Music, Crowd & more

Escalate Festival

My Immortals.. Welcome to BEHIND THE NOISE!

 

On 08 October announced one of the smallest and most intense indoor festivals whose name already determines the program of the day: The Escalate Festival opened its doors and invited to an unforgettable Saturday to celebrate life with a lot of underground. As the home of many bands and the heart of the scene in the district of Euskirchen, the festival is now part of our must-see program, which is why we mingled with the crowd again this year.

 

My Immortals, our festival report on this year's Escalate.

In the middle of Stotzheim the Escalate Festival took place in the Klosterhof, which could convince again with its small stage and the quaint interior. The former cinema and today's event hall has long been home to the BlattTurbo family and their band evenings and now also for the second time the location for the festival. Also this year, the metal and punk community from the surrounding area gathered to see familiar bands again and discover new ones in a living room-like atmosphere. The merchandise stand in front of the hall was made for it, in order to dress up in advance suitably with a hoodie of Ice Cream At The Alligator Park or a T-shirt from BlattTurbo to dress up. In the hall itself there were freshly printed Escalate Festival shirts, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag whose solidarity was only underlined once again with an LGBTQ+ Putin shirt,

which was also available there. At this year's festival there was a wide line-up of many different bands, which are either brand new in the scene or already belong to our insider tips. Between punk, rock and metal, bands were chosen that could not be more different and unusual, where nevertheless a suitable mix was found by the organizer BlattTurbo: The first four bands classified themselves in punk and brought this well-known freedom-loving mood to the stage of the Klosterhof. Started with Helidus, who gave punk its purest form with his acoustic guitar and socio-critical lyrics, it went on with Manunkind. who interpreted this in their own way in their chosen rough tone. One of our highlights from the punk lineup was definitely Senor Pilz, who celebrated their second ever appearance with the Escalate Festival.

Before that, we had never seen a gig where they sang about their own grandma, rolled a cigarette butt on stage and performed an entire song in Spanish. Not to forget Christian Lindner, who left such a strong impression on the band that two songs were dedicated to him. Senor Pilz is a total package, in which even everyone in the band to the singer can also sing and this task is shared with pleasure. Here, punk meets a groovy sound, which, above all, due to the humorous nature of the band and their passion for music, has become a memorable experience, which we are so happy to repeat again. Null Agenda, the last band from the genre, duly closed this with a series of songs played in classic punk manner. With Destinova, Cell and Ice Cream At The Alligator Park followed three bands that are among our highlights of the day.

Destinova classifies itself in grunge/alternative rock, but what we heard was more multifaceted and multi-layered than it can be just one genre. Everything about the band is a little different, peculiar and exactly this original nature is also found in their sound, which can be described as a mixture of classic metal, doom metal and alternative metal with rock influences. Especially fans of bands like Black Sabbath or Purple Dawn should listen to them and their new record "Pieces". The band performs live as harmoniously as on their debut album and rounds off their performance with their technical skills. They put their energy to the music in their dynamic performance, which despite instruments and microphone stands was no obstacle to reach the audience with their songs. A completely successful performance to which we take our hats off - Chapeau!

Cell was one of the most powerful acts of the day. Rap metal meets metalcore, you could say, because the band played a strong mixture of both, characterized by the singer duo Madete and Kevin. Always alternating there was to hear from both rap with guttural or melodic vocals, whose intensity gave hardly time to catch your breath. This was complemented by the harmonious interplay of the entire band, which literally heated each other up from song to song. The result was songs like "Wake Up" or "Sidelines", from their EP of the same name, where even the audience in the back rows couldn't stand still. Ice Cream At The Alligator Park or also called ICATAP, we were already allowed to see on one of the Band evenings which had brought its entire fan base from Kerpen to the performance at the beginning of the year.

Now we were allowed to see the band for the second time, which has developed a lot even in this short time. Energetic and above all with a lot of desire for the stage the band opened with their latest singles "Birdie" and "Creep". Their alternative rock sound with its faster, harder as well as slower, more sensitive songs was just the combo the audience could use after the power workout with Cell. ICATAP is still quite young, but this fresh passion, which is especially embodied by their singer Miri, shows the potential of a band that is just starting out. Especially the heavier songs remind us a bit of Guano Apes, but sometimes also of Yours Truly, which is why we can only recommend you to listen in! We really hope to see the band again soon, who made their performance unforgettable once again.

This year's Escalate Festival brought bands from a wide variety of musical genres together with fans whose community is expanding around BlattTurbo magazine. Familiar faces meet new ones here, who are warmly welcomed, both by spectators and bands, who cheer each other on during their performances. The personal atmosphere is exactly what makes the festival so exceptional and also the reason why even a long journey is worthwhile to experience it.

 

Kudos to the crew at BlattTurbo for making this happen beyond the band nights.

Concerts, festivals and more

In our BEHIND THE NOISE column we write about everything around the metal & rock scene and take a look behind the spotlights to give you a better insight into the concert. At this concert, too, we were able to collect exciting and new memories, which we will of course not withhold from you. Intense, unconventional and intoxicating. Welcome to the concert!

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