Metal4Africa.com

M4A WinterFest’09 took place on Saturday, 1 August 2009 @ Klein Libertas Theater in Stellenbosch, RSA.

Winter in Stellenbosch is usually a quiet time of year as students return for the third semester and begin focusing on year end.  But, then again, that always leaves room for one last big party in the well known winelands student town.  METAL4AFRICA clearly stepped right up with exactly that.

Paul Bothner Music, as has become customary, jumped onboard with METAL4AFRICA to send the masses off on their long journey towards year end by kitting out the stage with some of the best metal gear available.  There could not have been a better weekend to do so.

These METAL4AFRICA events have evolved into the metal communities most revered calendar dates, and attracts enthusiasts of the genre from all corners of the Cape Town region, as well as from far-off cities.   WinterFest’09 featured some of Cape Town’s (and the country’s) top metal acts, such as Mind Assault, Day Turns Night and Azrail as well as SubMission from Namibia and Theater Runs Red from Durban – and not to mention the host of upcoming local bands including Symphonic Schizophrenia, Stellitius, Norse Code and a final send-off show for Original Sin.

As an added feature, WinterFest’09 included a unique performance concept which has come to be known as the SHREDDER SHOWDOWN.  It’s quite simple, really.  Take a handful of the areas more accomplished lead guitarists and tell them to prepare a blitzing shred!  Then place them onstage in front of a lively audience – The results were electrifying!  We look forward to seeing how this concept grows in the future.

Hungry Masses Gathering

The show kicked off with Symphonic Schizophrenia, an instrumental band featuring Bruce Sonnekus, one of the Shredder Showdown champs.  They brought many oooh’s and aaaah’s from the gathering masses who seemed to be caught completely by surprise at the skill presented onstage, and brought on some much needed warmth on that cold Winters day.

Original Sin followed with an electrifying set.  After an intriguing musical journey with the band before, the crowd was quite clearly ready for some high octane action!  As their last gig ever, Original Sin pulled out all the stops, no bars held, notching the rooms temperature up by quite a few positions, and action ensued.

With the pace already set, Stellitius were not going to allow things to digress – oh no!  Definitely one of the most interesting bands to recently emerge from the Cape Town scene, these guys wrangled the crowd quickly into the palms of their hands with a crafty blend of old-school progressive and a touch of thrash.  It was just the variety needed and the crowd got down and dirty… especially when Stellitius offered a brand new Fender Squire to some lucky dude in the pit!

Next up were our visitors from Durbs, Theater Runs Red!  Their brand of Black Metal meets Death gave the audience an almost literal impression as six ominous looking characters emerged on stage.  Clad in black and looking quite ghastly, this group of guys and girls proved that their fashion director is not the only talented division of their entourage – no fan of extreme music could have expressed disappointment after that! Within minutes, the audiences’ key point of interest was survival from an onslaught of brutality.

Metal Chicks & Lotsa Hair!

Day Turns Night are no strangers to Stellenbosch or M4A.  In fact, some even believe them to be a resident band at the Klein Libertas Theater - and the audience definitely treated them as such.  Having perfected their performance of music from months of preparation for the debut album “Fallen Legacy”, this band certainly delivered one of the tightest sets imaginable.  If things were hot before, they were glowing red by the time the boys from Day Turns Night had dusted off their hands.

Next up were the Namibian visitors, SubMission.  As first-timers to the Cape Town scene, it was impressive to see punters clinging to light fittings on the walls to get a better look at the stage.  This was certainly a special gig for the boys, as it was their first time playing on South African soil – and certainly, it was a memorable gig for their legions of new fans, who may have to wait a long time to relive the glory.  Power Metal to the max!

Metal Workers Union - aka: Mind Assault

Then, in a venue where temperatures already closely resembled the inside of an exhaust pipe, Mind Assault simply melted the stage!  The sharp ends of not one, but two Jackson V’s flitted about dangerously as guitarists bludgeoned their way through a wall of double-bass drumming and pulsing bass.  Jacques raging vocals sliced neatly through the mix as a full-house crowd bounced in unison and chanted along, “ek – is – mag – te – loos…” while a scantily clad pole dancer teased from above!  What followed will only be believed if you were there, but involved pickets, hardhats, monopoly money and all sorts of other things.

All agreed, then?

Azrail took to the stage and spared not one soul.  Perhaps Cape Towns leading technical death metal band, perhaps not?  We’ll let you decide, but at that given time when they took to the stage, all in attendance were instantly converted believers.  Stage blood deluxe, murderous riffs and carnage in the mosh pit… the guys simply doing what they do best.

Azrail don't bother with cooking their meat

Brand new to the local metal scene, we at M4A were eager to snatch up this band for one of our events.  Norse Code closed the night with their rock solid melodic death, and in hearing them play, much sense can be made of the bands name.  Although the crowd had been virtually dismantled by the 8 bands that performed earlier, Norse Code were able to revive the masses for one last mighty battle-cry!

In short, such was the force and intensity of energy contained in that small town that the Bothner staff should consider themselves lucky to have gotten their equipment back!  By the third band I suspected that only charred remains might be left behind for them to forage through for spare parts.   But the gear held true!  The LANEY VH100R, and LANEY GH100L guitar amplifiers have already proven themselves worthy throughout 5 of these tormenting trials that they call METAL4AFRICA, and have never sounded better.  In fact, the valves loaded into these babies sang with joy the hotter they were pushed, and from my perch backstage, I could see them literally glowing with pleasure.

But alas!  Although SummerFest’2010 looms on the horizon, it is still a six month wait until January 31, and there will never be another WinterFest’09.  Don’t miss the next one…