rapturedmind photography » Death Feast Open Air 2010

Suffocation – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:56:58 +0000

Suffocation are not only one of the most influential Grindcore Bands out there and pioniers in this genre of music, but also one of the most fun Bands to see live. Not ony is the whole Band giving their best all the time, taking up the entire stage headbanging and moving around, Singer Frank Mullen is also one of the funniest and craziest fronters around. Next to that the Band really knows how to play and with an incredible great sound, there couldn’t have been a better headliner in the last spot of the Festival.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Suffocation this evening wasn’t much different to all the other Bands playing with no ambient light available any longer. I had to get the flash out of the bag, set my ISO to 800 and opened my aperture wide to f2.8. I just changed the shutter speed from time to time between 1/60 and 1/160 of a second to get more stagelight on the sensor, keeping it always fast enough to freeze the guys on stage and work against motionblur (which wasn’t that easy with the Band moving all the time). With singer Frank Mullen getting always up to the edge of the stage the 10-22 was an ideal choice to get a couple of close up wide angle shots.

Suffocation - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Necrophagist – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:53:00 +0000

Three Years have passed since the last time the german Band Necrophagist played in Germany. The last time I saw the Band play was four years ago and I was desperately waiting to see them again. Necrophagist play intense and extreme Death Metal, which still is dominated by a lot of melodic elements, which make the Band so enjoyable. Do to the fact that all sets of the previous Bands did get cut short the set of Necrophagist was almost up to length, missing only a couple of minutes of playtime. And even that was to much, because the crowd that had gathered on the grounds was enorm. Necrophagist played an awesome set, which was so much fun to watch, even though the sound wasn’t the best and some of the melodielines and the technical parts got lost in the mix. Nonetheless the Band played a great show and I hope to get a chance to see them again soon.

Shooting Notes
The Band stayed away from the edge of the stage and concentred on playing their parts, so there wasn’t that much action going on on stage. Necrophagist Masterminds Muhammed Suiçmez hair got pretty long since the last time I saw the band and so it was kind of hard to get a good picture of him without hair in his face. I was shooting the 24-70 and the 70-200 for most of the gig, because there was no chance to use the 10-22 with the Band hiding behind the wedges and staying away from the edge of the stage. Since there was no more ambient light, I was using flash to get some light into the faces of the Bandmembers at ISO 800, wide open at f2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/80 of a second.

Necrophagist - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Lock Up – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:23:19 +0000

Lock Up is one of those All-Star Projects that was up on stage at the Death Feast delievering an intense mix of Death-/Thrash- and Grindcore. With the Band playing right before Suffocation there were two extremely good and professional Bands up on the last evening and the enormous amount of people in the audience made pretty clear, that both of them were highlighs. Within minutes the first moshpit formed and the amount of stagedivers went exponentially up.

Shooting Notes
Tomas Lindberg and Anton Reisenegger where prime candidates to get the EF 10-22 out and go wide angle again. Both kept at the edge of the stage acting intensively in the direction of the crowd making it so much more fun shooting them. The entire Band was moving quite a lot during the gig and so there was no way around using a higher shutter speed to work against motion blur, having to deal with a darker background and dim stagelights which I had to brighten up in postprocessing. Except of that I was pretty much using the same settings as before: ISO 800, F2.8 (f3.5-4.5 with the Ef 10-22) and of course flash, dialing the power down 1 stop to keep the flash from dominating the picture.

Lock Up - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Hail of Bullets – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:36:30 +0000

Last year Asphyx played the Death Feast Open Air, this year it was Hail of Bullets turn. Nearly as enthusiastic and energetic as Asphyx, the Band hit the stage and graped the attention of the audience within minutes. Even though the Band only released one Album and an EP so far, they knew how to deliever and with a crushing sound they made their 55 Minutes of playtime quite enjoyable.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Hail of Bullets this evening wasn’t much different to all the other Bands playing with no ambient light available any longer. I had to get the flash out of the bag, set my ISO to 800 and opened my aperture wide to f2.8. I just changed the shutter speed from time to time between 1/60 and 1/125 of a second to get more stagelight on the sensor, keeping it always fast enough to freeze the guys on stage and work against motionblur.

If you want to see more of Hail of Bullets, check out my Pictures of them at Rock Hard Festival 2009

Hail of Bullets - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Dying Fetus – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:22:35 +0000

Without a doubt it was clear that Dying Fetus from the US were headlining the Death Feast Open Air 2010. The place was packed and everybody seemed excited to see the Band. Playing as the last act on thurday with a normal set, the Band had another spot in the billing on saturday playing a special set with only songs of the first two albums. I for my part wasn’t that much into their show on the first evening, while I had quite a lot of fun during the second set. The Band itself had a great sound on both days, even though the generell mix was a bit thin do to the fact, that they keep playing as a trio lately (last time I saw them, they still had two guitar players). Next to that, the show was really static, because both John Gallagher and Sean Beasly stayed at their mics and weren’t moving much.

Shooting Notes
On the first evening I shot the Band at dark, using flash at an aperture of f2.8, ISO 800 and a shutter speed of 1/80. Because the guys on stage didn’t move at all and kept in one spot, I was just using the 24-70 and the 70-200 trying to get at least some different angles. That fact didn’t change on the third day of the festival, but there was way more light. So I didn’t have to use flash and went with ISO 800 at f2.8 and a 1/400.

Day I

Day II

Dying Fetus - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Rompeprop – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:40:19 +0000

Rompeprop stepped in for the danish Death Metal Band Illdisposed which had to cancel their appereance shortly before the festival started. While Illdisposed are quite fun to watch and not take themselves that seriously, Rompeprop took that mentality to a whole other level. Introducing themself as Immortal, King Diamond and Kiss the audience was up for 25 minutes of Grindcore with spandex, corpsepaint and beachballs.

Shooting Notes
By now it was totally dark, so there was no way around using flash. The lighttechnician went crazy while Rompeprop played, throwning a wild mix of colours on the stage. To get most of them on my sensor I had shot at f2.8 with an ISO rating of 800 and slowed my shutter speed down to 1/60 to 1/100 of a second. To warm my flash up and take away the hardness of the daylight balanced light I set my white balance to cloudy, ajusting a bit up and down in postprocessing matching the stagelight.

Rompeprop - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Leng Tch’e – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:00:38 +0000

Leng Tch’e were definitly one of the best Bands of the Festival in my opinion. With their raw and intense Sound, they definitly stoud apart from most of the other acts. Next to that the guys from Belgium put on quite a stageshow and singer Serge Kasongo seemed to be all over the stage.

Shooting Notes
With singer Serge Kasongo you were in wide angle wonderland. While the other guys in the Band kept a bit back of the edge of the stage, Serge was always right up into the faces of the fans and photographers, whipping his microphone cord through the air while singing. I kept the ISO at 400 just ajusting it up to 800 to compenstate for the difference in aperture with the EF 10-22. A fast shutter speed of 1/500 was necessary to keep the guys sharp, beacuse they moved quite a lot.

Leng Tch'e - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Waco Jesus – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:45:37 +0000

The more extreme the music at the events, the more fun are the people. Nothing else was happening this weekend at the Death Feast Open Air in Hünxe. While most of the Bands kept the badguy image on stage, there were a couple of exceptions. First there were Rompeprop the evening before, this day the guys of Waco Jesus kept up the banner of happiness. Not to be mistaken, the Band played an intense Grindcore set, but that with an smile on their faces.

Shooting Notes
It was still really bright outside and not that late during the day, so I was able to shoot at ISO 400 at 1/500 of a second wide open at f2.8. A shutter speed of 1/500 was necessary to get a sharp frame of singer Shane Bottens who wasn’t standing still a minute, while the others in the Band weren’t moving that much. I was shooting this set with my 24-70 most of the time, getting the 70-200 out during the end of set for some close ups. I wasn’t able to use the EF 10-22, because the Band kept away from the edge of the stage and always a bit back of the wedges.

Waco Jesus - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Defeated Sanity – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:19:36 +0000

The german Band Defeated Sanity were up after Leng Tch’e. While the Band from belgium was sounding rather modern, the guys of Defeated Sanity brought it back old school. Death Metal with a lot of balls and intensity was presented. By now the place was packed and a lot of people were watching the gig.

Shooting Notes
By now the light dropped so far, that I was finally able to capture a bit of the lightshow at the Death Feast Open Air 2010. Unfortunatly they didn’t put up that giant reversed cross they got last year, but nonetheless, there was a lot going on. Do to the fact, that the stage was pretty deep and the smoke machines were in the back of the stage, I was getting a nice backdrop for the artists. With it being not completely dark, I was able to keep my flash in the bag and got around with ISO 800 at f2.8 and still maintained a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second.

Defeated Sanity - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Grind Inc. – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:00:49 +0000

Now we started talking. Grind Inc from Germany definitly are not one of the typical Grindcore Bands you see around. Not like the other Bands on the Death Feast Open Air Grind Inc. were more about Rhythm and Groove then overloaded and tense technical playing. With a Singer who’s voice was so intense it made the ground vibrate the Band got the attention of the crowd fast and played a great show that really got people moving.

Shooting Notes
Shooting Grind Inc was a blast. The Band was all over the stage posing and headbanging the entire time. Getting a good shot of Singer Christoph Mieves was a bit hard, because either he was having his hair over his face like a curtain or he was moving around the entire time. Getting the others in the frame wasn’t that hard, because the had to stop eventually from time to time to concentrate on their instruments. With that much movement, you want to keep at a fast shutter speed. Fortunatly it was still early in the day, so it was bright enough to work at ISO 200 and still maintain a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second with an aperture of f3.2.

Grind Inc - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Severe Torture – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:33:55 +0000

With Severe Torture there was another element of a bit of modern Death/Grind introduced to the festival. Even though the Band was from the Netherlands the swedish elements of their songs couldn’t be denied. I for my part really loved their songs and their show and I’ll definitly keep track of their touring schedule to get a change to see and shoot them again.

Shooting Notes
Severe Torture were quite active on stage, so I wanted to keep my shutter speed and my aperture as high as possible to freeze the fast movements of the Band and also have a bigger depth of field to get the guys in focus while they were headbanging. So I bumped up my ISO between 400 and 640 and got my aperture set to f4 to f5. That gave me shutter speeds between 1/400 and 1/800 of a second, which was enough to get some good frames. Also with the Band standing at the edge of the stage for most of the gig, I was able to get the 10-22 out again, next to the 24-70 and the 70-200. By now the sun was shining right on the edge of the stage at a really steep angle, so I really had to watch out. As soon as one of the guys on stage stept into the light, he immediately blew out and I had to adjust my settings fast before he got back into the shadow.

Severe Torture - Death Feast Open Air 2010

As you Drown – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:17:33 +0000

With As you Drown a bit of modern Death Metal came about. On a Festival with mostly classic Death Metal and Grindcore Bands those youngsters from Sweden really made my day. I really enjoyed their Songs and with the Band being all over the stage, it was not only a musical experience, but also quite a stage show.

Shooting Notes
Since the weather wasn’t getting that much better I was still shooting with ISO 200, f2.8 and 1/500 of a second. There wasn’t much to worry about. I was shooting the set mostly with the 24-70 and got the 70-200 only out for some close up headshots. I was getting the 10-22 out at the end of the set to get a couple of wide shots, bumping my ISO up to 400 compensating for the one stop loss in aperture with this lens.

As you Drown - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Sinister – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:08:42 +0000

I can’t really say that much about the Gig of Sinister, because the Bands only got about 20 minutes to play. Do to a wheater warning the mainstage was not usable up until half past nine and Sinster were the first Band to play the big stage again. But with an enormous timeloss do to moving the equipment back and forth between the party tent, where all the other Bands played during the day, and the main stage, the entire evening was cut short.

Shooting Notes
I wasn’t really dark enough to use flash and not quite bright enough to work with a decent ISO rating while Sinister played. So for the first part of the set I bumped my ISO up to 1600 (which I normally try to avoid shooting the Canon 40D) and for the second part I put the flash on the camera and dropped the ISO to 800. The rest of the settings pretty much stayed the same with f2.8 and a shutter speed between 1/125 and 1/200 of a second.

Sinister - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Aeon – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:30:05 +0000

Even though Aeon from Sweden played Death Metal, their lyrics and stageacting reminded me a lot of a Black Metal Band bringing a bit of variance to the day, which was packed with rather extrem and classic Death Metal and Grindcore Bands. The Band kept busy during their Gig and moved quite a bit. Especially singer Tommy Dahlström was all over the stage.

Shooting Notes
By now the sun started to come out between the clouds and I was getting trouble balancing the brightness difference between the edge of the stage, which was bathed in sunlight and the back of the stage, which on the other hand was pretty dark. While the area the sun was shining on wasn’t that big yet, you always had to watch out where the Bandmembers were heading for. I was shooting at ISO 200 keeping my aperture at f2.8 to get a shutter speed of 1/400 of a second, to get fast moving singer Tommy Dahlström frozen in the frame. With him coming up to the edge of the stage and posing with his spike boots on the wedges it was a natural to get a couple of wide angle shots.

Aeon - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Carnophage – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:03:43 +0000

Carnophage was one of those Bands, being from Turkey, that kept the Festival international. Nonetheless the Band also played quite a nice show, even though I had hoped for a bit more action and stageacting. The Bandmembers stayed most of the time on one spot and weren’t moving around alot.

Shooting Notes
With it being pretty cloudy today I bumped the ISO up to 400 and opened my aperture to f2.8 to keep my shutter speed at 1/400 of a second. The Band was not really close to the edge of the stage and kept behind the wedges so I was using the 24-70 and the 70-200 the entire time with no real possibility to get the wide angle out.

Carnophage - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Prostitute Disfigurement – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:47:27 +0000

This was the first time for me seeing Prostitute Disfigurement from the Netherlands and with the day getting later and later the level the Bands were on got higher and higher. In comparison to the Bands in the morning Prostitute Disfigurement really stepped it up a notch and rocked the place. By now it was getting pretty crowded and people started to fill the grounds.

Shooting Notes
With it getting later in the day I bumped the ISO up to 400 and opened my aperture to f2.8 to keep my shutter speed at 1/400 of a second. The Band was not really close to the edge of the stage and kept behind the wedges so I was using the 24-70 and the 70-200 the entire time with no real possibility to get the wide angle out.

Prostitute Disfigurement - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Deranged – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:14:21 +0000

With Deranged there was another Death Metal/Grindcore Metal Band from Sweden on the line up. I for my part really enjoyed the Band, even though the Band had to battle with a bad sound during their gig.

Shooting Notes
With Deranged I was finally able to get my Canon EF 10-22 out and make it really work. The Band kept coming to the edge of the stage and I was able to get the right angle to make those shots work. Next to that I was using the 24-70 and the 70-200 as always, changing the lenses between the Songs. I was going to ISO 400 to compensate for the f4.5 of the EF 10-22 on the zoom-end to keep the shutter speed at 1/400 of a second. With my other lenses I was keeping the aperture at f2.8.

Deranged - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Inferia – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:59:13 +0000

I wasn’t really into Inferia and during their set, they couldn’t change that. After finishing the pictures I started roaming the grounds and kept me entertained until the next Band started.

Shooting Notes
Since the weather wasn’t getting that much better I was still shooting with ISO 200, f3.2 and 1/400 of a second. There wasn’t much to worry about. I was shooting the set mostly with the 24-70 and got the 70-200 only out for some close up headshots.

Inferia - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Abysmal Torment – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:52:52 +0000

The Death Metal Band Abysmal Torment from Malta started out pretty strong and started the first Moshpit of the day. Even though it seemed like the Band wasn’t well known, they changed that pretty much and really surprised everyone.

Abysmal Torment - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Vomitous – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:42:41 +0000

The Festival started out with Vomitous from Sweden. The Band pretty much was setting the tone of the weekend with a crushing Death Metal show. The guys in the Band weren’t moving that much and concentrated more on performing their show.

Shooting Notes
Since it was pretty cloudy the first day and wasn’t as bright as last year, so I hadn’t to worry much about balancing the sunlight and the darkness under the stages roof and got away pretty much with one setting on my camera (ISO 200, f3.2, 1/400).

Vomitous - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Grave – Death Feast Open Air 2010

Daniel — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:02:00 +0000

I was quite excited to see Grave and really was looking forwards to the show. Unfortunatly do to the weather during the day the show was cut down from 55 minutes to 25 minutes. Nonetheless the Band made the best out of the time they got and really rocked the crowd, but had to leave pretty much as the people really got into it.

If you want to see more of Grave, check out my Pictures of them at Summer Breeze Open Air 2009

Shooting Notes
It was already dark when Grave entered the stage and with nearly no frontlight, there was no way to get some good images without the flash on the camera. I set my ISO to 100 and the aperture to f2.8. Do to the fact that I was able to freeze the action with the flash I was altering the shutterspeed between a 1/30 and 1/160 of a second to get some of the ambient light on the sensor. The Band kept at the middle of the stage so I was shooting the entire set with the 24-70, getting the 70-200 out for some close ups only.

Grave - Death Feast Open Air 2010

Preview – Death Feast Open Air 2010 Photos

Daniel — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:33:32 +0000

Another Festival done. This weekend I was able to shoot at the Death Feast Open Air 2010. Three Days worth of the finest Death Metal and Grindcore from around the world at a wonderful Location. Here are a couple of the Bands you are going to find online at my Blog in the next couple of days… enjoy!

Vomitous

As you Drown

Abysmal Torment

Inferia

Deranged

Prostitute Disfugurement

Leng Tch’e

Defeated Sanity

Hail of Bullets

Dying Fetus

Sinister

Rompeprop

Grave

Grind Inc

Necrophagist

Carnophage

Aeon

Severe Torture

Lock Up

Suffocation

… and of course Waco Jesus