Set against the atmospheric stone backdrop of Josefov Fortress, Brutal Assault 2023 delivered four days of sheer sonic intensity and surprising warmth. Featuring heavyweights like In Flames, Sepultura, Trivium, Watain, and Borknagar, this year’s edition proved that even a lineup leaning toward the extreme can feel like a metalhead’s summer camp. For a first-timer, it was everything you could want: killer sound, rich Czech beer, soul-warming food, and a crowd that was as welcoming as it was intense.
Despite a stretch of near-biblical rain, the festival didn’t miss a beat. Organizers fought the mud, and the music prevailed. Moonspell’s rare best-of set, full of deep cuts and fan-favorite gems, stood out as an emotional high point. Whether you came for the brutality or stayed for the camaraderie, Brutal Assault 2023 made one thing clear: extreme music doesn’t mean a closed circle – it means home for the unshakable.
Watain Setting The Stage On Fire
Watain brought the flames – literally – transforming Brutal Assault into a cathedral of chaos. Smoke rose like incense, stage lit like a sacrificial altar, and every shadow cast a threat. There’s theater in what they do, sure, but there’s also genuine dread, and it gripped the crowd with white-knuckled reverence.
Queen of the Pit
Lena Scissorhands of Infected Rain took Brutal Assault’s energy into her own hands—literally. With one boot on the rail and her mic pointed skyward, she turned the front row into her throne room, commanding horns from all directions. A rare moment where the crowd didn’t just react, they rose with her.
Mosh Command
When Sodom took the stage, Brutal Assault’s courtyard transformed into a whirlwind of elbows, sweat, and circle pits. Even through the haze of smoke and distortion, the intensity was razor-sharp. A masterclass in old-school thrash power, and the crowd? Fully enlisted.
Inferno Ignites
Heaven Shall Burn didn’t just play Brutal Assault – they scorched it. With a wall of flames firing in sync to their crushing breakdowns, the German metalcore giants lit up the night sky and unleashed pure catharsis into a sea of fists and sweat.
Above It All
During Beartooth’s explosive set, a lone crowdsurfer sails over the chaos. It’s the kind of fleeting freedom only heavy music can buy.
Elegantly Doomed
Tribulation summoned gothic drama and death rock swagger at Brutal Assault, a fog-drenched ritual of harmonized darkness that felt both theatrical and genuinely dangerous.
Matt Heafy, Blood and Fire
Trivium’s frontman tore through Brutal Assault with volcanic intensity, his silhouette bathed in red mist as riffs sliced through the night like dragon’s breath.
Moshpit Unicorn
Brutal Assault’s wildest crowdsurfer wasn’t a leather-clad thrasher, but a satanic inflatable unicorn – because even extreme metal needs a little magic.
Rhythmic Chaos in Neon
Meshuggah’s polyrhythmic assault turned the Brutal Assault stage into a vortex of light and syncopation. Mathematical madness never looked so good.
Mohawks and Mayhem
A flash of orange and flurry of fists. Malevolence brought the pit to life at Brutal Assault, where the mohawks were tall and the punches friendly.
Fit for a Fortress
Fit for an Autopsy delivered punishing grooves beneath the looming Brutal Assault banners, giving the Czech fortress crowd everything but mercy.
These Boots Were Made for Moshing
Brutal Assault 2023 faced heavy rain, but fans stomped through the sludge with pride, mud-caked boots a badge of honor in fortress festivities.
Shredding in the Shadows
Chris Broderick of In Flames channels precision and rage at Brutal Assault, silhouetted by eerie stage lights and the band’s signature fury.
Nordic Telepathy
Borknagar members lock eyes mid-song at Brutal Assault, communicating a decade of musical chemistry without a word.
Veils and Vestiges
In the midday blaze of Brutal Assault, two veiled fans channel goth glamour and pagan mystery, proving that metal style thrives in every heatwave.
Smoke and Sacrament
Belphegor summons the abyss with ritual fury and theatrical menace, their altar of iron and smoke cloaking the fortress stage in a veil of hellfire.
Roots Rekindled
Sepultura brought primal force and rhythmic fury to Brutal Assault, with Derrick Green commanding the stage like a tribal warlord while Andreas Kisser’s riffs cut through the humid air like a blade. A masterclass in groove metal resilience.
Arms Wide, Voice Unchained
Lena Scissorhands of Infected Rain let the sun and sound wash over her in a rare moment of calm between the storm. Her stance said it all: openness, resilience, and a fierce kind of grace that pulled the Brutal Assault crowd deeper under her spell.
Peter Tägtgren and the Weight of Sound
Hypocrisy’s frontman stood rooted like an ancient tree, his long hair a curtain between the audience and the ghost stories he told. In a festival built on fury and volume, Peter’s delivery was solemn, surgical, like a sermon cut in distortion.
The Calm Inside the Flame
Bathed in shadows and green haze, Anders Fridén emerged not as a frontman but as a presence: weathered, watchful, coiled with the restraint of someone who’s burned every stage from Gothenburg to hell and back. A rare moment of stillness before the next eruption.
Malevolence Unleashed
When Malevolence took the stage, the pit came alive with old-school fury: mohawks, Madball shirts, and bodies in motion. In a sea of blast beats and black metal aesthetics, this UK hardcore unit cut through like a steel-capped boot to the chest.
