Eternal Hate Fest 2024

2,507 words

There are not many festivals like Eternal Hate Fest (EHF) in the Czech Republic or in the world, and I dare say EHF is the oldest in this field. We had a chance to see the 21st year of this festival and now you can read about it.

We arrived at the festival a day before the start and went to stay at Autokemp Nýrsko, I recommend to all festival participants to take a cabin in the camp (it is a dry and clean environment), after the festival rain I really would not like to sleep in an outdoor tent. And there was also the possibility to wash, dry wet clothes, brush your teeth, and take a hot shower and go to a clean toilet. There was also the possibility to have breakfast in the morning.

Friday

After check-in we went to the local historical Jewish cemetery and the Nýrsko water reservoir. The Nýrsko reservoir is not intended for bathing, but it is a water source for the whole region. The surrounding area offered various small sights to take pictures and also a very photogenic landscape. For photographers and people who love history and art I recommend to come a day earlier and explore Nýrsko, there is a lot to see and maybe even visit the medieval castle Pajrek.

The day before the main festival programme the whole area is open from the afternoon and it is possible to have a beer, chat with friends or exchange a few words with the organiser and see how such a festival is built. We took advantage of this opportunity and learned that this evening White Death were to perform here with their acoustic show. In the evening White Death played their acoustic show, playing various German songs, covers of Screwdriver and W.A.S.P + various other notorious hits. They also played a good version of “L’Amour” Toujours by Gigi D’Agostino, of course with the right lyrics. This was appreciated especially by the Germans, almost everyone sang it. This song was the biggest hit of the festival. Every 20 minutes somebody sang a few notes and all the Germans joined in. Here in the Czech Republic they were free to sing and have a beer without any legal consequences, I quite understand them. A year ago, I would not have guessed that the main hit of Eternal Hate Fest would be Gigi D’Agostino and that this creepy pop hit would be sung in chorus by almost all Germans at the festival. But it happened.

Saturday

Some people took an organized bus from Pilsen directly to the festival and when we got to the festival grounds, people took pictures in front of the bus. We hurried so that we didn’t have to wait in a long line for tickets. When we ran to the line to buy tickets, we found out that the festival t-shirts in the most common sizes L, XL were already sold out an hour before the Festival started. This was a sales blitzkrieg. So my friend bought at least a women’s t-shirt, there were still plenty of them. Beer in the area was classic Holba – Šerák 11° and on a smaller stand beer special Pilsner. The lines weren’t so bad because there were 3 places to split beer.

About 90% of the festival participants are Germans and Austrians, because it is no longer possible to organize such a festival there. The German state establishment is extremely anti-white. They are not allowed to criticise anything and the white and German identity must be spoken of in an exclusively negative way. Germany is physically and mentally an occupied country and it is very difficult to change that. People are gradually waking up in Germany, but it is going very slowly and it is only happening in eastern Germany, where people are sick and tired of the situation wherein black criminals are left to walk the streets by the police and native Germans are locked up by the police for “hate speech.” From what I learned talking to people at the festival, Germans want to sing and enjoy the atmosphere. Some Germans are thinking of leaving Germany even though they love German blood and soil. They are so much bullied by their government, to which these Germans pay taxes and obey nonsensical government laws. On the positive side, the vast majority of Black Metallers have conservative values, are against immigration, and plan to start a family.

There are two kinds of people who come to a festival like this: either the dumb skinhead mentality who drink and scream and make a mess; and the various creative and very talented people. It was the second type of people I tried to meet here or invite them through the Internet to this festival. I met here writer Jaroslaw Ostrogniew, publisher Dagon from Unholy Pagan Fire and author of several books about metal, several foreign photographers, administrators of foreign Telegram groups about black metal, a couple of UGBM events advisors, webmasters of foreign pagan and UGBM zines.

I’ll just add one interesting story to the festival. It’s called Revenge of the Black Goat. A right-wing activist and quite influential person wrote last year that he would ruin the festival and all black metal, too, because the organizers allegedly sacrificed the animals on the stage. (Nothing like that happened, and he wasn’t even at the festival). Then people made fun of him for having to cancel Asgardsrei, Moloth, Nokturnal Mortum, and a lot of Ukrainian black metal bands fighting on the front. And then people trolled him not to hate Nokturnal Mortum because they are an environmentally friendly band, because they use only old skulls in their show and no animals died because of their show. Unfortunately, this individual denounced the festival to the police, wrote lying emails to the town hall, slandered the advisor, and tried his best to have the festival cancelled. If this is how a public figure behaves, it is clear that no reasonable person wants anything to do with an informer and professional traitor. This internet hero has deleted his social media sites and cut off all communication. This man had an anti-immigration website, Stredoevropan, which was read by a million people per month, and enough people respected him for that, but today people just make fun of him and nobody cares.

There are not many cultural platforms today without the absolute control of the anti-white left and the neo-Marxist establishment. Black metal has nowhere to retreat and playing the “good” and correct black metal will not appeal to UGBM fans. That is why black metal – runes, paganism, art, blasphemy and rebellion – have their place in nationalism. It was obvious that the fans appreciate quality music and it makes sense to make quality music in this environment. The most common shirt here was Nokturnal Mortum. I have liked this band since I was young, especially because of the multi-instrumentality and beautiful poetry. Knjaz Varggoth is a true artist. This is a gem of black metal.

Unlike other festivals such as Steel Fest, bringing food and drink into the festival venue is possible here. I was amazed that someone didn’t bring glass bottles or weapons and cause problems at the festival. I asked Daniel Beherit Bílý about it and he told me that he wants to keep the festival as free as possible and that he relies on the intelligence of the audience.

Performances

Plaguepreacher from Salzburg, Austria, they gave a quality performance, played mid-tempo black metal, the singer spat blood on the front row of fans and photographers, the blood even got on my girlfriend who had the experience of a lifetime (everyone asked her about it throughout the festival and wondered if she was bleeding or if it was artificial blood from the singer). As part of the show, the band lit fires under pig skulls and threw some of the skulls into the audience. People were silent. They played their hits “A World Forlorn”, “We Die Alone”, “Finis Coronat Opus” and finally “Destroyers of Light” from the Terracide album. Good show and I can see them doing a bigger event and a better position at the festival. We’ll be hearing from them again in the future. I enjoyed it. They put the most energy into their show and music of any band at the festival.

Ad Noctem Funeris (To the Night of the Funeral) from Italy play slightly atmospheric black metal. If the singer wants to do a serious performance, he should zip his fly. Their music contained backing vocals and chants, immediately transporting you to old forgotten cemeteries, the often repeated musical motifs were almost magical and hypnotic. The band played their songs “Fire 1-3, “Luce a Fiamme”, “Litanie a Satana”. I was especially impressed by the demonic appearance of the guitarist. The band used old candlesticks and an inverted crosses as decoration.

Trautenauer 666 – They introduced the concert with the intro to the art film Witchhammer by Otakar Vavra. The text is something between a Villonian reminiscence and a baroque reflection on death. If you haven’t seen the film Witchhammer, I strongly recommend watching it. Trautenauer 666 gave an old school performance and was the only Czech band at the festival. They are from a group of old Czech black metal bands like Agmen, Maniac Butcher, ZLO, Sator Marte, Krvavá Práce etc. Unfortunately people don’t come to such concerts here – that’s why previous festivals like Black Lights and Hell Fast Attack ended. These UGBM festivals are not supported from the entrance fee when only 200 paying customers come. The Czechs at the EHF festival were the absolute minimum, I would say 10%. Trautenauer 666 played some hits – “Destruction”, “Infernal Holocaust”, “Slava Pohanum” from their new album Satanreich and ended their performance with the folk song Vysoky Jalovec, which put a smile on the face of many Black Metallers. As a decoration they used the burning fires under the cross, under a star of David, and under the crescent moon. I didn’t enjoy this performance very much, but people enjoyed the show and some of them came especially to see this band.

Immortal Hammer – The EHF usually features one or two of the most famous bands and the rest are lesser known bands and various musical surprises and curiosities. And Immortal Hammer’s performance was such a musical curiosity of the festival. A group of people from Slovakia came here for this band specifically. Immortal Hammer recorded a new album Kráľovstvo zimných démonov after 20 years. Immortal Hammer looked very militant at first sight in mysterious black hoods. They introduced their performance with a freezing winter intro. Many people considered this band and White Death as the highlight of the festival. For many people, Immortal Hammer are an old and cult band. They played their Raw Black Metal well, but the crowd reaction was lukewarm. People were too tired from the heat.

Sturmtigger – After complete silence came the brutal entrance of the band, everyone was surprised by this and then people started to rage, people were partying like crazy. The band played aggressive black metal with elements of hatecore and it was probably the hardest and most aggressive band of this festival. The singer was moving the crowd and had a good response. They played hits like: “Invasion”, “War is Eternal”, “Transcendent Violence”, “War Power”, “Martial Alchemy”, “Universal Eradicator”. I don’t listen to this kind of music, but most people liked this performance.

Askeregn – It started to rain, the crowds came out and a lot of people hid under the roof and had a beer, which was a pity, because Czech-German Askeregn played a full-strength black metal show and used a lot of black metal props. They had an altar, a chalice with blood, and a good singer. They played a cover of “Satan a Smrt” by the Czech UGBM band ZLO. Then there was a bigger storm and people brought out their raincoats and umbrellas. It was a great show and the band gave it their all. There was a black metal grotesque where the singer spit fire and wanted to light a pentagram on fire but it wouldn’t burn. The singer spit and nothing, they tried 3 times and it didn’t work. Something like that would be good to put in a black metal movie, because black metal is not always just about cold, freezing, shooting in the woods, and cold weapons, but it also contains these awkward moments. After the pentagram was burnt by the passing photographer, it was obvious that the band was much relieved.  Finally a rainbow dawned over the Eternal Hate Fest grounds and we were halfway through Askeregn’s set. The band then dedicated few songs to festival advisor Daniel Beherit Bily and the EHF itself. Despite the minor mishaps, it was a good show. They played their hits “The Light of Lucifer”, “Death in Fire…Renaissance In Ashes”, “Deadly Possessed”.

White Death – People were getting tired and it was obvious. White Death was the best performance of the festival for me. At the Finnish Steel Fest they had a very expressive performance. They slaughtered a sheep and threw the entrails far from the stage into the crowd. At EHF people expected something similar, but it didn’t happen. Czech laws don’t allow that. Still, it was a very strong and decadent performance, especially the movement creations and expressions of the singer. In the singer’s facial expressions you could see madness, violence, suffering and various other expressions. I guess this is how the soul suffers in the modern world. The band used pigs’ heads as decoration. White Death put on a strong show and in my opinion, this performance was better than their concert at Eternal Hate Fest 2019. Their latest album “Iconoclast” is a masterpiece. The performance was very well received, it was very impressive.

Satanic Warmaster – The last performance of the festival. The band had too static a show and individual songs played in the same tone, so it was difficult to distinguish the songs from each other. I would say that most people came to the festival just for this band and the unique atmosphere of the festival. The advisor told me that Satanic Warmaster negotiated for 5 years to perform at this festival and finally succeeded, performing for the first time outside their native Finland. In addition, the band recently released a very successful album “Aamongandr”. My girlfriend asked the singer Werwolf why their very famous album is called “Satanic Carelian Madness”, when Werwolf – Lauri Penttilä – lives in Lappeenranta? The answer is: Because Werwolf broke up in Karelia. That’s interesting to know. They played their hits: “A Raven’s Song”, “Vampires”, “Fimbulwinter’s Spell”, “Vampiric Tyrant”, “Duke’s Ride”.

A lot of people listened to Satanic Warmaster sitting down or just from a distance, the temperature at the festival was exhausting almost all day.

The dark region was swallowed up by the night and the black shadows spilled into all corners, the music died down and the wet people retired to their dwellings, the more hardy people still went out to drink, but that was not our case.