Area 53 Festival, under the auspices of Napalm Records, has been on the July schedule of European metal festivals since 2017. I don't know why Tomaz and I didn't even think about attending it until this year. And, we didn't plan it this year either, as we were going to the Castle Party festival and enriching the event with some days of travelling around Poland. Right before now, we had to abandon the plan and start looking for another (less time-consuming) festival - that's why, like Jesus and around 2500 others, we decided on the Area 53 Festival.

We arrived in Leoben about an hour before the Infected Rain's performance. While processing the accreditations, we realized that we had not paid for camping (we should have done it online beforehand) - yet we got rewarded with free camping for our wrongdoing - something new for us but a constant practice for politicians and their companions.

You probably know what followed - an expensive beer and Infected Rain. It was hot like hell, and some rain, even infected, would have been welcome. Jesus, who had his little hut at the venue, must have heard our inner cry as he came with refreshment. No, we didn't witness a miracle - he had a watering hose! As it turned out later, someone else misunderstood our inner distress and began to exaggerate.

Moldovan progressive modern metal outfit Infected Rain, which released its sixth full-length, Time, in February 2024 via Napalm Records, started with "The Realm Of Chaos" from its penultimate album, Ecdysis - as is "Fighter", which came a few tracks later. Of the nine performed tracks, six were from the Time album (which makes up half of the album): "Pandemonium", "Vivarium", "The Answer Is You", "Dying Light", and my favourite two: "Never To Return" and "Because I Let You". As Lena's - on that occasion yellow - dreadlocks whipped the air, the sun seemed even more aggressive. Even though I was only standing, I had a hard time breathing. I can't even imagine that, in this heat, I could go crazy on stage (or anywhere) like Infected Rain. Yet, they did - concluding their fury with "Sweet, Sweet Lies" from 2014's Embrace Eternity. The band delivered a highly intense performance and didn't seem to suffer in the process at all.

Not to miss Katatonia's gig, we had to take on the challenge of setting up the tent. It proved a challenge indeed, considering the tent was new, so we were setting it up for the first time. The camp, which did not have a separate area for press and VIP visitors, was located on a hill about a kilometre from the festival venue. Moderately occupied, it stretched across a kind of field where, of course, there was no shade whatsoever. At least some clouds appeared, occasionally covering the sun.

I have been hoping for a better Katatonia performance since last year - at the AMA Music Festival in Italy - I was very disappointed with the sound. My hopes died already at the beginning; the rhythm section was too dominant, consuming everything else. It might have been Katatonia's intention - if so, I didn't get it. The set list was almost the same as last year's, though. This time around, Katatonia started with "Birds" (by the way, the few birds I spotted were flying low, indicating rain that soon began to fall, lightly and most welcome to me), and, out of 13 tracks, dropped four more from its latest album, Sky Void Of Stars: "Colossal Shade", "Austerity", "Opaline", and "Atrium", while each of the other eight songs belonged to a different album: "Lethean", "Forsaker", "Leaders", "Old Heart Falls", "Behind The Blood", "Teargas", "My Twin", and the closing song, appropriate for the current month, "July". As much as I like Katatonia's music, its last two gigs were much less than I expected - again, nothing to its 2010s performance in Ljubljana - one of the best gigs I've ever attended.

The last performance of the first Area 53 Festival's day was Amorphis. I heard/saw Amorphis live last at the Summer Breeze Open Air Festival 2022. Although again in the rain, it was once again fantastic. Amorphis did not focus on the last album, Halo (only four tracks: "Northwards", "On The Dark Waters", "The Moon", and "The Wolf", and all in the first half), but offered a rather diverse setlist. We got to hear: "The Smoke", "Sky Is Mine", "The Castaway" (with Tales intro), "Silver Bride", "Brother And Sister", "Amongst Stars", "Wrong Direction", "Black Winter Day", "My Kantele", "House Of Sleep", and my beloved "The Bee" (with extended intro) for the encore. The sound was, once again, perfect - almost like listening to Amorphis' CD or vinyl with the additional visual effects. The heavy rain was the only party breaker, which forced us (the audience without raincoats) further from the stage and under the hood, and after the gig, the two of us went from under the hood to the tent.

Another sunny day followed the peaceful night, and right after breakfast, three Austrian tent neighbours (one of them was the drummer of the Austrian death metal band Outrage, which has, after over ten years, continued to rage again) invited us for a beer. Yeah, yeah, we started with the alcohol even before midday... But, since there was no press room, there wasn't much else to do. We spent several hours in that pleasant company, listening to music and talking mainly about it, while the birds began to act suspicious again... Then the time came for Nachtblut. Although they got off to a great start in monochrome masked faces and full of energy, heavy rain interrupted their performance - causing the evacuation and cancellation of the entire event until further notice.

The security guards kindly asked us to leave the scene and go to our cars. I didn't think that was a good idea because we were in the middle of the storm, and most of us had cars in the camp about a kilometre away. If only I have had my Sport Billy bag with me... They seemed determined, and the massive exodus happened. Barely on the way, graupel began to fall. The horses at the nearby farm seemed to enjoy the group peeling shower while Tomaz and I - soaked to the skin - just wanted to get to the tent as soon as possible and change into dry clothes. Once almost there, on the top of the hill, Tomaz noticed: "Our tent is gone!". Well, it wasn't all gone, only the purpose of it - it was, as all the things inside it, scattered across the field. But at least the car was still there. We - soaked as we were - got into the car, turned on the heating and waited for the storm to pass. About 45 minutes later, the storm subsided; we collected our things and decided to go home; we would have left in the morning anyway... Just before we started, we were stopped by three fellow citizens who had witnessed the devastation and would have suffered a similar thing if they had not held their tent throughout the storm. On the way home, near Graz, there were fallen trees on the highway and service removing them... Thank you, Jezus! Till next report, regards, Jerneja

Report by Jerneja
Photos by Tomaz
Edited by Jerneja
Links: Area 53 Festival, Infected Rain, Katatonia, Amorphis, Nachtblut