Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Mehrzweckhalle Debant / Debant (Lienz) / Austria
Concert date: July 18, 2009
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: €15.00 / €18.00
Germany’s Primal Fear are by now a firmly anchored name in heavy metal, one everybody knows. The band was founded in the second half of the nineties as the brainchild of two excellent musicians, singer Ralf Scheppers (ex Gamma Ray, ex Tyrant Pace) and bassist/singer Mat Sinner (Sinner). They carved their way into the hearts of hardcore metal souls above all with the albums Primal Fear (1998), Jaws Of Death (1999), Nuclear Fire (2001), Black Sun (2003) and Devil’s Ground (2004). Thanks to their characteristically raw riffing, the relentless march of the double-bass pedals and Scheppers’ venomous screaming, many see these guys as the German answer to Judas Priest. This year they put out a new studio album, “16.6.” (Frontiers Records, 2009). On this summer’s run of shows, aimed almost exclusively at North and South America, they stopped in Debant, Austria, after Mainz, to present it live to the European public for the second (and last) time.
To make a Primal Fear show an even bigger draw, the organizer of the event known as “Night Of Rock” also brought in the excellent German melodic hard rockers Jaded Heart as support. Jaded Heart formed in 1990, founded by the brothers Michael Bormann, a great singer, and guitarist Dirk Bormann. They were joined right at the start by bassist Michael Müller and former Mad Max drummer Axel Kruse. Their second studio album, “Slaves And Masters” (1996), brought them wider recognition and commercial success, breaking them through especially on the Japanese market and winning over the crowds back home in Germany. Jaded Heart, who are just about to release their new studio album “Perfect Sanity”, turned up in Debant with this lineup: Johan Fahlberg (vocals), Peter Östros (guitar), Michael “Mülli” Müller (bass) and Axel Kruse (drums). No keyboardist Henning Wanner, but more on that later.
The first support act of this year’s Night Of Rock was the locals Mely. They hit the stage just after nine in the evening. They released their fourth studio album, “Portrait Of Porcelan Doll”, this March. Some of you may have seen them at MetalCamp in Tolmin in 2006, and they’ve recently strengthened the lineup with new drummer Hannes Ganeider. This quintet knows what it’s doing. Two guitars, plus keyboards adding interesting touches to a generally dark, hypnotic atmosphere built on a massive wall of riffs, with softer, clean vocals that, as the band’s name already suggests, sound melancholic. More H.I.M. than anything else. So it’s a kind of mix of dark and gothic elements, but without the semitone riffing, so despite the slow rhythmic turns you won’t find anything in Mely that smells of “doom”. No solos. Mely make sure the mood in the air stays high. The band conjured up an excellent sound that highlighted how much the embrace of the riffs matters to their expression. The guys crowned it with a great performance and made full use of the big stage and the hall’s excellent acoustics. Mely stand out from the average Austrian band, most of which chronically lack their own charm and charisma. In a good 50 minutes the band offered a broad repertoire from four studio albums, with the focus on “Portrait Of Porcelan Doll”. A very bold show.
Next up were the classic German hard rockers Jaded Heart. The band kicked up plenty of dust in Germany in the mid-nineties with their second album, “Slaves And Masters” (1996), but today they’re really just scraping by on the edge of recognition. Or at least that’s the feeling when you catch their shows in Italy or Austria. I somehow never manage to see them on stage with keyboardist Henning Wanner, and this time they even played as a stripped-down quartet. Singer Johan Fahlberg explained that Wanner was recently badly injured in a traffic accident, and asked everyone in the hall who had even noticed the band on stage to keep their fingers crossed for the unlucky Wanner, hoping for his speedy recovery.
Playing without keyboards definitely showed. They couldn’t pull off the intros of the songs properly, so they often started tracks abruptly, going straight into the main guitar line. The band delivered a solid sound and showed that in 2009 they still have a bottomless bag of first-rate hard rock energy of genuine German origin, where the word “melodic” is very much at home and very much loved.
Johan occasionally struggled in the highest registers, and in a few spots had to adjust the melody in the verses to get through them. Bassist Michael Muller and guitarist Peter Ostros covered successfully with backing vocals behind Johan, an essential ingredient of the Jaded Heart sound. Even with a solid performance from both of them, the absence of Henning Wanner was still keenly felt here too.
The band fired up the handful of interested people down front with songs from their latest studio album, “Sinister Mind” (2007), from which they breathed out Hero, Justice Is Deserved, Going Under, Sinister Mind and Hellucinate. In between they mixed in mostly single tracks from the second-to-last album, “Helluva Time” (2005), songs with strong, expressive anthemic choruses, which have always been the hallmark of this melodic hard rock band’s songwriting, and a band that has definitely been more than unfairly overlooked. Those were Somewhere, Tomorrow Comes, Shores Of Paradise and Paid My Dues. They also spiced the set with older numbers: Journey Will Never End, from the band’s fifth studio album of the same name (2002), and Feels Like Home from “Trust” (2004).
Despite the total disinterest of the roughly 500 people in the hall, who were busy chatting over a beer at the far end, well away from the stage, Jaded Heart played with real professionalism and cut loose with their repertoire without holding back. Midway through the set they managed to lure a bit more of the crowd up front, but the gap in front of the stage was still definitely too big. Way too big for the quality Jaded Heart offer, in every respect. John Fahlberg (vocals), Axel Kruse (drums), Peter Ostros (guitar) and Michael Muller (bass) showed the toughness of long mileage in the music business. Riding on routine and experience, they gave the vast majority of the audience, who didn’t know the band, a nice chance to take them in all in one go and maybe go check them out on the internet afterwards.
Jaded Heart are about to release a new album, which was originally planned for around the time of the Debant show. The date has been pushed back to this fall. This is an excellent band that could really spread its wings on a bigger stage, with a repertoire of seductive, under-the-skin melodic hard rock anthems that we can hope to hear again soon. Preferably on a headlining tour.
Primal Fear, who don’t need some deep-dive introduction, are still one of the tightest and most coherent heavy metal outfits around, thanks to the firm reins still held with commitment and reliability by the legendary producer, bassist and singer Mat Sinner. Above all, it’s the partnership between Mat Sinner and Ralph Scheppers, one of the finest singers not just in traditional German heavy metal but in heavy metal in general, that you simply can’t imagine the name Primal Fear without.
What hit Jaded Heart, who had to make do as a quartet, also happened to Primal Fear in the run-up to the Debant show, but with a much happier outcome. Guitarist Magnus Karlsson, who had just become a father of twins and, due to exceptional circumstances, had to cancel his Primal Fear appearance in Debant, was replaced by Alex Beyrodt. He’s an outstanding German guitarist who doesn’t hide his Y.J. Malmsteen obsession in his playing (check out his solo project “Voodoo Circle”, and by the way, Beyrodt is already working on material for its follow-up), and you may know him from Sinner and Silent Force. For Primal Fear, Alex Beyrodt is a tried and thoroughly tested name, someone the band can trust completely and always count on. He’s a longtime colleague of Sinner’s, and he also helped Primal Fear out on their tour in October and November 2007, when they were parting ways with former guitarist Tom Naumann. As a curious aside, Beyrodt contributed, as a special guest, most of the guitars on Jaded Heart’s second studio album, “Slaves And Masters” (1996), Primal Fear’s fellow travelers in Debant. Funny how small the world can be, and how some things are fatefully intertwined. After all those credentials, you could say there’d be nothing wrong with Primal Fear if Beyrodt just stayed on as a permanent member. Especially after his stage performance showed how well he gels with the spirit, pulse, energy and stage manifesto of the band.
Primal Fear, who released the album “16.6.” (2009) at the end of May, their second studio album for the renowned Italian label Frontiers Records, kicked off the show in that same style. But after the intro they didn’t go for the “Helloween”-flavored Riding The Eagle, which introduces the “16.6.” record, and opened instead with the much darker but typically “Fear”-style relentless Under The Radar. The mood in the hall wasn’t much different. Except that the Austrian audience came to Primal Fear with even more alcohol fumes under their hats. Most of them were still clinging to their beer, either from a cautious distance, or more or less “staggering” towards a view of what was happening on stage.
Primal Fear are incredible. I’ve been following their shows since 2001, and this band has always been one whose songs gain even more adrenaline on stage, more true metal core, more merciless gnashing of sharpened teeth, more aggression and incredible riff attack. Under the wheels of the extremely precise and thunderous drumming of former Annihilator drummer Randy Black, the knack for shocking the listener comes across in a very vivid way. But none of that would have come to life without Scheppers’ exceptional form. Ralf has always prided himself on being a singer who gets incredible power out of his vocal cords in the highest registers. He doesn’t skip the middle registers like many of the “cheaters” do, but pulls all the power from them and carries it, without losing the tiniest atom, up to extreme heights I’d advise you not to try to reach with your own little voice. In Debant, Scheppers sang magnificently. Not a single slip, with all his force, and as if it were nothing he conquered the nastiest ranges, the kind that would have burned out most of the vocal cords on our planet long ago.
In the first half the band alternated newer songs with classics. The hottest heads completely lost it early on, when the band fired up Battalions Of Hate. Once again the band’s polished stage show hit the spot: the famous side-by-side stand of the guitarists, the guitars pointed at the audience, faces of defiance but at the same time strict concentration on the job.
Primal Fear also worked solo spots into the set. First to face off on stage were Beyrodt and Wolter, who traded a few cross-duels. It soon became clear that Beyrodt is a good notch faster, more elegant and far more versatile as a guitarist. But that takes nothing away from the weight and importance of Wolter’s presence in Primal Fear. In all the songs the two guitarists worked as complete equals, and Beyrodt, drawing on his rich experience and excellent knowledge of the band’s catalog and stage show, kept adding tasteful “retro eighties metal” solos where Karlsson would have soloed, keeping Primal Fear’s compactness and punch at a high level! Later it was Randy Black’s turn, entertaining the crowd with a short drum solo while the rest of the crew knocked back a few refreshing sips of water backstage.
The new material again works great in combination with the older songs. The setlist, given that Primal Fear only swapped the songs from “New Religion” (2007) for songs from “16.6” compared to last year, felt extremely predictable, and you could have guessed most of it right in advance, before the show, in a sequence that wouldn’t have strayed much from what the band then played on stage.
Primal Fear delivered a really excellent show. They won us over with their uncompromising attitude at the Morarock festival in Italy last year too, but this time the show brought a touch of extra intensity. The nuances I’m nitpicking over here really are just nuances, but I’d point out that Beyrodt is truly a caliber of guitarist born for Primal Fear, who settled right into the very pulse of the band. The other factor that adds an extra notch of intensity compared to the Moraro show is that the Debant concert was indoors, in a closed hall with excellent acoustics, where all the building blocks of Primal Fear complemented each other perfectly and magnified each other in a symbiosis of sound, led by the crystal-clear guitar harmonies, the solos and Scheppers’ unique vocal tornado. The sound was mostly excellent throughout the show. There was some trouble at one point when a monitor was acting up on Scheppers, which he answered on stage with two sharp, not exactly gentle kicks at it.
For the encore the guys surprised us with the acoustic Hands Of Time from the new record “16.6”. Scheppers, Sinner and Wolter traded vocals on it, while Beyrodt fired off a few witty “flamenco” flourishes in the transitions. That song, which atmospherically would perhaps have fit better in the middle of the main part of a Primal Fear set, was followed by the “big debtors” from the debut, Running In The Dust and, of course, none other than Chainbreaker. Primal Fear, who once again got a visit from the loyal “Battalions Of Hate” crew from Slovenia, didn’t sit on their hands. Ralf jumped off the stage and pulled the youngest (nine-year-old) member of the crowd up on stage, and the kid sang the entire closing chorus of Chainbreaker alongside Primal Fear. Absolutely right. Bravo to the band and to the little guy, who has already taken his first successful steps in genuine heavy metal footwear at the very dawn of his life.
Primal Fear proved once again that they’re excellent on stage in every way. They don’t stop. Not even in front of a mostly reserved and shy Austrian audience. Let’s be honest, in Austria they’ve never met with much support from the masses. It’s thanks only to the exceptional will and faith of this year’s “Night Of Rock” organizer in Debant, Martin Sander, that the band came to these parts, making the trip easier for potential visitors and fans of the band from Slovenia too. Primal Fear are soon heading across the Atlantic for a US tour. In the fall they return to European stages, with Brainstorm as support. We wish them a safe journey.
But the night wasn’t over after Primal Fear finished. The stage came to life again when the Austrian “Judas Priest tribute” band Painkilla stepped onto it. But it was well, well past one in the morning, so with our batteries drained we slowly “kicked” our way back south.
photos: Robi Lipej
Setlist
PRIMAL FEAR: 1.Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (Intro) 2.Under The Radar 3.Battalions Of Hate 4.Killbound 5.Agent In Black 6.Six Times Dead (16.6) 7.Nuclear Fire 8.Seven Seals 9.Fighting The Darkness 10.Riding The Eagle 11.Final Embrace 12.Metal Is Forever —encore— 13.Hands Of Time 14.Running In The Dust 15.Chainbreaker
Photo gallery
