The tenth edition of REF (Rockstadt Extreme Fest) was a real blast! The organizers raised the standards to an incredible level and the public had the privilege to witness more than 100 live performances from bands all over the world. Six days, three stages, different musical styles, ranging from folk to black metal, from gothic and alternative to metalcore, grindcore and everything in between.
Eihwar
Day one started with the French duo Eihwar, which put up an impressive performance on Brasov Stage. They have an unique musical style, labeled as ‘Viking war trance’ which is some kind of pagan folk with incantations and tribal percussion fussed with electronic sounds. The costumes are strange in a way: the vocalist was wearing a tribal outfit, with fur, leather and animal skulls. Meanwhile, her colleague was dressed in a black robe, with a large belt made of leather and iron. He was also wearing a warrior helmet. Anyway, the audience loved their performance… An interesting choice for opening the festival!

(c) Astrid Pichler
Combichrist
Combichrist came next, being the first band playing on Adrian Rugina Stage. The Norwegian- American band seemed to have quite a large fanbase at the festival. They were cheered and their style, aggrotech (early), industrial metal (later), was widely acclaimed. The vocalist, Andy LaPlegua impressed with his inexhaustible energy! People jumped, danced and sang like wild! Definitely an incredible performance!
Cult of Fire
Cult of Fire came next, and the show was mind blowing… as was the one from Underground for the Masses festival. Those who saw them in April knew exactly what to expect and they positioned themselves in a proper place long before the performance started… Obviously, with the purpose of not losing any small detail of the Czechs’ ritual. A true oriental-hindi theatrical ritual: ”cobras”, an altar, incense sticks, flowers, fruits… A true, and strange, but mesmerizing performance delivered by Cult Of Fire. Impressive from all points of view: the guitar riffs, the pummeling drumming, the harsh, haunting vocals, the ritual, the costumes and masks… Not to mention the guitarist and bass player… sitting in lotus position for an hour. Calling the show amazing doesn’t do them justice… it was magic, magnetic… inciting the imagination and leaving everybody bewitched!

(c) Astrid Pichler
Loathe
Well, after not moving and hardly even blinking for one hour, the British band Loathe made everybody lose control! The contrast between the Cult of Fire static show and the extremely dynamic that followed must have been intended that way! To make the audience spiral to extremes and even shatter their perception of reality. Thus, Loathe impressed with a very ‘joyful’ combination of metalcore, alternative metal, prog and heavy metal, also delivered in contrasts! Kadeem France, the vocalist, was dynamic, passionate and full of energy, while Erik Bickerstaffe, the guitarist- vocalist expressed serenity and balanced the rage and revolt of metalcore. An interesting act!
Cattle Decapitation
We waited for them for so long… and they delivered! Cattle Decapitation proved to be one of the best acts of the entire festival! Obviously, almost half of the setlist was from their latest release, Terrasite (2023), which brought a tornado of brutality and a lot of technical passages! The Americans started their show with the first track of the album, Terrasitic Adaptation, opening with a slow build up before the song is fully unleashed with a piercing scream accompanied by a pounding blast beat.
This brutal assault continues throughout the rest of the song, relentlessly attacking with blast beat upon blast beat, grinding riffs, and Travis’ inhuman growls. I don’t know if it was because of the shock… but it felt like this beginning of the show already set the bar incredibly high for the rest of it. However, somehow the band managed to beat it with almost every other song they played.

(c) Astrid Pichler
Highlights of the show
The sheer musicianship of Cattle is spectacular, and this concert really showed the best of the band. The guitars can be described as nothing but immaculate, as a wide range of riffing was present. The riffs were slow and crushing at times, or inhumanly fast and pummeling. The drumming was impeccable, which was not unexpected … since David McGraw was the one behind them.
The drums were loud, but just loud enough as to not drown out other instruments. This made every blast beat feel like a sonic attack. The drums were triggered, but only their actual sound. The triggers weren’t used to sound faster than McGraw was able to play… However, nobody would blame one for thinking that, considering the sheer speed at which he played. The snare was always hard hitting, and the toms made every fill sound incredibly brutal. Such were the fills, a little over a minute, from the second song they played We Eat Our Young. The cymbals were crystal clear, completing what might have been one of the best sounding live drums I’ve ever heard.
Nevertheless, Cattle Decapitation‘s most valuable asset is Travis Ryan due to his absolutely inhuman vocal performance. His growls were terrorizing and harsh as always. Yet, what really shocked was his range. He produced a howling scream one second, then a stomach churning guttural growl the next.
Loud, blasphemous, and never letting up, technically flowless and spreading energy, which made the audience go wild. There was a wall of death, a lot of crowd surfing, a huge circle pit! Everything that proved this show to have been one of the best we have ever witnessed.
Behemoth
The Polish black metal band Behemoth closed the first day of REF in great style! In 2022 they closed the festival so it was only natural this year to have been the headliners of the first day! They started the show with an interesting moment: hidden from the audience, behind a kabuki curtain, they started playing. Thus, they created a kind of theatre of shadows which only electrified the audience, making them hail the band until the kabuki curtain fell.
They started with Once Upon a Pale Horse from their latest release, Opvus Contra Natvuram, which is representative for their signature sound. However, when you have a drummer like Inferno, it is blasphemy to play mid tempo and repetitive compositions… Well, next came Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, a single which needs no presentation… one that totally proved Nergal‘s creative mastery. A single mirroring the will and strength of someone who had beaten death!
Nergal addressed to the audience many times, and made people hail the band intensely. The setlist was varied, thirteen songs from nine different albums, the sound was good and the lights excellent. Also, like two years ago, the Polish ended their show with O Father O Satan O Sun! an iconic song which demonstrates, once more, that Behemoth may play at each REF edition and the crowds still won’t have enough of them!