicably convinced her to skip breakfast, grab a coffee to-go for the one-hour train ride to Brutal Assault. I absolutely had to be there for the start of the Scottish Death Metal Party Slammers,
Party Cannon.

I normally skip the early start bands because I value my limited and precious sleep more. This was different. The day before their show at Brutal Assault, Party Cannon posted on their socials that they wanted to break a “world record” for the largest push-up pit (Yup, you read that right) ever recorded at a concert. The only way to find out if it happened was to be there. I’m a sucker for shit like this and fuck my life that I was going to do it.

Party Cannon fans ready to get their exercise on!

The sun was already blinding and was a tad bit warm by the time we arrived at the festival grounds. To my surprise, there was already a large crowd gathering around the stage where Party Cannon was set to play. I guess they were excited to get their work-out on that would include copious amounts of moshing, head banging and push-ups. I observed dozens of early risers chugging Pilsners waiting for Party Cannon to take stage. My best guess is that they were most likely carb-loading, pre-workout. This crowd was obviously laden with fitness freaks.

Skeletor egging on the Party Cannon crowd

A short time later, someone wearing a bright green Skeletor mask and draped in the Scottish flag started prancing around the stage with a neon-colored cardboard craft sign that simply said, “Party.” That’s all it took for the crowd to into full workout mode. Party Cannon entered the stage and then the only way I can describe the energy was likening it to a hurricane making landfall sans water and winds. This was at least a category four event.

Stony of Party Cannon

What I love about Party Cannon is they egg on their pits non-stop. That’s just their MO and I think the music is secondary. That’s just how they roll. There were plenty of blow-up pool toys flying about, maybe not as many as you might see at a Gutalax show, but enough to at least fill an Olympic sized pool. There were also plenty of crowd surfers and beers flying all over the place. What really caught my eye was a large dude being cradled in a yellow blow-up pool raft. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a fuzzy green bear headpiece and headbanging the whole time while the pitsters (Is that a word?) underneath him carried him around the pit like he was the emperor of Party Cannon shenanigans.

Proof that Party Cannon plays music

As advertised, the push up pit happened during their final song. I’m not sure if it broke any “record” per se, but I guesstimated that there were almost 100 or so getting their Party Cannon push up work-out on. There was even a wrestling match that took place for a wayward drumstick after the show. That side-show lasted about two minutes without a single injury to either competitor. Party Cannon couldn’t be any prouder of the amount of calories burned that day. And for us? It was a great start to a brutal day of stage hopping that awaited us.

Amateur wrestling match after Party Cannon

My wife and I were able to catch a little bit of LIK, Ufomammut, Legion of the Damned, Villagers of Ioannina City and Jinger during the afternoon hours. I’ll just mention that this was my first time seeing Legion of the Damned and I really enjoyed their set. I don’t know why or how I’ve chosen to skip over them at past festivals, but I won’t make that same mistake again.

Legion of the Damned

When I first looked at Brutal Assault’s running order, I wondered why they scheduled Left to Die on one of the main stages? I just saw them play for a scarce thirty people or so in a basement venue in Phoenix, Arizona a few months prior. Left to Die for all intents and purposes is a Death cover band and if you ask me, the best one out there currently. I favor Death’s earliest releases and “Spiritual Healing” is where I think golden era ends. After that, I feel that the primal rawness of arguably the first band to coin the phrase “Death Metal” was snuffed out. I’m not saying “Human” and everything thereafter was bad, I just preferred their earlier material and Left to Die celebrates the true, classic era of Death.

As we were making our way from far end of the festival grounds towards the main stages where Left to Die would play, I couldn’t help but notice that there were dozens of people heading in the same direction. There was a healthy-sized crowd already gathered at the stage ten minutes before show started and the excitement in the air was palpable. I couldn’t grasp what was going on. We were all going to see a cover band for fucks sake. Right about that moment, the proverbial light bulb switched on for me. I forgot that Chuck Schuldiner only played a handful of shows in Europe while he was alive. This was probably the first time the overwhelming majority of the crowd would hear these songs played live.

Rick Rozz and Matt Harvey of Left to Die

Left to Die’s vocalist, Matt Harvey, is vocally a dead ringer for Death’s earlier work. In addition, this is the closest that Europe will ever get to experiencing the original lineup with Rick Rozz and Terry Butler playing classics from “Leprosy” and “Scream Bloody Gore.” I can still hear the crowd singing along to “Pull the Plug.” This was one of the my most unexpected and most memorable sets of this jampacked day. The crowd couldn’t get enough of Left to Die.

Matt Harvey of Left to Die

The remaining bands after Left to Die were Candlemass, Cult of Fire and Kampfar. I’ve seen and reported on both Candlemass and Kampfar several times before, so apologies in advance if you’re still reading this for the skinny on them. That’s not going to happen and instead, I’m going to write about Czech Republic legends, Cult of Fire. This was going to be a once in a lifetime, “You just had to be there,” set.

The hype leading up to this special set was that Cult of Fire would be performing with the Bohemian Symphony Orchestra Prague to pay tribute to Bedrich Smetana. He is regarded in these parts as the father of Czech music. When I arrived at the photo pit area, it was so packed around the swing gate, I knew that this was going to be a big deal. When the massive stage curtain dropped, there was a full orchestra seated to the left side of the stage with a live composer in tow. Cult of Fire are known for their elaborate stage costuming, but tonight they were donning garb that you would see the bourgeoisie wearing at a Victorian era gala. It only added to the overall atmosphere for this special event.

The orchestra during Cult of Fire

On the whole, I loved Cult of Fire’s set. I heard other media types complaining about one thing or another. Maybe because I’m not Czech, I didn’t understand their critiques. All I know is that I really enjoyed the uniqueness of tonight’s set. The only thing I could ding tonight’s set was some of the volume levels were wonky. I thought the orchestra was a little too low in volume and the double bass of the drummer’s kick drums was too bassy. Other than that, it’s a set that stuck in my memory after the festival ended and I can still recall the details from it while writing this. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, there was plenty of fire pyrotechnics that Cult of Fire is known for. I don’t know how I missed that part.

Cult of Fire

Cult of Fire had one of the most enjoyable sets throughout all of the thirty-one bands I saw at Brutal Assault 2024. Tomorrow would be the final day of the festival. On paper, it was going to be less hectic and I was looking forward to finally getting some decent sleep tonight. Because of the band we had penciled in, the running order was teasing us with a late start tomorrow.

You can see the full photo gallery from the today’s of Brutal Assault, click here!