Wednesday:

The music was first set to start on the Thursday, but as the camp opened up already the day before, this was the day we decided to show up (to secure a good spot, and also get the wristband issues out of the way).
I must admit, I’m really happy about our newly acquired GPS, as the festival was located quite far away from any larger sign of civilization; with just an ordinary map, it would probably have been a killer trying to find it!

As we arrived in Jaromer, and the old army fortress Josefov, things seemed a bit chaotic, and I got some flashbacks to our visit to the Benátská Noc, another Czech festival we visited a few years back. Cars were parked all over town (as you are not allowed to bring your car to the camping-ground), and tents were found on every free spot of green, be it drive-ways or just by the side of the road.
Still, there were two forms of organized camping, the normal camping ground, and a special VIP camping ground which was actually more a Secure Camp, as it was open for all (for a small contingent of course) and featured increased security in the form of guards and lights among other things.
We chose our dear car, for the convenience of it, and found a nice shady spot to park not far from the entrance alley.

For unknown reasons the opening to the wristband booth was a bit delayed, as we were also a bit late arriving we still avoided a long wait. Waiting in line however, a strange thing occurred; I was recognized by an English speaking visitor from earlier years. Odd, since it was my first time; I suspect alcoholic substances were involved in some way...

Later in the day we took a stroll around town, and went for food in a pizzeria which had left flyers in all car windows. This, sadly, turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment, and we quickly decided not to return there again.

Even though the music wasn’t starting till the day after, the whole area was opened anyway, and we could get a nice feel for the layout of the festival area without the pressure of having bands playing at the same time.
Inside there were loads of food stands, although not all were open yet, but they didn’t pick our interest as we still had the memory of the lasagnes from earlier. Instead we wanted to make our acquaintance made with the Czech beer which was advertised as sold for one Euro for half a litre from the tap. This was not entirely true; Brutal Assault uses coupons instead of money for drinks and food, a Gambrinus beer cost 1 coupon, and for ten Euros you got nine coupons. Close enough, and the beer tasted great in our parched throats.
We also made a quick run through the metal market, which wasn’t really open yet, and also peeked inside the Horror Cinema tent which had been put up as an alternative to the music, before heading back for the night.

Thursday:

The first day of music, and what a line-up we were given!
This day held most of the bands I wanted to see, like Pain, Biohazard and Turisas; but first it was time for some smaller names, at least they were less known to me.
First stop of the day however was the Horror Cinema tent, which by the plan should be showing the Danish computer animated comedy Terkel I Knibe, a true gem of a film. Something had gone wrong though, and instead they were showing some detective story or something which didn’t pick our immediate interest. That, and the immense heat inside the tent, sent us out in search of something to eat instead. We found an ok burger place, from which we went for a sit-down at a table in the beer tent for shade and something to drink.

A bit past five it was time for our first musical experience of the festival, in the guise of Swedish heavy boys Darkane. After them we saw a bit of Sadus, as we walked around the place some more and also checked out the nature plateau, a place on top of an old bunker opposite the two stages, where one could sit down and enjoy the music without the pressure of being in the pit.
We came down again for Rotting Christ, who made a convincing show, followed a little later by Orphaned Land who surprised me in a good way.
After these bands, it was time for the ones I was really looking forward to, the ones I mentioned in the start as well. Pain entered the Metalshop Stage as soon as Orphaned Land was finished with their set, and after Pain it was straight back to the Obscure Stage as Biohazard dealt out a perfect dose of New York Hardcore.
Finally, it was time for a short break, in which we decided to go get some supper in the shape of the most excellent toasts I’ve ever tried (this was a booth we had located earlier in the day, and also the food stand we frequented the most throughout the whole festival).
After this, it was time to correct our mistake at Wacken, and go up and see the warrior Vikings of Turisas, who also played on the Obscure Stage.

The plan was to stay up for the ending band of the day, Brutal Truth, and as there was one band in between, we went to sit down and get something to drink in the bar which lay just next to the stages, inside one of the old bunkers. Strangely, Brutal Truth had changed place with Cynic, who were supposed to play earlier in the day. If it had been announced or not, I cannot say, but we had most definitely not heard or seen anything about it.
Instead of sticking around, we chose to back to the car instead, to get ready for another well-filled day the day after.

Friday:

The plan for this day was to get up early and see Casketgarden, but somehow the shady parking we had found held us tight beneath the covers for a bit too long, and after entering the festival site we had to go for some more toasts, after which the we spent the day socializing with several nice people we had met, as well as trying out a some more of the Gambrinus beer, the official festival beer. I also took a glass of the dark Kozel, which also tasted absolutely amazing. Apparently it has won the Dark Beer Of The Year award for seven years(!), and as it was also served up in half litre glasses for the nice price of one coupon I couldn’t refrain from trying it. An instant hit.

Music had to wait until half past one, where Negurǎ Bunget put out some ambient black metal from the Obscure Stage, and after this we headed straight over to the other stage for the much harder boys of Vomitory, a show best forgotten if it was up to me.
A short break later it was time to see Grave on the very same stage, and after them we had some free time before Vreid, who we wanted to see as we had missed most of their show the last time we saw them.

Reaching the evening, Pestilence destroyed the Metalshop stage, but I was unable to focus too much on them, as the next band was the very reason for us to go Brutal Assault this year in the first place. In came Brujeria, and theirs was a performance I will not forget for quite some time!
We decided to skip Opeth this time around, as they have failed to catch neither Lunah’s (Lauridsen, our photographer) nor my interest so far (we will probably regret this terribly one day when we get it), and instead came back strong with yet another stellar performance from Testament.
After the thrash-heads, it was time for a complete change of mood as Ulver took the Metalshop stage in possession and let their ambient electronic flow over the otherwise so violent metal crowd. When they finished, the style made one more 180, and the brutal men of Dark Funeral let their (more fitting) black metal rip the night to shreds.
The metalcore band Evergreen Terrace, who was the last band of the night, wasn’t really something for us so after a quick midnight snack we went to sleep after yet another day of true metal festival life...

Saturday:

This day we actually managed to get up in time for the band we had planned to see, which was Agathodaimon. The reason was none other than Lunah having a good memory of the singer from several years ago. Odd reason maybe, and the singer had been changed as well, but still the experience wasn’t a total disaster; in fact, they managed to pull a quite good performance out for the morning-tired audience.

As the Saturday held the least interesting bands, in my mind anyway, we held a break from the music, and just walked around a bit sucking up the atmosphere of the festival after Agathodaimon’s show, and we didn’t return to the stages until it was time for Hate Eternal to punish us with some brutal death metal.
On a whim, we stuck around and watched our fellow Danes in Raunchy after they had finished, and was in this way awarded with the biggest surprise of the festival, as they played a very lively and gripping concert on the Obscure Stage.

Anaal Nathrakh was briefly watched, and a few others had to make do without us, as it was back to the cavernous bunker bar for us, which provided a much needed shelter from the unrelenting sun. Since it had such thick walls and roof, it also stayed quite cool even though you could get scorched outside. What a wonderful idea to place a bar in there.

As night started to make its way across the fortress once more, we went back to the stages for first Suffocation, who were then followed by Immortal and lastly (for our account) Marduk.
After all this hellish blasphemy was done, we let the funeral doom band Skepticism play us a slow-sounding soundtrack as we went for a final toast and beer on this newly found gem of a festival, before heading for the final sleep...

Postscript:

Even though Brutal Assault have now existed for an impressing fourteen years, it still holds that kind of smaller crowd (a few thousand I would venture a guess) which we prefer to have at festivals. In contrast to the other festivals we have visited, this looked like a much more hardcore metal crowd (hardcore as in true, not the musical genre) however, and we got the feeling that people were here with the main intention of listening to the music we all know and love. Far away were (self-proclaimed) humorous men in bunny suits or nice shirts and jackets; here it was leather and metal-pins as far as the eye could see!

Even though it might have felt a bit unorganized and chaotic upon arrival, as soon as we got inside the gates this all changed and things ran very smoothly. This, in combination with one of the most perfect settings for a metal festival I have ever seen, made our stay an extremely good one.
I was surprised by the variety of the music, as I had it figured for a black/death metal only festival; but as it turned out, it held so much more than that, even though it was also clear that these were the preferred styles of the place.
Another very positive surprise was how clean the entire area was kept; for the most of the time there wasn’t much garbage to be found lying around (thanks to an extensive use of garbage bins, no doubt), and the festival loos (both inside the festival area and outside) were likewise cleaned and emptied every day.

If an improvement could be asked for, it would be that normal water would be more easily accessible. Not that I’m complaining about the beer in any way, it was perfect; but when the sun burns as hot as it did every day this year, the variation is very welcome.
There were two rows of water-taps in the festival area, but I never figured out if they were ok for drinking, or only for washing in.

Even though the music was generally much harder than what I normally listen to, Brutal Assault was still a very positive experience for me, and I look forward to looking more into it in the future.