2008
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CHRISTMAS METAL SYMPHONY (28 December 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Kees Schijven
Time for something new, Joost v.d. Broek (AFTER FOREVER) must have thought, when he decided to arrange this Christmas Metal Symphony. A metalized Christmas tale it was gonna be, Joost put a very nice line up together with some well known musicians and singers. He re-arranged some metal classics to be played with an orchestra, in this case the Magnum Opus Rockestra; Europe's Finest Metal Orchestra. The band itself consists of, besides Joost on keyboards, Frank Schiphorst on guitar (ex-Symmetry), Koen Herfst on drums (ex-Epica), Johan van Stratum on bass (Stream Of Passion), Jeffrey Revet on Keyboards (Stream Of Passion) and Marcel Coenen on guitar (Sun Caged/Stormrider). The whole idea was a story about Jonathan, told by narrator Jan Bijlsma, on two big screens on each side of the stage, inbetween performances of different guests. Unfortunately in the audience the story wasn't really good to follow, but I think nobody minded, they we're all there for the music.
First to appear on stage we're Mats Leven (Therion) and Marcela Bovio (Stream Of Passion), who kicked off with 'Blood of Kingu' from Therion and this sounded mighty awesome with the orchestra. Unbelievable what a vocal reach Mats has, and together with Marcela it was quite a combination. For the next song Marcela left the stage, and Mats did a version of Priests 'Victim of Changes', just perfect, I don't understand why Mats wasn't higher on the bill, what a vocalist! After Mats and Marcela did a version of 'Son of the Staves of Time' from Therion, the first part was over and the story continued on the screens.
The next part was for Marcela Bovio doing a few of her own Stream Of Passion songs, 'Passion' and 'Out in the real world', after which the storyteller returned.
Ian Parry was up next doing version's of Metallica's 'Enter Sandman', followed by Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid', in my opinion the least part of the evening. The songs were well chosen to get the atmosphere going, cause who doesn't know these classics. Now Doro came on stage for a duet with Ian in the form of Doro's version of the (again) Priest classic 'Breaking the Law'. Ian left the stage, leaving Doro to continue with 'All We Are' assisted by Floor Jansen, and 'I rule the Ruins', which was one of the highlights of the evening for me personally. And again a part of the story was told, although I wasn't able to follow it all, and I don't think I was the only one. Back to the music, the most important guest for me was entering the stage, Chuck Billy of Testament! After a great version of 'Souls of Black', the choice for the next song was a bit strange, as 'Return to Serenity' isn't one of the most popular Testament songs, instead 'Over The Wall' would have been a more appropriate choice. But the next one made it all up, 'More than meets the Eye' from the latest Testament effort, together with George Oosthoek (ex-Orphanage). Chuck left the stage, and George continued with some of the heaviest songs of the evening, 'Arise' from Sepultura and 'A new Level' from Pantera. Inbetween we got the Orphanage classic 'Mountains of Madness' together with Floor Jansen, with the orchestra, again a highlight as there were so many. Again the storyteller appeared on the screens, and it was time for the next guest to take the stage, Johan Edlund (Tiamat) presented a version of 'Cain', and a duet with Marcela Bovio on 'Brighter than the Sun' before doing the Scorpions 'When the smoke is going Down' in a dark metal version. Although this was really not my thing, the performances were great, and the variety in musicians made that there was something for everyone this evening.
After another part of the story, Floor and George treated the audience on a great version of After Forever's 'My pledge of Allegiance no.1'. Floor continued with 'Equally Destructive' from her own band, and finished off with their version of Maiden's 'The Evil that Men Do'. The storyteller appeared again, and the orchestra started playing 'The Odyssey' from Symphony X, which led to the main guest of tonight, Russel Allen of Symphony X, doing versions of 'Evolution' and 'Paradise Lost'. Allen finished with the orchestra, with a version of Ayreon's 'Dawn of a Million Souls', and the storyteller finished his tale. The next highpoint of the night was the finishing duet by Floor and Russel Allen 'Phantom of the Opera' from Nightwish, this was really something special to end with, a great performance.
This was really something unique, and certainly something to go on with in the future in my opinion. Joost did a splendid job putting this all together, two and a half hour of the finest metal in all it's diversities, well done is the only thing I can say. Before I went there I had expected a little more Christmas, and a little less metal, but luckily I was wrong, this is just done how it should be done. Maybe not everyone was happy or satisfied with the choice of songs made, but there was something in it for everyone!
I can only hope there will be a next edition in 2009, what a better way to spend Christmas, see you all next year, hopefully. |
WHITESNAKE & STONEFLY (21 December 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Mr. Globbetrotter
I had never seen WHITESNAKE perform live before, other than the live dvd that was released some time ago which gave me a good impression of Whitesnake's live performance. So I had to take the opportunity to see mister Coverdale and his band in action.
Support act STONEFLY was a surprise to me. The band managed to impress me with a few nice bluesy rocksongs, in which the singer made me believe he was David Coverdale's younger brother. His voice reminded me a bit of David, and I was surprised to notice the almost absence of a cheering crowd. In my opinion they did a great job!
The moment the lights go out, the crowd goes mad. Here is the dinosaur of historic hardrock, the man that starred in Deep Purple, the man who made historic albums, and not in the least, the man who had "our" Adje Vandenberg in his band. David was very energetic and let us all believe he really is still there at the top. But…that goes for his singing abilities in the lower regions. As soon as he had to go up in the octaves, he was out of it, sounding like a crow who hadn't learn to use a thing called a voice. It became very clear to me that David's voice is breaking up big time. Of course, all the famous songs passed by, but also some tracks from the latest album "Good To Be Bad" which did not impress me at all. Coverdale has always managed to gather a steady line-up to play the Whitesnake back catalog. Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach fought out their guitar duel, unfortunately without really excelling where they could have….and should have. The drumsolo was OK but nowadays it is not common to still include that in a setlist. Whitesnake gets away with it, and as all of the visitors expected, good old Adje Vandenberg came on stage for 2 songs (this time he also played along on "Still Of The Night"). After more than 90 minutes, Whitesnake says goodbye to Tilburg, and since this is their last show of the tour, they also seem to say goodbye to eachother.
It was –except David's vocals – a great show, and the audience went home, pleased to know that they got their White-snake Christmas…. |
DORO; 25 Years in Rock (13 December 2008)
ISS Dome, Dusseldorf, Germany
Review by Kees Schijven
Finally the day of the long awaited rock party of the year had arrived, the queen of metal; DORO celebrates her 25th Anniversary, with a great rock party with lots of guests at the ISS Dome in her hometown Dusseldorf. After checking in to the hotel, we arrived early at the Dome as we didn't want to miss anything, so we had to wait some time for the arena doors to open. There was already a nice crowd when we got there, so when the doors finally opened, everybody wanted to get in there at the same time. After getting into the arena, we got to see a perfect place for a happening like this, with a huge stage and enough place for about 12000 people I guess, although I don't think it was sold out. We wanted to get there in time as we thought Leave's Eyes was opening the party, but when we got in, I immediately saw Atomic Steif's drumkit on stage, so the opener had to be HOLY MOSES instead of Leave's Eyes, which was a nice surprise!
Holy Moses played a (too) short set of about 25 minutes, but they did it great. Among the songs played were 'Master of Disaster' and 'Lost in the Maze', and ofcourse I missed a lot of classics being played, but they had only 25 minutes to play so it was impossible to play them all unfortunately. Sabina truly is a great frontwoman, and although the sound wasn't perfect, they gave a great performance. After a short break, next band up would be…
LEAVE'S EYES entered the stage for the next 35 minutes or so, and performed a great set with among others, 'New Found Land', 'Elegy' and 'Legend Land'. Always great to see them perform live, they never give less than a 110% for their fans, and Alex and Liv are an energetic frontcouple. Alex banging his head off and running round the stage, while Liv sings and moves beautiful in her kinda opera way. They were supposed to present their new album live, but due to the short amount of time they had to play, they left that out, because no one would know these songs as the album isn't out yet. After the show they always make time for their fans, so they came out to the merch stand for some signing and stuff, nice to see they are normal people and not on a high horse. Because of all the talking and taking pictures with the fans they almost forgot they had to do an interview as well, very sympathetic band.
ARCH ENEMY was next on the bill, but due to the fact that we had to eat sometime, and we already had seen them the day before at De Pul in Uden, we missed their performance this night. But now we also had time to see the whole metal market which was also part of the whole happening.
Finally, around eight, the lights went out and an introduction was started, on the big screens on both sides of the stage, on the career of the star of tonight. After this, long time friend and boxing champion Regina Halmich, announced DORO, and 'Earthshaker Rock' started the party, immediately followed by 'I Rule The Ruins' and the ode to her fans 'You're my Family'. Also some songs of the new album 'Fear No Evil', which will be released in January, were played like 'Night of the Warlock' and 'Herzblut'. The whole stage background was a gigantic moving Warlock, with furious eyes, and big hands, this was an amazing stage setup with special effects and fire, it really showed that a lot of work was done here to get it right. One of the first guests, in a long line of guest appearances, who was on Doro's side, was Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth (Overkill) with whom she did a duet on 'Always Live To Win'. And a few songs after that 'Burn It Up' featured Jean Beauvoir (Plasmatics) on guitar. The whole night was a coming and going of many guests and friends who wanted to contribute to the 25th Anniversary of the queen of metal. On 'Celebrate' a lot of female vocalists joined Doro, like Liv Kristine (Leave's Eyes), Sabina Classen (Holy Moses), Liv (Sister Sin), Floor Jansen (After Forever), Jackie and Enid from Girlschool, and I'll probably forgot some more. One of the highlights of the evening was a duet with Tarja Turunen on 'Walking With The Angels' and 'The Seer', some of the best female voices in metal together. 'East Meets West' featured Chris Boltendahl (Gravedigger) on vocals and Axel Rudi Pell on guitar, who fell flat on his face when he left the stage. Another highlight was the appearance of Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker of The Scorpions, with whom Doro performed the Scorpions songs 'Big City Nights' and 'Rock You Like a Hurricane'. Then the time was there the Warlock reunion was announced with the '86 line up, except for Frank Rittel who was replaced by DORO bassplayer for 19 years, Nick Douglass. They performed a set of Warlock classics, which featured among others 'Fight For Rock' and 'Burning The Witches', and on 'Hellbound' Warrel Dane (Nevermore) joined in. After the Warlock set, the DORO band returned to give an encore with 'Warrior Soul', 'Unholy Love' and 'Fight', which showed that Doro has an awesome band around her with Johnny Dee on drums, Joe Taylor on guitar, Nick Douglass on bass and Oliver Palotai on Keys and guitar.
The night ended with another encore of 'All We Are', on which all guests joined in on stage, a great ending of a great night. About more than 8000 fans from all around the world witnessed a once in a lifetime happening, which certainly didn't leave Doro untouched by the love she received from her fans and friends. And to all of them she proved to be still the only real Metal Queen (sorry Lee Aaron) after being on stage for almost 3,5 hours!
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SICK OF IT ALL & GUEST (Persistance Tour) (10 December 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
This is the fourth time that the Persistence tour comes to Europe and the third time it strikes down at the 013 in Tilburg. Each year the tour is the wet dream for every hard- and metalcore fan. With the best bands around chosen by the public via the internet the bill is always very diverse. Each year there's a little surprise concerning the bill. Last year Napalm death was that surprise and this year Heaven Shall Burn and Discipline are here for a change between the more hardcore/punk sounding bands.
The previous concerts I watched at the 013 the venue chose to began very early in the afternoon. This time it was no different. When I entered the venue at 17:00h THE SETUP were about to play their last song to the very few people who could make it on time. The few people who saw this Belgian band had seen a good opening act. Their sound reminds me a bit of Path of Resistance the band with Earth Crisis members with at times some softer parts.
After The Setup it was time for the Christian metalcore brothers WAR OF AGES to begin with their 25 minute set. The band was very pleased to play in Europe for the first time in their career. Their metalcore with a lot of Maiden twin guitar parts in it sounded somewhat weak and not original. And the crowd seemed not very interested. Last song: "Stand your Ground" got some crowd response but to me War of Ages is no more than Maiden influenced metalcore with some breakdowns.
With H20 the first "big" band entered the stage. Way too low on the bill but H20 gave all they had in their 30 minutes playing time. During the first song I couldn't hear any vocals but this problem was gone when the second song began. With the third song "Me and all my Friends" the sound was o.k. and the first real pit of the day was there. Later on Lou Koller (Sick Of It All) came on the stage to do a little guest vocals and after that it was time for H20's version of "War Pigs" from Black Sabbath. With "What happened" the show ended and H20 showed hardcore from New York is still there!
Then DISCIPLINE, something different! The streetpunk band from Veldhoven has just released an album full of covers. They began their set with the intro "You''ll never walk Alone". The few skinheads who came to the show were in front of the stage but the rest of the public didn't know how to react to the music from our own Dutch boys. A shame if you ask me. Discipline deserves this much better. Although the sound was a little thin and Joost (vocals) was ill. He was using cough medicine in between the songs. "Running Riot", "Road to Freedom" and the ultimate football hymn: "Everywhere we Go" deserve so much better. The band ended their set with the cover "Frontline Skins" from their first cd.
An other Dutch band but with a very other sound then hit the stage. It was time for BORN FROM PAIN. Although suffering lots of line up changes the last years the band had a great sound from the beginning to the end. Rob who turned from bass to vocals seems a very good replacement for Che who I always found a very charismatic vocalist. Rob looked like he's been the singer of Born From Pain for sometime. Only minor complaint I have is that the good man has said "come on" Tilburg for about 64 times during the show. For the rest he involved the crowd in a very good way. And the new drummer, Man! He seemed a real hard hitter! A beamer with war images took care for a great backdrop. With songs like "State of Mind", "Stop at Nothing" and the crowds favourite: "Behind Enemy Lines" Born From Pain made a deep impression on the crowd. A lot of people I spoke found them the best band of the day! To me the band that came right after was that "winner of the day"; TERROR never seems tired. Man, what a fuckin' energy this band has. The security couldn't help that the people got through the barricades and stormed on the stage to dive off right after. Vocalist Scott felt honoured to be back in Europe (for God knows how many times). The crowd never seems to get bored by this fantastic band. All their classic songs like: "Better of without you" "Always the hard way" and "One with the Underdogs" were played and after 30 minutes the show was over and I didn't know how HEAVEN SHALL BURN could top this. The band got the first proper soundcheck of the day and got 45 minutes to do their trick. After the intro "Endzeit" cracked out of the speakers and vocalist Marcus fell flat on his ass! Hilarious! I really enjoyed the show but most of the hardcore minded public thought that the sound of HSB was too "metal" so the response was way less than deserved. Pity that because the show was very heavy and came to a climax with "Counterweight" Also hilarious were the pronouncements by Marcus. Always great to hear a very big German accent while people are speaking English!
Last band of the evening was SICK OF IT ALL. It was sometime ago that I have seen the band live. Their previous albums are unknown to me but Sick Of It All has always been more of a live band. Today this is again no different. Classic after classic were fired upon the audience. "Good looking out", ""Injustice System", "Step down", "We stand Alone" to name a few. The security was annoyingly present during the show. Almost nobody was allowed to get on the stage during the show. Lou excused for being that much in Europe for the last years while their last studio albums is released years ago. The crowd doesn't give a shit. Sick Of It All is here for a party anytime, anywhere. But as with al parties they must end sometime! And after one hour with Us Vs Them a great festival ended. Next year again with no barricades before the stage and a more relaxed security!
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CRADLE OF FILTH, GORGOROTH, MOONSPELL, SEPTICFLESH (3 December 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
With a somewhat interesting line up and Cradle Of Filth releasing a new album ("Godspeed on the Devils Thunder") that is worth listening to again Mario's Metal Mania went down to the 013 in Tilburg late in the afternoon to miss nothing of this festival! I arrived early at the venue but not early enough to see much of ASRAI. I saw them perform their last song but I am not going to say much about this plastic goth rock formation because it has nothing to do with the music this webzine is dealing with!
Second band SEPTICFLESH delivered a great come back album in 2008. "Communion" will reach high to places at the 2008 year lists. The main focus during this show will be on this new album with songs like "Anubis" and "We The Gods". Unfortunately the sound was heavy but not o.k. Too much bass drum in the mix spoiled a what further would be great show. You almost couldn't hear the guitar parts. The classical parts that are performed by a real orchestra on the album came from DAT recorder and the band reminded me a bit of Nile in the early days. The stage presentation was o.k. though and at the end of the show I think they pulled some new fans into their realms despite the bad sound. I hope to see the band back soon in a (co-) headlining position.
MOONSPELL then hit the stage and had –what later turned out to be- the best sound of the evening. They began with "Night Eternal" the title track from their latest opus. A beamer with some nice, weird images decorated the backdrop and with songs like "Luna", "Night in Mercury" and "Scorpion Flower" (with our own Anneke van Giersbergen, ex-The Gathering) on vocals the band seemed to do nothing wrong. Still there was something missing. The crowd didn't give the response the band deserved no matter how much vocalist Fernando tried he couldn't get the public on his side. After the oldies: "Vampiria" and "Opium" the band left the stage and the stage was set for GORGOROTH. The band took the stageshow (unfortunately without the pigheads) from their latest dvd (the Krakow show) to Tilburg. This means 4 big crosses with nude people crucified. At the beginning of the show a Dutch TV channel made some recordings so the big fuss around Gorgoroth was already complete. Just like Ghaal wanted. I have seen the band numerous times and this was nothing more than average. Still Ghaal doesn't make any contact with the audience and while their dispute with former band member Infernus goes on there aren't much older songs to be played. The sound wasn't o.k. (too much bass drum AGAIN!) but with this kind of black metal it is not that big problem because it needs to sound dirty. After an hour the band left the stage and some youngster who were standing next to me said that they had hoped for something more spectacular from Gorgoroth. I wisely didn't react…
Speaking about youngsters, the headlining act of the evening CRADLE OF FILTH was the band most that youngsters came for this day. With the return to form album "Godspeed on the Devils Thunder" the band took an advantage on their 2 some or what disappointing predecessors and I wondered if this positive thing will be shown on stage also. Again the sound was bad. How is it possible in 2008 during a concert that all the bands (except Moonspell) have a very bad sound. Again too much bass drums (tik-tik-tik) and vocals. It drove me completely mad! Classic songs like "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, "Dusk and her Embrace" were completely ruined. During that last song a big witch doll came on the stage. Maiden rip off I heard someone say (note Mario: It was me Dennis, haha). After "Sulpher and Honey" I was done with this show! This show was more like a drum and bass show with some black metal vocals underneath it. A pity for Cradle of Filth because they did their best. |
MOTORHEAD, DANKO JONES (24 November 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Normally one of my reviewers should review this gig but because lack of time (or he is just a lazy bastard, hahaha) he couldnt manage to deliver it on time...... Damn what a fuss!! Now I had to do it all on my own....... Luckily I AM familiar with Motorhead because this turned out to be my 41th time to see the band live on stage!! This year/month it was also the 10 year celebration of the 013 venue and in which way could they celebrate it better than with the mighty Lemmy & Co???
As opener today they brought DANKO JONES who played a kind of bluesy rock which was nice to hear but couldnt enthrall me for the whole set. After 3 songs I had the idea that the band was repeating and repeating their songs. The crowd wasnt also charmed by the bands music and a lot op people where chanting at the band. The band didnt play to long luckily and so we could prepare for the Motorhead gig.
What to tell about Motorhead that I didnt tell before on MMM?? Just because I saw the band so many times it was hard to write a review about the band
without repeating things I didnt tell already earlier....That was the main reason why I decided to ask someone else to write the review with some freshness... The 013 venue was again, despite of the high entrance fee, sold out again so more than 2000 people where witness of Living Legend Lemmy!
MOTORHEAD kicked off with the famous words "We are Motörhead and we play rock and roll". It marked me that the band had a very nice show on stage with a few large screens on which they alternated pictures/album sleeves with some very good camera shots from the band members. So it was good to see Mikkey Dee with a camera above his head and see how superb this guy can drum! On the other side you could also see better how mediocre guitarplayer Phil Campbell still is....
The band had a good, not to loud, sound and you could see that Lemmy felt at home in Tilburg because this was also the 10th time the band played in Tilburg. Great to finally hear the title track from the "Another Perfect Day" album, they never played this song before live and thats a pitty because this album is one of the most underestimated albums Motorhead ever made!! Also the bluesy 'Whorehouse Blues' was nice to see with Phil Campbell & Mikkey Dee on acoustic guitars while Lemmy was "singing" and playing a mouth-organ! Very funny! Also some new songs from the bands latest album "Motorizer" where played: 'Rock Out' & 'The Thousand names of God'.
Setlist for as far as I can remember; Iron Fist; Stay Clean; Be My Baby; Rock Out; Metropolis; Over The Top; One Night Stand; I Got Mine; The Thousand Names Of God; Civil War; In The Name of Tragedy; Another Perfect Day; Just 'Cos You Got The Power; Going To Brazil; Killed By Death; Bomber; and as encore: Whorehouse Blues, Ace of Spades & Overkill.
Again a great evening with the only master of Rock 'n Roll! Even Lemmy is (at this moment of writing) 63 years old; I hope he will continu for at least 10 years! Keep on rocking old Bastard!!!
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SATYRICON, EVILE, ZONARIA (20 November 2008)
Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
With the new album "The age of Nero" just released Satyricon returns to the Netherlands for two shows. The last time I saw them was at the Dynamo festival 11 years ago! Back then they just released their highly acclaimed album "Nemesis Devina". Unfortunately that show was rather weak with a very bad sound and performance. Since then the tables have turned and now Satyricon is one of the best live bands around. Something I witnessed at a rainy Thursday night in Amsterdam…
I arrived early at the venue because I had to do an interview with EVILE. I then didn't know that their guitarist fractured his jaw a day earlier at the Rotterdam show. The lady at the cash register felt sorry for me arriving that early. No problem I thought because if you can not amuse yourself in Amsterdam there is something wrong with you! I went to "het Leidscheplein" which is just besides the venue of the Melkweg and is one of the cosiest places in Amsterdam. After a few drinks I went back and ZONARIA where about to begin their set. First thing I noticed was the big comparison to Behemoth. The vocalist wearing almost the same clothes and corpsepaint as Nergal. The melodic death metal they play is far from original and the drummer sounded inconsistent during the blast beats. The stage presentation is something which must be better. Only some headbanging. With this kind of music it is important to at least try to involve the crowd. The response from the crowd was rather weak. I haven't heard their new (2nd) album "The Cancer Empire" yet and I don't think I am going to track it down.
Then after 30 minutes of waiting the mighty SATYRICON came on the stage. They opened with "Possessed" from the "Volcano" album. The sound was great from the beginning and after this one it was time for the first song of the new record: "Wolfpack" a dark mid-tempo song in the vein of the "Now Diabolical" album. Satyricon has done it again and hired some of the best musicians for this tour. It was as if they played with each other for ages. The song "Now, Diabolical" came shortly after and this was the first time the whole crowd chanted the chorus. What followed were three other new songs including the fast "Die by my Hand" and some other ones from the latest albums. Unfortunately the first two albums were neglected completely. It is well known that Satyricon doesn't play the same setlist day after day but for me it was a pity that they ignored these ones tonight. The setlist came to an end with the ultimate black metal hymn "Mother North" with the crowd chanting the first lines. The song was played too fast by drummer Frost but hey, the man is faster then the speed of light! At this show they also played "Forhekset" and "Angstridden" which they didn't play at the Rotterdam gig. For me this was the best show of 2008 and I hope Satyricon will return in the summer for the festivals!
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UNLEASHED, KRISIUN, ONE MAN ARMY & THE UNDEAD QUARTET (19 November 2008)
Effenaar, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Corinne v/d Brand
When I arrived at the Effenaar it wasn't very crowded. It wasn't even half full. But it was a Wednesday night so maybe that was the problem. But the first band ONE MAN ARMY & THE UNDEAD QUARTET played like it was a packed house. They only played half an hour but it was a good set with songs like 'Bulldozer Frenzy' and 'So grim so True so Real' from the "21st Century Killing Machine" and a few songs from their latest cd like 'Bastards of Monstrosity' and 'Cursed by the Knife'. They played very enthousiastic and energetic death/thrash metal and the people who came later really missed a good band.
Then KRISIUN entered the stage. The Effenaar was a bit crowdier by then.They mostly played songs from their "Assassination" cd like 'Bloodcraft'; 'Refusal' and 'Vicious Wrath'. But they didn't forget their older songs like 'Hatred Inherit'. A very good set.What a drummer!! He makes it look like it's very easy to constantly produce blast beats. I was impressed. They make a lot of noise for a three piece band. But this is a band who needs a very good sound otherwise it all sounds chaotic. And that was the case; too bad. But the crowd responded very well and they also played a new song which sounded very promissing. They played 40 minutes but itseemed shorter. That's always a good sign.
UNLEASHED entered the stage at exactly 22.00 clock for an hour of genuine deathmetal. And they fullfilled that promise. They had a very good sound and the crowd reacted very well and sang along with almost every song. Ofcourse they played several songs from their latest album "Hammer Battalion" like 'Your Children will burn', 'Black Horizon', 'Warriors of Midgard' and my favorite; 'Hammer Battalion'. But they also played tracks from earlier albums like 'Into Glory Ride' from 1991 and 'Final Silence' from 1992!! It still sounds up to date. After half an hour they left the stage. The crowd didn't respond at all because everbody knew they would come back. They played another 15 minutes and left again . Ofcourse they came back again and played a few songs more. And Death metal victory became a big sing-along song and the crowd went crazy a last time. 23:00 sharp they left the stage and a really good evening with 3 great bands ended.
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MARIO'S METAL MEETING 2 (9 November 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by several magazines/webzines
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VICIOUS RUMORS, COURAGEOUS, MYTHOLIC (8 November 2008)
The Rock Temple, Kerkrade, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Mario; why a review of 2 bands that will play your own festival one day later? Well simply because I WANT to and I don't find it fair to judge them on my own festival. Knowing that I was the one that gave new Vicious Rumors singer Ronnie Stixx the advice to apply for the open spot of singer in VR after they fired James Rivera last year; for that reason I was so curious to see them!
I also helped the band to book 2 extra shows in Itzehoe (Germany) and this one in Kerkrade on the days before Mario's Metal Meeting 2.
When I arrived at the new great venue of Ludy (Eternal Rock) the first band MYTHOLIC from Venlo still had to start. I was not familiar with the bands music; I only saw their frontman Willem once with his coverband Ozzy Oz (guess who they are covering??).
Funny to see that his movements on stage where still that typical Ozzy Osbourne-like but that his voice was totally different (read: much better) than from his work with Ozzy Oz. The band really impressed me with their powermetal which reminded me a lot of oldschool bands like Nevermore, Iced Earth & Iron Maiden. The band tried to revive the "good old days" of Heavy-Metal for the fans and to my opinion they did a great job!! I will keep them in mind for a probable next edition of Mario's Metal Meeting! Good job guys!!.
COURAGEOUS from Frankfurt/Main, Germany where the second band today and I only heard their latest album a few times in the past. Musically the band sounds like a mix of bands like Nevermore & Kamelot. The band had a very good stage performance and is suited with great musicians! Especially their singer has a typical voice and gave the band an even more Nevermore sound. The band played for about 40 minutes with songs like: 'The System Has Failed', 'Hollow Creation' and as bonus a BEATLES-cover ' Yellow Submarine". Good show and I was looking out for their show the day after also!!
The main reason for driving all the way to Kerkrade was of course seeing VICIOUS RUMORS & hanging out with my friend Ronnie Stixx. I've seen Ronnie in the past with Shadowkeep at the German KIT festival (where they blew away all the other bands) and he also played the first edition of Mario's Metal Meeting last year with his own band Divine Ruins. To me he is one of the best metalsingers around these days. He has a typical voice and can hit the high notes easily (which is very important to me)!
The band had a very reasonable sound and played a great set with a leading part for all members! Also the new guitarplayer Kiyoshi Morgan
was fitting perfect to the band and his duelling with Geoff Thorpe was amazing! I was also already convinced that Ronnie would sound very Carl Albert- a-like and my expectations became true!! His predecessor James Rivera is also a very good singer but hasn't the wide range of vocal variation that Ronnie has. Especially the older songs sounded fabulous and the crowd was very enthousiastic!
Their setlist was one to dream about: "Digital Dictator", "Minute to Kill", "Don't wait for Me", "Soldiers of the Night", "Abandoned", "You only live Twice", " Warball", "Sonic Rebellion", "Mr. Miracle", "On the Edge", "Ship of Fools", "Lady took a Chance", "The Crest", "Six Stepsisters", "Down to the Temple" (dedicated to the venue???) & "Hellraiser".
Superb show even if Ronnie has to work a bit more on his stage performance; still he's a killer singer!! Awesome!! |
KAMPFAR, KOLDBRANN, CUTTHROAT, MONDVOLLAND (2 November 2008)
Azijnfabriek, Roermond, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
When I entered the nice little venue on a rainy Sunday afternoon MONDVOLLAND from the province Gelderland (the Netherlands) were about to begin their show for lets say 40 people. The band tried their best and gave the audience half an hour of "Folkloristisch metaal over het Hamaland en omstreken". To compare the band to Heidevolk and Myrkvar would be too easy. Mondvolland sounds darker and the folk parts are more like the ones on the "Nordavind" album from Storm. New guitarist Harold needs to do a few more shows to learn to know the material better. So he can then work on his stage performance. All in all a nice opening act!
CUTTHROAT who are from the "new" hometown of Dolk (Kampfar), Larvik, are nothing more then a Cannibal Corpse clone with a hilariously looking singer. His belly is that big you can put a beer glass on it. With two members from Dimension 3th in it I expected much more then this average stuff. Lots of people went to the local snackbar during the show, including me.
Then over to "True Norwegian black metallers": KOLDBRANN who just released a fantastic mini cd. The band gave me the feeling I had in the mid nineties seeing a black metal concert: spikes, corpsepaint, fast black metal and an overall evil atmosphere. From the beginning there was lots of headbanging in the front of the stage. The band played material from all their records. From the new mini cd "Opium Fields Forever" (great title) was played and they ended with the totally misplaced cover song "Russian Vodka" from? Say it if you know it!
At 22 'o clock KAMPFAR entered the stage for about 50 people. Dolk said that the day before they played for 1000 but that he likes it just as much when there is a select group of real fans going completely nuts! And nuts they went! After the intro the opening song of the new album "Infernal" was presented to the people. For me this song is already a classic. Through this song Jon suffered some problems with his bass monitor. After the problems were fixed the band played the crowds favourite: "Ravenheart". Almost everyone in the venue sang the chorus. Spine chilling, what a fantastic song. Then the public ordered the band to play "Hymne" which also resulted in lots people singing the lyrics. This sort of actions show that Kampfar fans are dedicated fans. Further on the band played some another new songs including "Vettekult" in order to end with my favourite song "Norse" which is one of the only "old" songs with English lyrics. The people who didn't go will have the chance to see the band in February when they come to the Netherlands again together with Vreid and Iskald. Don't miss that!
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GRAND MAGUS, SERPENT CULT, MONSTERTONE, SOUTHERN VOODOO (1 November 2008)
Dynamo, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by William Nijhof
An evening in Dynamo (Eindhoven, Holland) listening to metal with a lot of beer is the best way to spend your saterday. The evening started with SOUTHERN VOODOO from Belgium that makes a raw mix between Motorhead and Nashville Pussy. Allright it would not be Dynamo if it started at the given time so we had to wait 45 minutes before it started but I must say it was worth it. Their songs are very over the top with a lot of rock n roll in it and of course with dancing ladies on stage (not the most beautiful ladies). Great raw music with a lot of solos and bang your head songs.
The second band that played was MONSTERTONE from Holland. I must confess that I only have seen two songs but I must say that they sounded great. A raw mix of influences of led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. I didn't really like the vocals but their music is great.
The third band of that evening was SERPENT CULT from Belgium. I can say if you like doom metal or stoner you're definitely going to love them. Slow and groovy riffs combined with a female voice. The first time I saw them I thought what the fuck is this. A female voice with a stoner band? Well that sounded very surprisingly good. They played a lot of songs of their latest record (Weight of Light) and that sounds fucking good.
And of course the headliner of the evening…GRAND MAGUS. This band from Sweden is in my opinion one of the ring leaders of stoner, they opened with the song "When the oar strikes the Water" of their latest album "Iron Will" and everybody was straight in the mood for some banging. They played songs from the "Monument" album and I was very surprised about their live performance that stands as a brick. The vocal of their singer is clean and that sounds great. The guitar riffs were slow and groovy. I was very happy that they played a lot of songs from "Iron Will" because if don't have that album you're really missing something. They played for almost 70 minutes and I was banging the entire show.
All though every body was getting really drunk their was also an surprise act by ADAM BOMB who was in Eindhoven that night and brought his band and played a gig after Grand Magus. In my opinion it sucked but the show was funny. Adam Bomb plays rock n roll mixed with punk. It was clear that nobody was waiting for him because almost everybody left….oh well that's life.
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MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP (MSG), DIGGETH (23 October 2008)
De Pul, Uden, The Netherlands
Review by Mr. Globbetrotter
The MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP (MSG) started off their new European tour in "De Pul" in Uden, a village in the southeastern part of Holland. A nice venue, where a band called DIGGETH had the honour of warming up the audience with their stonerrock. Unfortunately for them, they did not succeed in heating things up, so the audience were relieved when the band went off stage to make room for the main act, being master guitarist Michael Schenker.
Their last album got mixed critics, and I must say that I wondered why mister Schenker had not heard the songmaterial that Gary Barden used on his last two soloalbums....but I got the answer to that question in the interview that I had with him after the show (see INTERVIEWS section).
The band came on stage after an intro which I thought, featured a song by Gary Barden..Michael looked very fit and energetic. I had seen his previous two shows in Tilburg, and his last one there at 013 was outstanding. This evening, he came close to that level. It was also great to see Gary Barden back in the band; Gary still has that thing with the audience (and vice versa), it's like a lost love that had returned although of course after so many years, his vocal capacities had changed.
Still, Gary gave his best and in the end the audience were thrilled to have seen him back on stage with MSG. Also back in the band was bassplayer Chris Glenn. The Scotsman has gained a little weight over the years, but he can still use his strings the way he used to back in the eighties. And there also was Wayne Findlay; the keyboardist and second guitarplayer is almost a Schenker protegé, being in the line up since the beginning of this century. Wayne had a few issues with his guitar during the first two songs, but they were solved. Behind the drums was the bald Chris Slade, who once filled the space with AC DC and it was a bit obvious that he had to get used to the MSG songmaterial, this being the first show on the tour. MSG played two songs of their latest album, and frankly, that was OK for me; with Gary back in the band, i just wanted to hear the older material. And oh yes, there was a lot of that; i think "Lost Horizons" got the best response from the audience, and also the old UFO songs and of course the proverbial anthem "Into The Arena" got the audience moving.
It all went by sooo quickly, that i was quite anxious to talk to mister Schenker to congratulate him with being back on stage fit and steady.
After that interview, by the way, i hung out with Gary, Chris, Chris and Wayne, and these guys are absolutely brilliant, coming out in the venue and taking their time to talk to fans, have pictures taken and sign what they got in their hands. Great gig from a great band, and they still amaze me after all these years.
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SWORDBROTHERS 7 FESTIVAL (13 September 2008)
Andernach, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
Swordbrothers is the lifework from Volker Raabe, a metalhead with all his heart and soul (or is soul not the right word?). This is his yearly underground festival at the wonderful location in Andernach, Germany. Normally I wouldn't travel to this years edition because of 2 reasons;
- I was not really impressed by the line-up this edition except for the headliner Steel Prophet.
- It was also that day my 44th birthday party but that was no excuse to let Volker down; there are worse places to celebrate your birthday than this one with all my German friends !!
That I was celebrating my birthday party a bit to extreme will follow later…….
When I arrived around 13:10 the first band METALHEAD (Germany) was already on stage and it suited me that this opener already had a very good sound quality. The band played heavy metal pur sang and the singer did remind me sometimes to King Diamond when he was singer the high-pitching parts. Unfortunately he began to sing worse later on in the set. Still a nice opener for the, about 150, people that where already in front of the stage.
CONQUEST OF STEEL from the UK already proved their live experience to me earlier and also this time the guys where great! They had again such an enthousiastic appearance that its nearly impossible to stop your head from headbanging! Also a very good version of Dio's "Holy Diver". Very good live band that I will keep in mind for a possible next edition of Mario's Metal Meeting J Good choice of Volker to add this band to the line-up!
STEELPREACHER from Germany is a well known band in the underground circuit and the band reminded me to bands like Stormwarrior and the opener of today Metalhead. Good, straight in your face truemetal but of course far from original. Nice band but not the kind of bands I personally prefer.
CROM is a band from Volker's metallabel Pure Steel Records and the band lately released a new (debut??) album "Vengeance". I heard some parts of that album and it made me curious about the bands live performance. Well pity enough they couldn't convince me for 1 single minute and especially their singer sounded awefull. Sorry guys…..not my cup of tea (or not my glass of beer??)
As surprise act Volker booked RITUAL STEEL for Germany. No not Titan Steel but RITUAL STEEL; I was sure this band broke up years ago and went on under the name Titan Steel but according inside information I got I was totally wrong; both Ritual Steel and Titan Steel are still alive. Sascha "Sir Lord Doom" Maurer is singing in Titan Steel these days and in Ritual Steel he is replaced by another, also bad singing, frontman. Musically both bands sound nice but the new singer of Ritual Steel is even singing worse than his predecessor Sacha. Also nice on Sacha was his presentation on stage; I could at least laugh the whole set because of his funny clichés and stage act. That was also the thing I missed at todays show.
Volker every time has the bad luck of last minute cancellations and also this year 3 US-metalbands cancelled during the last month (Ravensthorn, Salem's Wych & Exiled). As a replacement for 1 of these bands he booked UK newcomers SNAKE EYES. A very nice band with a very good singer which also covered a few Judas Priest classics. Because I was already getting a bit drunk I'm not sure if it where 'Living after Midnight' or 'Breaking the Law' (or both??). A nice performance but not good enough to keep me concentrated for a whole set so I quit after about 6 or 7 songs.
HOLY MARTYR from Italy has a real cult status in the underground but personally I never knew why because they are (where) not very special. The band plays decent truemetal and has some good musicians. Ive seen the band before but today I had to admit that they really kicked ass! Or had it to do with my alcohol percentage and the will to party?? Doesn't matter; I loved the show today and I will check them out again asap! Good show! Great singer!
BULLET is one of the bands that are adored by the truemetalfans in Europe and they can always cheer a party up to a higher level. The band was also booked as replacement for one of the US-metalbands that cancelled lately. Personally I never liked their AC/DC & Accept- a like hardrock/metal because its all far from original (read: stolen). But who am I to say that the bands sucks if hundreds of metalheads raise the roof when these guys are playing?? The audience loved it and that's the most important thing J
Next band on the bill where US-legends OMEN but…they didn't show up either! After all the bullshit Volker had with dutch bands some years ago (Powervice, Angus & Emerald (the dutch ones)), he now had the same problems with the US bands he booked this year. The band later on sended a MySpace mail that there airplane didn't leave the airport because of the storm "Ike"…. Bad luck for Volker again (and for a lot of Omen fans).
STEEL PROPHET was the band I was travelling for to Germany but also these guys didn't show up complete. Volker booked all their tickets but mainman Steven Kachinsky didn't come over with the rest of the band because "he was not interested in his European fans????"
Gladly the rest of the band DID show up and proved the audience that they didn't need ego-asshole Steve Kachinsky to prove their qualities. I spoke to Rick Mythiasin (who has the same weight problem as I during the last years) and he told me that they would kick some ass. Well they did! Pity enough I wasnt able to see the whole set because I was honestly to drunk!! After 6 or 7 songs I had to quit otherwise I would have felt asleep in front of the stage because I was already as "drunk as fuck"…..Damn because this should have been the highlight of the day and now I had to leave the venue earlier because I partied to much this day…but hey; I HAD A HELL OF A BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!
Thanks to Volker for again a very nice festival and please go on with this kind of festivals! We need to support the underground! Hope the rumor is true that he already booked HALLOWEEN for next years edition J Cheers mate!! (its already confirmed now that HALLOWEEN will headline next years edition)
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LOUD FROM THE SOUTH FESTIVAL (30 August 2008)
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
Finally a new metal festival in the south of the Netherlands. The organisation had to deal with some major problems before they could promote the festival. At first the festival would be in the small town of Bakel. When the organisation heard that they wouldn't get a license they moved the festival to the ground nearby Het Klokgebouw in Eindhoven. 2 Months before the 29th of August the second huge disappointment was there. Loud from the South had to move inside Het Klokgebouw because it was not allowed to organise the festival outside. It was already too late for the advertising then. And when the weather turned out to be beautiful that day a lot of people chose not to go to the first edition of Loud from the South…
When I entered the venue EVILE and THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE had already played. My friends told me that EVILE was o.k. with their old school thrash sound although most of the riffs are stolen from Megadeth and Metallica! THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE didn't impress them much. Both bands had to contend with a very bad (too hard) sound. Unfortunately this didn't get much better during the day. Darkane then has not quite seem to impress me much with their latest albums but today the band plays with an enormous power. The sound is still not o.k. but the first moshpits of the day are there… The new album "Demonic Art" will be out by the end of October. Something to look out for. The stoner rock from MOTORJESUS then. This kind of music is not my and most of the people's thing. Time to take a look at the small merchandise section…
NORTHER power metal and Children of Bodom clone is up next. Power metal is o.k. but not in the way NORTHER plays it. Myself and the crowd are still waiting for the first real good band. I didn't see PILGRIMZ because I paid a visit to the snackbar.
DARK TRANQUILLITY was the first band I really looked forward to seeing today. Vocalist Mikael Stanne is always in a good mood and is a fantastic performer. The latest album "Fiction" has sold very well and it is from this album that most of the songs are played from. The band plays with a stand in bass player because long time member Michael Nicklasson decided to leave the band right before the tour. Pity they didn't play some of the older songs. I always love to hear stuff from "The Gallery" Superb show by one of the leading metal bands! SABBAT has also reunited and before the show I quickly listened to the "Dreamweaver" album again. What a fantastic album that is. Andy Sneap and Martin Walkyier made it a feast for the old school metalfan. Welcome back!
After the some or what disappointing (sound at the) Wacken show CARCASS could prove that that was just a one time mistake. And boy, they took that chance. Classic after classic were fired at the audience who answered with a big mosh pit. Sometimes you see a show from a band that has meant so much during your life. CARCASS is such a band and with the songs as "Reek of Putrefaction and "Heartwork" we went completely bananas! What a show!
Nice detail was that old drummer Ken Owen (recovering from a brain haemorrhage) came on the stage to say hello to the Dutch crowd.
LAAZ ROCKIT gave everything at their show. During the first songs there wasn't much public in front of the stage. This got better after a few songs. Latest album "Left for Dead" has been received well by audience and press and the new songs are just as good as the old ones if you ask me. With "Fire in the Hole" they ended their show in their second hometown Eindhoven.
Last band of the day was SOULFLY who I had to miss because of family obligations. Opinions were different. Some said it was o.k. others didn't like it at all.
Conclusion: Organizational there are things to improve. The next time the location must be definite on an earlier date. So that the advertising can begin earlier. It was a shame that the sound quality was bad during the whole day. Maybe there could have been more food facilities. Now there were only fries and "loempias" More "metal" bands. The program was too diverse. Lower ticket prices. 55 euros is a lot of money.
Although this all may sound very negative I must say that I had a very good day. There were lots of well known people and at the end of the day I saw some memorable gigs.
Their site says we don't have to wait until next year for the second edition; So maybe we can go to ""The clockbuilding" in the winter again! |
PARTY SAN FESTIVAL (7, 8 & 9 August 2008)
Bad Berka, Germany
Review by Sammy de Maere
For the 14th time, black and death metal fans from all over Europe were lured to Bad Berka, Germany for the Party San festival. Every year this festival succeeds in making a bill that is appreciated highly by the fans of the more extreme metal and this year was no other. Me and 2 friends decided to find out what's so good about this small festival.
After driving 600 km we arrived at the campsite on wednesday evening. Immediatly we found out that this festival is really small but very fun to be at. The atmosphere was nice, pleasant and easy going. With only about 9000 people on the campsite it's pretty nice to check out who is standing around you. After our tents were put up we decided to check out the partytent on the campground, about 50 meters away from our tent. The partytent gave a good idea of what the festival is all about: beer, fun and good music. Drinks were at €2 for 40cl and every song played was a black, death or thrashmetal classic. It was late at night when we returned to our tent after having a lot of fun with local metalheads.
Thursday was the first actual day of the festival but the first band wasn't till 8.00 PM so we spent the entire day on drinking in the sun, having some laughs with people there and looking at all the beautifull women around the place. German death metallers PURGATORY had the honour of opening the festival. They did their best and played a decent setlist. After them things got more brutal as DEADBORN climbed the stage and they also played a very nice and energetic set. Now it was the time for FARSOT, followed by SKYFORGER. I decided to go back to the campsite since I just don't like black metal. When we returned to the festivalsite, we were in time to catch DISMEMBER, the headliner of that day. After their show I could clearly say that the trip to Party San was allready worth it, the band played probably the best death metal show I've ever seen. A setlist containing lots of classics and some songs of the new (and brilliant) album. After some more beers at the campsite we decided to call it a night.
Day 2 started at 2.00 PM with IRATE ARCHITECT who were pretty good. Afterwards we saw a decent performance by DEFLORATION and walked around the ground for some time while black metalband TYRANT gave it their best. The first real highlight of the day were dutch deathmetal elite HAIL OF BULLETS containing members of almost every good death metalband The Netherlands have to offer including Martin van Drunen of Asphyx on vocals. An awesome set was unleashed at the crowd and very much appreciated by myself. No time for relaxing because soon after HoB LIVIDITY climbed the stage for a great show of goregrind. After them it was time for KAMPFAR which ment diner time for us. The campsite was pretty fun and we stayed there during TYR, UNANIMATED and ENDSTILLE. We returned to the festivalground for the 2 headliners of friday and I was really looking forward to these bands. BLOODBATH didn't dissapoint me at all ! The swedish death metal elite played their second gig ever, their first being at Wacken 2005 but it felt like they were playing together for years. I'm not a big fan of the newer work and you can hear that the new guitar player isn't as good as Dan Swano but I still really enjoyed their performance. After banging my head of, the best of the day was yet to come. BOLT THROWER honoured Party San by making it the only festival this summer where they would be playing and they treated the crowd with a musical bulldozer that pounded us all into pieces for an hour and a half. Several old classics were played as well as more new material. Perfect way to end the day if you ask me.
The final day of the festival was more relaxing for us as there were a lot of bands we didn't need to see. We started our day with INSISION who would have been good if it wasn't that we allready saw plenty of bands who were better. Because of the high volume me and my friend went more to the back were we met the singer of Lividity who joined us into checking out FACEBREAKER. Those swedisch death metallers played a brilliant performance and at any other festival they would have been in my top 5 immediatly. This just to show how many great bands I allready saw at Party San. The next band playing the stage was KOLDBRANN and after those we were treated to a great grind show by GENERAL SURGERY. Super cool performance by the band who played a set that had to remind lots of people to Carcass. After them I wanted to check out VREID but even though I like them on cd it's not my thing live. 2 songs into their set we went back to the campsite to stay their untill nightfall. Another good thing about the campsite being close to the festivalsite is that I can still review some bands while I was barbecuing with some of our friendly neighbours. MAROON seemed like a decent performance but I just wasn't into metalcore at that time so I let them be. IMPALED NAZARENE sound pretty good musically but I can't stand those vocals. LEGION OF THE DAMNED and BEHEMOTH were as boring as usual: I like almost every song of these bands but there is just not enough variation in their music to keep me interested for more than 3 songs. Meanwhile at the campsite one of my friends finally had some luck with charming the beautifull german ladies so he missed the last band of the festival. I however decided to grant him some privacy and went back to the festivalground one last time to enjoy OBITUARY. It wasn't the best time I've seen them but I really enjoyed them once more. No suprises in the setlist and still no Alan West on guitar but Obituary will always remain a great live band and I just can't think of anything better to end a festival than 'Slowly we Rot'.
As conclusion I can say that Party San 2008 may have been the best festival I've ever been to. I loved the general atmosphere of the people and the bill was brilliant. If I like next year's bands I'm definatly returning to Bad Berka again, and I recommand the trip to every fan of extreme metal. |
WACKEN OPEN AIR FESTIVAL (30 July till 2 August 2008)
Wacken, Germany
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
For the 19th time the biggest metal festival of the world is organised on. It is for the first time that Mario's Metal Mania will give an impression of this massive festival with 5 stages in the north of Germany with names such as Iron Maiden, Carcass, Avantasia, At the Gates and many more. Because we wanted to avoid the traffic commotion we chose to travel by night...
Wednesday/Thursday:
Picked up my friends at about half past 11 p.m. for a 5 hour drive to Wacken nearby Hamburg. No Tom-tom but routenet.nl was a good alternative (we thought). We safely drove to the Dutch border near Enschede. Twisted Sister was coming out of the radio and yeah, we wanted to rock! When we drove past the border the sight was getting dimmed, are there any lanterns besides the German highways? I haven't seen any. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic on the highway so we could drive at high speed. After a few hours I thought we drove through a familiar area. Dortmund? Oh, no! I saw Iron Maiden at the Westfalenhallen in 2006. No wonder I knew this area. So we made kind of a detour but were on the right way now to the north. No more routenet.nl for us in the future.
At 8 a.m.! we made a stop for a short rest. After that we quickly entered Hamburg and shortly after Wacken. We followed a bus with a huge Wacken logo sticker on the back. Through lots of sand roads and narrow paths we finally entered the Wacken camping site. This is absolutely fantastic. You can park your car and put your tent right after it! We cracked a few beers and the party could begin.
The only band we would like to see this Thursday was IRON MAIDEN. It was 33 C degrees. So we decided to look for a spot in the shade. We weren't the only ones thinking that. Damn it was really hot that day. The festival ground wasn't open until 19:00 p.m. so after a little nap we decided to visit the metal market where it was 45 C. Quickly bought some cd's and then back to the beer tent. In the evening the temperature finally went down and the alcohol kicked in. A few minutes to 22 p.m. "doctor doctor" came out of the speakers. Yes, the sign for the mighty Maiden to play their show.
This was the second time I saw them this year. Everybody already knows that the tour this year is somewhat of a copy of the "Life after Death" tour. Including all the hits from the ""golden years" period. After the famous speech from Mr. Churchill Maiden fired their way through the setlist. The whole show the sound was not very hard. I was standing in the middle in a crowd of 70.000 people so maybe I was standing to far from the stage. During "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Bruce forgot some parts of his lyrics but I doubt that someone has heard that. That song was the absolute highlight of the show. I find it rather weird that the band has chosen to play "Run to the Hills" , "Fear of the Dark" and "Number of the Beast" for this show. It shows that Maiden still is a conservative band. The only big surprises were the above mentioned "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Moonchild". It would be nice to hear something they have never played live such as: "Alexander the Great" or "Flash of the Blade" Maybe I am complaining too much. So after a good show from the mighty Maiden (they never disappoint) we stumbled to our tent/car and immediately felt asleep.
Friday:
At 9:00 hours I literally burned out of my car by the sun. We all quickly took a "camping shower" (wash your face and hair with mineral water) and then quickly went to the blackstage to see the almighty GRAVE. While it was early in the morning the festival ground was already filled with metalheads. GRAVE played their asses off and after "Deformed" we already ordered our third pint.
After Grave we went to the partystage to see the masters of tech- death metal CYNIC play. Cynic has always been a very special band to me. With "Focus" they recorded an all time classic and I was very glad they chose to reunite again and even bring out a new album in the autumn from whom they also played one song which sounded like the "Focus" material. The show was perfect with one minor complaint. The sound of the bands playing on the party stage was constantly overruled by the bands that played at the black- or main stage.
Highlight of the show for me was "Uroboric Forms" also there hardest song. At times I completely drifted away and I wasn't realising that it began to rain during the show. For me one of the highlights of Wacken 2008! After Cynic we chose to leave the festival ground and take a walk through the town. Nice to see that in almost every garden there was a beer tent! The whole town is metal minded for 3 days. Fantastic!
When we returned we went to see THE ROTTED. It was already one big mudd pool so the tent was packed. The Rotted played a very tight show. And I must admit that I actually like there new more death metal sound. During The Rotted I went to take a piss and took the time to listen to a few songs of KAMELOT. Not really my cup of tea but the crowd seem to like it.
My friends and I thought it was time to take another rest after the show and return in the evening. When I woke up it was already 23:00 hours. Damn I slept like a baby! Quickly went to the stage and saw the biggest part of the AVANTASIA show. What a massive show it was and what a hyper personality Tobias Sammet is. With guest appearances of Jorn Lande, Uli Jon Roth and Andre Matos this was a real special show. I didn't count the amount of people on the stage but I think they were with more then 15! With his latest album Mr. Sammet really broke through and I could see that a lot of people now the lyrics of every song. Over the top show but nice to see.
So finally one of the moments I had been waiting for that day :GORGOROTH the Ghaal version. At 2 'o clock the stage was set and the curtain fell… Yes! They brought the same show as on the Krakow dvd with them. Crucified nude people, pig heads and lots of torches. The band gave a stunning performance. This is how a black metal concert must be. Lots of evil atmosphere and a band playing at their peak. Only small complaint is that there were no songs played from the early albums. This because of the conflict Ghaal and King ov Hell have with Infernus. At 3 'o clock I went to the camping ground for another well deserved rest…
Saturday:
3 INCHES OF BLOOD kicks of at the main stage on Saturday. I don't know what this band is doing at Wacken. I think they already had their 15 minutes of fame a few years ago. The combination of old and new school metal then seemed o.k. but the hype was over when they released their new album last year. The crowd thought the same…There are better bands who deserve a place at the festival.
Time to visit the beer tent again. The organisation did a good job throwing sand and hey on the mudd pools so that the ground was dry again.
Nice to see the old men from SWEET SAVAGE on the main stage. The success the band has/had is mostly because of Metallica who have covered "Killing Time".
OBITUARY played at the party stage and really disappoint. Bad sound and a less inspiring performance with again the overwhelming sound from HATEBREED on the other stage. Normally Obituary never disappoints. Sad enough today they did.
Then the crowd at the black stage becomes larger a larger. The masters of gore return have chosen to return to the stage after a silence of 13! Years. CARCASS is one of the reasons we made the trip to Hamburg. Back in the day we never had the chance to see them live because we were to young. So thank god they have chosen to reunite. The sound at the beginning of the show is weak. During the blast beats you couldn't hear the snare drums. It lacked power. Sure it was enough for us to go completely nuts hearing "Exhume to Consume" ,"Heartwork" and "Reek of Putrefaction" but unfortunately their was something missing. Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy) did a guest appearance which wasn't necessary if you asked me. Most memorial thing was the moment Ken Owen came on the stage. Ken is still recovering from a brain haemorrhage. He gave a drum solo and it is nice to see that the other members take him them throughout the whole tour. Respect!
AT THE GATES was one of the highlights at the Graspop festival. Today they will headline the black stage with an even longer setlist. We had seen a lot of good band the previous days but this was completely mind blowing. With a setlist that covered their whole career At the Gates owned! From the 'Garden of Grief' ep until their groundbreaking "Slaughter of the Soul" album. The crowd went totally mad. So after almost two hours the band ended their show with "Kingdom Gone"
We decided to leave after At the Gates so that we could avoid traffic jams after the NIGHTWISH show. During the walk to the camping ground we could hear Nightwish performe at the main stage. Same story as Avantasia I thought. Over the top show the way "ze Germans" like it.
Back to Holland it was then. The return took us 5 hours. A much shorter way then the outward journey!
Mario's Metal Mania will be back in 2009 to celebrate the 20th birthday of Wacken!
The pre-sale has already begun…! |
HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR FESTIVAL (24, 25 & 26 July 2008)
Brande-Hörnerkirchen, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
Headbangers Open Air is for me THE festival as a lot of people already know. This years edition was my 5th visit to the festival with a line-up I could only dream about!! Okay, the Keep it True festival always has bigger names on the bill but the atmosphere in combination with the great underground bands that are playing at HOA is unbelievable!! After a bit weaker 10th edition in 2007, HOA put a line up together that was marvellous! Pim from Digital Steel webzine & Melissa Records joined me during this battle of attrition and my pictures will be added to the Digital Steel webzine later on.
DAY 1
Due to traffic jam nearby Hamburg we had to miss the first band MESSENGER from Germany. Pity because I saw the band a few years ago at the KIT festival and they where okay that time.
Italian metallers ANCESTRAL cancelled their gig just a few days before the festival and where replaced by a NWOBHM tribute-band named ROXXCALIBUR. These guys (with members of VIRON & ABANDONED) where already doing their things when we arrived at the festival. Gladly we could pick up some covers of bands like JAGUAR, GRIM REAPER & SAVAGE. Nice tribute band but I prefer to see these kind of bands at metal parties and not at a festival like HOA. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that I never was such a huge NWOBHM fan??
DEADLY BLESSING was one of the reasons/bands I travelled to North Germany. Their older stuff is great and their former singer Ski (now in Faith Factor) is one of my alltime fav. metalsingers. His voice is incredible. So I was very curious about his successor and the new songs of the band. After opening with "Search & Destroy" I already had a bad feeling. Their new singer isnt bad at all but on stage it was a kind of a disappointment. After a few songs he began to sing even more out of tune and that's a pity if you know how good the band was in the past. Musically they still kick ass, eventhough the new songs are more Maiden-a-like than their previous material. The band played a nice mix of older & newer songs. Later on I heard that the singer had a throat infection so I have to give the band a second opinion some day. According the 2-track demo the band gave me, I have to admit that the new songs sound cool and the vocals do remind me a lot to Alan Tecchio (ex-Hades, Ex-Watchtower, Seven Witches, et al…). Review of that demo will be online soon…
A few years ago I also saw BENEDICTUM with front-lady Veronica Freeman. During that gig in Belgium (Biebob) I wasn't impressed by her vocals because she was screaming (in a negative way) and it didn't sound like singing that time. Luckily this time she was singing much much better and their gig turned out to be the best gig on Thursday. Veronica is not only a lust to SEE on stage because of her looks but also because of her stage act. A very fanatic stage animal which finally proved me that their 2 great albums can be performed live as well. I also had the feeling that the line-up changes could be debit for a big part of that. The band played an Accept cover 'Balls to the Wall" with two great guest 'singers' from the audience which where both having as much fun as we had, hahahaha. Good show!!
EXODUS was the headliner on Thursday. After nearly 1 hour soundcheck the band finally started. Personally I did like their show a few weeks ago at the Dynamo Club in Eindhoven but I was irritated by the political bullshit the new frontman Rob Dukes was talking about. Tonight he did it again. Nobody is waiting for his opinion, especially not a true-metal audience!! The band at all didn't fit in the HOA line-up because of the hardcore throat of Rob Duke which wasn't appreciated by most of the people I spoke to after/during the show. Some songs of their setlist: 'Bonded by Blood', 'Lessons in Violence', 'Fabulous Disaster'. Nice headliner for a dutch audience but not for HOA followers…..
DAY 2
BLACK HAWK from Germany where opening on day 2 and the band played standard heavy metal, nothing more nothing less. I heard this kind of metal all before but I have to admit that the band performed well. I also didnt like the Kiss cover 'Detroit Rock City" just because I dont like Kiss at all! Nice opener but not spectacular.
German Speedmetallers PARADOX where the next band on the bill but they cancelled (I first heard they where not satisfied with their place on the bill but later on I read the news that there singer was ill and now they will play at next years HOA)??) and where replaced by, again, DEADLY BLESSING who already played the day before. The gig was nearly equal to their show on Thursday so take a look back for details….
18 years ago I already saw MORTAL SIN when they supported TESTAMENT in my hometown Tilburg. That time I was not really impressed by the band even if I did like their debut album "Mayhemic Destruction" very much. So my expectations for today where not very high. The more I was surprised by their stage performance: I was really blown away by their energy!!! What a power!! Their singer was really fun to see: headbanging & singing all the time. I could nearly see his face because his head was banging the whole set! Superb gig especially because I didn't excpect that much from these Australian guys! Also the newer songs (from their last album: "An Absence of Faith") sounded great.
SWEET SAVAGE was the first "real" NWOBHM band on this years edition. I already saw the band 10 years ago at the Wacken festival. The band is most wellknown for the fact that their former guitarplayer Vivian Campbell (according the dutch Aardschok magazine; the best metal female guitarist ever, hhahahahaha) was picked up by Ronnie James DIO and later moved to DEF LEPPARD. The band wasn't looking that young anymore but I could see that they still had a lot of fun on stage! I had to wait till the end of the set before they played their classic songs "Eye of the Storm" & "Killing Time". Good show from this oldies!!!
One of the most important bands for me to visit HOA again was LETHAL (USA). Last year the band blew me away during their Keep it True appaerance and I was so curious if they could do it again this time. Well, they did! Singer Tom Mallicoat is still a singing metalgod even if he looks very nervous on stage. The band is musically oiled very well and it was again a pleasure to see/hear these guys! Also the day after, at the HOA afterparty at the Ballroom in Hamburg, the band was superb. The band played a lot of songs from their debut album "Programmed" but also some later stuff and even a new song! The band had the bad luck that during the last couple of songs, Tom's microphone had a breakdown on the line. Gladly this was solved after 2 songs. Cant wait to hear the new songs! Hope they come back to Europe again soon!! LETHAL rules!!
US thrashers AT WAR was a band that I liked very much in the past and im a big fan of their 2 albums. Pity enough I never saw the band earlier and the more I was pleased when I heard they did play HOA!! The 3-man band played in the orginal line-up which is ofcourse extra fun! The band played mostly songs from their 2 albums but also played some new song(s) and a Motörhead cover "The Hammer". The band had a special sound in the old days and it was great to hear that they still had this sounds on stage! Very good show from these guys! Some songs from their setlist: 'Church & State', 'Ilsa (She Wolf Of The S.S.)', 'Eat Lead', 'Rapechase', 'Ordered To Kill', 'Mortally Wounded', et al... Please come back asap!!
US Schock rockers IMPALER where also on the bill but I never liked their stuff anyway. Also now on stage the band couldn't impress me for 1 minute. Their "show" looked childish and is not of this time. A guy with a bloody shirt running around the whole time on stage is looking cheap and reminded me to the Mad Butcher from Destruction. Difference is that Destruction uses this act for only 1 song, Impaler used him the whole set. Not my kind of band. A waste of time…
DETÈNTE played finally in Europe with a nearly original line-up; nearly ofcourse because original singer Dawn Crosby died years ago (in 1996, due to a acute liver failure). The band found a replacement in Ann Boleyn (ex-Hellion). Ann was doing a good job even if she doesn't fit in perfectly. Why? Ann's voice is much more melodic than Dawn's voice ever was. Still they convinced me live and I have to be honest that they could have picked out a worse substitute for Dawn! Personally I didn't expect to much of this reunion but I was positive surprised by the band musicianship and Ann's performance! Some of the songs from their setlist: "Holy War', 'It's Your Fate', 'Life is Pain', 'Vultures In The Sky'. Good show!!
I will not say to much about the headliners BLAZE BAYLEY & SODOM because I only saw parts of the shows and I never was a real fan of both bands. Day 2 was at an end and we went back to our hotel to rest for day 3….
DAY 3
STONE COLD BLACK from the Hamburg area was opening on the last festival day (we still had the afterparty to go…..) but their raw metal/pop couldn't convince me for 1 minute, Musically it was okay but their "singer" was terrible to hear….skip......
ABANDONED is one of todays newcomers in the German thrashscene and today they did a good job. Their singer isnt such a great vocalist but his appearance on stage is making it all worth to check these guys out. It suited me that he was complaining about the Exodus performance in which he was, to my opinion totally right! (read my Exodus review above). Abandoned plays straigth is your face thrash which I like very much. Good show guys! Pity of a few false guitarsolos. German thrash still kicks ass!!
US thrashers DESTRUCTOR played to early on the time schedule if you ask me. Im a big Destructor fan from the first minute and they only released good albums during all these years. I saw the band several years ago at the Bang Your Head festival and they blew me away! Last time at the Keep it True festival they where playing a bit less inspired so I was curious about their show today. Luckily for me the band was giving a great show again and it was for me one of the headlights of this years HOA. Only complain (same as on KIT) was that they didn't play "Bondage" again… But their singer promised me to do that next time for me specially:). Some of their songs they did play: 'Tear down the Heavens', 'Destruction', 'Take Command', 'Maximum Destruction', 'Iron Curtain', 'Storm of Steel', 'Pounding Evil', 'Overdose'. Great show!!
PRAYING MANTIS is most wellknown because ex-Iron Maiden guitarplayer Dennis Stratton was once one of their guitarplayers. The band makes NWOBHM which I did like but when you compare it with SWEET SAVAGE it was not that special. Nevertheless the band has a great singer! Nice band but not really my cup of tea (or in HOA terms; not my glass of beer)...
AXEHAMMER from the USA made some great albums but last time at the Keep it True festival they really sucked!! That time their original singer Bill Ramp was singing out of tune the whole set and I was glad when I heard that he "left" the band. Their new singer used to sing in the US cultband THRUST ("Fist Held High" album) and it was a good refreshment in the Axehammer line-up. Personally I couldn't recognize his voice anymore because in his Thrust period he had a more high-pitched voice. Now he wasn't singing that high but he had an incredible power in his voice. (Lately singer Mark Stewart contacted me and told me that HE was not the singer during the "Fist Held High" period). Good show anyway this time! Hope to see them more in the near future! Some songs they played: 'Princess", 'Lord of the Realm', 'Axehammer', 'Stand Up and Fight'.
WILD DOGS; came, saw & sucked! What a terrible disaster!! Most of the people where waiting for an old school Wild Dogs set but Fatt Matt (now I know why he uses this name) also played a lot of songs from his Fatt Matt & Dr. Mastermind projects. Even the "Reign of Terror" performance sounded very very weak. One of the biggest disappointments of this years HOA!!
Because of a hunger attack I missed REBELLION
One of the US bands I went over to HOA again was the slightly progressive metalband NEW EDEN. The band showed up with a new singer (Rod Arias) and I was curious if he could replace his predecessor Rick Mythiasin; well he could! The band had several problems with their sound and started more than an hour to late. Nevertheless they gave a good performance but it counted me that this kind of progressive metal isnt that popular in the German underground scene. A few years ago I saw the same problem when Pyramaze played at HOA. Little disadvantage to the band was the fact that second guitarplayer Tim Thomas wasn't in the band anymore and that bandleader Horacio Colmenares was the only guitarist in the band which didn't gave the total sound a extra. Still New Eden kicked ass! Setlist according the band: 'Piracy', 'Sunshine', 'Sypmptoms of Time', 'Dance of the Dead', 'Demons of Earth', Land of Filth & Money', 'Stagnant Progression', 'Threshold of Tolerance', 'Crawling Erect' & 'The Not Self". As a bonus they also played Iron Maiden's 'Running Free'.
26 years ago I saw PICTURE from my homeland The Netherlands for the frist & last time! I've never been such a great Picture fan but I have to admit that they played a very tight show this evening. Their singers voice didn't stand the time that good but the rest of the band was playing very well. Funny to see how popular this kind of dutch metalbands are in Germany. Good show and a good choice of the organisers to put the band so high on the time schedule! Some of their songs: 'Heavy Metal Ears', 'Eternal Dark', 'Choosing your Sign', 'Unemployed', 'Battle For The Universe', 'Live by the Sword'.
The most important band for me to come over to Brande Hörnerkirchen was the fact that my metal-hero Dan Beehler showed up with his "new" band BËEHLER. Dan Beehler is most wellknown for his incredible drumming & singing in the old EXCITER line-up. Also ex-EXCITER bassplayer Allan Johnson was in the band together with guitarplayers Sean Brophy & Scott Walsh. The band played an incredible set with lots of old EXCITER stuff and a few Beehler songs for their demos (which are already collector's items). The sound was a bit hard but bands like EXCITER/BEEHLER can effort this. Man, I had a hell of a time to see Dan Beehler playing drums & screaming out his lungs just like in the (his) old days! The absolute highlight for me this edition of HOA!!! Superb!!! Watch for their setlist and get scarred!!!: 'Stand up & Fight', 'Heavy Metal Maniac', 'Iron Dogs', 'Evil Sinner', 'Black Witch', 'Rising of the Dead', 'Pounding Metal', 'Beyond the Gates of Doom', 'Violence & Force', 'Ace of Spades (Motörhead cover)', 'Long Live the Loud' and some songs from the Bëehler demos: 'One Foot In Your Grave', 'Destroy', 'Used Bitch' & 'Psychotron'.
I only knew the headliner from saturday DEATH SS from their name & cult status so I was curious to check them out. Well it was all nice done, good musicianship, nice (but bit childish) show and a fanatic audience. Not really my cup of tea but still a well chosen headliner which is appreciated very much by the real underground visitors!!
Again I would like to thank Thomas Tegelhutter and Jurgen Hegewald for their support and for putting me, again, on the guestlist! My thanx also goes out to Pim B. from Digital Steel (webzine) for joining me to this Mekka of Metal! The overal sound of nearly all the bands was much better than before! Only little complain I have is about the variety of food and im also afraid that HOA will become to big. This year there where already a lot of Wacken visitors which used HOA as a warm up festival :(
Till next year my German Underground Metal Friends!! HOA ruled again!!!
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MAGIC CIRCLE FESTIVAL PART 2 (10, 11 & 12 July 2008)
Bad Arolsen, Germany
Review by Sammy de Maere
After last year's succes and in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the legendary Kings of Metal album, True Heavy Metallers Manowar deceided to organize a second Magic Circle Festival. Only this time the festival would be 3 days and the other bands on the billing weren't all unknown bands of their own label. Tuesday afternoon me and my friends started our journey to Bad Arolsen, Germany for probably the coolest festival ever for Manowar fans. Not only would the Kings of metal headline this event for two evenings in a row, they would do this while playing their first 6 albums live and complete. Other goodies for the fans included free beers, free singles and a chance to win the own custom build Harley Davidsons of the band members.
Tuesday night we arrived at the campsite and nearly wrecked our car because of the bad field on which we had to camp and the lack of light there. After a few drinks we went to bed to start the festival well rested. On wednesday there would not be any bands playing but there was a chance of checking out the stage and get an autograph of the band. After I saw the waiting line I decided not to waste the entire day on one autograph and just went to the beertent for another dissapointment. Being belgian I love our own beer and truely disliked the german beer which ment I would spend the entire weekend sober. Now that I have to write this report I'm actually quite happy for that. At wednesdaynight the vikingship used at the festival last year would be "burned and sent to Valhalla", unfortunatly I missed this because of a lack of information on the starting hour of this event.
Thursday was the first day of the actual festival with the first bands. I missed the first 2 bands (Benedictum and Michael Shenker Group) and arrived during Ted Nugent. I've never seen him live but he didn't really impress me with his hard rock music. Last band of the day on the main stage was 'special guest' Alice Cooper. This was the third time I've seen him and by far the best. Last two shows were quite good musically but there was no show what so ever. This time the young fans saw a glimpse of what a real Alice Cooper show is about. While Alice and the band played classic after classic a nice show was put on with the actual hanging of Cooper as the highlight of the evening. A great headliner for the first day but it wasn't over yet! In the event hall we were promised to a show of Thrash metal legends Death Angel. Too bad we had to endure 3 hours of 'battle of the bands' shows. the first band wasn't really good so we decided to wait at the campsite till 3.00 AM before going back to the festival for some late night thrashing. Too bad the communication at the entrance wasn't that good because the security insisted that Death Angel was allready over and we could not get in anymore. Unfortunatly they were wrong cause the band had just started but by the time we were able to pursway them the gig was over.
Friday was the first complete day of bands and started early with South Africa's Kobus, followed by Stormwarrior, Jack Starr and Brazen Abbot. The first band I saw was Doro. The Queen of Metal never lets her fans down so this was another good concert. Too bad there was a lot of wind at the moment which caused the sound to be lacking. Another fact about Doro is that the setlist of her shows hasn't changed that much in the last two years so we didn't get any surprise songs. Of course the songs played were all great but Doro and Warlock have so many good songs that deserve live attention that I keep hoping they will surprise me some more. After Doro I was looking forward to WASP. Rumours were spreading that the band would please the fans with an old school shock show. None of this was true and the performance of WASP highly dissapointed me. Blackie Lawless didn't even bring his microphone and after 6 or 7 songs the party was allready over. I also noticed that his voice no longer cuts it live and the hard parts are always sang by the guitar players. Another legend that is trying to make more money on the succes of years ago that should know when to stop.
Highlight of the day was of course the Manowar show. And what a performance they put on stage !! 3 hours of heavy metal with a setlist containing every track of Battle Hymns, Into Glory Ride and Hail to England. A lot of favourite songs of mine that I've never heard live before were blowing through te speakers as the crowd went wild. After the obligatory speech of Joey the day was ended with a live version of the new single 'Die with Honour' and 'Warriors of the World'. A wonderfull ending to great and epic show. I couldn't wait for next day's show.
Saturday was the last day of the festival and started later than planned due to the cancelling of Def Leppard and Whitesnake. I was looking forward to them but as long as Manowar would be playing I didn't really mind. While they opened with the winner of the Battle of the Bands competition (Cassock from Norway) and continued with Sixth Sense, Mob Rules, Titanium Black and Beloved Enemy, I started my day with Holy Hell which just isn't my style. Besides Doro I'm just not fond of female vocals and the band also played a lot of slow songs. The best song of last year's festival (Phantom of the Opera, sang with Eric Adams) wasn't performed this year and that was the only thing I was actually looking forward to of this band. Next up was Majesty who apparently changed their name to Metalforce. A nice performance by the host of Keep it True festival and his band and a much better sound than last year.
Next up was the second gig of Manowar and this was probably even better than the first one. Starting again with 'Manowar' and continuing on with the complete albums Sign of the Hammer, Fighting the World and Kings of Metal the band played their best setlist ever. The show was interrupted a few times for speeches and other entertainment. Including the announcement of the winners of the bikes contest who reveiced their price on stage and even a wedding proposal, which resulted in a lap dance for the lucky groom-to-be during Pleasure Slave. Near the end Joey announced his plans for next year and it's looking great allready: the new Manowar album (to be released in premiere at the festival) will be played live on stage. This new album will be another exclusive event for the fans as it will be released together with a novel written by germany's best selling fantasy author Wolfgang Hohlbein and based on the album. There are allready plans to turn this book into a moviescript and a videogame.
The last songs of the festival were again 'Die with Honour' and 'Warriors of the World' followed by a majestic performance of 'The Crown and the Ring' in wich Manowar was backed up by an entire choir.
All in all this wasn't the best festival I've ever been too because the accomodation was pretty lousy (especially at the campsite) and also because, for me, there just isn't enough variation with the bands. I'm a big heavy metal fan but 3 days of nothing but heavy and powermetal is just a bit too much for me. Still I would recommend this festival to all the Manowar fans across the globe since for them it's probably the best festival ever. For fans of the other bands on the bill I would advise them to go and see your favourite bands somewhere else on their tour cause it's quite clear that the festival is made for Manowar fans. The other bands just don't have the (normally very enthousiastic german) crowd at their side which is too bad for the general atmosphere of their shows. Because of some organisation problems this festival isn't going to be my number 1 but it sure was a great experience, mostly thanks to the 2 terrific perfomances of The Kings of Metal.
Untill next year
HAIL & KILL !!!
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ACE FREHLEY, SOUTHERN WEREWOLF FARM (12 June 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Ad van Osch
This show of original and ex-KISS guitarist Ace Frehley was originally planned on Wednesday June 11th, but because KISS played in Oberhausen, Germany that day and they expected that a lot of Dutch Kiss fans would go to Oberhausen, the show of Ace was moved to June 12th. What surprised me, was that this show of Ace Frehley, looking at his huge popularity, wasn't sold out. There were about 900 people in the Dommelsch Hall of 013. Anyway, the support act this evening was local band SOUTHERN WEREWOLF FARM. Since the start of SWF in October 2005 I already had seen them 5 times so far, but I guess to a lot of people they were a totally unknown band. They played a set for about 30 minutes, with songs like "Crash And Burn" and "We Rock" (no DIO cover). Great band with a good stage presentation. SWF are gonna release a CDemo very soon. How many songs it will feature is not known at the moment. Around 9:15 PM my all time favorite guitarist and KISS hero ACE FREHLEY entered the stage and he opened with "Rip It Out", the openings track of his solo album from 1978, followed by "Parasite". The atmosphere in the hall was fantastic. I was standing in the third row and could watch the Space Ace very closely. Of course Ace played a lot of old time KISS classics like the just mentioned "Parasite", "Shout It Out Loud", a small piece of "I Want You", "Deuce" ("the first song I learned with Kiss" Ace said), "2.000 Man" and "Rocket Ride". But also "Into The Void" from the last KISS studio album "Psycho Circus" (1998) was in the set. Besides "Rip It Out" Ace also played "Snow Blind" and "New York Groove" (with his special guitar) from his solo album. From his FREHLEY'S COMET period he played "Rock Soldiers" and "Breakout" (which Ace wrote with Eric Carr). During the show Ace was shooting a lot of guitar picks in the audience and he threw a few towels too. After Ace played "Love Gun" he said "thanks to Paul Stanley for writing this great song". A real surprise to me was that he played "Strange Ways", which is one of the best tracks on the "Hotter Than Hell" album. The band Ace had with him existed of Scot Coogan (ex-Brides Of Destruction) on drums and vocals, Derrek Hawkins (ex-Stabbing Westward) on second guitar and Anthony Esposito (ex-Lynch Mob) on bass and vocals. Of course Ace sung the most of the songs, but also drummer Scot sung a few songs (he's a great singer) and bass player Anthony sung one song. Space Ace himself played fabulous this evening and with this show he still proved why he is my favorite guitar player. Songs we definitely could not miss in the set were of course "Shock Me" and "Cold Gin" (which was one of the encoures). However Ace will release his new studio album this year, he didn't play any new songs. So, I hope he will be back soon in Holland (hopefully in 013 again) to promote his new album. Well, for me this evening is one I will never forget. Of the fifteen times I have seen KISS live in my life so far (I'm gonna see Kiss twice this month too, Arrow Rock & Graspop), six of the shows were with Ace. So, it's just a historical moment for me, seeing my favorite guitar player in my own hometown. That's something I'd never had expected. But hey, dreams COME true!!
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TESTAMENT, OUTBURST (3 June 2008)
Dynamo, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
When I entered the Dynamo club dutch thrashers (from my hometown Tilburg) OUTBURST where just playing the latest song of their set. What I heard sounded good but it is impossible (and incorrect) to write a review of this show. I'm sure I will see them again later this year somewhere in the area.
At 9:05 PM TESTAMENT started their show. It was not allowed to stagedive & throw beer on stage this evening, what a silly request if you play thrashmetal in a way Testament is wellknown for. Later that evening Chuck Billy allowed a fan to come on stage but I think it had more to do with the fact that it was a (lovely) girl. Nevertheless I will not judge the band for this kind of tomfoolery. Personally im a big fan of the bands first album but never bought any of their later stuff anymore because their where lots of better bands during that period(s) (which is ofcourse also my opinion). Gladly the band played some songs from their debut and also a lot of other classic ones. The sound was very good and Chuck & Co proved that they still can go on for years! Such an energy!!! Pitty they sometimes used to much stage smoke with the result that the band was sometimes nearly untraceable on stage. Some songs from their setlist: 'Over the Wall', 'Into the Pit', 'Apocalyptic City', 'Practice what you Preach', ''New Order', 'Electric Crown', 'More Than Meets The Eye', 'Low', 'Trail Of Tears', 'Henchmen Ride', 'Souls Of Black', 'The Preacher', 'D.N.R', 'Days In Darkness' and as bonus they played: 'Alone In The Dark' & 'Disciples Of The Watch'. Nothing to complain about when its up to me???
The club was nearly sold out and it was also funny to see/hear/talk to people i didnt see for many years. Compliments to the Dynamo club; they are doing a great job booking all these oldschool 80's thrashbands again...(Onslaught, Exodus, Death Angel, Testament)....Forbidden will be the next one on the 4th of July....be there!!!
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GLENN HUGHES (1 June 2008)
Plato, Helmond, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
GLENN HUGHES is my alltime favorite rocksinger and I was pleased to hear that THE VOICE OF ROCK visited the Plato venue in Helmond, The Netherlands. Glenn Hughes is most wellknown for his bassplaying & singing in DEEP PURPLE years ago. This allrounder also played with several other bands in the past; Trapeze (before his Deep Purple period), Black Sabbath ("Seventh Star" album), KLF (on their hit "America- What Time is Love?") and with great musicians as Pat Thrall (Pat Travers band) & John Norum (Europe). The last years Glenn Hughes turned musically more into Funk & Soulmusic bit it still is a pleasure to see & hear this voice magician! Everytime I hear him singing live I get goose flesh!!! Such a power and he sings so easily, unbelievable!!!!! Also tonight it was great again; Glenn is not only a great singer but he is also a freaky funky bassplayer which knows how to handle his instrument. Last tour I saw Glenn Hughes he was in the company of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. Pity enough Chad was not part of the band this time but the band did bring an extra guitarplayer which gave the band a more rich sound. The band played a few songs from their latest album "First Underground Nuclear Kitchen" and gladly also a lot of older stuff. A few songs from his setlist: 'Crave', 'First Underground Nuclear Kitchen', 'Oil and Water', 'Mistreated', 'You got Soul', 'We shall be free', 'Don't let me bleed', 'Love Communion', 'Steppin' on', 'Soul Mover' and as bonus the mighty 'Burnnnnn'!!! Even if im not very familair with Glenn's latest albums; I will be there again next time!! You can count on that!!! Superb show!! The band played for nearly 2 hours in total which is ofcourse also a proof of his good attitude :)
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BORSTROCK FESTIVAL (17 May 2008)
Nieuw-Vossemeer, The Netherlands
Review by Ronny Elst and Sien Willemse
Borstrock already exists for 18 years now. It takes place in a huge tent in a small village between Antwerp and Rotterdam. Friday evening, there were 3 bands which have this in common ; fun & beer! Unfortunately we couldn't be there. Saturday is the "real" festival day.
The first band which played was the 70's/80's hardrock/metal cover band JAILBREAK, from the East of Holland. They played a lot of good songs from bands such as Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Saxon, Deep Purple and other classic hard rock bands. Excellent musicians and a great vocalist-frontman! After this very good start, the next band entered the stage, after some problems with the drumkit. DOUBLE DIAMOND from Belgium played songs from both their albums, some new songs from the next album, and covers from Manowar and Judas Priest. A very relaxed and powerful gig it was from the metal proud of Belgium! Next band were Swiss metallers GODIVA. I didn't know them that well, and that will not change I think. They played a mix of power, thrash, heavy metal and hardrock. The vocalist acted and moved like Ozzy does these days; like an 90 years old man. Also his singing couldn't impress me at all, just like their songs. The weakest band of the day for me. Up next were LION'S SHARE from Sweden. They played mainly songs from their latest album "Emotional Coma". They are an excellent hardrock band, with guitar riff-God Lars Chriss and the phenomenal singer Patrik Johansson. Excellent classic Dio/Black Sabbath influenced stuff! As an extra they let hear 2 new tracks from their new album, probably released in October/November. After this great gig, it was finally time for THE POODLES! My girlfriend and I came especially for them. The Poodles are an excellent melodic hardrock/metal band! Not only the songs are catchy as hell, they also perform like real professionals. Jakob Samuel, the vocalist, acts like Axl Rose (also his voice sounds almost the same) and guitarist Pontus Norgren is an excellent guitarist, without being too egocentric. Pontus also got the chance to play an instrumental song, where he could show his capacities as a guitarist. Backstage he told me that this was his latest gig with The Poodles. He leaves the band and will play in HammerFall in the future. Jakob told me that they will release their third album early next year, together with a live dvd!
Next band ROYAL HUNT had severe sound problems during their gig. That was a pitty because their complex symphonic/progressive metal needs a good sound. Their new vocalist Mark Boals is ofcourse very good, but personally I don't like that much his voice. Too theatrical for me. Well, after Royal Hunt, we had to go. So we didn't see and hear MOOIE MENEREN (a Top 100 rock/pop cover band from Holland) and closing act I SEE/THE SEA (a young AC/DC tribute band from Belgium). To conclude, it was a very nice day with some great bands, a well organised festival, an enthusiastic crowd and good beer (Jupiler)!!!
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JOE SATRIANI, REAL MEN DON'T DANCE (10 May 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Ad van Osch
This show of master guitarist Joe Satriani in 013, Tilburg was already sold out for weeks. What was notable to me, when I entered the Dommelsch hall, was that the audience was very varied. The support act this evening was REAL MEN DON'T DANCE from Amsterdam, which is a band I never had heard off before. This trio entered the stage at around 8:30 PM and started with an instrumental. Other songs they played were "Southern Belles", "Nice Guys Sleep Alone" and "Killer Boogie". It's not very original what they played, even some songs, like the above mentioned "Nice Guys Sleep Alone", reminded me a bit of ZZ Top. All with all a nice support act, but it was clearly that everyone came for Joe. Tonight it's the first show of the three shows JOE SATRIANI is doing in Holland. The other two shows are on June 12th (Rijnhal, Arnhem) and June 13th (Paradiso, Amsterdam). It's also my first time that I see Joe Satriani live as a solo artist. So far I had seen mister Satriani only once in my life, and that was when he played in the Mark 6 line-up of Deep Purple (on June 24th 1994 at the Brabanthallen, Den Bosch). That was at the time when Ritchie Blackmore had left DP again and before they got finally Steve Morse as their guitarist. Anyway, it's around 9:30 PM when Joe got on stage and he opened with "I Just Wanna Rock" from his recent album "Professor Satchafunkilus And The Musterion Of Rock". After the second or third song Joe said "tonight we play some new songs, old songs and some we haven't played for a long time". And indeed, Joe played his all time classics "Satch Boogie", "Ice 9", "Surfing With The Alien" and the beautiful "Always With Me, Always With You" (from his best album ever "Surfing With The Alien", that's why he just had to play and always will play those songs), "Cryin'" and "One Big Rush". Of course Joe is promoting his last album and if I'm right (I just had his new album a few days), he almost played the whole CD. At least I recognized the songs "Musterion", "Overdriver", "Professor Satchafunkilus", "Out Of The Sunrise", "Diddle-Y-A-Doo-Dat" and "Asik Vaysel". Also bass player Stuart Hamm showed us what he can do on the bass, by doing a very great bass solo. After his solo the audience was yelling "boo, boo" at Hamm. During the whole show Joe had played on four different guitars (a red, white, silver and black one). The sound was magnificent, a beautiful lightshow and the atmosphere in the Dommelsch hall of 013 was fantastic. After playing a set of two hours, Joe came back for two encores. Well, you understand that this was a fantastic gig, but hey……what else you had expected!
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AXTHOR (9 May 2008)
Beerse, Belgium
Review by Ronny Elst
May the 9th 2008 was the day that Chris Verstappen (Stappie) invited some of his friends and family for his birthday party. In the 80's Chris was a member of the Belgian heavy rock/metal band THORAX. They released 3 demo's and were quite successful in the North of Belgium.
Thorax doesn't exist anymore, but together with his wife Carine Van der Schoot (vocals) and former Thorax bass player Wics Rombouts, Chris formed AXTHOR. At his birthday party at his home, Axthor played some old Thorax songs, but also covers from the Scorpions, Annihilator, UFO, MSG (the great instrumental "Into The Arena"!), Judas Priest ("Breaking the Law" with guest vocalist Dimi) and a few acoustic songs (from the Cars and Uriah Heep). Chris still is a very good hardrock guitarist and Carina sounds good with her melancholic female voice. And Wics completes the line-up with his enthusiastic bass playing. Playing old Thorax songs (mixed with covers) is a very important thing in Stappies's life! I hope that they can play a lot of other live gigs, and who knows, maybe record an album with the new line-up.
http://www.myspace.com/ccaxis
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INTO THE ARENA (1 May 2008)
Motor Blues Festival, Geertruidenberg, The Netherlands
Review by Mr. Globbetrotter
INTO THE ARENA had the honour of opening this festival playing classic hardrock covers of the seventies, eighties and nineties. The "ace" of the band is former Vengeance and current Lana Lane guitarhero Peer Verschuren, the bold axeman whose trademark is to play fluent, melodic and sometimes speedy solos, emphasizing each note he plays; in other words, he is one of a kind and one of Holland's most respected guitarists. The band opens with a Pink Floyd medley, beautifully arranged with Marco Borghardt on keyboards who pulls up this symphonic wall, filled up with Dave Gilmour solos (when you closed your eyes you actually saw Gilmore playing), followed by a list of wellknown hardrock classics like Schenkers "Armed And Ready" and of course the anthem "Into The Arena" in which Verschuren shows that Schenker has to start worrying ! Through two Deep Purple songs ("You Keep On Moving" and "Highway Star"), versitily shows in playing the Queen anthem "The Show Must Go On" in which singer Mauri Oliver uses a few octaves and the semi-ballad "More Than A Feeling" from Boston. One poppy interlude (Frampton's "Show Me The Way", including the talktube) did not hide the undeniable musicianship this band has to offer. A packed square in Geertruidenberg witnessed a quality rockband that easily plays Malmsteen to Alice Cooper.
Few bands have a cover repertoire like Into The Arena and have the skills of approaching the original tracks on a high level. I'm curious when they will start writing their own material; these guys are so good that it only seems a matter of time that they will have their own songs and open for big bands that play in Hollands top venues as their support act. Qualitywise they do not need their own songs for that. Quality was written this afternoon, and people who are curious can listen to their demo which is in the media section of their website, http://www.intothearena.nl
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HEIDEVOLK, BLACK MESSIAH (25 April 2008)
Willemeen, Arnhem, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
After the closing of De Goudvishal, De Willemeen will take over a part of the metalprogramming. After Dismember a few weeks earlier and Angelcorpse a day before it was time for HEIDEVOLK to present their new cd "Walhalla Wacht" to the audience.
It took some time to get in the venue. I felt like I was in the Efteling. A big row in front of the building. First I had to tell my name then I got inside and had to wait on the stairs for 20 minutes. After that I got my stamp and finally could see the bands. BLACK MESSIAH (Germany) were already playing when I got in. The band has already released three cd's which I haven't heard. What I saw was okay, Folk metal with black metal influences and here and there a technical note. Perfect warm up. Than after a short break Saruman came on stage. For a moment I thought: wat the heck this is the real Cristopher Lee! I mean he does some spoken word passages at Manowar and Rhapsody so why not at a Heidevolk show! Unfortunatly it wasn't the real Cristopher Lee but a really good stand in! After a short spoken word passage Heidevolk came on the stage. It took a few songs after the soundengineer got his stuff together. After that it was pure joy! Only complaint I have is that the clean sung voice could not be heard good enough where I was standing. The people from the moor almost played their whole repertoire. In the middle of the show there was a break. A few people from the audience were invited on the stage to do battle each other out via different games. At first there was the drinking game. Drink your pint as fast as you can. In the end there were two people left. They both got a shield and had to prove who was the strongest. Nice from Heidevolk that they gave the audience something extra with this show. After the break they followed on with their set. "Krijgsvolk" and "Het Gelderse volkslied". The audience went mad and after 3 encores Heidevolk left the stage! Heidevolk's the rising star of the dutch folk metal scene!
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EXODUS, EVILE (14 April 2008)
Dynamo, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Just 3 days after the great Onslaught gig I went to the Dynamo club again to see/hear Evile & Exodus. I was wondering if they could equal the high level of Onslaught and their support acts. Well now I can tell you they couldnt, just read the reviews below.....
EVILE from the UK started at 8:20 PM with their very much Slayer-influenced thrashmetal. I never saw the band before but according the stuff I heard from them I was very curious! As most supportbands, Evile had a very moderate sound. The only big difference with the original Slayer was the typical accent of their singer Matt Drake. Funny also to hear :)
Nevertheless the band played a nice show and did a good warming up for Exodus. The crowd liked it also and according the nearly sold out venue the people did not only show up for Exodus! Some songs from their setlist: "Thrasher", "We Who Are About to Die", "Schizophrenia", "Bathe in Blood", "Armoured Assault" and "Enter the Grave".
At 9:30 PM EXODUS finally entered the stage. Also Exodus had a moderate sound in the beginning and this was commuting the whole set. The band played a special show because it was also a kind of DVD presentation of their upcoming release (from their 1986 legendary show in Dynamo, which I visited also!!). Pity enough original singer Paul Baloff passed away several years ago and they never could find an equal (or better) replacement for him. New frontman Rob Dukes is much much better than than his predecessor Steve Sousa but he cant even be touched by Paul Baloff (but thats of course also a personal opinion). The band starts with "Funeral Hymn" from their latest album 'The Atrocity Exhibition ... Exhibit A'. The next song is "Lesson In Violence" from their debut album which is still one of my alltime fav. albums! After this second song Rob Dukes starts talking crap about the legal drugs regulation in Holland. Its always the same with this kind of bands and its irritating me every time! Followed by another new song "Children Of A Worthless God", "Piranha", "Deathamphetamine", "Metal Command", "And Then There Were None", "Bedlam 123", "Strike of the Beast", "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" and as bonus "War is My Shepherd" and "Bonded by Blood". After this second bonus song the band starts with a lot of bullshit on stage; a metal-medley which is only fun for the band themselves according the reactions of the audience. Finally the band (with the returned Tom Hunting on drums) played "Toxic War" as their last song and the gig ends about 11:20 PM.
Conclussion: an evening with 2 good, but not superb, bands. Especially when you compare them with the Onslaught show a few days earlier. Nevertheless I had an enjoyable evening!
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ONSLAUGHT, SUICIDAL ANGELS, SEPIROTH (11 April 2008)
Dynamo, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
When I entered the Dynamo club the first band,
SEPIROTH (from The Netherlands) was already on stage. For an opener they had a very reasonable sound which was of course a plus. The band played oldschool deathmetal with influences from bands like Death, Autopsy, Vomitory, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and that kind of stuff. Nothing to complain about that! The band had a rich sound even if they didnt have a bassplayer on stage (or did I miss him also visually like the second guitarplayer at Izegrim's gig last month :). Nice show from this young band!
Second band of the evening was SUICIDAL ANGELS from Greece. My first thought was that I had to do with a German band because the band played music in the vein of bands like Sodom, Kreator, Exumer, Desaster and that kind of typical thrashmetal. The band had the bad luck to play for about 75 people which was of course unbelievable for a concert on a friday evening! They also didnt get any response at all except for the moments they gave some free beers and the real profiteers showed up in the front! Disgraceful!! I liked it very much what they had to offer musically and thats the only thing that counts for me! Some songs I did recognize from their setlist: "Vomit on the Cross", "Evil Attack" (great oldschool thrash song), "Quench Your Thirst With Christian Souls'', "The Prophecy" (as thight as a duck's ass!!), "Crematory", "Hate And Torture" and a few other songs.
As bonus they played Sodom's "Ausgebombt". Great band that didnt get the respect they deserved tonight! They got a new fan from now on!
The announced support act Carnal Forge was not present but I never heard why? Gladly I was showing up to see ONSLAUGHT live again! I have to be honest when I tell you that I never liked the band that much in their older days (D.O.A., 22 years ago!!) but after their reunion in 2005 they stole my heart finally! I think the band plays tighter than ever these days and I special like Sy Keeler's voice! Such a power!! The band started around 10:15 PM with their "flame intro" and continued in a fast pace their setlist. The sound was not that great and sometimes quite messy. Gladly for Onslaught the crowd was now about 150/200 people but still to little for such a good band. Their setlist looked this way: "Killing Peace", "Let There Be Death", "Destroyer Of Worlds", "Angels Of Death", "Fight With The Beast", "Metal Forces", "Twisted Jesus", "Planting Seeds Of Hate", "Demoniac", "Burn", "Power from Hell". Pity the gig stopped after about 1 hour which was to short for me. Except for the moderate soundquality this show as great! The homesitters where wrong again!! Next time be there!!
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KEEP IT TRUE FESTIVAL X (4& 5 April 2008)
Lauda-Konigshofen, Germany
Review by Kostas Kounadinis
Keep It True Festival has become one of the most important events for the heavy metal world. Metalheads from all over the world gather twice a year to witness a testimony of steel! The guys, who have been organizing this event for 6 years now, always look for the best cult metal acts and manage to create a very tempting billing. For the 10th edition of the festival, Oliver and Tarek put together one of the best metal parties ever! Instead of the warm up show and main festival day, they decided to organize a full two day show gathering some of the greatest bands of all time. The show became a complete sell out as expected. Let's see what happened during the 4th and 5th day of April.
Day 1
BATTLEROAR
Greek epic metal band Battleroar stormed the stage. Although it was relatively early, a fanatic crowd gathered to listen to old and new anthems. The show coincided with the release of the band's third and best (in my opinion) album and we had the chance to listen to some of the great new tunes such as "Hyrkanian Blades".
STRIKE MASTER
Mexican thrashers Strike Master was clearly a force inferior to Battleroar. Their typical old school thrash could not move me that much. They seemed to have a good following though.
MERCILESS DEATH
American thrashers Merciless Death continued in the same pattern but they sounded a bit more interesting than Strike Master. Old school thrash for old school thrashers and all sorts of bangers.
SENTINEL BEAST
Cult speed metal act Sentinel Beast appeared with a brand new line up. Legendary figure Debbie Gunn was accompanied by 4 young and talented musicians. The band played classic tunes from the debut such as "Depths of Death" and "Mourir" and also laid down some new tunes too. The crowd went nuts. They also did their version of "Phantom of the Opera".
METAL INQUISITOR
German heavy metallers faced some last minute problems. Their lead singer was unable to perform due to health problems and Blumi stepped in both as singer and guitarist. It was obvious that he could remember all the lyrics so the setlist had to be modified. "Daze Of Avalon" appeared twice due to lack of songs while some special guests made their appearance. The singer of a German Judas Priest tribute band sung on "Invader", Jess Cox from Tygers of Pan Tang did "Euthanasia" and Brian Ross laid the Satan anthem "Trial by Fire". The audience seemed quite happy with the whole show.
ATTACKER
Personal favorites Attacker stormed Keep it True for the second time. The guys owned the crowd from the very first moments. This was a show dedicated to the legendary debut album "Battle at Helms Deep" which we heard in its entirety and to late guitarist Jim Mooney who passed away a year ago. Flawless and energetic as always, they deliver a show to be remembered.
OMEN
Watching American metal legends Omen performing live is quite an experience. Reunited with original drummer Steve Wittig and with Aska mainman George Call on vocals, what we heard that night was pretty much the closest thing to original Omen we could ever hope for. Call sounded like a Kimball clone, singing the band's epics with ease. Powell was a bit drunk and had a fair share in mistakes but who gives a shit. The guys blew the roof off. No need to mention the setlist. We heard all the classics.
HELSTAR
Houston destroyers Helstar were up next. The return of Larry Barragan has really boosted the band forward. The band delivered the "Remnants of War" in its entirety and we had the chance to listen to anthems such as "Evil Reign" and "Angel of Death". But the devastating force named Helstar didn't stick to that. They played hymns such as "The King is Dead", "Baptized in Blood" and "Run with the Pack" leaving the audience totally satisfied. We also heard the two new songs featured on "Sins of the Past", the band's most recent recording.
TITAN FORCE
The time had come for the most significant appearance in this year's festival. The mighty Titan Force appeared live after almost 15 years of inactivity. I just couldn't believe my eyes and ears. The quintet rushed on the stage with "Small Price to Pay" and I immediately went into trance. The line-up featured 3 out of 5 original members. Harry Conklin and two of the Flores brothers in drums and guitar were accompanied by two new members on bass and guitar. The new members proved worthy replacements. Especially the bass player who dominated the stage. This "once in a lifetime" experience carried on with "Winner / Loser", "Chase Your Dreams" "Master Of Disguise", "Wings Of Rage", "Will O' The Wisp", "Darkness", "Only the Strong" (both featured in the 1994 lost demo!), "Eyes Of The Young", "Fields Of Valor", "Shadow Of A Promise", "New Age Rebels", "Fool On The Run", "Blaze Of Glory". Harry's voice was in the best shape possible. He even sung higher than on the original recordings. I strongly believe that despite his magnificent moments with Jag Panzer, Titan Force is actually his band, the place where he truly spreads his wings. This was one of the best live moments I had ever witnessed.
Day 2
BATTLE RAM
This Italian epic metal band appeared with a new singer. His voice was pretty similar to his predecessor so he had no problems with the band's songs and all the cover versions this band usually plays. The audience enjoyed the show.
FUELED BY FIRE
This band was actually the best thrash metal act out of all three that performed in the fest. The guys offered some good headbanging moments and the crowd had a good time.
DEMON EYES
French metal act Demon Eyes was up next. This is a cult band which plays heavy metal in the old Metallica vein. They even did a "Seek and Destroy" cover version. Not my cup of tea though. I could tell that they had a fair share of supporters.
CRESCENT SHIELD
There is no doubt that Crescent Shield is one of the most promising metal acts out there. It's the band of vocalist Michael Grant (Onward, Cypher Seer) and guitarist Dan Delucie (New Eden, Destiny's End). Their show was one of the best during the two day fest. The band played many songs from the debut album and also delivered a new song from the upcoming second one.
PHARAOH
Pharaoh features Psycho Scream and Control Denied vocalist Tim Aymar. This is another promising band playing U.S. power metal. I have to admit that the guys where a bit out of shape but managed to present a good show. Tim Aymar was obviously tired but he did ok in most occasions. Never the less don't miss any of the three albums of the band with "Be Gone" being the most recent.
CAGE
This was the most important band for me after Titan Force of course. I pushed myself forward in order to witness the Cage holocaust and the guys from San Diego didn't prove me wrong. They stormed the stage with such force; my neck almost broke from the non stop headbanging. Frontman Sean Peck is one of the best vocalists around. With a great range and explosive performance he surely teaches some metal lessons. The rest of the band was equally devastating. Guitars and rhythm section built a solid wall of riffs and pounding bass. The band delivered songs from the ravager "Hell Destroyer" such as the same titled opus or "King Diamond", "Metal Devil", "I am the King" and "Rise of the Beast". We also heard "Final Solution" from "Astrology" and "Kill the Devil", "Wings of Destruction" from "Darker than Black". What a great performance! The only drawback was that 45 minutes is such a little time for a band like Cage.
DOOMSWORD
Italian epic metal veterans Doomsword had a surprise for us. The singer from the band's debut album Nightcomer was invited to sing along. It was obvious that Doomsword is a completely different band with the addition of Nightcomer. The songs sounded 100% better. We were fortunate enough to listen to some epic songs from the debut and the band focused on all four recordings.
HEATHEN
The time had come for speed metal heroes Heathen to hit the stage. I am not the greatest fan but I can appreciate a good show when I see one. The guys where passionate and energetic and the crowd enjoyed the show creating mosh pits and banging. With original members Lee Altus and David White, Heathen played songs from each and every release they had, including the 2005 demo.
MANILLA ROAD
This band will always be in my heart. Manilla Road was one of my first cult discoveries as a child and they will always own a special place in my metal universe. The band we saw live that day is far from the Manilla Road I know and love. The legend Mark Shelton cannot sing anymore. Thus he has hired his vocal clone Hellroadie to sing instead. Hellroadie is good but he is no Mark Shelton. The drum slot will never be adequately filled. Randy Foxe is irreplaceable. The magic songs where there but the magic was absent. The band played many songs that covered its entire career but they honoured "Mystification" the most. I really wish things were different though. I wish I could feel the magic once more…
JAG PANZER
The time had come for the headliners of the festival. The mighty Jag Panzer! We new this was going to be a special show. Not only because of the return of "Chain of Command" guitarist Chris Lasegue but mostly because of the appearance of the vocal legend Bob Parduba! The show kicked off with "Generally Hostile" and we went berserk! Leaving us no time to rest, the band bombarded us with "Licensed to Kill" and "Symphony of Terror". Harry Conklin invited Parduba on stage and the man delivered "Chain of Command" and "Never Surrender" flawlessly. His voice sounded exactly like the original recording! Harry return on stage and accompanied Bob on a fantastic version of "Shadow Thief". Parduba stayed on stage doing the background vocals for songs like "Take to the Sky", and "The Mission" but unfortunately some technical problems almost ruined the show. The guitar amps had many problems and ruined songs like "Battle Zones. Fortunately the technicians solved these problems and we where able to hear more classic songs such as "King at Á Price", "Fate's Triumph", "Black", "Future Shock", "Tyranny", "Iron Eagle", "Lustful and Free", "The Moors", "Warfare", "Reign of the Tyrants" and "The Crucifix". The performance of the band was over the top. Especially Conklin who blew the rooftop off with his screams. The encore was comprised of three cover versions. Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy", Judas Priest's "Electric Eye" and Iron Maiden's "Where Eagles Dare". That was one of the best nights of my life!
This year's K.I.T. festival exceeded some of our wildest dreams. I wish Oliver and Tarek will continue with the same passion and love for this event. Thank you guys!
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BRAINSTORM, PAGAN'S MIND (7 March 2008)
De Bosuil, Weert, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Just when we entered the venue the first band,
PAGAN'S MIND started with their set. I had seen the band a few months ago also as support of Fates Warning in the same venue. That time, November 2007, Pagan's Mind kicked some serious ass and blew Fates Warning of the stage so easily; you cant imagine. For me a reason to check them out again at this beautiful venue in Weert, The Netherlands. The band started with a moderate sound but during the gig the sound went better and better. The band owns a superb vocalist in Nils K. Rue. Live this guy is even better than on CD! After a couple of songs from their earlier releases the band also played some stuff from their latest release "God's Equation". Not only singer Nils is superb, the band is blessed with some realy fine musicians and according their latest 2 releases (im not familair with their earlier stuff) this is for me one of the leading progmetalbands these days! Some songs from their setlist; "Through Osiris Eyes", "Atomic Firelight", "Hello Spaceboy" (David Bowie cover), "Alien Kamikaze", "Farewell" (in remembrace of former member Thorstein Aaby), "Osiris' Triumphant Return". Pity enough they didnt do the Heart cover "Alone" this time with After Forever's Floor Jansen on vocals. Pity because Floor was, again, in the crowd this night. Nevertheless an awesome gig from Pagan's Mind again! Next time I will be there again!!! Already one of the best shows of 2008!!!
Headliner BRAINSTORM's powermetal never could impress me in the past. Ive seen the band a few times but they never left some musical scars to me. Tonight it was nearly the same again: The band was promoting their 7th album "Downburst" but had the bad luck that singer Andy B. Franck had catched a flue and wasnt singing very well. Gitarist Todde was also not on tour with the band but his substitute Tom Naumann (Primal Fear, Sinner) was a good replacement for the tour. Brainstorm is a very professional band and it is good to see how singer Frank can stir up the crowd even if his throat is hurting. After 70 minutes the band stops the show and apologizes for the weak performance due to their singers illness. After all it wasnt that bad tonight and their fans loved it; personally its not really my cup of tea. Some songs from their setlist: "Inside the Monster", "All those Words", "Falling Spiral Down", "How do you Feel"", "Fire Walk with Me". Nice show, nothing more, nothing less.
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FLOTSAM & JETSAM, NON DIVINE, IZEGRIM (3 March 2008)
Dynamo, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
IZEGRIM had the honour to open this evening with their mix of thrash & deathmetal. The music of the band is not realy surprising and the band also had the bad luck of having a moderate sound which was more a trademark for the old Dynamo club (but isnt much better these days either). Im not familair with the bands music but I heard they played a lot of new songs from their debut album which is released by the dutch Rusty Cage label. The looks of the band are great (with 2 goodlooking ladies) but I advice the band to add a second guitarplayer to the line-up because the overal sound was a bit flat. The band has the potention to grow but they also need to find their way in writing better songs. I will keep an eye on the band!
Next band NON DIVINE had the same problem as Izegrim, their sound was moderate and the band was not realy accepted by the majority of the audience. I never liked their kind of metal so its difficult for me to give them a honest review. For me was thier Machine Head cover 'Davidian' the best song of the set.
The only band for which I travelled to Eindhoven was FLOTSAM & JETSAM. Their first album (Doomsday for the Deceiver) is a real classic one but after their third album I lost my interest in this band. From the original line-up only guitarist Ed Carlson and singer Eric A.K. are left. The band had a much better sound than their support acts but still it was not terrific. The band started with the famous openingswords "Hello, how are you, ready tonight" from their classic song 'Hammerhead'. This was the first, but also the last song from their debut album which was a little damper to me. The band played a mix of nearly all their albums and it suited me that Eric A.K. was still singing good and could hit the high notes quit easily. Okay, sometimes he was singing a bit out of tune but who cares?? The audience liked it.
The setlist also contained: 'Waiding through the Darkness', 'Dreams of Death', 'Hard on You', 'Fork Boy' (Ministry cover), 'No Place for Disgrace', 'Me', 'The Master Sleeps', 'Swatting at Flies', 'Escape from Within' and as a bonussong 'I Live, You Die'. After this only bonus the band stopped and had a total playing time of just 1 little hour which was a bit of a disappointment to the audience. Overall a good show but I missed the oldies a bit. Gladly the band will play an oldschool set during their November edition of the Keep it True festival later this year! I'll be there!! |
MUNICIPAL WASTE, TOXIC HOLOCAUST (11 February 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Dennis van Dommelen
With two bands bringing the best of the 80's thrash revival going on at the moment the 013 was packed on a Monday evening. Headbangers, skins, punks, fans of the younger-but also from the older generation. The way it is meant to be.
With this show booked at the last moment between one in Groningen and two days later in Debaser Sweden MUNICIPAL WASTE were in a hurry.
The show lasted for only 40 minutes with all the classic songs included such as "Terror Shark", "Unleash the Bastards", "Headbanger Face Rip" and "Rigorous Vengeance" with the public scanding: "Municipal Waste is gonna fuck you up!!!" Unfortunately there was no beer bong and no surfboards. But that was just a small minor on the further perfect show. Stagedivers from the first tones, a wall of death during one of the songs and constant circlepits going on. Didn't see that during a show in Holland for a long time. Encore versions including the cover "United Forces" from S.O.D. with colleague Marco on the stage ended the show. With the promise of returning to Europe in the summer at the festivals the Waste will grow bigger and bigger. I can only say: Be there cause Municipal Waste will surely fuck you up!
First band of the evening was TOXIC HOLOCAUST who lately inked a deal with Relapse records. With the "Hell on earth" album and the promise of Ryan Waste -that this was the best opening act they could get- in my mind they started the set with 666 and a lot of rustle coming out of the P.A. system. This disappeared after a few songs so the black/trash metal could fully come to its right. Indeed the perfect warm up for the main act.
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HELLOWEEN, GAMMA RAY, AXXIS (7 January 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
AXXIS: Unfortunately I missed this one because of some problems with the public transport. But what I've heard of it, it sounds like I've missed a good show and a good band I haven't heard before.
GAMMA RAY: The legendary German Gamma Ray gave a short, but powerful performance this evening. Frontman Kai Hansen (ex-Helloween and founding member of the band) had a good voice and the band showed some great enthusiasm and were seemingly having fun. It's only a shame that they haven't played any songs from before 1995 that evening. It's not that I don't care about their new material, but I just wanted to hear some classics like 'Heaven can wait' from their debut album. From the last album they only played 'Rising Again' and 'Empress'. Furthermore they played songs like 'New world Order', Valley of the Kings', 'Heavy Metal Universe' and 'Send me a Sign'. Top notch was the Helloween cover 'Ride the sky', like only Power metal god Kai Hansen can play it; they played off the roof as they conquered the audience more and more.
HELLOWEEN: This German foundation of the Power metal genre began their show fairly weak with the song 'Halloween", but they recovered as they progressed through the show. Ex-Pink Cream 69 singer Andi Deris reclaims his position as the substitution from Micheal Kiske more and more and also Weikath is making a good progress. The band is still making a positive progression and that's why I'm still not bored of them. The drumsolo was a little to the long side, but the puppet show and their 'Smoke on the Water' happening were great! The stage setting was impressive and the sound was great. The hall was properly filled, definitely for a Monday evening. The setlist of Helloween was okay, as they played classics like 'March of Time', 'As long as I fall', 'Eagle fly Free', 'If I could fly' and 'Dr. Stein'. For the encore the band had a pleasant surprise: Helloween & Gamma Ray together on stage performing "Future World" and "I Want Out". It's great to see that Helloween and Hansen have buried the hatchet and go on as friends again. The diehard fans could have some points of critic, but I thought it was a great evening full of commercial power metal. Keep on the good work!
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OBITUARY, HOLY MOSES, AVATAR (4 January 2008)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Kees Schijven
This is one tour I've been looking forward too, with two of my favorite bands on it, namely Holy Moses and Obituary. This is only the second night of the tour in one of the best concert venues of our country, 013! The night before they played at the Hedon in Zwolle, where I also went to see them, as I don't want to miss out on my favorite bands playing over here! In contradiction to the night before, 013 wasn't sold out, but the amount of people attending was about the same I guess being a much bigger venue, with about 5 or 6 hundred being there.
When I arrived AVATAR was already playing their Swedisch style metal, which wasn't bad at all, although it became a bit boring after a while. But then again, this was not the band I was here for, like most people.
After a short break the stage was ready for HOLY MOSES, and after their intro they thrashed away with a set of classics from all of their albums. Personal highlights for me were the songs from their 2nd and 3th albums ('Finished with the Dogs' and 'The new machine of Liechtenstein') of which they played "Life's Destroyer", "Current of death", "SSP", "Lost in the Maze" and "Defcon II" among others. Frontwoman Sabina used the whole stage, and had a lot of interaction with the audience, and got the people in the pit to do the 'Wall of Death', which was fun to watch. The set was a little different than the night before, but the ending was the same with their cover 'To Drunk To Fuck' (Dead Kennedys), Sabina invited everyone to come on stage to join in.
After another short break the stage was set for OBITUARY, who started off with my favorite track 'Find the Arise' from their "Cause of Death" record. The band played a very tight set of old and new classics, with a.o. 'Turned Inside Out', 'Chopped in Half' (both also from 'CoD' record), 'Threatening Skies', ' Back Inside', 'Insane', 'Evil Ways'(from their latest record 'Xecutioner's Return') and a lot more. The crowd went wild, a big pit was going on, the band was at it's best. Only thing to say about it, there was no interaction or whatsoever with the audience, they just played their set with little or no break or talk in between. They played the same set as the night before, so no surprises there, and ended up with 'Slowly We Rot' from their first album. A great performance, without a doubt, on to the next, Antwerp on February the 2nd (for those of you who missed it). Hopefully they will return to play some festival gigs in the summer!
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2007
VENGEANCE, ROADKILL (12 December 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Mr. Globbetrotter
I was "going to a party on a Wednesday night", so to speak. Vengeance was to do a cd presentation gig in Tilburg, with coming band Roadkill as their support act. Starting with ROADKILL, the band did their best to warm up the audience for main act Vengeance, and partly succeeded in just doing that. The band had just released their debut album "Dark Side" so for them, it was a good thing that they were asked to tour with Vengeance. I don't know about sales figures of their debut album, but the audience seemed to appreciate what was brought on stage. They had about 45 minutes before the break would pave the path for VENGEANCE to shine on stage.
After having seen 2 shows in this line up earlier, and having heard the new live album, I was curious to see if the party on stage would effect the audience in the same way. The audience had their party. I don't know why, but the setlist could have been mine. Hearing "Down And Out" again which was decades ago was brilliant and they played it very well! The setlist was compiled of typical Vengeance classics, with some surprises as well; the ballad "If loving you is wrong" hasn't been played that often in the past, and when Peter Bourbon took an acoustic guitar, I wasn't prepared for what they were going to play. But I just LOVED the version they did of this song, as I appreciated most of the first part of the gig. The second part, however, was disappointing to me. A terrible version of "Planet Zilch", "Arabia" with an intro waaaaay to long and fuzzy (with Leon as Arabic prince on his flying carpet above stage but forgetting parts of the lyrics when back on his feet); if I am not mistaking, I heard one or two unreleased songs which were both very AC/DC-ish but when they played "Rip It Off", a heavily tattoed girl walked on stage and did an erotic striplike-act during an extended version of the song, with Goewie puring a large bottle of whiskey on her.
For me, this act was not necessary, not even as a gimmick; the historical white cello was brought on stage (which the band had used in the past during "Down And Out") but hardly really used. I also remember the Indian tipi a year back, and long before that the Samantha Fox poster which was "raped" on stage. THAT was fun.
Together with long breaks between the songs and a setlist that wasn't in the memory banks of mr Goewie, I had mixed feelings about the show. On one hand they showed they can really rock, but on the other hand I missed the tightness and a kind of orchestrated discipline in their stage performance which was so noticeable in the past. For the band, I hope that their next studio album will again be a blast, followed by a tour (and a dvd?) but I would personally applaud to more professionalism and good taste in choosing ways to please the audience beside the music.
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CARNIVORE, RAGING SPEEDHORN, MILKMAN (11 December 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
This evening was one I was looking out for months already. Carnivore was one of the few 80’s metalbands which I never saw before simply because they never came over to The Netherlands earlier. The band had 2 support acts in Tilburg which both didn’t fit into this package if you ask me. MILKMAN from Tilburg, The Netherlands played a home match. The band played fast old-school hardcore in the vein of bands like D.R.I., S.O.D. & M.D.C. The band played for about 30 minutes full of old-school hardcore/punk. They played some songs from their latest album “Nostalgiator” but also some older stuff and even a Slayer & S.O.D. cover. Nice show but pity that the band had a bad sound quality on stage.
RAGING SPEEDHORN, in contrast to the other bands, had a very good sound but I didn’t like their modern hardcore/emocore stuff. After a few songs I went, and lots of other people followed, to the bar in the lounge of the venue. Not really an interesting band for todays audience.
Finally, after an intermission of more than 45 minutes full of a constantly repeating Efteling tune (Carnaval Festival) CARNIVORE finally came on stage and started to play a musical intermezzo……and left the stage after a few minutes to start again with the terrible Efteling tune! Well this time it wasn’t that long and the band returned and opened with the song ‘Carnivore’ followed by ‘Race War’. It counted me that there was a liner notebook holder right next to Peter Steele’s microphone. Why??? I didn’t know exactly because he still didn’t sing one of the songs completely!! Peter looked drunk, was constantly drinking wine, singing out of tune and forgetting big parts of the lyrics!!! Some of the parts where sung by the 2 guitarplayers but most of the parts werent sung at all! What a disgrace!! I was realy pissed off by this misbehaviour and lots of other visitors where also complaining about this lack of professionality. With songs like: ‘Angry Neurotic Catholics’, ‘Male Supremacy’, ‘Inner Conflict’, ‘Technophobia’, ‘Predator’, ‘SMD’, ‘Jesus Hitler’ and a Beatles cover “Helter Skelter’ they played a great set but it was all nullified by the bands (especially Peter Steel) performance. Even the bonus tracks ‘WW 3 & 4’ & ‘Sex & Violence’ couldn’t save this gig anymore. And what a childish impression they gave after throwing dozens of bloody tampons into the audience during ‘Sex & Violence’. What a show (NOT)!!! One of the most disappointing shows ive seen during the last few years and sure one of the worst concerts of 2007!! The legend Carnivore is over when its up to me! I wished after this show that they never had done this reunion show so I could remember the band as in their old glorious days……
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TSA, NEVIM (24 November 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
I thought I was dreaming when I saw this pronounce: TSA in my own town, wow! TSA is the AC/DC and DEEP PURPLE from Poland and attracts many visitors in their homeland. Me, as a big fan from this Polish Heavy Metal band, already have their classic albums "Heavy Metal World(1985)", "TSA(1981/1982)" and their new one "Proceder", who is less good, in my home for years! So it was really great to see these giants live. But before that, we saw the Czech child Rock/Metal band NEVIM: three long-haired boys between the age of 12 and 16 which were totally great! While they were a little unsure on stage, their music sounded great. The tiny bass player was singing with his fragile and soft child voice "I love rock 'n'roll " from JOAN JETT. It was so cute to see. The tough little drummer that constantly stole the show behind his drumkit and the tough guitarist/singer who was imitating Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, it was all great! Their own material and covers they played were pleasant, like NICKLEBACK, LIVE, NIRVANA and the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, METALLICA, BLACK SABBATH ("paranoid"), OZZY OSBOURNE ("Facing Hell") and two songs of JUDAS PRIEST ("Breaking the law" and "Living after Midnight").
TSA that's the number one band from Poland! The organization was pretty sure to attract the maximum people 013 could handle with this show in the west. Unfortunately, they were wrong and only 300 men/women stood in the huge concert hall. Also, the amount of Dutch people could be counted on one hand. Next to a few employees from the 013, my friend and I were the only Dutch people! Where where the so-called Eastern European Heavy Metal Maniacs? It's a shame that a band with such class and talent is playing here in Tilburg for a handful of Polish workers. Luckily, my presence honored and was openly welcomed by the Polish Hardrock Heavy Metal fans. It didn't take long before they discovered my TSA and Kat patch on my denim vest, and I could drink the whole night for free on cost of these social and nice Polish Metal fans. "Respect, respect!" is what I heard the whole evening. TSA was totally great, with songs like "Proceder", "TNT", "Matnia", "Alien", "Mass media" and "Rock 'N' Roll". The audience went totally crazy, so that frequently people were banned because they stage dived or pogo'd too wild or just because they drank too much. But that Polish people aren't greedy and also love to party and to rock was totally clear! Unfortunately I had this feeling that the band wasn't satisfied with this gig in Tilburg; probably the small amount of visitors? At the end of the gig I tried to get backstage to make some pictures and maybe do an interview….but what was the case: they had some problems, out of which I can conclude they probably won't be playing here anymore. It's a shame that so many people don't stand open for these kind of bands and it's so strange that the 'so-called' Eastern European Metal fans weren't here for such a fantastic gig. I wish the organization good luck and I hope there will be a continue. They can count on me!
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MOTÖRHEAD, OVERKILL (20 November 2007)
Rodahal, Kerkrade, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Today it was a kind of jubilee for me; this night I would see Motörhead for the 40th time live! Also the fact that they brought Overkill as support was a special reason for me to drive to the south of Holland to see 2 bands that always impressed me a lot!
I was right on time before OVERKILL hit the stage. This was also already the 12th time that I was going to see this band live. The last years I didnt realy follow all their latest releases but ON stage the band always did a good job. At 8:00 PM Overkill opened with the song 'New Machine' and it suited me that Bobby 'Blitz' Elsworth was in good vocal conditions because he sounded as smutty as can be! After the classic 'Rotten to the Core' the band played 'Walk through Fire' from their latest album "Immortalis". It counted me also that the band had a more than reasonable sound for a support act. After 'Thankx for Nothing' the band continued with several songs like 'Necroshine', 'Old School', 'Elimination', 'In Union we Stand' (the worst song they ever wrote to my opinion), a couple of new songs from their latest releases & as an encore "Fuck You'. A good show after all but I have to admit that the sound was getting worse later on during their set. Nevertheless; next time they are around; i'll be there again!!
MOTÖRHEAD has always been my favorite LIVE band. Their albums vary a lot; some of them are superb but they also released some rubbish albums. The last years I was also not happy with the 'lazy attitude' of guitarist Phil Campbell. Mostly because he was/is to lazy to play some decent live-guitarsolos and was rattling off his "solos". Today he gladly was in a good mood and did play some decent guitarparts. The band opened at 9:30 PM and had a loud but clear sound. The venue was filled with more than 1500 visitors and thats not bad at all for a Tuesday In The Netherlands; especially when you know that the venue is established in a kind of hinterland...... It was years ago for me when I visited this venue (1983: Iron Maiden & 1990: Gary Moore) but it was a perfect hall for a band like Motörhead. Motorhead played this setlist: 'Dr. Rock', 'Stay Clean', 'Be my Baby', 'Killers', 'Metropolis', 'Over The Top', 'One Night Stand', 'I Got Mine', 'Sword of Glory' (In which Lemmy tried to sing), 'Rosalee' (Thin Lizzy-cover dedicated to Phil Lynot), 'In The Name Of Tragedy' (with drumsolo), 'Just 'Cause You Got The Power', 'Going To Brazil', 'Killed By Death', 'Iron Fist'. As bonus they played 'Whorehouse Blues' (with an excellent Lemmy on mouth-organ) & their alltime evergreens 'Ace Of Spades' & 'Overkill" (not dedicated to the supportact?????)
After 90 minutes the band stopped and I went home with a very satisfied feeling; this way they can go on for another 30 years :). Lemmy rules!!!
Special thanks to Jeps from Mojo for putting me (as one of the most fanatic Motorhead fans) on the guestlist! Its appreciated!
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MARIO'S METAL MEETING (11 November 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by several magazines/webzines
This was the first edition of Mario's Metal Meeting and because it was organised by Mario's Metal Mania it would not be fair to review my own festival :) For that reason I only add links to the several reviews on webzines & magazines:
DEN OF INIQUITY (Belgium)
DIGITAL STEEL (The Netherlands)
There are also some reviews in Dutch leading metal magazine Aardschok & underground magazine Violent Moshground, check them out!
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ETERNAL ROCK FESTIVAL (13 October 2007)
Hanenhof, Geleen, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
Saturday morning around 12 o clock me and some of my friends left to Geleen to visit the second edition of The ‘Eternal Rock Festival’. Their organistator ‘Ludy’ had already told me that he wasn’t expecting a lot of people, and unfortunately he was right. I think there were only about 200 people around the evening… Much too less for such a cool festival!
The first band of the day was MYTHOLIC from Limburg. I had already seen this band in the locla bar 'Little Devil' a while ago. Mytholic plays fast Heavy Metal with a singer that instantly gives you goosebumbs, woow that singer of Mytholic can scream! Mytholic was really great live, but on cd it’s no more than just fun. I hope I can see the band live once more, because with the right connections I think this band can get really far! Goodluck gentlemen.
The second band was NON DIVINE, which I didn’t see, stupid actually to put a band like this on the bill of a Heavy/Power metal oriented Festival, Non Divine is way to modern for me.
MACHINE MEN from Finland was the next band on the bill en was really great if you ask me. The screaming singer, en the great music was a pleasure for the ear, good choise Ludy!
SYMPHORCE from Germany was the fourth band of the day. This Power Metal band with ‘Brainstorm’ singer ‘Andi B Frank’ was quite fun, but I would much rather have seen Brainstom, That is what I call a great Power Metalband if you ask me!
SILENT FORCE from Germany was the next one on the bill en I can tell you it was awesome! This singer looked a lot like ‘Jon Bon Jovi’ and ‘Joey Tempest (Europe) and what a great musicians. The sound was fine and the guys of ‘Silent Force’ showed Limburg that Germany has a band that looks a lot like ‘Yngwie Malmsteen’ and his band ‘Rising Force’. Great show and I think the audience can agree!
After that it was only waiting for the German metalgod ‘Udo Dirkschneider’ and his band! UDO started and everyone in the hall went nuts, it looked like 95% of the people were here for the Old German hardrocker. Udo ofcourse played the classics: ‘They Want War’, ‘Thunderball’, ‘Man & Machine’, ‘Animal House’ and of course the Accept song ‘Metal Heart’. Also new songs from his new album ‘Mastercutor’, which included title song ‘Mastercutor’, ‘Vendetta’ and the new ballad ‘Tears of A Clown’! It was really great, The audience that day (including myself) had a great time at this show!
The German PRIMAL FEAR with : ‘Matt Sinner (ex-Sinner) and Ralph Scheepers (ex-Tyran Pace and ex-Gamma Ray) was cool, but not as I hoped it would be, this was because the guitar player of ‘Silent Force’ replaced their guitarist and this caused the classic Primal Fear sound to vanish. Ralph had a really great voice that day and the setlist was great! ‘Primal Fear’ played all their classics like : ‘Nuclear Fire’, ‘Chainbreaker’, ‘Running In The Dust’ and the number 1 song of their new album ‘Face Of Emptiness’! Luckily they didn’t play the gothic alike song ‘Everytime It Rains’ cause I wasn’t waiting for that. Maybe it had some downpoints but this show was really worth the effort! ‘Eternal Rock Fest 2007’ was a great day of headbanging and drinking beers. See you next year!
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VICIOUS RUMORS, AGENT STEEL, AFTER ALL (6 September 2007)
De Bosuil, Weert, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
AFTER ALL had the honour to open this night of pure, heavy speed metal. I have never been a big fan of this Belgium band because live they never could impress me. After their latest album "This Violent Decline", which I rated very high, my expectations where much higher than normally. Well, the more disappointed I was again. Singer Piet Focroul is a very energetic frontman but live his vocals still cant impress me at all. The band played mostly songs from their latest albums but as said, live they are not turning out that great. After All had the bad luck that they also had a very moderate sound during the whole gig. Sorry guys, hopefully next time better
AGENT STEEL has always been one of my alltime favorite bands, also after the departure of John Cyriss. Bruce Hall is a very good substitute for him but tonight I had the feeling that he was in a rush... Most of, especially the older, songs where performed much faster as the original songs. Pity because this didnt do these songs good at all! The band played mostly all their classic songs; 'Rager, Bleed for the Godz, Unstoppable Force, Guilty as Charged, Evil Eye, Agents Of Steel, Mad Locust Rising' et al but also some newer stuff like: 'Illuminati Is Machine,
Ten Fist Of Nations, Fashioned From Dust, Hail To The Chief, Know Your Master'. Last tour the band didnt bring Bernie Versailles with them because he had other obligations. This time the band brought another bassplayer with them. Nevertheless a nice gig but not as good as i'm used from this (for me) legendary band. The band also had a very moderate sound which of course didnt do the band good.
VICIOUS RUMORS where the one and only headliner this evening because they came, saw & conquered! The band is blessed with their new singer James Rivera (wellknown from Helstar, Seven Witches, Flotsam & Jetsam, et al) who fits perfect in their music! Ive seen James Rivera several times with different bands and he is not always singing superb but tonight he was the king!! What a throat!! After Carl Albert probably the best singer they ever had!
The band played a lot of older songs but gladly also a few from their latest album (with James Rivera) "Warball". Their setlist (as far as I can remember): 'Immortal, Mr. Miracle, On The Edge, Soldiers Of The Night, Don't Wait For Me, Digital Dictator, Minutes To Kill, Dying Every Day, Sonic Rebellion, Lady Took A Chance, Abandoned, Hellrazor, Ghost Within, Six Step Sister, March Or Die' et al. Viciour Rumors was the only band with a very good sound and for me the absolute winner of this evening! I went to this gig especially for Agent Steel but was positive surprised by the power of Vicious Rumors! They where the "Digital Dictators" tonight!!
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HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR FESTIVAL (12, 13 & 14 July 2007)
Brande-Hörnerkirchen, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
Headbangers Open Air is for me personally the highlight of the festival season. This edition was my 4th visit to this festival and I was looking out for it from the day after the last edition in 2006!! The atmosphere is so outrageous; its indescribable!! The whole place is filled with friends from all over the world and its for me the best festival of the year! The line up of this 10th edition wasnt that good as we are used but it was worth the wait!! Also the afterparty at the Ballroom in Hamburg was a real party (also on behalf of Pim & Oliver from Digital Steel webzine & Melissa Records who joined me during this battle of attrition).
DAY 1
SIXTH ALLOY from Germany was opening the jubilee edition of HOA and they did a good job. The band had a good sound quality and their thrashmetal had a lot of variety and I also liked the clean singing on some of the songs! Nice show!
Spanish SILVER FIST suited me much more this time than they did during their KIT performance a while ago. Still after a while I got bored stiff and the conclusion is that i'm still not a new follower to their fanclub....
INTENSE from the UK sounded good a while ago when I heard their latest album but they couldnt impress me last year as support of Ruffians. This time the band was much better than during that tour but after I while I got irritated again by the nasal voice of their singer; nice gig, nothing more.
GRIM REAPER from the UK is a band that never enthralled me though the band has a real cult status. Maybe it has to do with the fact that i'm not a real die-hard NWOBHM fan. I did recognize their latest song of the set 'See you in Hell" because it was covered by Seven Witches a while ago. Nice show.
Swedish WOLF came, saw & conquered on the first day of HOA. The band is very fanatic on stage and is musically a good band. Personally I miss the variation in the voice of their singer but they where a worthy headliner for the first day!
DAY 2
ETERNAL LEGACY from the USA where opening on Day 2 and the band plays typical US-metal in a way I like it very much. Pity that the sound quality wasnt that good. I also heard sometimes some "out of tune" guitarsolos and I have to admit that I was only wellknown with the songs on their MySpace which sounded much better on MS that they did live. The band also played at the afterparty on Sunday at the Ballroom in Hamburg and that performance was much better! Still a very good, promising, band!!
KAOS: I already met guitarplayer Keven Albert
(son of the legendary Carl Albert of Vicious Rumors/Ruffians fame) when he was playing with Ulysses Siren at the HOA festival in 2006 and he already told me that they would perform on this years edition with KAOS. Well, the more disappointed I was after a few songs; the music of the band sounds good but doesnt belong on a festival like HOA; their metalcore-a-like metal doesnt fit between the mostly truemetal line up. Musically its all performed very well and the band is very fanatic but it was not really my piece of cake ....and a lot others visitors agreed with me!
I never expected to see the Aussies from RAVEN BLACK KNIGHT in Europe! The more I was surprised when I heard that the band did play HOA and also some other gigs in (ofcourse) Germany! One of the first CD's I ever reviewed for MMM was their "Choose the Dark" (2005) album and I was so curious for their live performances! The music of the band varies between doomsongs but also a lot of more uptempo songs. Great gig and I liked the short high-pitching screams from their singer/guitarplayer. The band also did the afterparty show in Hamburg and that gig was great too! Glad that I finally saw this band after all this time!! Hope these guys come back to Europe soon!! Good, well performed show!
KALEDON is one of the dozen powermetal/happymetal bands from Italy. The singer was sometimes singing out of tune but after all a nice gig.
BEYOND FALLEN (USA) also made their debut on the European bottom. Their typical US-metal is well received by the German fans. Personally I never liked Joe's voice that much (I miss the high-pitching vocals) but beside of that; he is a great frontman! Musically the band also played "as tight as a chicken's ass" (hi Joe, hahahaha) and they also had the honour to headline the afterparty on Sunday. On the afterparty the band was again playing top!
Germany's PARAGON is a great live band which is always well received by the German audience. Musically it all sounds standard but it is performed very well. Good show!
WARNING SF played my fav. style of metal: US-metal! Musically its nearly perfect and you could see that the band was enjoying their performance very much! Very good gig from these guys out of San Fransisco, USA. Their show on the afterparty was also great!!
VENGEANCE (NL): Partytime!!! Vengeance on stage is a guarantee for a big party. Personally im not impressed by the bands showart because the band is repeating & repeating their jokes for years now. Nevertheless; Vengeance is & will always be a big partyband. Nice show.
SINNER (Germany) did a nice job on stage but personally I dont have any feelings with this band; their music is very corny and not my cup of tea.
America's shock-rockers HALLOWEEN blew everything away with their superb performance! At KIT a few years ago the band already impressed me a lot but this time it was much, much better!! After singer Brian Thomas came on stage in a white suit; the hell broke loose!!! Good sound, good show and awesome performance!! I spoke to their singer later and he was hoping to play in The Netherlands someday..so maybe at another edition of Mario's Metal Meeting???
DAY 3
DECEPTIVE SILENCE from Germany was almost finished when we arrived at the HOA area but the few songs I heard werent that bad at all. The band won this years bandbattle in Hamburg and thats the reason they opened the last day of the festival. Nice show.
KNIGHT ERRANT: from Turkey was a weird band between most of the festival bands during this days. The band uses a female violinist which gave the music sometimes a bit of a folkmetal-feeling. The band still plays real metal and I liked the first songs. The singer was doing a good job in the beginning but after a while he was singing out of tune. The violinist was very fanatic on stage which gave a special effect to their performance. Nice band for about 5 or 6 songs but after that it became boring.
HOLLOW GROUND is a NWOBHM band which I only knew by name. The band did a very good job and had a lot of variety in their setlist. Good band; pity I was not familiar with their music earlier.
THE BLACK from Italy: Terrible band, worthless singer, messy sound and an awefull performance; Worst band I ever did see at HOA!! Forget it a.s.a.p!!!
TAUNTED (USA) was one of the bands I was looking out for. The more I was disappointed; the band had a bad sound and I also didnt like the singer's voice. The band also had a shabby sound because they only had 1 guitarplayer. The band played also at the afterparty on Sunday and they did a good job overthere and proofed they're a good US-metal band which will probably make a lot of progression in the future..
AVENGER: Another NWOBHM band on stage and I have to admit that they werent inferior to Hollow Ground at all. Eventhough NWOBHM is not my fav. Metal style; I liked both Avenger & Hollow Ground.
Sweden's BULLET; The AC/DC & Accept klone! Ive seen the band several times but they never impressed me with their 'stolen' kind of metal. If I want to hear this kind of music ill prefer to visit an AC/DC or UDO gig! Bullet is a party band, nothing more, nothing less.
WRETCH was also one the (US) metalbands that made me decide to travel to HOA again! The band is, despite the singers overweight, very fanatic on stage! The German crowd loved it and so did I!! Truemetal in a way I love it most! Good band and for me one of the winners! Hope to see them again someday!
MOONSORROW from Finland plays atmospheric Pagan metal and thats not really my kind of music. What I heard didnt sound that bad at all but I will never buy this kind of metal for my private collection. The crowd loved it and thats what counts!!
I never liked CANDLEMASS because their former singer Messiah couldnt impress me at all with his boring voice. Well, after I heard that the singer of Solitude Aeturnus (Rob Lowe) joined the bad: I was very curious because Rob Lowe is one of the best doommetal singers! And yes; I liked it very much! From now on Candlemass has a new fanclub member. Great show!!
RAGE from Germany did a good job on stage but personally I dont have any feelings with this band; after a while the band played their superhit "Dont you fear the Winter" and shortly after that song we decided to grab a taxi. HOA was done, damn!!!
Again I would like to thank Thomas Tegelhutter and Jurgen Hegewald for their support and for putting me, again, on the guestlist! My thanx also goes out to Pim B. & Oliver K. from Digital Steel (webzine) & Melissa Records (recordlabel). I had a hell of a time with these guys and still have a lot of homesickness......
Till next year my German friends!!
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TESLA (29 June 2007)
Plato, Helmond, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
Finally it was time, the American TESLA in my own country! For months I’ve waited but finally this was it. Tesla started their set with the Bluesy ‘Comin’ Atcha Live’ , and after that they immediately played the newer title song of the "Into the Know" album from 2004. After that it was time for some real classics like for example: 'The way it is', 'Modern Day Cowboy' and 'Lazy Days Crazy Nights'. Great to finally hear this classics from my youth live. After this we’ve got the great surprise that they were gonna play UFO’s 'Rock Bottom', which ofcourse is a classic for every self respecting hardrocker. After that 'Little Suzy' and 'Love Song', these guys just couldn’t stop with their great hardrock, wow! All the classics were played with full enthousiasm and joy and ofcourse not a single classic wasn’t played. What you give, 'Miles away', 'Thank You' and 'Signs', they were played every single one! Tesla even played some material from their upcoming cd: "Real to Reel". So the setlist was just perfect. Every bandmember had the qualities to give a perfect musical show, for which they didn’t need nonsense and/or a stage act. The guitarsolo’s of leadguitarist Frank Hannon gave you the goosebumbs all over your back en Jeff Keith’s vocals sounded really American, that guy really has a great accent. The hall was filled for 95% with real hardrockfans and every single one had to admit that it was really worth the effort in Helmond. The audience was really enthousiastic and that made the band play better. Tesla excists since 1986 and they haven’t changed their style and looks at all, all the bandmembers except for their drummer Troy Loccetta still have long hair, and they all (which includes the new guy “Dave Rude” ) still live for pure Rock ’n Roll. Tesla gave us a really energetic and good show here in Helmond, which will haunt my memories for a long time. I’m curious how it was at the Arrow Rock Festival because Helmond was brilliant!!!
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PAUL GILBERT (30 May 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel & Nick Polak
Wednesday, May the 30th, we've got the message to visit/review a concert in one of our local concert venues 013 of one of the best allround guitar players ever.
PAUL GILBERT is known of his hits with hardrockband 'Mr Big', but Paul Gilbert does a lot more than making commercial hardrock. He also played in speed metalband Racer X and he ofcourse has his own solo albums and some projects with other bands/musicians. The concert started with the title song of Paul Gilbert's new album 'Get out of My Yard', for which he used an Ibanez double neck guitar and his bass player for an 'human capo, this was a very fascinating experience to see and that was only the begin of a great evening. This was just one of the eight (!) songs he played from his new album. But personally I was waiting for some old Mr Big material, and then finally I heard the first notes of the worldwide hit 'To Be With You' in a brand new version of the song. It was a pity he didn't play the whole song, but luckily he also played other hits like: Nothing But love, Interaction and my favourite song 'Green Tinted Sixties Mind. Great for the melodic rocker but I think most of the metalheads were more waiting for the old Racer X stuff which he also played ofcourse! He played the songs 'Technical Difficulties' and 'Scarified' which he hilariously announced with saying "…The next song… is a Heavy Metal song!...". The stage was kinda empty and what was very weird too was the fact there were no Laney amps on stage but only a new Marshall series amp… very strange. The very last song was the Jimi Hendrix cover 'Foxy Lady' which rocked everybodies socks of! Paul Gilbert at 013 was a great experience and too bad he doesn't come here that often cause he's a great guitar player!
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AXEL RUDI PELL & MAD MAX (26 May 2007)
Plato, Helmond, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
Hardocker 'Ludy' from Limburg did it again with his Eternal Rock
Promotion. Ludy organised another oldschool melodic hardrock concert. This
concert was actually suppossed to be at '9 February 2007', but because of
'Pell' being ill the concert was moved to 26th May.
MAD MAX from Germany opened the evening with their christian A.O.R Hardrock. The band was here already
years ago at the Dynamo Open Air festival in 1987 at Eindhoven. Because of
that festival "Mad Max" made friends with the Dutch band "Vengeance".
Vengeance was even invited to the concert in Helmond. Leon
Goewie ( Singer of Vengeance ) was standing at the first row the whole concert watching his german
buddies. Mad Max had a monster-setlist with old classics and covers but they also
played new material from their new E.P (In White) and album (White Sands)
too. For example they played 2 classics from their 1987 album "Night Of
Passion": 'Night Of Passion' and 'Hearts On Fire'... but ofcourse they
played the Sweet cover "Fox On The Run" from "Night Of Passion" too.
They didn't only play old songs, but they played some really cool new songs
too such as: 'Family Of Rock', 'Little Princess' and 'Fight In White'. The
new "Mad Max" sounds like the old American Christian Hardrockband Stryper.
Mad Max really met my expectations and I really enjoyed this show. Mad
Max was really brilliant, good show, good music, great sound and great guys!
AXEL RUDI PELL: This German guitargod from the cultband "Steeler" opened
with a really cool song: "Fly To The Moon" and after that more great songs
and ofcourse some old songs, for example the brilliant "Call Her Princess",
The show was really brilliant, singer "Johnny Gioeli" had a great voice and
performance, the audience their response was great too! Maybe because of the
fact this was the first time they played in The Netherlands, who knows? It
was a great evening of headbanging and hardrocking fun at Plato Helmond!
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SWORDBROTHERS FESTIVAL (19 May 2007)
Club Juz, Andernach, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
This was for me the second time to visit this German underground festival which is organised by metalhead & friend Volker Raab. After the cancellations of Ignitor (USA) & Powervice (NL) there was another cancellation just a few days before it all started; Knights of Tethys (USA) couldnt make it because a few members decided to quit the band and it was impossible to find substitutes in such a short time before the festival. The organisation decided to change the playing times of all bands and that turned out very well!! Good solution Volker!
DEJA VU from Germany had the honour to open this edition of SB and they did it right. Deja Vu is a nice band, not sounding very original but their performance was good. The band owns a very good singer who hits the high notes easily. The sound of the band was also good, especially for an opener! Nice gig!
CRYSTAL VIPER from Poland was for me one of the most important bands after Ignitor cancelled. The band is blessed with a very good, female, singer. A little girl with a great voice. Musically it sounded as a mix of Mystery Blue and (old) Warlock. Not all the songs where from a high level and I didnt like the Manilla Road cover but that has to do with the fact that I dont like Manilla Road at all. Nice gig after all with a reasonable sound.
STIKKY FYKK; this was a kind of a parody on a parody. This kind of "metal" is only appreciated in Germany who also like bands as, for example, Oncle Tom. Not my piece of cake and I ran away after only 1 song..... Climax of the gig was the playing time; just 25 minutes of crap....
Next band on the bill was Belgium's DESPERATION. I've seen the band already once as support of Battleroar & Aiged L'Amh and they couldnt impress me that time. Well, things didnt change a lot; I still think its a very moderate band with an even more moderate (read: boring) singer. After Stikky Fykk they didnt sound that bad but to be honest; this kind of bands will never make it....
REAPER from Germany was also new to me. Their singer had a very raw voice which was nice for a few songs but not for a whole gig. The band exist for years now but its clear for me now why they never became more wellknown... Moderate band that was boring after a few songs already. Also the coverversion of Judas Priest's 'Breaking the Law' couldnt change my opinion about that.
VALKYRIES CRY from Canada was also one of the bands that I come over for from The Netherlands. Musically the band did sometimes remind me to cultband Sacred Blade (because of the high screams) but qua looks they reminded me of Death Angel. The band had a reasonable sound but I missed a second guitarplayer in this band; now it all sounded a bit to shabby. So my advice; get an extra guitarist and a good producer and you guys will make it!!
ARCTIC FLAME from the USA already came over to Europe about a half year ago to perform at the November edition of the Keep it True festival. That time I liked the band but I didnt like all their songs. Now they had the same problem; their performance was quiet good but not overwhelming. Their singer has sometimes very weird singing melodies through which he sounds like 'singing out of tune'. Hitting the high notes was no problem at all and thats a plus!! Hope to see this band more in Europe!!
After Arctic Flame it became a bit quiet because the next band, EMERALD (from my homeland The Netherlands), didnt show up!! Organiser Volker was quite rightly pissed off because they didnt give him any sign at all. Later I heard that the drummer had an accident and wasnt able to play. I still do understand Volkers reaction and really hope that the band will show up in September during the Tilburg Headbangers Fest (which I co-organise).
Gladly the two headliners decided to play both a longer set to fill up the caused space in the running order. I've never been such a great SACRED STEEL fan but I have to admit that they did an excellent job today!!! The band is getting/sounding much more professional during all these years and their singer is a damn good frontman! The band also played a cover of Jag Panzer "Generally Hostile" and at the end of the set the female singer from Crystal Viper came on stage for some jamming..... Good show!!
BLITZKRIEG (UK) had the honour to headline this edition of SB and hell they did!! The band had a superb sound and played a great set. After listening to singer Brian Ross I was wondering why Black Sabbath never did him an offer?? This guy would fit perfect to Black Sabbath with his typical voice. Well, gladly he is still in Blitzkrieg and thats the main reason that this band still kicks ass!! Great band on a wonderful headlining spot! They (and we also) deserved it!!
Many thanx to Volker & crew and maybe till the December 22th edition ( DOOMSWORD (I), ZANDELLE (USA), ANGUS (NL), NIGHTMARE (F), SILVERFIST (E), SKELATOR (USA), KINGSCROSSING (USA), ICY STEEL (I))
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L.A. GUNS, POINTERS HEAD, HOTT (3 May 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
A perfect evening of sleazerocking in own town ! All local glamboys were here for the local evening of some glam metal! It was still very calm but ofcourse the die hard hairsprayers were already here!
HOTT: From Rotterdam kicked the show off with their poser metal! Hott is more like a parody of real glamrock and it may seem a bit fake but the music is quite good. Hott is more over the top glam, a bit fake with al those hairpieces but because of that, not less fun. The guys from Rotterdam play glamrock in the vain of Motley Crue, Poison and Iron Maiden... Yes! Iron Maiden! A lot of riffs are almost stolen from Iron Maiden and that gives Hott a bit of a heavy metal twist. Prominent was too the return of their second guitar player, the guy needed to kick off from the drugs and rock 'n roll for a while! Hott played only one classic 'Wake Up', the other two 'Barely Legal' and 'Hott' weren't played because of the short time they had. Too bad because Hott was kinda cool!
POINTERS HEAD: From Germany was the second band of the evening, and although their hardrock sounded kinda 'okay', it was not really my type of hardrock...! The band didn't had good looks as well and they couldn't get the audience moving. But what would you expect... everyone was waiting for L.A. Guns, not some kind of obscure German band.
L.A. GUNS: Yes! The one and only L.A. Guns with "Tracii Guns and Paul Black'' were here in Tilburg Town on stage! The guys from Los Angeles played every classic live in our local club! For example all the classics from their 1988 debut were played: 'No Mercy', 'One More Reason', 'Electric Gypsy', 'One Way Ticket' and ofcourse 'Sex Action'!
Ofcourse they played classics from their second album as well: Cocked & Loaded from 1990. They ofcourse played 'Never Enough' and afcourse the classic 'The Ballad Of Jane'! All the fans were asked to climb on stage to sing along with the most well known "L.A Guns" ballad, it was really cool! Ofcourse they played more songs, but I didn't had a setlist so I can only name the songs I know.
The old rockers of L.A. Guns showed that Glam/Sleaze Rockers are definitely true! I have almost never seen a band that was this true to it's roots! A lot of true and thrash metalbands/heads can learn a lot from this! What was great too was the good contact with the audience and the fun they had theirselves. Yes! the guys of L.A Guns know what Rock 'N Roll is about! Keep Going guys, Tilburg is ready for a second Sleaze Attack!!!
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TRIVIUM, ANNIHILATOR, SANCTITY (2 May 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Joey Ferwerda & Nino v/d Mark
The opener for this evening was SANCTITY: This is a band that earned
recognition before their first album was even released, according to their website. Trivium frontman Matthew K. Heafy saw their show and liked it so much that he helped them get a record deal, and Megadeth's frontman Dave Mustaine invited them to the second outing of his Gigantour festival. They play Melodic Thrash-Metal with a heavy metal sound with it, but try to do some new things as well, and the result is grinding riffs and screaming solo's backed by the raw vocals their frontman Jared supplies. Technically this band is top-notch. Additionally, they really know how to get the crowd warmed up, before they even started playing they had the crowd's full attention, and where able to hold it through most (if not the entire) show. The legendary 'bang your head, tits, cunt or whatever' showed up and
everyone thrashed there way to the end of the show! To bad the sound was killing everyone's ears.. better hire a new sound-guy. The band was good.. no better.. there great! Seriously this guys rock so check them out!
Second in line, the legendary ANNIHILATOR: one of those bands your dad listened to in his "Heavy Metal" period. It's top-grade old-school Technical Speed/Thrash with a nice heavy metal sound to it that's just technically superb. From 1984 till today they've released a host of Demo's and albums that are considered to be classics by many today. Before the show started their crew was hastily improving the sound as best as they could, and if you where already inside early on you could've heard that their roady isn't a shabby rummer himself. Me and some friends even thought the roady would play some songs! And then
the show began! They played some new work, the more groove sound of this band really hit the fans but it was good! For the old school lovers, don't blame them, they had a million changes in line up, only two full members! Songs like “Funpalace”, “Never neverland” and “Welcome to your death” where welcomed with banging heads and people screaming along. They finished the show with “Alison Hell”, and I'd like to speak for myself when I say that I've never experienced anything as cool as being there and hearing that song being played live. All the people yelling: "Alison Hell!".. just priceless. He even could make it to the high notes!While you could hear that not all of these guys are as fast as they once where, this is one event that will stay with me for quite some time to come.
And then we had the headliner, TRIVIUM: Although some call this neo-trashmetal; Trivium's frontman described it as Flash-metal where they combine fast pumping melodic riffs and excellently composed solo's. Where the vocalist can sing as well as growl. They just played it almost 1.5 times the speed! You can say a lot about these guys, but they most definitely have skills! Half-way the song though I noticed some things... First off they suffered from a similar thing as Sanctity did, though less so. Because most of their songs have relatively high-pitched guitar melodies through them this wasn't too much of an issue, but something else was. Sometimes one of the guitarists would decided to burst into soloing while it wasn't in the original song. Now don't get me wrong, I love sudden content but most of 'em didn't match the song and only made it more chaotic to listen to. Besides that the show was great, the music was top-notch and if you where in the thrash-pit you probably had a blast too. Personally the band did not get to me. Hey don't get me wrong, they are great players but the feeling wasn't there! Trivium was: "Good on CD, but LIVE better keep you expectations low."
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KEEP IT TRUE FESTIVAL VIII (14 April 2007)
Lauda-Konigshofen, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
Opener CAULDRON from Canada will not be very wellknown by most of the thrashers in Europe. The bandname they originally had a few years ago was GOATHORN. I reviewed the Goathorn album a while ago but I was not familiar with the new Cauldron stuff. Cauldron played a nice set of 80's thrashmetal but couldnt impress the audience that much; maybe because of their very moderate sound. Nevertheless a very nice opener!
BULLET from Sweden is a nice AC/DC & Accept clone (or clown) that will do it good on any metal party but the band doesnt belong on this kind of festivals when its up to me. Still I enjoyed to see the band live again but this are not the bands I came over all the way from The Netherlands.
TWISTED TOWER DIRE was one of the bands I was really looking out for. This US-outfit lately released a very nice album "Neatherworlds" and I was curious if the band could prove their qualitys on stage. The band played a mix of their older & newer stuff and enjoyed themselves a lot on stage! Pity that the band had a very moderate sound (lots of reverberation) but still they did a nice job. Nice job because I expected much more from these US-metallers!
DEFENDER from The Netherlands reunited a few months ago and I already had the luck to see the band during the Rusty Cage festival a month ago. That time they where for me the winning band. This time it was almost impossible to win because a few of my fav. metalbands performed overhere (Lethal, Destructor & Piledriver). Defender played a great show/set with, again, a leading role for their singer who even sung much better than during the Rusty Cage festival! Good show and during this show I was proud to be a dutchman :)
PILEDRIVER was one of the most important bands for me to travel to Germany (together with Lethal) but in my thoughts I was expecting a kind of a parody on a parody. Gladly my thoughts where wrong and Piledriver showed us an incredible show! Technically the band will never play on a Progmetal festival but who cares? The band did what they are good in; playing oldschool thrash in a way they already did it on their 2 albums years ago. I'm not gonna tell you how the band was dressed because if you know the album sleeves; you know enough :) A few of the songs they played are 'Piledriver', 'Human Sacrifice'& 'Metal Inquisition'. Great show!!!!
Because Artillery cancelled their show just a few weeks ago; the organisation decided to book a second show for DESTRUCTOR. Well the show the band gave was almost similar to the show a day before at the warm-up gig (read that reviews below). Again they didnt play 'Destructor' & 'Bondage' and that was a big disappointment for the die-hard fans of the band.
LETHAL from the USA was the most important band for me. These guys delivered one of the best metal albums ever "Programmed" but never played in Europe before! I was so glad with the news that the band reunited & played at KIT!! Finally after all these years I would see one of my alltime fav. bands. During the photoshoot in the pit I noticed that singer Tom Mallicoat was OR fuckin nervous OR has a kind of nervous tic in his face. It looked like he was starting to cry but gladly he didnt .....No; he was singing the best he could and I didnt expect that the band was still so great after all these years of absence. Again I got goose bumps during several songs and I again realised that metal was more than a hobby for me! This was so brilliant that I couldnt believe it! Bands like Lethal make me realise how important metal is to me! The band almost played their complete "Programmed" CD and did it in an awesome way. One of the best shows i've seen during the last years. Magnificent!!!! Superb!!!! Awesome!!!!
After Lethal it wasnt that important for me anymore because i've seen bands like SABBAT & LAAZ ROCKIT already several times in the past and I still havent got any of their albums. Why? They are both good live bands but on vinyl they never could impress me. The same goes out for DIAMOND HEAD; a good band, nothing more nothing less. Conclussion is that Piledriver & Lethal where the winning bands to me & Sabbat, Diamond Head & Laaz Rockit where more a kind of afterparty to me. A good afterparty by the way but personally I would have 'programmed' Lethal as a headliner :)
Oliver & Tarek; thanx again for inviting me to this superb festival! Till now one of the best line-ups KIT ever had!! In November I will be there again with great US bands like; Toxik, Leatherwolf & Sacred Oath; I cant hardly wait!!!!!!!!!!
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KEEP IT TRUE WARM UP SHOW (13 April 2007)
Dittigheim, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
The 8th edition of KIT and for me the 7th time to visit this great festival (I only missed edition 1...). Because this time KIT was doing the "big" edition there was again a warm-up show on friday in Dittigheim.
IVORY NIGHT from Germany was opening 2 days of pure metal. I was not familiar with the band and I dont want to be after this gig. From the first song on the singer was singing out of tune (read: false). Musically it all sounded far from original; it was performed well but with a crappy sound and a terrible singer the band failed complete! Garbage.
Next band on the bill was WARRANT (the German variant). I know this band for years now and to me their song 'Bang that Head' is a real classic one! Musically it all sounds standard but I feel some magic in their songs that hit me. Some other songs the band played are: 'Ready to Command', 'Satan BT', 'Condemned Forever', 'The Enforcer", just to name a few. A good show from an old German thrash outfit that I still like very much! Good show!
TANKARD is Germany's partyband nr. 1 and its always useful to book these kind of bands because the German audience loves it!! I've seen the band several times in the past but musically they never could impress me at all but who cares?? The audience liked it and that counts. Have a beer on me guys! Prosit!
DESTRUCTOR has always been one of my fav. bands and I already saw the band twice during their BYH performances in 2003. During these gigs I was blown away by this great band. When I heard that the band was playing this years KIT my metalheart started beating faster & faster! The more I was disappointed this weekend in the band because of the moderate sound but mostly of the (missing) agression in the music which they did have a few years ago. Other point was the fact that the band didnt play two of their classic songs: 'Destructor' & 'Bondage'. Songs they did plays are: 'Storm of Steel', 'Sonic Bullet', 'Maximum Destruction', Skull Splitter', 'Pounding Evil', The Iron Curtain' et al..... After all a reasonable show but my expactations where a bit to high probably.
Still I had a hell of an evening with all my German friends.......
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LANA LANE & ROCKET SCIENTISTS (9 April 2007)
Biebob, Vosselaar, Belgium
Review by Mr. Globetrotter
It was not crowded at the venue; that surprised me the most.
Rocket Scientists is a highly respected progband from the USA, and Lana Lane, the Queen of Symphonic Rock, is a very talented singer, surrounded by even talented musicians.
Opening act was DIAL, the band formed by Kristoffer Gildenlow (ex-Pain Of Salvation) and his wife Liselotte Hegt; they played half an hour to warm things up, but did not succeed in doing that, receiving only polite applause.
ROCKET SCIENTISTS then opened bombastically; keyboard virtuoso Erik Norlander is a master in combining songs and melodies into a medley (or "suite", as he likes to call it), and the band brought a 75 minute set with songs from the "Earthbound" and "Oblivion Days" album, combined with material from their latest gem, "Revolution Road". The song "Mariner" was brought with vocals of Mark McCrite, a man with a soft and smooth voice, who also plays the Line 6 guitar next to Dutch axe man Peer Verschuren. That was the only moment that I missed Kelly Keeling, who always gives me loads of goose bumps when he sings this song. Nothing to degrade Mark, but Kelly has the power and the octaves to really set different moods into this song.
After the set and a short break it's LANA LANE's Time; this time the band played 1 entire album, being their latest "Lady McBeth". Now THAT promised a whole lot, because this is a very versatile album, with smooth ballads and some real shredding. This also gave Dutchmen Peer Verschuren and drummer Ernst Van Ee a way to show the audience what they got. Peer played his solos like he had to rape all six strings, where Ernst was really testing his bass drums. After having played the album in full, there was an encore from Lana's "Gemini" album, namely Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit".
Over two and a half hours of quality music deserved a much bigger audience; hopefully next time the band will get the response they so well deserve. |
HEADWAY FESTIVAL V (6 & 7 April 2007)
P60, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Headway was celebrating their 5th edition this year and the organisation programmed a very varied line up again this time. Gladly I was invited to review this festival but even if I wasnt; I would have been there with such a good line-up!
Friday (6 April)
Opener on friday was OBSIDIAN, a band from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Obsidian was blessed with a reasonable sound for a first band. The band played a kind of technical deathmetal which reminded me to a mix of bands like Fear Factory, Textures and also some Scar Symmetry. It was not all sounding quite original but after all a very nice opener.
TO-MERA from Hungary/UK was the next band on the bill and also one of the bands that made me decide to travel to Amstelveen. I was only wellknown with their 2-track demo which I reviewed a few years ago and that demo impressed me a lot. Well, the more I was disappointed in the beginning of the set; the band had a terrible sound and female singer Julie Kiss was singing as a false Dolores O'Riordan (The Cranberries). After more than half an hour the sound quality was getting much better and Julie could even hit the higher notes. So at the end of the set I had to conclude that is was a reasonable performance but far away from the expectations I had of TO-MERA. Plus to the band is the view because Julie Kiss is a wonderfull woman ;)
Progmetal in Holland doesnt mean that much in the international scene till now. Bands like Sun CAged and Sphere of Souls are the leading bands in this genre and one of them was playing here tonight; SUN CAGED. SUN CAGED had a nearly perfect sound from the begin till the end (good job Martin!!). I've seen the band last year already with their new singer Paul Villareal and it striked me that he couldnt sing the older Sun Caged songs so well that time. Their former singer Andre Vuurboom (now in Sphere of Souls) had a much wider range than the new frontman. The band had noticed that also probably because today the band was mainly playing stuff from their latest album "Artemisia". Sun Caged played a great set/gig but I dont think the band will make it international. Mainman Marcel Coenen has a lot of arrogance and thats probably also the reason that the band already had dozens of line-up changes. Pity because musically its a great band!
Todays headliner ZERO HOUR (USA) also had a new singer in their line-up; Eric Sardinas and what a talent this guy is!!! The band opened with 'The Falcon's Cry' from their latest album "Specs of Pictures Burnt Beyond". This is one of the best albums I heard during the last year! That is also the reason I rated it with 95 out of 100 points :) You can imagine how curious I was about these guys. Well, Eric Sardinas is doing what his predecessors couldnt; singing as good (or even better) than on the album!! He reminded me to a mix of Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Tom Mallicoat (Lethal) & Steve Benito (Heir Apparent). From the new album they also played; 'Evidence of the Unseen', 'Face the Fear' and a few others but also some oldies like 'Stratagem'. This show was superb and looking backwards also the best show of this years Headway edition! Awesome performance guys!! Hope Eric will continu singing with Zero Hour because he is the best guy for this job!!
Saturday (7 April)
Todays opener was also a dutch band named TRANSMISSION O. I was wondering what this crappy band had to do at Headway because there was nothing progressive in their music at all! Rubbishy band that played a kind of Nu-metal that had no variation at all and which was performed terrible. A band which I have to forget a.s.ap!!
DIAL was the second band on saturday and the band is build around ex-Pain of Salvation member Kristoffer Gildenlöw and his dutch wife Liselotte Hegt (ex- Cirrha Niva & also working for the Aardschok magazine). Dial played a kind of psychedelic music that had little to do with metal at all. The musicians are all good and multifunctional but I dont know what to do with this kind of music. Dial even makes The Gathering sound as heavy as hell!! Not my piece of cake....
SEVENTH WONDER from Sweden was also one of the bands I travelled to Amstelveen. After a 40 minute (!!) break the band finally climbed on stage. In the beginning the band had a messy sound but later on they took revenge and enjoyed me with a very good technical show! Singer Tommy Karevik told the audience that he had some problems with his voice but personally I couldnt even hear that. The band played a lot of songs from their last album "Waiting in the Wings". Seventh Wonder plays a mix of progmetal & powermetal. Good show even after all the starting problems!
MORGLBL from France was again a very strange band in this years line-up but luckily these guys where great! Morglbl is a french trio who mainly played instrumental songs. These 3 boldies gave a hell of a show and it was to me the biggest surprise of the festival! You could notice that the band themselves also had a lot of joy on stage! Mainman Christophe Godin is a very good guitarplayer but also a real entertainer! Caramba; a great show guys!!
LOCH VOSTOK is also a Swedish band and after reviewing their album lately I was looking out to see them live. From the very first note the band impressed me a lot and their "huge" singer had a very wide range in his voice. He could grunt but also hit the high notes from time to time! A great band which is on stage much better than on their album "Destruction Time Again". Check them out if you have the possibility! Great show!!
SLEEPY TIME GORILLA MUSEUM (USA) was the next band. I never heard of the band before and I wish I will never hear from them in the future also! This is a bunch of posers/gays that really couldnt play at all. Visually it looked like a mix of Marilyn Manson & In Extremo but musically STGM is even much worse than these bands (is that possible: YES!). This was to my opinion a terrible choice from the Headway organisation and i'm not gonna spent more time in reviewing this crap-band.....
REDEMPTION (USA) was the headliner on saturday and it was a very nice headliner. Nice? Yes; musically its more than okay but singer Ray Alders (also in Fates Warning) voice wasnt that good today and after a few songs I even got bored by his voice. He was also sometimes singing out of tune. Pity I never saw the band with former singer Rick Mythiasin (Steel Prophet/Mythiasin) because that would have tunred out much better. The band had a lot of variety in their songs; pity also about the boring keyboard solo. After all a worthy headliner on saturday but they couldnt be touched by friday's headliner Zero Hour!!
Conclusion: Headway was again a very enjoyable, good organised festival with some great, some moderate but also some terible bands. It was a shame the audience didnt show up in great numbers because Headway deserves it!! I will be there again next year! Thats for sure!!
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RUSTY CAGE FESTIVAL (16 March 2007)
Dynamo, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Today Rusty Cage Records, a new label from The Netherlands, had their first anniversary and the label wanted to celebrate this with a few of their bands. The label re-released several old albums from Dutch metalbands but also a few newcoming bands.
Funny was the fact that the opening "band" PAUL CLARK was the only not-dutch act (he is from the UK) on the bill. Acording to the Dynamo website the festival should start about 4 o'clock PM. Because we (Mario & Pim from Digital Steel) didnt want to miss any band we arrived on time. Pity because when the festival finally started it was more than an hour later as announced!!
PAUL CLARK didnt show up with a supportband but used a tape. It all turned out to be a kind of guitarclinic. Paul plays classic guitar in the vein of guitargods like Steve Vai & Vinnie Moore. He played a lot of tunes from his "Shredz at an Exhibition" album. For an opening band the venue was filled really well. Pity for Paul that the sound, as usual in Dynamo, wasnt that good. Probably its even with 1 guitarplayer & 1 tape impossible to create a good sound in Dynamo....the sound was reverberating to much.....
Next band on the bill was one of todays reunions and to me it was already the best band of the day: DEFENDER! I have seen the bands several times in the past as support for Toxik and so I was curious about their performance today. The band played a good set and performed in various line-ups during the gig. Defender still play their typical smooth kind of metal which suited me very well; especially because their singer still could hit the high notes! They also played the same covers as they did in their earlier years; 'Metal Church' (Metal Church) & 'Allison Hell' (Annihilator). Because Defender had a very reasonable sound; they made me long for the early days; great performance!
LWS INC. (Lunatics Without Skateboards) was the next (reunion) band on the bill and I didnt see them for nearly 17 years now! In the beginning the sound quality was good but after a few songs it got from bad to worse. Musically LWS was (and still is) a good band but with a crappy sound like today they couldnt impress me the way I was hoping for. Also strange that they didnt throw the drunken stagedivers off stage but that had probably to do with the organisation because the band wasnt glad with that either.
NON DIVINE is one of the new metalbands from The Netherlands which Rusty Cage signed lately. Non Divine won the 2005 Metal Bash Competition but why?? Thats a question for me? Me, as initiator & webmaster for MMM, could not enjoy this kind of metal. To me it sounded as a mix of later Metallica but than with some grunge elements in it; or better said; not my piece of cake!! Funny to see that I was not the only one who was ignoring the band because most of the visitors left the hall and went outside. Moderate band and moderate performance.
JEWEL was also one of the (reunion) bands I went to the festival; they have always been a real party band and I was very curious about their appearance today. Musically it all sounded good; just like in the early days. Still I could notice that the band wasnt that fanatic anymore like in their old days. Years ago singer Rick Ambrosius was always joking & climbing on bars, tables et al but I think they where to old for that :)
But what am I complaining; i'm not stage-diving anymore either these days, hahahaha. Good performance but again; pity of the moderate sound!
CYPHER was the latest band of the evening and it was a bit weird band in todays line-up. The band plays melodic deathmetal that remind me to The Haunted. The music of the band was, just like with Non Divine, not appreciated by the older audience. Because the time shedule didnt left any time space for a diner break; we decided to knock off after a couple of songs. Nice band but not playing for the right audience today!
Overall it was a very nice festival; some good bands from the earlier days and some moderate "new" bands. The audience was great; lots of memories came back when speaking to people I havent seen on concerts for a long time in combination with the 3 reunion bands! Unfortunately the sound quality was bad by most of the bands and I recommend Rusty Cage to search for another location for the next edition (hope this will come)!
Thanks to Rusty Cage for inviting me to the festival; hope that from now on they will also send me all their releases for reviewing on MMM (dropping a hint).......
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KREATOR, CELTIC FROST, LEGION OF THE DAMNED, WATAIN (11 March 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
Yep Finally! It was time again for an evening of Thrashing at 013! Because it's becoming routine that bands play half an hour earlier at 013 so I made sure I was right on time. The first band WATAIN was just starting. Watain comes from Sweden and plays Oldschool Scandinavian Blackmetal like it was meant to be in the early 90’s.
The second band was the Dutch band LEGION OF THE DAMNED, their band name is changed from Occult to Legion Of The Damned and they still play great oldschool thrash with some modern influences. They played songs like ‘Son Of The Jackal and title song ‘Legion Of The Damned’. Too bad they were playing at a too big stage with no background at all. But what am I complaining ? The gig was great!
The Swiss CELTIC FORST was up next, to me personally it was very disappointing. To me the show in 2006 at ‘Biebob Vosselaar’ Belgium was way better. Celtic Frost shouldn’t be playing at such a big hall but in a small underground club! But anyway let’s talk about the musical performances of the gig. Celtic Frost’s bassplayer “Martin Eric Ain” was talking about too much bullshit like religion and death.. that kind of negative bullshit. They played “Circle Of The Tyrants” too early at the set, stupid move I think, you should play such a classic as last. Ofcourse the band played more classics like: “Dethroned Emperor" and “Into The Crypts Of Ravs”. But that was the only cool thing about this gig. One very good thing: this gig had the best sound of all the bands this evening.
KREATOR was the headliner today and played new songs like: “Violent Revolution, Reconquering The Throne, Enemy Of God and Suicide Terrorist” but also old classics afcourse like: “People Of The Lie”, “Europe After The Rain”, “Extreme Aggression”, “Betrayer” and the medley “Flag Of Tormentor”(Medley of the 2 old classics of the first record). You can already guess that an thrashing evening like this is really great! Kreator played fast, furious & aggresive, totally metal like it was meant to be many many years ago ! Real Thrash Metal deep from the heart ! This gig had just a couple of downpoints (for example; 2 agressive skinheads in the pit) but overall it was quite a good show. Kreator was absolute the best band of the evening !!!
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THRASH 'TILLBURG FEST (18 February 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
A whole weekend of metal takes it toll, so at the moment of writing i'm unbelievably
tired. Too bad I missed the first band of the evening because of the local
carnival and a little problems with the guest list.
This cool thrash festival was organised by local thrasher Tjerk ( Outburst/
Loudnoise ) and has almost the same name as the festival me and Mario
organise ("Tilburg Headbangers Fest"). Thrash Tilburg Fest was taking place
in the small hall of the 013 venue and there was not that much audience. Probably
it was because of the local carnival.
The first band I saw was the new Gothenburg-sounding thrashmetalband THE NEW DOMINION from Tilburg with Stip (Flesh Made Sin) at bass guitar. The music sounds a bit like bands like The Haunted and
In Flames.
The second band was the British EVILE; they played good 80's
thrashmetal like (old) Metallica, Slayer, Exodus and Evil Dead. Evile has a great
singer with vocals that sound a bit like 'Tom Araya' (Slayer) and 'Joey
Belladona' (Anthrax). The band sounded great, great licks and fast drums,
like thrashmetal was meant to be!
The third band of this afternoon was the local thrash band FLESH MADE SIN; these guys played (like usual) really
great! They played their most well known songs ('Lustfull Killing',
'Tormentor' and 'Descending Life') but also some songs of their upcoming new
album and a Slayer cover "Necrophiliac".
The fourth band was the Dutch DEAD HEAD.
This oldschool Deaththrashers played in the original line up
and played only a few old songs like: 'Kill Division', 'Unholy', 'Cold Being' and
'The Festering'. They sounded okay and for me it was great to see them finally
live onstage.
The last band was the long expected British ONSLAUGHT!
This 80's thrash band reunion was with original members like Nigel Rockett
(guitars) and Steve Grice (drums) return, ably assisted by vocalist Sy
Keeler (who sang on the first two ONSLAUGHT albums, "Power From Hell" and
"The Force"). The band played a lot from 'Power From Hell', 'The Force' and
their 3th album 'In Search Of Sanity' from 1988/89. Songs like: 'Let There
Be Death', 'Metal Forces', 'Shellshock', 'Demoniac', 'Power From Hell' etc.
Onslaught played a fucking great show ! Totally back to the old days with
lots of headbangers, moshers and just one stagediver/crowdsurfer (myself)
haha. It was a much better reunion then their last reunion in 013 Club in
2005. For me the two British bands Evile and Onslaught were the very best
bands of this great festival!
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THERION, GRAVE DIGGER, SABATON (16 February 2007)
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Marco van Empel
SABATON was the first band of the evening. This Swedish heavy/power metal band played very good! I even think it was the best show of the evening. I only own their “Attero Dominatus” CD from 2006 so I only knew the songs: ‘In The Name Of God’ and ‘The Metal Medley’ ( Metal Machine, Metal Crue). I really liked the metal medley because they were singing about all the great bands in the world ! Sabaton has a really good singer and has great musicians. I hope to hear a lot more from this band!
GRAVE DIGGER was the second band on the bill. They looked very true metal and they had a great singer in the name of Chris Boltendahl. It was a pity they only played just a few cool songs (Excalibur, Valhalla and Heavy Metal Breakdown) and that there was not much contact with the audience. Personally I was expecting much more from this old German Power/Heavy Metal band and for me the biggest part of the show for me was not very well. Hopefully they will come back in the future to play a much better show here in The Netherlands.
THERION was headliner of this concert and played a very good show for the fans. I'm not a fan at all but I can say it was not bad ! They got four new singers, one man was really cool to see. The Thor looks like a Snowy Shaw (King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Memento Mori and Notre Damme) + another male vocalist and two ladies. Therion played some own classics ('Nightside Of Eden' and 'To Mega Therion’) but also a very cool Manowar cover from 1984 ('Sign Of The Hammer’). The stage was very cool with lots of candles, gates and cages. But for me the music was still a bit boring and I perform their old black/death metal of the early 90's more than their newer stuff of these days. But that is my opinion and I’m sure that for the most people in the venue it was a very good show. But I am too oldschool for these kind of gothic metal. People who like modern theatre female vocals and lots of tralala rhythms had the night of their life. Oldschool metalheads will say it was pussy metal and I'm definitely one of these people. But to get back to the point, it was a very good show for the fans and I think the most fans were sad at the end of this good gig in 013. Therion is absolute a band for the future !
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2006
ETERNAL ROCK FESTIVAL (7 October 2006)
Hanenhof, Geleen, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Eternal Rock; a new festival in the South of The Netherlands; organised by metal/hardrock fan Ludy. This was the first edition of Eternal Rock which took place at concerthall Hanenhof in Geleen, The Netherlands. A very nice place with an overall good sound during the whole day!
First band PREDATUR from the UK played a very moderate kind of hardrock that couldnt suit me at all. Their musical direction was a mix of Status Quo & Led Zeppelin. Not really my cup of tea and a bad opener (to my opinion). Luckely the rest of the other bands didnt disappoint me at all!
Next band where the dutch newcomers of POWERVICE. The band played as normally a good set. Their Maiden-a-like metal fitted perfect to the taste of most of the festival visitors. Singer Stockie was, again, singing superb and the rest of the band where also taking their job(s) serious. Again a very good show from these guys!!
FREEDOM CALL from Germany was the next band on the bill. The band started with a bad sound quality but after a few lsongs the sound engineer pulled it al equal. The band played Helloween-a-like powermetal but to be honest; not all of the songs could impress me! Another great loss is the fact that the band sounded shabby because they only had one guitarplayer. Conclusion: nice show but i'm convinced that they will sound much better with a second guitarplayer in their ranks!
VENGEANCEdoesnt need any introduction. This band reunited last year, again, around frontman Leon Goewie. Singer Leon is still the eye-catcher of the band. On stage this guy totally gets loose and opens his box of tricks. Lots of jokes and tricks are his trademark. The band played a lot of songs from their old repertoire but also a few songs from their latest album "Back in the Ring". Vengeance was suited with a good sound and the band showed that they are still one of the leading live bands in The Netherlands. Good performance!! As a bonus the band played the Rose Tattoo cover "Bad boy for Love".
One of my alltime fav. bands headlined this edition of Eternal Rock: Y & T. The band had an awesome sound and they played a special set because the show was recorded for a possible DVD. Most of their classic songs where played; 'Hang 'm High', Lipstick and Leather', 'Keep om Runing', 'Dirty Girl', 'Mean Streak', 'Barroom Boogie', 'Winds of Change', 'Eyes of a Stranger', 'Hurricane', 'Rescue Me'...and lots of other songs.
Frontman Dave Meniketti is still singing great after all these years. The music of Y&T is in my opinion ageless. Awesome show from this great band!! Ludy: You did a hell of a job!! Thanx for inviting me to ER. Next year I will be there again!!
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TILBURG HEADBANGERS FEST (30 September 2006)
Cafe Extase, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Review by Kees Schijven
As I arrived too late, I missed the first two bands (CEREMONY OF OPPOSITES and CHAINSAW) unfortunately, from what I heard Chainsaw had a real good live performance so I'm sorry I missed that. The atmosphere was great, and the weather too, so a lot of bangers were outside on the terrace when I got there, but also in the venue there was a crowd, so it must have been nearly sold out I guess. As I didn't know most of the bands, I was curious what to expect and was going to be surprised by some bands as I found out.
But one band I did wanna see for sure was FORETOLD, after I reviewed their CD 'Factor' for Mario's Metal Mania (see Archive CD/DVD Reviews), I was anxious to see them perform live. When I got inside the venue they had already started, and were playing 'I am the way' which sounded very brutal! They had a real good sound, and played very thight, and William's throat sounded awesome, one of the best dutch grunters if you ask me. They played a lot of songs from their CD, and did a good job too, so for me this performance was brutal perfection.
Next up was METHUSALEM from Friesland, this was really a surprise for me as I didn't knew them, they play real heavy metal in an old school way. Their singer sounded like Rob Halford himself in his better days, and is a great frontman, although I later on heard this was his goodbye gig. They really got the crowd going, this band should have been higher on the bill if you ask me, Heavy Metal!!
RED DRAGON played together for the first time in 25 years, in their hometown. A lot of family and friends were there to see them after all that time, which was a nice sight to watch. The venue was packed, and they got the crowd wild and going. Although their kind of metal sounded a bit out of date, nobody seemed to care, least of all themselves, the band had lots of fun playing and it showed! This band got the most response of the day if you ask me. Their music sounded like old Bodine, Picture and Vengeance, so real recognizable dutch hardrock/metal sound.
After the diner break it was time for MARTYR to hit the stage. I only knew their name, but never heard their music, but it rocked! They also have a great (wet) show/frontman who got the place going. The guys played full energy and fanatic as hell, which the crowd picked up from them as well as they went wild. They seem to play a lot lately since their reunion a few years back, and it showed, a well oiled machine!
Next up was the only foreign band on the bill, MYSTERY BLUE from France, who play true 80's heavy metal. Their sound is like Saxon or Priest with female vocals, and this makes it an unique and surprisingly well combination which sounds killer! Not many people knew this band, but after just a few songs it sounded so familiar as if it was back in the 80's, everybody banging their heads off, great! This was an excellent choice for this festival, well done…
Headliner were dutch Celtic Frost, PENTACLE, around for over a decade, and still going strong. They played as if their lives depended on it, real energetic performance which got the crowd going wild again.
This was a true headliner for this edition of THF, which had a great true metal atmosphere, positive and friendly like it should be. Hopefully the following editions of THF will be just as good, or better, thanx to Mario and Marco for this! Keep up the good work…
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SWORDBROTHERS FESTIVAL (16 September 2006)
Club Juz, Andernach, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
Swordbrothers, again an underground festival in (offcourse) Germany! This was the 4th edition of Swordbrothers but it was my personal debut on this festival. Well again I was positive surprised!! The festival is organised in a very nice club just outside the borders of Andernach, a small village nearby Koblenz. It's an one-day festival which is organised by Volker Raab (who also works for Blue Steel Agency, an European truemetal booking office)
The weather is already great at the moment we arrive and a lot of people are enjoying this outside of the club. After a short conversation with organiser Volker, we hear the first notes of the opening band:
PHENIX from France. I was curious about this band after listening to their latest album "Wings of Fire". Phenix plays powermetal and the band is blessed with a very good singer who easily hits the highest notes and thats for me the most important element in a good metalband! The band is also blessed with a good sound and thats remarkable for an opening band! Musically its not sounding all to original but who cares if its performed this way? Not me! Besides of their own repertoire the band also plays a Deep Purple cover "Speed King". Good show!
INFLUENCE from my homeland The Netherlands was the next band on the bill and it was my first acquaintance with these guys on stage. They already delivered a few very nice albums (he guys, i'm still waiting for a copy of your latest album "House of Silhouettes")! According to the bands website it was also the last show with singer Bas Assenbroek. This is a pitty because this band has got everything to become great!! Great musicians, great songs (with a very high Iron Maiden level) and a very sympathic superb singer!! Prove for that was the superb coverversion of Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law". Guys, my advice: dont quit!!! Great show!
STORMRIDER from Germany was the next band; musically it all sounded okay but because of the very moderate & boring singer I left the club for a diner break.
Right on time I returned to see RAVAGE from the USA. Musically a lot better than Stormrider but the band also had the same problem as their predecessor on the bill; a very moderate singer. Pitty again because musically they reminded me to a lot of 80's US-metal bands. With this kind of metal you really need a singer with high pitching vocals and that was the only thing that failed with Ravage! My advice; drop the singer guys; you wont regret it!!
RAM was the next band according the running order but they didnt arrive on time so SOLEMNITY took their place. I only knew the band by name. Because of a small diner/beer break I didnt see the whole show but what i saw & heard didnt disappoint me at all!! The band had a very nice show with nearly all the bandmembers dressed as monks and after a few songs a half-naked girl came on/off stage to perform a rite of communion. It was funny to see how the crowd reacted and showed up to take some photographs from the girls white boobies, hahaha. Offcourse; I was one of them :) The music of Solemnity has a lot of doom influences and I was positive surprised by these guys (and girls).....
Meanwhile RAM from Sweden arrived. To be honest; I didnt expect much from this band after their moderate shows at KIT & HOA. Both times they couldnt impress me at all. Well time changes (gladly) and I have to admit that musically/technically the band has grown a lot! I really liked Ram this time and i'm even looking out to see them again soon!! Great show & performance!!
Most important band for me to travel to Germany was US-cultmetal band DEADLY BLESSING. From the first notes & screams I was blown away!! Frontman Ski is one of the best metalsingers in the world and its a joy to see/hear how easily he hits the extreme high notes! This is METAL!!! This is the kind of metal I live for! Superb performance and again (after their KIT show last year) I got in ecstasy! Hope to see these guys very, very soon again!! This was for me personally THE headliner of the festival! Deadly Blessing came, saw & conquered!! They didnt even need to play Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" to convince me......
ATTACKER (also from the USA) was the real headliner and its always a pleasure to see these guys live. This was already the 5th time I saw the band during the last 2 years and again it suited me well. Singer Bob's voice was a bit raw tonight and sometimes he (again) remembered me to Udo Dirkschneider (he's also sounding on some of their songs on the latest 2 albums). Nevertheless it was a great pleasure to see/hear & meet these spontaneous guys and i'm sure I will see them more the next years because the band is very popular in the undergound scene! Good show!
After a day full of great metal, good beer/food & a great audience I left the club during the Attacker gig to have a nap outside in the grass border..... When my "friends" woke me up it was time to jump in the taxi and remember Swordbrothers as a very good organised & friendly festival. Special thanx to Volker Raab; you rule!! Next year we will be there again; thats for sure!!
Already confirmed for the April 2007 edition: EMERALD (NL), DESPERATION (B), IGNITOR (USA) VALKYRIES CRY (KANADA), DÉJÀ VU (D), ARCTIC FLAME (USA) & POWERVICE (NL)
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HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR FESTIVAL (14 & 15 July 2006)
Brande-Hörnerkirchen, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
HOA, finally!!!!! I was looking out for this garden festival already when last years edition wasnt even finished!! This was the third time for me to visit this superb festival which is organised for real heavy metal fans BY real heavy metal fans!! The intention of the festival is quite unique. Even if there are playing more than 20 bands from all over the world, the festival is always breathing an underground feeling that I never felt on any festival before! Pity we had to miss the warm-up show on thursday with MASTER, VIRON, SATAN, OVERDRIVE & METAL LAW. On Friday Pim (www.digital-steel.com) and I drove to Brande Hornerkirchen (nearby Hamburg) to join the most enjoyable metal audience in the world. As always Belgium metal-cop Rico (www.hellspawn.be) & his lovely wife Peggy visited the festival. This year they where joined by stand-up comedian Jorith (a.k.a. Tiger) who entertained us a lot during these days!!
DAY 1
Because we had to search a while for our hotel, we missed a part of the first band
IVORY TOWER. The few songs we heard from this German band sounded good and the band left a professional impression to me. I already knew that the band had some good musicians in their ranks because some of them played on the live album of Josh Kramer (of Saint) and that album also kicks some serious ass!! Nice band!
Next band was our national Dutch pride; POWERVICE!! The band played, again, an incredible show with a leading part for singer Stockie! This guy has an un-dutch throat of which a lot of bands in Holland (and also outside of Holland) will be jealous! Their maiden-a-like metal suited the audience very well. Powervice was blessed with a great sound and played a great set with songs like; 'Behold the hand of Glory', 'The end is coming', 'Nightstalker' and a lot of other songs. I'm curious how long this band will survive into the metal scene because a few of the bandmembers have an extreme way of living (you know who you are guys!).
ORDER OF NINE was one of the bands I was really looking out for. Their progressive kind of US-metal suited me well on their debut album "Season of Reign". The only complain I had about the album was their moderate singer. Well, on stage the band had the same problem. The singer was performing very modest and the band couldnt enthrall me for the whole set. Also on sunday, when the band was playing the afterparty in Hamburg; I was bored by the singers voice. Musically it all sounds okay, so guys; you know what to do!!
SHEAVY from Canada played a kind of stoner rock. I dont like this kind of metal at all so its impossible for me to review this kind of bands. The band was blessed with a great sound and thats the only positive thing I have to say about them.
Next on the bill was, again, a band from my homeland; MARTYR. I did see the band a while ago during their KIT warm up show and they impressed me a lot that time! This time the band was also playing very well and fanatic! Martyr had another singer this time than they had during their KIT performance. Someone told me that this was their original singer but I cant confirm this because I only knew the band by name before their KIT show. The band wasnt playing that good as they did at KIT but I still had a hell of a time!!
Because i'm fully addicted to US-metal; ICARUS WITCH was on my wish-list too. Their latest album disappointed me a bit, especially after their superb EP. Live the band was great and especially the singer was awesome! Rob (Metal Gay) Halford should have got a spontaneous erection when he had heard the coverversion of "The Ripper". Great band; US-metal at its best!!!
Everybody knows that when you drink a lot of alcohol; you also have to eat regularly. Well, KORPIKLAANI was the perfekt band for me to visit the hot dog & steak stand…….
After the diner break we went back to see German cult lady Sabina Classen and her band HOLY MOSES. It suited me to see how popular this band still is in Germany. The band played as tight as a chicken's (Sabina's ???) ass and had a great sound. I tried to get nearby the stage to take some pictures but I couldnt manage it to enter the "mosh"pit! Good show!
As "headliner" for the first day, the organisation booked an Iron Maiden coverband named POWERSLAVE. After the Ross the Boss/ Manowar farce at last years KIT I was curious about this coverband. Well, they didnt disappoint me at all. Their singer even reminded me several times to Bruce Dickinson (and thats a compliment). The band played Iron Maiden songs from all their albums and did it damn good! Good idea to book a band like these on festivals as curfew! Every drunken headbanger still can sing all the Iron Maiden classic songs.
DAY2
After a quick breakfast we had to hurry up for day 2 of the festival.....
Opener TALES OF HORROR was already blessed with a good sound quality and their kind of heavy metal suited me. Pity that their singer couldnt hit the higher notes but after all this was a very nice gig!
CHAIN REACTION from Germany where the winning band of this years metal contest "Metal Battle". Every year the winning team gets a spot on the Headbangers Open Air festival. Personally they couldnt impress me for one second. The band was musically very moderate and the female singer was even worse!! If they where the winning band; how bad are the other bands that battled during the contest??
TRINAKRIUS was called a doom metalband by a lot of people but personally I dont think they belong to this catagory. The band played a lot of up-tempo songs, had a good singer & good musicians.
This was a very positive surprise to me!!
MILES BEYOND already took me by surprise with their great debut album last year, so I was very curious about these guys. Well, again, a great band from the USA!! Miles Beyond came, saw & conquered (when its up to me)! On stage the band is even much better than on CD. Also their afterparty gig at the Ballroom in Hamburg on Sunday blew me away! Awesome performance with great musicianship, superb singer & great sound. If you ever have the chance to see this band live, don't hesitate!! Their maiden-a-like sound will bring you in extase. Miles Beyond was this years winning band for me!
No time to rest because the next USA/Danish metalband jumped on stage: PYRAMAZE. Singer Lance King (also in Avian) has a superb voice and fits perfect to the music of this Danish band. The band isnt that popular by most of the HOA visitors but that has to do with their progressive kind of metal I suppose…….. Most of the visitors are true metal warriors and probably dont know how to handle this kind of progressive music. After Miles Beyond, again, a highlight for me!!
Because i've seen METAL INQUISITOR
already several times in the past, I planned my diner break during their gig. I like their music very well but I have to admit that it all sounds to standard for me.
After our diner break we had to hurry up again to see the next US-metal band:ULYSSES SIREN. Before HOA I never heard of this band. Its a shame because the band already did exist in the early 80's. The band plays a kind of US-thrashmetal in the vein of bands like; Violence, Exodus & Dark Angel. During their gigs (they also played the afterparty in Hamburg) I got the 80's feeling back again; it felt like I was 20 again (or was it because of the high alcohol level in my body???). A very energetic live band which I hope to see more in the near future! Great performance!!
UK legends PRAYING MANTIS had the luck to have an old Iron Maiden member in their ranks; Dennis Straton. Well, had, because he is not in the band anymore these days. Musically it doenst make any difference; I've seen the band already several years ago but still they cant impress me with their standard NWOBHM. Not my piece of cake……
METAL CHURCH; What to tell about this US band?? They have always been one of my alltime fav. bands in heavy metal. The "new" singer Ronnie Montrose is superb and sounds a lot like David Wayne (R.I.P.) in his real old days. Metal Church have a lot of classic albums and they played a very divers set with songs like: 'A light in the Dark', 'Badlands', 'Ton of Bricks', 'Start the Fire', 'Watch the Children play' (dedicated to David Wayne), 'Mirror of Light', 'The Dark', 'Cradle to the Grave', 'Date with Poverty', 'Gods of Wrath', 'Beyond the Black', 'Metal Church' and the Deep Purple cover 'Highway Star'. The band gave a great performance as usual. Again a great show!
GIRLSCHOOL was the next band to "jump" on stage. Well jump; the two old original members probably already use a rollator to reach the stage (just kiddin'). I've never been such a great Girlschool fan and I think the highlight of the bands career is the cooperation with Lemmy (Motorhead for the newcomers) years & years ago. Probably they have to refresh the line-up once in a while to keep on going….. Not a bad performance at all but not really my style of metal/rock.
Headliner BLITZKRIEG already surprised me a few years ago during their KIT performance. Tonight singer Brian Ross was again singing very good and the band even did a good coverversion of Judas Priest's 'Breaking the Law'. A very nice show and a welcome curfew of the festival!!
This years edition of HOA was the best i've seen till now!! The line-up had a lot of variation and I still am homesick when I think back about the festival.
Thomas, Jurgen & Mac; thanx again for this great festival! I had a hell of a time and I will be back next year; thats for sure!!! Headbangers Open Air rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers; Mario
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KEEP IT TRUE FESTIVAL VI (8 April 2006)
Lauda-Konigshofen, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
POWERVICE from my homeland (The Netherlands) had the honour to open this edition of the Keep it True festival. And they did a hell of a job!!! The band, that only has a 3-track demo released, came-saw & conquered KIT!! The opener 'Hands of Glory' already got a great respons from the audience. Their Maiden-a-like heavy metal fits perfekt to this festival and its incredible to see how easily singer "Stockie" hits the high notes!! This band has the future, especially in countries like Germany where heavy metal never died!!
One of the best openings bands KIT ever had (and i'm not chauvinistic at all!)
I was very curious about WOTAN because the last (and first) time I saw this band was at the KIT warm-up show a few years ago and that time it was totally crap!! Well, the band learned a lot during these years and today they played a very reasonable show and the band was blessed with a good sound!
DARKNESS from Germany did remind me a lot of the older Kreator but not with the musical qualities of them. I liked their show but after a while I got bored and took a diner-break! Not my piece of cake!!
SILVER FIST (formerly known as MURO) from Spain played a set in mostly the Spanish language. The band has a moderate singer and, again, I got bored after a while! I'm not familiar with their (and the older Muro) songs so its difficult to judge these kind of bands. Nice show after all.
AXEHAMMER was one of the most important bands for me to visit KIT. After their legendary "Lord Of The Realm" album the band released a new album last year "Windrider" and that one also kicks some serious ass!! After more than 18 years the band finally played in Europe. Well, because I was so curious about them, the band disappointed me very much!! The singer was complaining all the time about his monitor sound but the biggest problem was the fact that he was singing terrible! Pitty because musically it was okay and the other musicians where doing their jobs great!!
The singer didnt have any radiation at all and on stage he didnt even sound like the guy that is singing on both albums! This was a big disappointment for me!!
GRIM REAPER did never impress me at all. After all these years the band still sounds jocular. Most of the songs are up-tempo which is the only positive thing I can say about this band. Even their singer is moderate! After a few songs it was time for another diner-break!
What a difference with the next band: PARADOX!
The band played a very good set with a lot of classic songs from their first two albums! After Grim Reaper this was a real relief!! Good show!! Great to see this band again after all this years!!
SOLITUDE AETURNUS had to cancel their performance during the 5th edition of KIT last year but this time they finally showed up!! The week before KIT, the band played the Doom Shall Rise festival with the singer of Dantesco because the original frontman had some problems at the border. Well, at KIT they gladly played with their original singer! The band was blessed with a superb sound and it was great to see this band on stage again! Solitude Aeturnus is one of the best Doom metalbands for me and it will be difficult to find another doom metalband of this class for next years edition of KIT! Maybe a reunion of Saint Vitus with singer Scott Reagers??
ROSS THE BOSS?? Ross played together with the German Manowar coverband Men of War. To me this was a farce!! The singer of Men of War could not hit one high note so it was incomprehensible for me that he was the leadsinger of a Manowar coverband; Eric Adams is the most important bandmember of Manowar so you should at least bring a singer who is (nearly) equal !!! Ross the Boss is a nice guitarplayer; nothing more, nothing less but it was scandalous to deceive the crowd with this crap! This was a real non performance…………
EXCITER has always been one of my alltime fav. metalbands and their debut album "Heavy Metal Maniac" is my alltime fav. metal album!! Even with the "new" line-up the band is great and its always a pleasure to see these guys on stage! Last year at the Bang Your Head festival the band disappointed me for the first time but at KIT they stole my metalheart again! Great show!
Only complain is the fact that they (always) play 'Pounding Metal' which is to my opinion the weakest song they ever wrote!! Nevertheless it was great to see/meet these guys again!
Headliner RIOT was also blessed with a very good sound!!! The band played with Holy Mother singer Mike Tirelli and I have to say that it was a plus for the band because Mike Tirelli
is a much better singer than Mike Dimeo
(who was to busy with his other band The Lizards). The band played a very heavy set but I missed a lot of their classic stuff. The band played also a Deep Purple cover 'Burnnn' but I prefer the Glenn Hughes version. Riot was a perfect headliner for the festival and I have to give a compliment to the organization about the overall sound quality during the whole day!!
In November there will be a smaller KIT version but again with some great bands; HEIR APPARENT, FLOTSAM & JETSAM, WOLF, ONSLAUGHT, etc, etc…………
That show is already sold out and i'm glad I already bought a ticket for that edition!! See you all there metalheads!! Oliver & Tarek; thanx again for another great metal weekend!!
When its up to real heavy metal; Germany rules!!!!
Cheers;
Mario |
KEEP IT TRUE WARM-UP SHOW (7 April 2006)
Sporthalle, Dittigheim, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
First band to kick-off for, again, a great metalweekend in Germany was DANTESCO; a heavy/doom metalband from Puerto Rico. Their singer is a yearly visitor of the festival so these guys have their metalheart on the right place! The band played a nice set but I have to admit that the looks of the singer (he reminded me of Demis Roussos) where more impressive than his sometimes boring voice. Nice opener after all.
SEVEN WITCHES frontman Jack Frost has the capability to engage a lot of great singers during the career of his band. After Bobby Lucas (now in Overlorde), Wade Black (ex-Crimson Glory, now in Leatherwolf), James Rivera (Helstar, Destiny's End, etc.) he now has another giant ensnared: Allan Tecchio (Hades, ex- Watchtower, etc). Funny is that every time I see Seven Witches, the singers are the most important members of the band. Founder Jack Frost on the contrary is a very, very moderate guitarplayer. Allan Tecchio was, again, after all these years singing awesome but personally I think he does not fit in the kind of metal Seven Witches make.
Older songs like ' Metal Tyrants' and ' Exiled & Infinity" didnt sound that good with his voice. The Judas Priest cover 'Victim of Changes' on the other hand blew everything down!! Rob Halford (the metal gay) should be jealous of him!! Good show but I prefer Allan Tecchio during his Watchtower, Hades & Power period!
DRIFTER from Switzerland didnt play anymore in Germany for more than 12 years. Well, when its up to me (and a lot of other visitors I spoke) they should stay away again for at least 12 years! Totally crap, this band was really boring!!
ASSASSIN played a very nice set. The band was very fanatic on stage and the audience liked it very much. They have a moderate singer in their ranks but when you play a lot of old classics; nobody complains!
After the collapse of Drifter it was good to see/hear this band. Nice show!
Headliner DEMON (who was doing a tour these days with Seven Witches) played a very reliable show with a good sound but, again, couldnt impress me. I've seen the band a few times before and every time they do disappoint me a bit. With the good sound quality & some classic songs, Demon was quit rightly the headliner of this warm-up show!
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2005
KEEP IT TRUE FESTIVAL (5 November 2005)
Sporthalle, Dittigheim, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
KIT is together with the Headbangers Open Air festival one of the most important festivals to me personally!! I'm not gonna subscribe the great atmosphere and kind hearted audience of this true metal festival because everyone who calls himself a true- metalfan already knows the ambiance of this great festival!
Due to personal circumstances (the birth of my first son 1 week before the festival) I had to miss the warm-up show on Friday and had to drive to the festival on Saturday morning.
When I arrived at the Tauberfrankenhalle, the first band IGNITOR (USA) just finished their gig so I cant review it. According the positive reactions I heard from a lot of people I spoke during the day; this band did a hell of a job and where called the best opening band for KIT ever! Later I had a short conversation with female guitarist Beverley and she told me that they received a lot of positive reactions from the audience also.
First band for me to see was the Maltese doomband FORSAKEN. I already saw this band during the 2004 HOA edition and they impressed me again this time! The band had an untidy sound but showed everything they got. Forsaken plays doommetal in the vein of bands like Candlemass & Solitude Aeturnus and have a good singer in the person of Leo Stivala. They already played a few new songs from their upcoming CD "Dominaeon" Good show!
Next on the bill was the German band STORMWARRIOR who treated us with a portion standard metal. The band also had a very moderate sound but had a very fanatic stage performance. Musically they didnt impress me at all but i'm sure most of the audience loved it!
SKULLVIEW (USA) was the next band and according to a lot of people; this should be THE cultband at this edition of KIT!! Personally i couldnt discover much positive things on their performance; they had a moderate sound, a lot of technical problems and musically a lot of things went wrong. Not to talk about the drunken guitarplayer that smashed his guitar at the end of the show..
Only positive thing to me was their very good singer. Maybe next time better guys!
SLOUGH FEG (USA) had a moderate sound too and the band also have a very standard singer. Musically it all sounds nice and reminds me sometimes to the earlier Iron Maiden days. After half an hour it all began to bore me and it was time for my first diner break…….
INTRUDER (USA) already impressed me during their HOA 2004 appearance and I was very curious about them today! Well, again the band played "as tight as a chicken's ass" and they had a very reasonable sound. Their Bay-Area-a like thrash suits me very well and it was to meet these guys again backstage (together with their lovely ladies). Great performance!!
RUFFIANS (USA) already played several times in Germany but for me it was my first acquaintance with this US-metal band. The band played a strong set and they where blessed with a good sound! Most of the songs are mid-tempo but who cares? I was positive surprised by their performance and i hope to see this band again in the future!!
JAG PANZER (USA) The most important band for me and the only reason i came over to KIT this time!! According to the news on the KIT website; the band would play a special "Ample Destruction" show. There was also a possibility they would record the whole show for a live CD or even a DVD………..
Well, after the show i was a bit disappointed; not in the band but more in the setlist. Most of Jag Panzer's songs are classics but when you expect a full "Ample Destruction" set and you only get 5 songs out of it; you'll understand I was a bit disappointed! And I was not the only one when you read the reactions on the KIT website-guestbook!
Nevertheless, Jag Panzer was, again, superior on stage (as always) and i had a hell of a time with songs like; 'Iron Eagle', 'Black', 'Chain of Command', 'Thane to the Throne', 'Battlezone', 'Hostile', 'License to Kill', 'Warfare', 'The Crucifix' and a few other songs. Singer Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin showed again that he IS the best metalsinger on this earth!! Come back a.s.a.p. guys!!!!!!!!!
RAVEN (UK) I've seen the band several times in the past and personally I prefer to see them ON stage instead of listening to their albums. Raven was the first band that had a real good sound and though the guys are getting older (and fatter), the band is still very fanatic on stage! They played a good set but I have one little complain; on a festival like KIT you should play much more oldies!! Good show from these guys with my personal highlights; 'Rock untill you drop', 'Faster than the speed of light' and 'Dont need your Money'.
VIRGIN STEELE (USA) is a band that never impressed me at all but i have to admit they took their job as headliner of KIT very serious. Nice show, good musicians but also not enough classic evergreens to my opinion.
Conclusion: Most of the bands had a moderate sound and didnt redeem my expectations but there were also, again, some very positive highlights. And personally i think it will be very difficult to overrule KIT II and KIT IV !!!
But in April 2006 i will be there again with bands like: RIOT, EXCITER, SOLITUDE AETURNUS, PARADOX, AXEHAMMER, DARKNESS, SILVER FIST, ROSS THE BOSS (EX-MANOWAR), HIRAX, POWERVICE and a few others.
Thanx again to the organisation (Oliver, Tarek & Jurgen) for inviting me again! See you next time in April!!
Cheers to you;
Mario van Dooren.
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HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR FESTIVAL (8 & 9 July 2005)
Brande-Hörnerkirchen, Germany
Review by Mario van Dooren
HOA, the ultimate festival for the ultimate fan!! Last year i also visited this back/front yard festival and was so impressed about it that it became one of my main festivals to visit this year again! The festival is organised by a German metalhead in his parents garden and it is visited by only real metal lovers! Its impossible to subscribe the impact of this festival if you have never been there!! Organiser Thomas (who's parents live in this house) invited me again and i didnt doubt one second about it!! The festival has a little stage at the end of the drive, a few merchandise stalls in the garage-boxes, 2 beer bars, a few food stalls and a real backstage garden! No, no backstage room, just a pasture. Most of the bands that play this festival (from all over the world) dont get paid for it and most of them have to self finance it!! They sleep in tents in the backgarden. Except for the few headliners; they get paid a bit and can book a hotel if they want. Can you believe this?? This can only be done in the mighty Germany where real metal still lives these days!! Compliments!!!!
DAY 1
MITHRIL
A German band from Kiel that mixes doom & thrashmetal. The band won last years Headbangers Ballroom competition and that was the reason they played HOA. Not really a big opener and musically the band didnt impress me at all! Technically the band still has a lot to learn and after this show i was wondering about the fact that this band won the competition?? What about the level of the other bands that played the competition??
MAVERICK
A band from Japan that plays heavy/speedmetal with a lot of humor. These guys can pull faces!!
Great to see this kind of bands overhere and they did get some good reactions from the crowd. I tried to get in contact with the guys from Maverick, but there English is as bad as my Japanese………
Two days later they also played at the aftershow in the Headbangers Ballroom in Hamburg. Nice band!
BLACK MAJESTY
This Australian band played a more traditional kind of metal that suited me very well!
The band owns a very good singer that reminded me to Ronnie James Dio (even visual). This was for me the first good band and i hope to see these guys more in the future!! They also played the afterparty on Sunday and did a great job overthere too!! Check out this band!!
INNERWISH
Drummer Terry is a good friend of mine and he already told me during the HOA 2004 edition that they would play overhere. Because i love both of their albums (especially the 2nd) i was very curious about their stage performance. Well, these Greek guys didnt disappoint me at all!! Their Jag Panzer / Riot style of music suits me very well and on stage they managed to even surpass this!! Great band, great performance!
NECRODEATH
This Italian band was the most extreme band from this years edition. I know some of their stuff and with ex-Sadist drummer Peso is was very curious about their gig. Well, the more disappointed is was.
The sound was bad and their music didnt impress me at all live on stage. Pitty, maybe next time better. But to be honest; this kind of music does not belong on a festival like HOA.
WEAPON
One of the reunited NWOBHM bands that played this years HOA edition. Everytime HOA has a few of these kind of bands what is admirable. Because of a diner-break i've only seen some of their songs and these songs sounded good!
RAVENSTHORN
This US band only exist for a few years now but they kicked some serious ass overhere!!! Woooww, i was blown away by this great band!! These guys know what US-metal means! Singer Bill has a great voice and the band is playing like we're back in the 80's!! This is the metal i need!!! The frontman was dressed in a dark cape and together with the corpse paint it all looked very funny. And to be honest; he could be an actor too!! Looking back at the whole festival; this was, for me, the winning band!! GREAT!!!
RIVAL
Another US metal band that already played HOA in 2002. In a lot of press-articles the band is described as they are influenced by Omen. Personally i like Rival's music much more!!! The band played a set with lots of fast songs and technically the band can battle with all the other US bands on this years HOA.
Good show!!! On their afterparty gig on Sunday i have only seen a few songs of this guys because of a diner break. Hope to see them again in the future!
HEATHEN
Years ago i've seen this US Bay Area band as support act for Sepultura in my hometown. That time they didnt impress me at all!! This was in 1991 and i have to admit that the band is doing much much better nowadays! The band played a lot of old songs but also a few new songs from their latest "Recovered" CD. The band was great on stage and, again, i had a hell of a time! Great show!!
After this we decided to grab a taxi to our hotel because we had to wake up early for the continuation the day after......
DAY2
We arrived on time to see the second days opening band
CARPEDIEM
This band from Elmshorn, Germany plays progressive powermetal but sounded very original because of their weird frontman. This guy could have been in a punk or hardcore band because of his looks AND his voice!! He has a very raw voice that sounded weird in combination with the progressive music. But it was original!! Nice band, especially as opener for the second day.
MYSTERY BLEU
One of the most important bands for me to visit HOA!! I already reviewed the bands latest album (See Archive Reviews) and so i was very curious about their live-act.
Especially because this French band has a great (female) vocalist (Nathalie). One of the guitarist had a lot of problems with his amplifier but the band was professional enough to go on and utilizes their 45 minutes of playing time. Great performance and what a great voice this frontlady has!! Lots of 'male' singers can kiss her feet!! (but probably they want to kiss other parts of her body, hahahaha).
GUN BARRELL
From Germany is a real party band that reminded me sometimes to the Dutch Vengeance. They own a very good frontman that stirred up the audience very well. I think this band will be doing a lot better at night, in a small bar and with an audience that is ready to party. Today the band played to earlier to attain that!
Nice gig!
MIRROR OF DECEPTION
A German doommetal band that didnt infect me at all. After 2 songs i had the luck to get hungry and so it was time for a diner break! I like only a few doommetal bands but not this one; sorry guys!
GASKIN
Because of my diner break i missed a few songs from this NWOBHM legends. I´ve seen the band already during their 2000 Wacken Open Air gig but they didnt impress me that time. Well, time changes and i liked what i heard/saw this day!! Singer Paul Gaskin has a very clean voice that is not typical for a heavy metal-rock band. Good show!
UNDERCROFT
from Chile played thrash/deathmetal but didnt impress me at all! Their standard kind of Deathmetal sounded not really professional and when you know that Europe has dozen of better bands in this genre you are asking yourself: what the hell are these Chile guys doing overhere??
ALL SOUL'S DAY
Is another doommetal band but this time from Italy. After the collapse of Mirror of Deception it was a relief to see this band! Their music sounded a lot like Candlemass but they have the luck (just like last years Forsaken from Malta) to be blessed with a great singer!! Good show!
WARRANT
I bought the legendary cult EP "First Strike" from this German band years ago and when you're talking about banging your head; this is always the first song that reminds me to this band. I've seen the band in 2000 at Wacken Open Air and i have to admit that todays show wasnt that good as their WOA show. Their singer didnt sound really well and after half of the show it was, again, time to get some cold beers! Nice show
WIZARD
Personally i'm not really a fan of their music but i like the screaming vocals of frontman Sven.
The band plays metal in the vein of bands like Hammerfall and/or Majesty but has the luck to have a great singer, something i miss by the bands mentioned above. Maybe a comparison with Manowar would do well; nice music, nice show, SUPERB singer……
ATTACKER
This is the 3th time within 15 months i've seen this great US metalband and i think they are getting better every time i've seen them. Especially the aftershow on Sunday (my 4th Attacker gig) was superb!! (For a review of that gig; read Pim's review below (source: www.metallive.nl). The band played the complete "Battle at Helm's Deep" album overthere in Hamburg!!!
These guys discovered their popularity in the mighty Germany and i have to admit that i'm very happy with that!! On their latest album "Soul Taker", singer Bob Mitchel is sounding a bit boring but on stage he is singing perfekt!! GREAT band!! The band told me that they will probably play next years Bang Your Head festival in Balingen, Germany (offcourse).
TYRANT'S REIGN
The best band during last years (november) Keep it True festival edition!! Their US-metal suits me very well and this time the band also played some new songs. Tyrant's Reign didnt bring their 2 original guitarplayers with them but brought 1 substitute guitarist that did his job very well!! Singer Randy Barron was not always singing clean and/or high but it was, again, a great show!!!!
DAMIEN THORNE
Another cult US-metalband as headliner on the second day. I have to be honest that i didnt know any of their music but that was not necessary to review this band. The band emerged as a real headliner and its incredible to see how popular these kind of bands are in Germany!! The band also played a few songs during the aftershow on Sunday and i can tell you; they have a 'new' fan!!! Great shows!!!
After the shows we had to hurry up again to go to our hotel because, we as die-hard fans, had to visit the afterparty on Sunday at the Headbangers Ballroom in Hamburg.
Thanx to the mighty Thomas from HOA and Jurgen Hegewald from Hellion Records for making this kind of festivals happen, Pim (from www.metallive.nl) for the aftershow review (see below) and offcourse all the German, Dutch and Belgium (hello Rico & Peggy) fans we partied with!! Hope i will be invited again next year!! METAL RULES!!! GERMANY RULES!!!
Cheers; Mario
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HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR AFTERSHOW (10 July 2005)
Headbangers Ballroom, Hamburg, Germany
Review by Pim Botermans http://www.metallive.nl/
To celebrate the 20th aniversary of "The Battle At Helm's Deep" release ATTACKER took the opportunity to play the entire album at the legendary Headbangers Ballroom located in Hamburg. A day before we saw a devastating gig at the HOA festival so the question is, what can we expect today? In the half filled Headbangers Ballroom the band kicks off with the opening song 'The Hermit'. Out of sheer admiration some fans kneel deep for their hero's and soon the frontrow turns in a headbanging pit. The band plays as tight as a chicken's ass and looks relaxed on stage. Singer Bob Mitchell hits all the high notes and the stagesound is very loud but clear, just the way we like it. Without much introduction the songs 'Disciple', 'Downfall' and 'Slayer's Blade' are played and after the titlesong we can sing along with 'Kick Your Face'. After 'Dance Of The Crazies' the Attacker anthem '(Call On) The Attacker' ends this set and it's clear that Attacker is an excellent and powerfull live band. Last song is 'The End' from "Soultaker" to satisfy the crowd and my remaining words are that we were witness to an extraordinary performance of an extraordinary band. Attacker kicks ass!!!
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BOSPOP (3 July 2005)
Weert, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
My first invitation to a real big festival!!Man, I was so curious about it, especially about the heavy Sunday line-up!! Pitty I couldnt make it to visit the festival on Saturday too, because with bands like Marillion, Uriah Heep, Steve Lukather and even Joe Cocker they had a great line-up on that day also! But looking at my target group, Sunday was the most important day for me.
When i arrived, SQY ROCKING TEAM (formerly Sequoah) already did play but gladly i could see/hear a part of ACTION IN DC.
ACTION IN DC is one of the best coverbands in the world and singer Mario Verhulst has that typical Bon Scott voice. It's always great to see this band play live with hits like: 'Whole lotta Rosie', 'High Voltage', 'Hell aint a bad place to be' and lots of other classic AC/DC songs.
First band for me on the main stage was DRAGONFORCE. I was not familiar with this band but their Helloween-on-speed metal suited me well. The band played mostly fast songs and had a reasonable sound. Guitarist Herman Li is a very good musician and Dragonforce also owns a good frontman.
Some of their songs: 'Valley of the Damned
', Black Winter Night', 'My spirit will go on' (from their latest album).
Good peformance!
WHITE COWBELL OKLAHOMA? I heard a lot of positive things about this Canadian band so i was very curious about them. After watching about 4 or 5 songs of this band i was dripping with perspiration out of the tent. It was so f*ckin hot in there, i couldnt stand it anymore!! Their music also didnt impress me; they make a kind of southern rock & boogie the way ZZ Top already did 70 years ago!! Also the show with some half-naked nurses (ugly as hell, i've seen them close-up backstage) and a guy chopping a Winnie the Pooh bear with a chainsaw looked very childish. Not my kind of music/entertainment.
On the mainstage IN EXTREMO also tried to entertain the big audience and they DID it with their folkish-metal with a lot of Rammstein elements. The band has a great show on stage and it all looks/sounds very professional. Not really my kind of music but it is always good for the variation to add these kind of bands to a festival!
Some of their songs: 'Wind', 'Santa Maria', 'Rasend Herz'.
Mainwhile MASTODON was already playing in the tent stage. I was not familiar with this band also but they DID impress me with their show. The band plays a mix of Thrash- and Deathmetal and they did remind me to bands like The Crown and Hatesphere. Mastodon was suited with a great sound and they had an energetic stage performance. The moshpit in the frontrow proved their popularity! Next time they tour the club-circuit, i will be there!!!
MASTERPLAN; one of the most important bands for me to visit Bospop!! I'm a huge Jorn Lande fan for years now and that only became bigger after I met him backstage later that evening (Suzanne Smaling did an interview with him for MMM, read it!). The band had a moderate sound but did perform very well that evening. They played nearly the same set as they did during their latest tour with songs like: 'Kind Hearted Light', 'I'm not Afraid', 'Heroes of the new World' (Helloween-a-like song), 'Enligthen Me', 'Pathfinder', 'Let the spirit never die' and also their latest single 'Back from my life'. Jorn's voice was sounding much better than during their latest tour, so I had a hell of a time!!
In the tentstage OVERKILL already started, so i had to hurry up to see one of my alltime fav. bands overthere! The band played an energetic show (as always) but had the bad luck to have some problems with the snare-drum and later with Bobby Blitz microphone. During these problems, stage-animal Bobby Blitz entertaint the audience with the few dutch words he learned from his girlfriend/wife. Except for the singalong tune 'In Union we Stand', the band played a great setlist with songs like; 'Rotten to the Core', 'Hello from the Gutter', 'Necroshine', 'Elimination', "Fuck You' and also a new song "Relish the Old School'. The band played this show with only 1 guitarplayer but with a frontman like Bobby, you didnt even miss it!! Great show!
WITHIN TEMPTATION; what to tell about this band that isnt told before?? The band is wellknown for their hits and their great live-performances. Singer Sharon den Adel was singing good this time (during their Pinkpop gig a few months ago she was sometimes singing out of tune). The band has build a great stage performance during all these tours and festivals and their was nothing this time to complain about!! All their hits where played; 'Mother Earth', 'See who i am', 'Stand my Ground', 'Ice Queen' and also the Kate Bush cover 'Running up that Hill'. The only little complain about Within Temptation in general is the fact that they dont play any old stuff from their earlier days anymore! Pitty.
Because of a diner-break and a backstage visit i missed MY DYING BRIDE. Sorry guys, next time i will be there again!
Right on time i arrived from the backstage area to see one of my alltime fav. rockbands Y&T. The band reunited a couple of years ago and during that time i've seen the band several times.
Personally, it's one of the best reunions during the last years and all the shows i've seen the band; they Rock like they did in their younger years!! Dave Meniketti is a superb singer/guitarplayer and bassplayer Phil Kennemore is still acting like a beast on stage! The band also has the luck to have lots of classic songs and they now damn good which ones; 'Open Fire', 'Straight through the Heart', 'Dirty Girl', 'Winds of Change', 'Squeeze' (with Phil Kennemore on vocals), 'Recue Me', 'Meanstreak', 'Forever' and the alltime classic 'I believe in You'.
They also played a few less interesting songs (like for example: 'Summertime Girls').
Again a great show from these guys and it was rightly the organisation put the band so high on the bill!!
Pitty that the stage announcer didnt know the band and introduced them as Yesterday and Tomorrow…….(or maybe he was just a bit drunk??)
PORCUPINE TREE; personally its difficult to review this band; i'm not familiar with their progressive sound and singer Steve Wilson has a typical voice that does not suit me at all. It catches me that this band is so popular, maybe i first have to listen to some of their stuff and visit another show of these UK band.
IRON MAIDEN; I'm a big fan from nearly the beginning of this band and i've seen the band already during their 'Piece of Mind" tour in 1983. Well, the band played only songs from their first 4 releases, so they nearly played the same set, they did in 1983!!!
I didnt know this before, so i was very pleased with it! Technically; 'Powerslave' is my fav. Maiden album but i'm not complaining at all!! With songs like; 'Murder in the Rue Morgue', 'Trooper', 'Remember Tomorrow', 'Where Eagles Dare', 'Run to the Hills', 'Revelations', 'Wrathchild', 'Die with your Boots on', 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Number of the Beast', 'Hallowed be thy Name', 'Iron Maiden' (with a big Eddie head behind the drumkit), 'Running Free', 'Drifter' (with the 4 meter tall walking Eddie), 'Sanctuary' and a few other songs, the band played a great set!!
The band played as tight as a duck's ass (a Dutch phrase) and, again, had a great visual show!! Bruce Dickinson is one of the best frontman for years now and i hope Maiden will go on for years too!!!
Bospop couldnt pick up a better headliner to celebrate this 25th edition!!!! I really had a superb time and hope that the organisation will invite me again next year!!! Thanx for this wonderfull festival;!! Cheers; Mario |
KEEP IT TRUE WARM-UP SHOW (1 April 2005)
Sporthalle, Dittigheim, Germany
Review by Fleur Jongepier http://www.metallive.nl/
This was already the fourth edition of the German underground festival called Keep It True which is held in Königshofen twice a year. A place where the oldschool metalhead is lost between the thousands of vinyl and where there is generally a lot of enthusiasm. How time flies at KIT. Well, what do you expect with bands like Torch, Overlorde, Thunder Rider or Martyr? Like the last time, it were once again two days of enjoyment and we got the chance to see bands we might never see again. A huge disappointment was the fact that Satan got cancelled because the bassist apparently fell of the stage the night before. Anyhow, as a result Overlorde got the chance to extend their setlist and After All came from Belgium to play a few songs. In short, we had nothing to complain about and the upcoming 6 months will take ages for sure!
It all started on Friday, April first, in a hall close by where the preparty would take place. The first band of the night was LANFEAR.
This German band was still soundchecking when we entered the hall and from hearing they seemed to have an acceptable sound. A little less than half an hour later when the band is starting their set, the sound suddenly changed to a mess. The drummer and the keyboard player were hardly hearable, but luckily the guitarist and vocalist didn't have such problems. During their 45-minute taking set Lanfear played a lot of songs from their new album "Another Golden Rage", such as "Another Golden Rage", "The Unretrained", "Shades of Black", "In Silence", "Transmigration" and of course some old songs. The band is quite fanatic and both the vocalist and the guitarist were in great shape. The crowd seems to enjoy it and in spite of their bad sound, Lanfear receives a lot of support from the present people. Lanfear can consider this performance as a nice final rehearsal for their coming tour with Morgana Lefay at the end of April and for the audience this was an entertaining gig from a band that could've given a much better appearance with a decent sound.
MARTYR would give a special show tonight, since this band hasn't been playing for many years and after a couple of failed attempts for reuniongigs it finally worked out for this night. Martyr is the Dutch pride, and the present Dutch visitors made that clear to everyone. Martyr hasn't released any other album ever since their last LP "Darkness At Time's Edge" from 1986 so their setlist consisted only of material from their first two LPs: a bad setlist was therefore impossible. They proved this by kicking off with "Snow And Fire" and subsequently they played one magnificent song after the other such as "Black Sun", "Invisible Touch", or "Darkness At Time's Edge". Yet, the highlight of the night for me was "Speed of Samura" and I don't doubt the fact that many share my opinion on this. Martyr proved to be a band that is still as strong as iron (both literally and figuratively speaking!) with a vocalist that can stillr each the highest notes without any struggle. Apart from that, they managed to produce a decent sound for a hall like this one. Without doubt the best band of the night.
The Italian band ADRAMELCH was the third band that played on the preparty. The year before they played on Headbangers Open Air where they didn't impress me much, although I very much enjoy their album "Irea Melanox". This time, unfortunately, it was the same story. The sound was - especially when you compare it to Martyr - mediocre, even disappointing. On one way or another songs like "Fearful Visions" and "Was Called Empire" tend to turn out very different when played live. On the record these songs sound amazing, it contains a lot of spirit, energy and the cries from Vittorio Ballerio sets your teeth on edge. Nonetheless, all of this is missing during their live show. Possibly Adramelch was overshadowed by the previous impressive performance but in the end, the band themselves is to blame. Maybe a more extended soundcheck could've preventing a disappointment.
SHADOWKEEP was a band that surprised me pleasantly. I didn't know this fresh English band before this performance yet, but they certainly left a significant impact to everyone. They played a considerable share of heavy metal with both new as old influences. At some moments, the band reminds me of the old Fates Warning or Queensryche. Previous members of ShadowKeep have played in bands like Angel Witch and Tygers of Pan Tang so that should give you an idea of the metal that ShadowKeep play. Especially the song "Dark Tower" was very tight, the sound was alright as well, at least it was noticeably better than the prior band. In short, a nice closing of the night. But actually, everything has only just begun…
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KEEP IT TRUE FESTIVAL IV (2 April 2005)
Lauda-Konigshofen, Germany
Review by Fleur Jongepier http://www.metallive.nl/
INSANE was the opener of Keep It True on Saturday. This thrash-band from Italy doesn't sound Italian at all. They play thrash as if it were an extension of "Show No Mercy" from Slayer. Their sound was rather messy, the vocalist was difficult to understand but when it comes to thrash I'm not as concerned as usual. Insane is an energetic band and they play songs which differ from each other and in ym opinion that's an important factor within the thrash genre. Particularly "Evil Is At Hans" was a very good song where Slayer and Exodus were clearly heard. To sum it up, a good opener for KIT.
The day continued with PARAGON, a German band that is grower more popular by the second. I am sickened by the tag of 'melodical power-metal', and luckily Paragon aren't one of those modern power metal bands that are emerging on the metal scene with hundreds at the same time. No, Paragon knows how to combine their powerful modern influences with the old-fashioned speed-metal riffs, nice solo's and vocal parts. Plus, a tight sound and a well-chosen setlist that almost runs through their entire history of 7 albums. They started with "The Legacy" and luckily they played 3 or 4 songs from the album "Law of the Blade" which is my personal favourite. Especially the songs "Across the Wastelands", "Armies of the Tyrant" and "Deathsquad" were the highlights of their performance. The newer songs like "Traitor" and "Impaler" from their last album "Revenge" however, were great as well. Paragon probably has a big future ahead of them, and I wish - especially after attending their concert - for them to receive the credit they deserve.
I expected the next band to play later than 2 in the afternoon, but that's just the way it is. With or without daylight, THUNDER RIDER was one of the main reasons for me to go to KIT. This band from Canada is a very unique band and they hold a special place with their album "Tales of Darkness and Light". They play metal in the vein of the 80s us-metal, but with more special touches like Blackwing (vocalist) playing the flute. Blackwing (like the name of the song) has a warm and exceptional voice. Almost the entire first album was played, "Executioner", "Death To Death" and the encore "Blackwing" gave me chicken pocks. The highlight for me though, was without doubt "For Chirst's Sake" which couldn't take long enough for me. The songs from their follow-up album "Tales of Darkness And Light Chapter II" like the opener "Thy Kingdom Come" and "Heavy Metal Wizard" were amazing as well. Thunder Rider threw themselves entirely into this concert, and I highly pity the fact that this show was only half of the complete set of 90 minutes that they played throughout Germany.
There was only little time to recover from the previous band, because TORCH were shortly on stage. I was looking forward to this Swedish metal band with a lot of curiosity, would they still sound like their albums from the '80s? In 2003 they reunited and that gives us the chance to see them live today in 2005. My fear for a disappointment turned out to be completely unnecessary. Torch played an incredibly tight show in the typical atmosphere of the '80s. Vocalist Dan Dark - who resembles Udo Dirkschneider surprisingly much - has a voice that fits very well with the raw heavy metal that Torch play. The setlist started with the best tracks from their first album, such as "Warlock", "Rage Age" and "Beauty And The Beast". What more do we need, something from their next album? Needless to say, "Electrikiss" and "Thunderstruck" were played as well. Torch's performance went beyond all my expectations. I mean, even "Fireraiser" from their first EP was played! A disappointment? Not even close!
OVERLORDE is a band that gained a lot more - well deserved - attention from the fans and press lately. They just finished a new album called "Return of the Snow Giant" that received outstanding reviews. This band plays power metal from 20 years ago. That's what made this album one of my favourites from last year and I was very much looking forward to their performance at Keep It True. As mentioned before, Overlorde was given more time to play since Satan got cancelled. Their setlist was extended with songs I wouldn't have wanted to miss at any cost. Their sound wasn't bad, but it could've been better. At least, in the first row next to the speakers it was hardly noticed that the volume of the guitar could've been driven up a bit. "Snow Giant" was of course the ultimate song of the night, since it is the song that fits best with Overlorde's energy and riffing. Besides, this song was originally written way back in 1987 so that makes it more special. Actually, as highlights of their set I could name all the tracks because they hardly missed out on anything. Of course, there were some songs that I have to give special notice to, like "Hell Has No Fury", "Metallice Madness", "Mark of the Wolf" and not surprisingly, the matching titled track "Overlorde". One of the last songs "Trapped By Magic" is one of the lesser songs of their album and therefore this song wasn't exceptional live either. But, in the end that's just my opinion. I regretted the fact that their relatively long setlist was over so soon. Hopefully they will visit Europe again sometime soon.
MAJESTY generally plays one of the two times that KIT is held, so that's once a year. So, this time Tarek and the other Majesty members were all present again. Actually there's nothing much to say about this band. They're not surprising but they do provoke singing along with songs like "Keep It True", "Sword and Sorcery" (sometimes sung as "Sauce and Sausages"), "Reign In Glory" and "Heavy Metal Battle Cry". There's a lot of talk about Majesty being a Manowar-clone, but I don't agree entirely. Sure, Manowar is a so-called 'obvious' metal band, with predictable songs (often, anyway) but when it comes to Majesty this is a lot more the case. Majesty is more obvious, more predictable, and catchier. The influences are clear, but does that matter? I don't think so. Majesty remains a good festival band, period.
DEADLY BLESSING already exists around 30 years. They're and American band, but they don't play the typical us-metal. The red line throughout Deadly Blessing is thrash and speed metal combined with extremely high vocals. The setlist mainly consisted of songs from "Ascend From The Cauldron". After the eighties they haven't released anything new, so we got a good share of old heavy metal. The first three songs were immediately the best ones: "Search And Destroy", "Salem's Lot" (my personal favourite) and the staggering "Cry of Medusa". Then of course, "Deliver Us From Evil" and "Deadly Blessing" couldn't be left out. Apart from the setlist being absolutely amazing, the sound was pretty good too! As far as Deadly Blessing is concerned: volume on max overload and fire away! I have to admit, that goes for many bands. But only few bands who've been around for so long can do this again in 2005 with so much class as Deadly Blessing!
COUNT RAVEN, something completely different from the previous band. Count Raven plays traditional doom metal (to my ears, at least). Maybe a bit of a weird choice for KIT? Yes, I must say it is, but doom is a genre you can't get away from anymore these days. "Doom over the world," as Reverrend Bizarre say. If you like the Swedish Trouble, or Saint Vitus and similar bands, you'll probably dig Count Raven as well. Not me though. I adore Black Sabbath, and Count Raven is obviously influenced by them (which doom band isn't?). It's just that Count Raven is a whole lot slower, almost lingering. I prefer more dynamic in a band, and Count Raven clearly lacks that. The good parts was that, every now and then, the vocalist reminded me a bit of Ozzy. So, at least they sound a little like the good part of Black Sabbath. As for me, I prefer a bit more power on a festival like KIT.
Due to Satan's cancellation, the headliner AGENT STEEL was the next band on the billing. These speed metal heroes played the same setlist as the week before on Raise Your Fist. That means, the entire album "Skeptiks Apocalypse" and some other songs were played. Agent Steel remains to be an energetic live-band, again and again. If only the sound weren't so bad… especially the sound of the drums was terrible. It sounded more like a drummer with kitchen tools. A big disappointment, especially if you compare this concert with previous Agent Steel performances. Even the week before, I had no complaints about their sound at all. So maybe it wasn't the band's fault. Anyway, most of the fans either didn't notice or didn't care, because the crowd was incredibly enthusiastic. And in the end, why shouldn't they be? With or without kitchen tools, Agent Steel continues to be Agent Steel, and at any rate: you need to bang your head!
VORTEX was at last the final band of the fourth KIT edition. A better closing band hadn't been possible. Maybe I'm prejudiced, because Vortex finds it home in the Netherlands like I do, but no one can deny that this band put the entire hall in an uproar. Vortex, as usual, come with their familiar masks, cannibal-outfits, a corpse-painted look-a-like vocalist and fireworks. A predictable setlist, but I would blame Vortex if it weren't predictable. It included classics like: "Gotta Get Away", "Open The Gates", "With Witches Help", "Heavy Metal Is Kind" but also "Hammer Of The North" from the last album. On stage it was a real party (everyone backstage was brought on-stage) but also behind the fences it was one big chaos of metal. And that's the way a proper KIT closedown should be.
In short, again few disappointments this year. In the end the sound is only a side issue when the band knows how to keep the crowd amused. The next line-up for the upcoming KIT already looks very promising. My compliments for Oliver who makes it possible for metalheads to go back into the '80s twice a year. That many more KIT's may follow!
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MASTERPLAN, CIRCLE II CIRCLE, ROB ROCK, PURE INC. (28 March 2005)
De Bosuil, Weert, The Netherlands
Review by Mario van Dooren
Already during the first band of the evening it suits me that a lot of people show up for this event. PURE INC. from Switserland opens this evening with a mix of Audioslave-a-like metal. I've already seen this band before when they opened for the Michael Schenker Group (MSG) is Tilburg and they didn't impress me that time at all. Well, to be honest; they didn't impress me this time either! After about half an hour i had enough of this boring band.
ROB ROCK was the second band and he came over to The Netherlands with a totally renewed line-up. Most of the guys in this band also play in NARNIA. When i asked Rob Rock after the show about this line-up, he told me that it had only to do with his financial budget, he couldnt bring his US band with him. Rob Rock has already delivered 2 terrific albums and i did see the band already in 2003 during the Bang Your Head festival where they developed as one of the best bands from the festival! The band played several songs from their first two albums; 'Rock the Earth', 'Eyes of Eternity', etc. and also played an old M.A.R.S. song; 'I'm a Warrior'. Rob Rock also played a few new songs like; 'Slayer of Souls' from their new album "Holy Hell". The band gave an incredible show and Rob was singing his lungs out!! Maybe he should change his name into Rob Metal ( Thanx for the idea Pim!)
Most of the people showed up for ex-SAVATAGE frontman Zak Stevens and his "new" band CIRCLE II CIRCLE. Personally i have never been a huge Savatage fan but what C II C shows this evening suits me well. The only complain about C II C is the fact that most of the songs have the same speed and need some variety. So it was a good choice of Zak to play some Savatage songs also: 'Edge of Thorns' & 'Follow Me'. Good show after all. Zak is a very good singer and a very nice person also (read the interview Suzanne Smaling did with him!)
MASTERPLAN was one the bands that did made me decide to travel to Weert (and Vosselaar, the day after). I'm a huge Jorn Lande fan and i like everything he sings; from his solo-albums, ARK, MILLENNIUM, BEYOND TWILIGHT, etc. The band lately released their second album "Aeronautics" but to be honest i was not familiar with this album during these gigs. The new songs they played did sound even more grown-up than their debut stuff. The band played for 1,5 hour and played songs from both of their albums; 'Enlighten Me', 'Soulburn', 'Kind Hearted Light', 'Heroes', 'Back For My Life', etc, etc. I only have one little complain to their performance; I still have the feeling that Jorn Lande is restraining his voice because i know that he can do a lot better than he did during these shows!! But after all; i had a great day with all these bands and thats why i decided to visit another show of them the day after at Biebob, Vosselaar in Belgium.
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