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Castle Party 2015


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Following only apparently senseless statement that "not only life is important in life" for a few days a year we forget about every day matters, obligations, work and love disappointments. We pack our laces, tulle and latex and we travel towards… no, not towards the light at the end of the tunel, but towards darkness. We leave behind reality and "life" to enter the world of vampires, ghosts and dark princesses. It’s like another level of existance. These few days, full of blackness and sounds which can move the dead are called Castle Party festiwal – the event with over twenty years long tradition taking place in Bolków castle and gathering the fans of dark independent scene. This year it tokk place from 16 to 19 July and provided unforgettable experiences, not only the planned ones.
The festiwal starts on Thursday with the concerts in former evangelical church where as the first one this year Carpatian Castle played their concert. Female, deep vocal, guitars and charming Chech language make it pleasurable to listen to this gothic rock project and initially empty church was full soon after the first sounds. Also with female vocal but in different style, steampunk one namely, Victorians. It was their second time in Bolków and with new material, anyway musicians proved their good condition. And then, the change of atmosphere into definitely colder one, despite the heatwave outside you could feel goosebumps – the result of cold wave sound of 1984 band. The project, nowadays slightly forgotten, played in Bolków in 2008. Under the sun then, today in the dark nave of the church, they opened the cold land for the audience. The atmosphere of the nether world was kept by the next project, God’s Bow serving ephemeral and somnolent sounds. The feeling of evanescence was strong enough to almost see the souls wandering across the sky, definitely for the fans of mystical experience. Absolutely worth recommending, Skeptical Minds, is a Belgian project with Polish vocalist. Karolina Pacan, who resembles Wednesday Adams after some years, despite being small and slim, is a real energy volcano. Someone said once that you can call a vocalist a good one if he/she can get the crawd involved, and that’s what she did. She could do with the audience anything she wanted. Great concert. To close the day, the legend of Polish darkness, celebrating their 20th anniversary, Artrosis. Fans were completely satisfied – you could see it on their faces, Medeah could do nothing really apart from standing and the crawd would love her anyway. So we may say that the first day was fullfilling. The new thing, was a kind of a camp around the church with some food stalls and tables and benches to sit. Good idea to recharge your batteries without ging too far from the concerts.
Friday. Temperature – unbelievably hot. The level of being gothic – master. The concerts start with two Polish projects, gothic rock, progressive The Digital Angel and post punk Już Nie Żyjesz. Slight lethargy is completely destroyed by next Polish band, Percival Schuttenbach. Inexhaustible Energy, Slavic spirit and amazing show. Jesus was sent to Wieliczka and that was it. British Antimatter calmed the audience slightly. A little bit depressing, guitars and deep voice of Mick Moss could lead us till the end of the universe. After these intergalactic travels we came back to pagan world and its dark rituals. The stage belongs to Candia, who with the coronet on her head gambols like a nymph, and Inkubus Sukkubus. You may have an impression that no matter what she sings it sounds like casting a spell.So she enchanted the audience, called the witches and painted our world…black. The next concert in occult atmosphere but darker and heavier was thrown by Merciful Nuns. No emotions on musicians’ facec made it more terrific. Musically deeply touching. And the last one for the Friday night L’ame Immortelle. It was supposed to be dark, it was slightly grotesque. In terms of vocal and behaviour on the stage Sonja seems to be more convincing. Especially when resembling the ghost from the nether world – the lover left to die by her angel, comes back to tell the sad story and the wind blows into her dress. In a way you could hear the sound of the heart being broken. Meanwhile, in the church, there was a metal day and the marathon of Polish projects: Shodan, Extinct Gods, Mord’A’Stigmata, Thaw, Darzamat and Hate.
Saturday. Temperature – still heatwave. The level of being gothic – still master. The concerts start with Polish industrial rock project Weimar. Soon after him Zombina and The Skeletons served something like the dark cabaret with some elements of horror and the personal charm of the vocalist à la Marilyn Monroe. Honestly, it was interesting to listen to. The next project requires definitely higher level of experience. What should we truly feel having in fron of us techno-knights, electro-Templars? Great proof that actually you can mix absolutely everything and sometimes the strangest combinations are the best. Heimataerde literally made the people kneel. We leave the middle ages behind but we keep the electronic spirit and next concert starts. Rabia Sorda with their immoral proposition "you can take me" and then also electronic Polish H.Exe. They made us wait long, but is there anything you wouldn’t do when the moment of dreams coming true is just ahead of you. Cool wind from the north herald the vikings. Wardruna literally seized the hearts and plundered the minds of the audience leaving nothing behind. For the first time in Poland the fans could experience sounds taken directly from Norwegian mythology. The atmosphere of the castle and the weather (we can see heavy rain and we feel nothing on the skin) made it even more intense. It was the most mystical and unreal concert of this edition of Castle Party. The last band that day was Paradise Lost. Following Milton’s statement that 'Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light" the band took us for a journey through their creative output.
Sunday. Temperature– still heatwave. The level of being gothic – still master. The power of wind – we should consider using anchor. This day’s concerts start with gothic rock Dance on Glass. In the middle of the concert the female vocalist is changed by male vocalist and now it’s a band called Opozycja. Equally intriguing was also the fact that during the concert the big Castle Party banner is taken out of the stage. Monica Jeffries, despite having Polish roots, has never been to Poland before. In Bolków she opened for us "window of hope" and introduced danceable mood also continued by the next project electronic Psyche. But as "all things pass into the night" so "goodbye horses" and time for the next show. The Frozen Autumn hypnotised and fascinated the audience. Melancholic vocals and cold wave sound from the 80s plus openness of the musicians in contact with people definitely satisfied all the fans. Thomas Rainer’s project, Nachtmahr was supposed to play in Poland for the first time. The fans have waited so long, since early morning you could see characteristic white shirts and bands on arms. So they played, however this imperial austrian industrial show was suspended. Suddenly, man from the crew entered the stage and gave Thomas the info, after that we heard that becouse of security reasons the concert must be ceased. Confused fans dind’t know what is happening. Staring at the stage nobody noticed what happens behind us. It was enough to look back to see huge black cloud, thunders and lightnings. About 4 thousand people were evacuated in 8 minutes. Good job of the organizers and the people who quickly and with no problems left the castle. The last part of the concerts was doubtful. The storm was violent but quite short. About 11 pm we got the info that Juno Reactor is going to play their concert. We came back to the castle. The roof of the stage was half way, the place in front of the stage where usually photographers have their placec to take photos was full of equipment. The light equipment was destroyed so there were only few lamps illuminated the stage. Truly post-apocalyptic conditions and still Juno Reactor threw one of the most atmospheric concerts ever. The sounds were vibrating and the people grateful that they survived experienced everything even more, even stronger.
The concert is done, the festiwal is done. Usually in such moments we have the feeling of regret that there’s not going to be more… oh no, wait, there is going to be more. And it’s going to be quite soon. Only about 370 days of waiting. Ladies and gentlemen, see you on 28th July 2016. Stay dark! 
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Translator: morrigan
Add date: 2015-07-26 / Live reports


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