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The Final Day Of Mystic Festival Was Bittersweet

The day I was dreading had arrived, that day being the last day of Mystic Festival 2025. Another bummer was that there was more rain today. Lots of it. It’s an expected risk and there’s nothing you can do about it other than soak it all in, literally. Rain jackets and ponchos were ever-present today and if you were one of those that thought you could hold out not wearing rain gear during the first 3 days of the festival, today was your true test.

Fortunately for me the first band on my must-see list was going to be indoors. When I arrived, the stink of humidity permeating the venue but that would be a distant memory once Death Angel tore into “Mistress of Pain” from their debut album, “The Ultra Violence.” That surprised me because that last few times I’ve seen Death Angel, they rarely play material from their early releases. When the second song turned out to be “Voracious Souls,” my mind was blown. This is how you win back your OG fans Death Angel! Bravo!

Death Angel

Because Polish death metal legends Vader was starting only fifteen minutes after Death Angel’s set began, I could only stay around the halfway point of “Voracious Souls.” The rain was falling steadily by the time I exited the venue. Between dodging crisscrossing poncho clad metalheads, random rain puddles and putting on my own rain jacket, I made it just in time for Vader’s first song. When I arrived, all the photographers were told that we would have to wait until the start of Vader’s second song to enter the photo pit because Vader was going to deploy a ton of pyro during their opening song.

This Vader set was going to be special. They were going to play the whole “Litany” album. The album released in 2000 and was recorded right here in Gdansk. It garnered massive acclaim throughout the metal cosmos and death metal circles. The crowd that gathered for this special set was massive. I’ll do my best to give you a visual. The Park Stage area is about 50 yards long and then it butts against a circle of food trucks. When this stage area gets packed, the crowd spills out into the asphalt roadway that in turn is the main artery walkway for the festival. During Vader’s set, that walkway was jam packed with onlookers. It was practically impossible to navigate in either direction if you wanted to go to the Main Stage area or the Desert and Shrine stages.

As the final notes of the opening song “Wings” faded out, we were allowed to enter the soggy mud laden pit area. The first thing I noticed was the fans standing on the other side of the security barriers. These were the hardcore fans. There were numerous Vader logo adorned banners draped over the barriers and one of front row fans had a giant Vader band logo tattooed over his whole back. I grabbed a shot of this and you can see it in Day 3 photo gallery HERE.

Between the rain, Vader’s unforgiving playing, the overzealous crowd energy and copious amount of fire pot blasts, it felt like I was in a war zone and I loved every second of it. Most of the press at Mystic Festival are from Poland, so to say there wasn’t much room to move about the photo pit was an understatement. In addition to playing the whole “Litany” album, Vader played several more songs and closed their fantastic set with “The Imperial March” of Star Wars fame.

Piotr Wiwczarek of Vader

After a wild (an understatement) Vader set, I was looking forward to something a little more subdued. I know what you’re thinking, what is subdued at a metal festival?, Well, that would be Apocalyptica. The rain was still drizzling, but at least it wasn’t heavy. This was going to be another 15-minute turnaround set. I could only stay for about a song or so before I had to run across festival grounds to catch Pentagram. Apocalyptica opened their set with Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” and that was all I was able to see since that song is over six minutes long. It was going to take me at least 7 minutes to get to the Desert Stage. The minutes math didn’t have much wiggle room.

Apocalyptica

This was my second time seeing Apocalyptica live and I was a lot closer this time so I could really see all the intricacies of their playing. It’s quite impressive how three cellos and a drummer can layer and mix so many complex melodies without stepping on each other. I made it to right around the dual guitar solo part of the song and then I had to haul ass (See professional journalism nomenclature) to the distant Desert Stage.

Bobby Liebling, the frontman of the historic doom metal band Pentagram, just about broke the internet earlier this year. A video surfaced showcasing his trademark death stare and his wispy white hair billowing like a geriatric lion’s mane on a windblown plain. The video went massively viral on social media platforms such as TikTok and Reddit which in turn caused renewed interest in the Black Sabbath doom inspired band that reached the apex of its popularity during the 1970’s.

Fast forward to 2011, a biopic titled “Last Days Here” showcased Bobby Liebling’s struggles with drug addiction. The indie film garnered a lot of attention and renewed some interest in the mostly forgotten doom legends. More doom and gloom would fall upon Pentagram. In 2017, Bobby Liebling was arrested for "abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult custodian” and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Most everyone thought that this was the end of the road for Bobby and Pentagram until “the video” surfaced and spread like a pandemic through the metal interwebs and obviously caught the attention of several festival and concert organizers. That brings us to the current moment where I was arriving just in time for Pentagram’s second only appearance in Poland and their first time at Mystic Festival. More...

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