Bang Your Head!!! Festival (Day One): A Teutonic Onslaught from the Legends of German Metal (2011)
Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Messegelande / Balingen / Germany
Concert date: 14.07.2011
Attendance: 14000
Ticket price: €80 (two-day ticket)
Bang Your Head is one of Germany’s biggest traditional festivals. This year’s edition, the sixteenth in a row, was also the first in a few years that didn’t sell out. The reason? The loyal German crowd turns up “by the truckload,” and the dates clash with Slovenia’s Metal Camp and the Czech Republic’s Masters Of Rock, but that overlap isn’t the main culprit. It’s far more likely that this year’s Bang Your Head!!! simply didn’t deliver lineup names as strong as the last few years did. Still, this is a festival that fills you up with special experiences. It’s one of the best-organized festivals in Europe. The easygoing German crowd really does come to enjoy the music and the traditional rituals and customs the heavy metal universe knows. And let’s be honest, the Germans are metal. Enjoying a festival in Germany? You can’t get much closer to the real, authentic feeling, and once again this year we just couldn’t resist.
HUMAN ZOO:
The first day got down to business bright and early. At exactly ten o’clock the festival officially kicks off, with Balingen locals Human Zoo roaring on stage. They’d jumped onto the bill just two days earlier, after Sweden’s Crash Diet were forced to cancel their Bang Your Head slot at the last minute. Crash Diet bassist Peter London caught a nasty virus and was stuck in bed. So besides BYH!!!, Crash Diet also pulled out of the Burnout festival in Wolfurt, Austria.
Human Zoo loved the situation. They’d released their third studio album “Eyes Of The Stranger” right around the festival, so playing Bang Your Head came at the perfect moment. The sextet, unusual for having a saxophonist in the lineup, opened with vehemence in the spirit of promoting the new record, starting with the song The Answer. These melodic rock guys are seasoned musicians even though the band is relatively young. Nicely tight, well used to stages, with no brakes and not a trace of shyness. The sound was optimal. The guys kept the show going with another new song, Gimme Your Time, fired things up with the anthemic march To The Top, and among the new material they didn’t forget to play the excellent title track Eyes Of The Stranger either. Human Zoo were actually the only melodic rock representatives on the first day. On the second day the Danes Pretty Maids saved the genre’s honor. In short, Human Zoo are a quality band, and fans of this genre should definitely check them out.
PORTRAIT:
Portrait are Swedish revivalists. They resurrect the legacy of the N.W.O.B.H.M., and like to sprinkle in a pinch of Mercyful Fate-style creepiness. The band has existed since 2004 and has just released their new studio album “Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae”. Interestingly, last year at Bang Your Head the Portrait role was filled by their countrymen Enforcer. Both draw inspiration from a similar musical treasure chest, the difference being that Portrait are a bit darker. Of course there are twin guitar harmonies and multi-part solos from two equally skilled guitarists who even use identical guitar “gear.” Melodizing over old-school-built but scorching riffing everywhere. Lead screamer Per Karlsson, carefully and generously smeared with black eyeliner around the eyes and sporting black-lacquered nails, at times looked astonishingly like Ronnie James Dio in his gestures, posture, movement, curly hair and especially the skin-tight leather and high-heeled boots. Swedish musicians are known for strictness, precision, in other words perfectionism. Anyone who came to enjoy the classic sound of days gone by, reborn for new times, was exactly in the right place at the Portrait show. The band burst out with the first song of the new album, Beast Of Fire, and truly raged like fire over the 40 minutes they had.
CRYSTAL VIPER
Next up were Crystal Viper, who come from the industrial surroundings of Katowice, Poland. A band still waiting for a bigger breakthrough in the wider metal world, they already have solid mileage behind them, having played many of the (biggest) festivals at home and abroad. The quartet is the next in a line of bands betting on a female frontwoman, though without extremely high (Nightwish) or deep (Arch Enemy) vocal lines. Crystal Viper boldly attacked the stage and, with the help of the charming Marta Gabriel, quickly started winning the crowd over, especially in the second half of the show, when they slotted in their cover of the Agent of Steel classic Agents of Steel among their own material. The band plays melodic heavy metal that, thanks to its fast tempo and the occasional double bass pedal, at times recalls speed metal roots, while at other moments symphonic touches and epic choruses throw in a few power metal elements. The group’s more traditional sound rested on a lively rhythm machine and melodic guitar phrases, and their greatest strength is the constant tempo changes and cramming several ideas into the songs they play, so the set was varied and pretty damn dynamic. Since the performance itself was on point too, there was no need to worry about the result! The Poles presented their current record “Legends”, released last year on AFM Records, plus a few older tracks like The Last Axeman and the fairy-tale epic Gladiator. A set delivered with balls and style, it pleasantly surprised me, and I hope we’ll hear the name Crystal Viper again in the future.
STORMWARRIOR:
Does anyone still remember them from the 2008 show in Komen, Slovenia, at that edition of the Meta Mania Open Air festival? Back then Stormwarrior were promoting their fourth studio album “Heading Northe”. Three years have passed, and the band has now released a new studio album, “Heathen Warrior”. Stormwarrior increasingly remind me of Running Wild in their fastest days, which luckily were also their best. The quartet doesn’t give up. Stormwarrior, too, are a band with a lot of experience. Take the “cowboy” and bassist Yenz Leonhardtz, a real “jack of all trades” who has played bass in many, many bands and even filled in for Nibbs Carter of Saxon at a few shows on Saxon’s spring tour in March 2010.
Stormwarrior seem more convincing on stage year after year! They play sharp, superbly tight, like a perfectly oiled combination of the delicate cogwheels of a Swiss watch. The quartet looked a little handicapped on such a huge stage, since guitarist Lars Ramcke is also pinned to the vocalist’s position, and they made up for this occasional stiffness by having both guitarists stand “shoulder to shoulder.” The extreme riff-hammering inherited from the first wave of old German-school metal bands like Helloween and Running Wild came alive through the songs Heathen Warrior, The Ride Of Asgard, Fyre And Ice, the obligatory march Iron Prayers, Spikes And Leather, Defenders Of The Metal. Interestingly, bassist Yenz can also take some of the vocal load off Lars, which Stormwarrior put to even better use on the songs from the new album. In Fyre And Ice, for example, the two musicians trade verses. What saves Stormwarrior from typical cliché? Lars’s distinctive vocal, whose “throaty nasal” delivery carries a palpable dose of venom and wickedness. It was an excellent set, noticeably packed with bite, substance, dynamite and exceptional stage dynamics, and with it Stormwarrior left all three previous bands well behind.
LEGION OF THE DAMNED
Two days after their Metal Camp show, Legion of the Damned also stormed Bang Your Head!!!, the most extreme band of this edition if we only count those playing the main stage. Legion of the Damned hail from the land of tulips, which has produced quite a few more extreme bands: Pestilence, Sinister, Asphyx, to name just the most famous. A frontal assault from every side should be spewing energy, which I can hardly say for the Dutchmen’s somewhat sleepy performance. The front line, set a bit back with the three up front, didn’t radiate the aura of occultism, darkness, fear and apocalypse they sing about in their songs. While the stagecraft itself was surprisingly restrained, the musical side was a completely different story. The aggressive cannon blasts on the drum kit from the only original member Erik Fleuren, with the central double-bass boom, dictated a brutal tempo, with the guitar in the verses leaning a bit more thrashy, while the vocals left no room for letting up! Maurice Swinkels’ poisonously deep but cutting growl hit the band’s devotees in the front rows like a fist to the forehead. While the lively guitar riffing suits thrash fans, it’s the express tempo and the vocals that stylistically bring Legion of the Damned close to a thrash/death fusion, even though their musical philosophy isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel. In fifty minutes the foursome walked retrospectively through the five albums released so far, with the most recent, “Descent into Chaos” (2011), leading the way, and the Dutchmen closed a show of mixed feelings with the song Werewolf Corpse.
CRIMSON GLORY
Crimson Glory! One of the pearls, a face-to-face encounter with which is almost like hitting the lottery, was the most exclusive name of this year’s Bang Your Head!!! and as such one of my personal favorites of the festival. During the European club tour in April and May the word had already spread about the cult Americans’ out-of-this-world live form, so before the start I strategically claimed a spot in the front row and surrendered myself to an hour of pure pleasure. With newcomer Todd La Torre at the helm, Crimson Glory spread their wings wide and returned more actively to the middle of the music scene, having finally found the perfect replacement for Midnight, who passed away two years ago from organ failure. By coincidence, the Florida metallers first met La Torre at Midnight’s memorial service, and it was, again by coincidence, Matt LaPorte (Jon Oliva’s Pain), who died just a few months ago, who introduced him to them.
Above the drum riser loomed a backdrop with the cover of the album “Transcendence” (1988), which didn’t quite match the theme of the current tour marking the 25th anniversary of the debut “Crimson Glory” (1986), but still, the futuristic rocket ship from the cover, wrapped in a mystical red-purple-blue combination, stirred strong emotions all by itself right before the show.
The set was opened by Valhalla, which is also the opening track of the band’s debut. Right from the start, a much stronger presence of Jeff Lords’s bass line than on the studio original tore through the ears, and the demanding vocal lines were the first big task La Torre had to tackle. After some initial reserve, the new frontman had a weight lifted off his shoulders over the course of the show, riding the good reception, and started pouring even more oil on the fire. In all of Midnight’s classics La Torre worthily followed in the footsteps of the irreplaceable one, reached for the highest vocal registers and more than successfully handled such demanding songs as Azrael or Queen Of The Masquerade. On top of that, the longtime drummer of local bands has a decent dose of charisma too, so anyone watching the show quickly warms to the rookie in the band. Over the years the quartet gave up performing in masks, but that didn’t dent the band’s authenticity and credibility in today’s times. Crimson Glory strung together classics from the first two albums mentioned above, one after another came Masque of the Red Death, In Dark Places, Where Dragons Rule… They delighted with all their trademarks, we heard the recognizable harmonies in thirds of the original guitar duo Jon Drenning / Ben Jackson, epic atmospheric moments and La Torre’s aforementioned vocal flights into the heights. Between songs the Drenning / La Torre pair did spend too much breath on talking to the crowd, but that didn’t spoil the excellent impression the quintet more than earned with a tight performance. The question of whether Crimson Glory are worth catching on a possible new club tour became pointless after this breathtaking display… a must!
DEATH ANGEL
In the last seven months we’ve been able to see twice in our little country that the legendary Bay Area thrashers Death Angel, after their latest lineup changes at the end of the last decade, have (be)come a real live force that shakes you to the bone and back! It was clear that repeating the crazy atmosphere of the intimate show at Metelkova a few months ago would be hard on a big festival stage, but we still got, rightfully, another pleasant encounter with the very active band of American-Filipino blood.
During a canned intro the musicians took their places on stage and, on the transition into the opening track I Chose The Sky, flew apart in every direction like shrapnel. Death Angel live sound no different from listening at home from your armchair: they go at the listener with unstoppable destructive power and, with quickly infectious riffs, force them to bang their head. As always, the central figure of the action was dreadlocked frontman Mark Osegueda, who had no trouble taking command of the big stage and setting the dance tempo for the nicely packed audience. This year the festival offered a great selection of thrash’s finest, so big support for “Death Angel” at the venue was no surprise. They presented the current album with the title track and the songs Truck and River of Rapture, and slotted in older classics like Seemingly Endless Time and Bored. They stretched the latter into the Black Sabbath cover Heaven and Hell, which brought to mind last year’s edition of the festival, where every single performer played one cover from Dio’s legacy in memory of the late Dio. With all respect to his character and work, after a year in which Dio was spinning at every rocker party, that kind of tribute is a slightly misjudged move. But never mind, the lesson in stage cohesion and aggressive thrash metal with melodic passages in between continued and wrapped up with another old-school classic, The Ultra-Violence. Death Angel fully justified the high expectations before the show, and despite the grueling tour pace they once again squeezed out every last atom of strength and successfully convinced us that their desire to play live is still genuine.
QUIET RIOT
In early 2008, two months after the death of legendary frontman Kevin DuBrow, drummer Frankie Banali posted a lengthy message on Quiet Riot’s official website announcing the band’s irrevocable end, but less than three years later he had to eat his words. Banali, the only credible representative of the QR legacy in today’s lineup, found vocalist Mark Huff at a gig by a local “tribute to Van Halen” band and got the DuBrow family’s blessing to continue the band’s story. The recruited version of the band is rounded out by Chuck Wright on bass and Alex Grossi on guitar, but continuing to build the Quiet Riot story without DuBrow still seems far-fetched, and it smells more than anything of greedy, rookie opportunism…
The Balingen show was their very first European one in the post-DuBrow era, so all eyes were turned even more intensely toward the little-known Mark Huff. The Americans opened the get-together with Run Fom Cover, which at the end tipped over into Slick Black Cadillac. Yes, clearly the next hour would pass under the banner of their most classic album, “Metal Health” (1983). Huff looked a bit clumsy in his predecessor’s shoes. It’s not about the color of his voice, which is a hair’s breadth from DuBrow’s, but about the lack of stage essence and charisma. Despite obvious effort, he wasn’t handed enough frontman skills in the cradle. On stage he seemed lost, which unintentionally hurt the overall picture of what was happening up there, and what’s more, you couldn’t feel any real energy between the four of them, which showed in the crowd’s meager response. Vocally Huff hit the notes easily and faithfully followed the slightly raspy original lines; anything other than imitating DuBrow with as little interpretation of his own as possible probably isn’t even left to him. In that department you can’t blame him for anything.
Banali drew plenty of looks with his energetic pounding on the drums, and with his fills and constant head-banging it looked like a hotshot teenager eager to prove himself was sitting behind the kit. Next to the uninterested guitar duo of Wright / Grossi, it was the drummer who came across as the member dragging the show toward its end through songs like Condition Critical and Don’t Wanna Let You Go, which of course isn’t good news for the band. The mood was only lifted to the desired level by the expected finale with the evergreens Cum On Feel The Noize and the ill-fated festival anthem Metal Health, but that was decidedly too little for any positive feelings.
The conclusion is clear: without the late founder DuBrow, Quiet Riot can today credibly present their legacy only in a lineup with Banali, Carlos Cavazo and Rudy Sarzo, and any other form of existence seems pointless judging by what we saw.
OVERKILL
One of the most interesting performances for fans of somewhat more extreme metal came in the form of thrash metal legends Overkill, who, along with Anthrax, are the biggest thrash band from the American East Coast. Last year Bobby and company played Metal Camp in Tolmin, and they spent the time in between more than actively, racing around Europe in spring on a strong tour with kindred bands Destruction and Heathen, so their live fitness was beyond question.
The stage was dressed with a giant bat, “Chaly,” in the background when the quintet opened the set with The Green And Black. In the sound picture the beefed-up role of the bass guitar had an important place, which let Overkill successfully carry the production trend of recent years over to their live shows too. The carefully built repertoire varied between old-school eighties classics and newer creations that credibly serve the band’s big name. Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth, despite turning fifty two years ago, showed himself in a good vocal light and matched the heavy lines brought by songs like Old School or Elimination. He’s a frontman in the true sense of the word, since his charisma and status as a thrash metal demigod let him handle the crowd with ease. Banter between songs was more the exception than the rule, and plenty of bands their age could take “Overkill-style” energy release and killer song tempos as an example. On the vocals in the punky chorus of In Union We Stand, Bobby got help from the guitar trio, who did their homework by the book this afternoon. The reliable laying down of recognizable cutting riffs stood out in the technically somewhat more demanding title track of the current record “Ironbound” (2010) with its central instrumental section, and they also brought back the creepy Skullkrusher with its doomy opening riff, which I’d have no trouble ranking among the best doom riffs in all of metal. The constant energetic, dynamic movement, mastery of every stage situation and ultimately the quintet’s tightness once again proved to be the main attributes of Overkill’s live music-making, with which they confidently threw down the gauntlet to Slayer for the festival’s thrash metal victors.
IMMORTAL:
The black metallers, who in this new age are becoming more and more just “proverbial” black metallers, were of course the second attraction of the first day in Balingen, after Crimson Glory’s set. Three guys, Abbath, Horgh, Apollyon, whom a layman could easily mistake for carnival masks inspired by the look of panda bears, waddled onto the stage through a thick, thick fog you could have cut with a knife. Strobes hissed venomously through it, and in the opening part the men of course prepared fiery salvos of pyro effects that backed up the intro of All Shall Fall into a good hour of doom. In black metal, bands can be exposed to a very dangerous situation if the sound isn’t okay. Even the little things decide it. This time the drums pierced the sound picture like hell and the massive sonic garment was badly thinned out. Backing tracks included. Yes. Keyboards. Luckily Abbath’s “croaky” vocal got enough support from the mixing desk, echo effects and all.
The band hacked out, among others, the aforementioned All Shall Fall, then Damned In Black, The Call Of The Wintermoon, Tyrants, One By One, In My Kingdom Cold, Hordes To War, The Rise Of Darkness. A treat in terms of an unusual musical and visual phenomenon. Something that comes across as more hugely entertaining than frightening.
CRIPPER:
Sadly I had to rush off to the Messehalle hall because of an interview arranged with Cripper, and I also wanted to catch the band on stage during their set. And there was plenty to see. A packed hall, surely 1200 people, breathing in sync with the band on stage. Cripper, who released their last studio album two years ago, titled “Devil Reveals”, are an exceptionally dynamic, potent quintet, hungry to prove themselves. They’re from Hanover and play a modern version of breakneck metal based on the legacy of the old Teutonic school of German thrash. But modern, with a thick, voluminous groove rhythm section. Shrapnel to the forehead of a mad, furious, destructive satanic march gets its true counterpart, of course, once the vocals of the hard-hitting girl Britta Goertz join the songs. A girl with a “growl” approach that erupts with the kind of power that would wake up even Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy. The songs Helix, I […], Fire Walk With Me, Life Is Deadly, Shortcut, Junkie, I am the Pit, Devil Reveals, FAQU, Sun: Colour: Black fired up the hall, and at the end it wanted even more. An encore! But it didn’t happen. There was no time.
Cripper are a band with very good management behind them. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 they played Metal cAmp, and last year they took part in the 70.000 Tons of Metal festival. We caught them two years ago at the Wacken Rocks South festival in eastern Bavaria, and after this time I can easily conclude that the band has taken a big step forward in the two-year gap. The group is an exceptional, coherently tight stage unit that acts very confidently and cohesively, and, what matters most, convincingly when it steps into its role of a destructive sermon of bloody vistas.
ACCEPT:
And the third attraction of the evening? The headliner Accept’s performance? Accept are one of the finest “comebacks” on the heavy metal scene. After Udo Dirkschneider turned them down, nobody believed the guys would pick themselves up without him. And they did. What’s more, the album “Blood Of The Nations” is one of the finest heavy metal releases of last year, and it can’t sound more Accept-like than it does. And that’s without Dirkschneider. Accept got through this past winter’s European tour extremely successfully, playing sold-out halls. Summer festival appearances were somehow expected in this year’s concert “booking,” but being at an Accept show in Balingen this time was a special experience. Just a few days before the festival, the band made an official announcement that they intended to record the entire Bang Your Head show for release on DVD and live CD. So every true defender of heavy metal had to come to BAng You rHead!!! at least to melt into the magic of Accept’s music.
Accept, again in the “golden lineup” of the golden era, embodied by the guitar tandem Wolf Hofmann / Herman Frank and bassist Peter Baltes, in the company of seasoned drummer Stefan Schwarzmann, who before joining Accept drummed in, among others, classic lineups of the German metal school Running Wild, Helloween and U.D.O., and new singer Mark Tornillo, come across on stage in 2011 not just as majestic but downright unbreakable. You’d struggle to find that much energy, embodying an untamed hunger to play, to enjoy, to party, even in bands 25 years younger today, let alone from a group whose members are in the 50-to-60 age bracket.
The sound was fantastic. Wherever you stood during the show, you heard every single “fart” clearly. Loud, yet clear. Loud enough that the sound tears you apart from the inside out in all its mocking authenticity, embodied by the unique, wood-dry, riff-chopped approach of the legends of German metal, who among the German bands still active are outranked in age by only a year or so by Scorpions!
The quintet is exceptional in its dynamics. Combinations of Baltes/Hofmann, Frank/Hofmann, or all three shoulder to shoulder, “banging their heads.” Baltes and Hofmann constantly running from the left to the right side of the stage. Vocally Mark Tornillo is fully assured, filling the big shoes of the great Dirkschneider, and of course there’s the cannon-inspired Schwarzmann behind the drums the whole way through! Accept in this manner squeezed hectoliters of sweat onto the festival stage. They garnished a bundle of 18 songs with an instrumental jam in Bulletproof and with firing up the audience in the notorious classics Princess Of The Dawn and the closing Balls To The Wall. Alongside the obligatory classics, Accept slotted in excellent moments from the new album, such as the (already notorious) “single” Teutonic Terror, which opens the show, the venomous Bucket Full Of Hate, the superb, dark and anthemically seductive New World Comin’, and to close the regular set the well-chosen No Shelter, which, regardless of its 2010 birth date, sounds like a lost Accept song from 1983.
And believe me. Despite the hour and a half of repertoire, this was the show that flew by fastest that day. People just couldn’t grasp that with Balls To The Wall the get-together with Accept was sadly over. Given that the legends had announced recording the show for release, it’s rather interesting that Accept decided not to play some surprise they hadn’t been playing at the other festivals this summer, something to garnish the DVD release from this performance.
The elemental sounds of the pioneering band that is “to blame” for all of metal’s development in Germany to date echoed in our heads long into the night. An authenticity without equal. And an approach that shows not a speck of rust. Let’s hope this Accept release a new album soon, followed by a new tour! Whatever their actual birth dates say, the guys look half their age on stage!
After the great show at this year’s Bang Your Head!!! festival, Accept traveled on to Slovenia, where they rounded off and closed this summer’s run of festival appearances in Tolmin at the Metal Camp festival there. In the manner befitting legends, of course. As headliner. There’s not a moment’s doubt that Accept, the great gentlemen of heavy metal, will cast their spell on the crowd there too!
words: Urban Bolta (Crystal Viper, Legion of the Damned, Crimson Glory, Death Angel, Quiet Riot, Overkill)
words: Aleš Podbrežnik (intro, Human Zoo, Portrait, Stormwarrior, Immortal, Cripper, Accept)
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
10:00 – 10:40 HUMAN ZOO
10:50 – 11:30 PORTRAIT
11:40 – 12:30 CRYSTAL VIPER
12:40 – 13:30 STORMWARRIOR
13:40 – 14:30 LEGION OF THE DAMNED
14:40 – 15:30 CRIMSON GLORY
15:45 – 16:40 DEATH ANGEL
16:55 – 17:55 QUIET RIOT
18:10 – 19:10 OVERKILL
19:20 – 20:10 CRIPPER (indoor)
19:40 – 20:50 IMMORTAL
20:20 – 21:30 ASPHYX (indoor)
21:20 – 23:00 ACCEPT
21:45 – 23:15 AMORPHIS (indoor)
OVERKILL setlist:
1. The Green and Black
2. Rotten to the Core
3. Wrecking Crew
4. Hello From The Gutter
5. Hammerhead
6. Bring Me the Night
7. Ironbound
8. In Union We Stand
9. Give a Little
10. Skullkrusher
11. Elimination
12.Old School
13. Fuck You
ACCEPT setlist:
01. Teutonic Terror
02. Bucket Full of Hate
03. Starlight
04. Breaker
05. New World Comin’
06. Restless And Wild
07. Son Of A Bitch
08. Metal Heart
09. Neon Nights
10. Bulletproof
11. Losers And Winners
12. Aiming High
13. Princess Of The Dawn
14. Up To The Limit
15. No Shelter —encore—
16. Fast As A Shark
17. Pandemic
18. Balls To The Wall
Photo Gallery
