Slowly we were heading for the two headliners of the day and just like the year before it was also this year the German band Krypteria who joined this festival. The stage setting seemed to be known but luckily Ji-In Cho did not again appear on stage in a wedding dress and also guitarist Christoph Siemons was in a better shape from health point of view.
The next one entering the stage was Tristania with a new band cast. Besides singer Mariangela Demurtas there was also her male counterpart new cast by Kjetil Nordhus. Both were wonderful complementary not only during their solos but also during many duets.
It was getting significantly tougher now as with Dylath-Leen the only French band of the festival entered the stage. Their death metal is mainly driven by Kathy Coupez grunts and screams. But she also able to do different as inbetween she is shortly changing back to her normal singing voice. Supported in vocals she was additionally by her band member Igor Landorique.
With Visions Of Atlantis there was a band entering the stage that I was especially looking forward to. After many redeployments on singer position and a three years lasting abstinence the Austrians were finally back on stage.
This years newcomer competition the Belgian band Skeptical Minds won. Against the habit of the previous years the winner did not have to start this years edition but was allowed as fifth band of the day to play even some more as the previous ones.
With 69 Chambers for me one of the first climax of the day was reached. The Swiss combo around front woman / guitarist Nina Treml presented songs of their debut album "War On The Inside". Supported she was by the bassist Maddy Madarasz who took additionally over the backing vocals during many songs and by drummer Diego Rapacchietti.
Out of unknown reasons the band Bare Infinity had canceled their gig on Metal Female Voices Fest VIII. Shorthanded Unsun stepped in as they were anyhow currently touring with the later that evening playing band Tristania. The Polish band around front woman Aya and guitarist Mauser were already part of last year's edition.
Godyva is an Italian band that played songs of their current album "Planetarium". Nevertheless the show was rather underwhelming. Lady Godyva was very keen on communicating with the audience so that there were much more talks of her rather than it was sung. That lead to the point that Godyva due to the tight and strict schedule were not able to play their complete set and had to leave stage ahead of schedule.
The Saturday was opened by the British band Pythia. Compared to the year before it was starting a little bit later (only at 11:20) which did not increase significantly the number of visitors. For a band it is always hard to play as first one and then additionally in front of so few people but front woman Emily Alice Ovenden really knew to thrill the audience vocally and from show point of view.
Headliner of the evening was having nearly a home game. The guys around Hansi Kürsch were really keen on playing and also the audience was following them really good. The songs were covering a majority of the musical history of the band, so there were not only songs from the new album "At The Edge Of Time" being played.