Winter Here, Summer There – A Summary
SummerFest’21 I A Place For Friendship and Metal
Metal4Africa, South Africa 20210130
If something is unique about Metal culture, it’s the cohesion that works worldwide. A proof for that is the South African SummerFest’21 run by Metal4Africa, which is hold online on Twitch and Discord and is followed from e.g. Thailand, Peru and Germany.
In the beginning, the two hosts Pat and Nate welcome the viewers and tell them about the program and the prohibition in their state. Then they get right to the first act Sunken State from Johannesburg, who tell about aspects of the band like their name and lyrics and their new sound. “This Is The End” is their signboard. To support them and the other groups, PayPal connections are provided.
To loosen up the stream, Mistress of Mischief tells jokes between the contributions like “If you listen a Death song a million times it becomes a Megadeth song” or “What vegetable do a lot of metalheads like? – Korn“. Chaos Doctrine send a live performance with a fistful of visitors, nasty and brutal. In the chat you can learn that they are connected to Sacraphyx and Warinsane. The Medea Project not only has an interesting name relating to Greek mythology but the two-piece scores with kettledrums and tunes like “Fear”.
Edward Banchs then announces Facing The Gallows, as he has travelled many African countries for his book Heavy Metal Africa and the follow-up. The band itself has a new EP “MMXX” and shows their equipment. As the only solo artist, Ric Shields of Sundergeist cloned himself and names NIN, Frontline Assembly, 3Teeth, KMFDM and Ministry as inspiration.
Subsequently, Hiraeth can be seen on stage at Rumours Rock City, having Djent impacts and making a viewer levitate, as one says in the comments. Pat’s own formation Mind Assault gives a preview on their upcoming “The Cult Of Conflict” with DIY videos of “Wraak”, “Descension” and “New World Order”. Concerning the festival, the hardest part is the decision to do it and the rest is only work, he tells afterwards.
Darkroom Productions then presents songs of Mr. Morgue, Portraits Of Flesh, In Misery and Horrid before an interview with Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder is shown, saying “Death Metal keeps me young”. Riddlebreak tell about their new EP “Architeuthis”, and Lwandile Prusent of Cryoplegia about his busy music projects including Vulvodynia, Technopath and Xavleg.
The final band is MA-AT, playling “Promised End” and “Yawning Gap”. After wonderful five hours, Pat and Nate say goodbye, announcing the WinterFest and next SummerFest, that hopefully will be both, online and physical.