Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany
Concert date: July 14, 2016
Attendance: 10,000
Ticket price: €109.00 (advance) / €135.00 (day of the show)
The year has turned, and a new edition of the famous Bang Your Head!!! festival has come knocking, held, as every year, in the little German town of Balingen. You reach the venue by heading southwest of Stuttgart. Black Forest country, in other words. The 21st Bang Your Head!!! overall served up, compared to last year’s lineup, quite a few names you very rarely catch on stages across the old continent. Especially with acts like Impellitteri, Tyketto, Dare, Leatherwolf, Babylon A.D., Great White and Voodoo X thrown into the mix.
We got to the venue two days early, around midday. The afternoon hours slipped away sampling assorted flavors of German beer, while in the neighboring Volksbankmesse hall a warm-up show went down that evening, featuring Sodom, Overkill, Rage, Pro-Pain and Nitrogods this year. That one we decided to skip this time. Partly because of the musical tastes of the RockLine tandem covering the BYH!!! festival this year, and partly because no press accreditation is handed out for the warm-up show, the tickets aren’t exactly cheap (€35.00), and it makes more sense to save your energy, which came in very handy during the marathon-long three-day schedule of the festival.
So, day one. It’s half past eleven and German hot-blooded heavy metal attackers Stallion roll onto the stage, devoted to reviving the look and spirit of the famous NWOBHM movement from the early eighties of the last century. As befits the first band to open the festival grounds, Stallion are practically locals, based in the town of Hilden, in the Baden-Württemberg region. The band showed off an extremely tight, polished delivery. Numerous shows in the past, including as support for the up-and-coming Canadians Striker and Swedes Bullet, have consolidated a lineup led by charismatic singer Pauli, decked out in red-and-white striped spandex. Stallion proved an excellent choice, and in the early hours of the festival they more than decently set the tone for how things would unfold from there. The band presented their studio debut »Rise and Ride« (2014) in their set.
Next up was one of the attractions of this year’s BYH festival. Right at the start, no less. The set by American speed heavy metal veterans Leatherwolf, who formed in Huntington Beach way back in 1981. They played this festival for the first time exactly ten years ago, and for their second appearance they beefed up the lineup with a returning original lead voice, singer and guitarist Michael Oliveri, who still has a seriously great vocal range at his mature age. The band, also famous for being pioneers of putting three guitars on the front line of a metal lineup, delivered an excellent show and made superb use of the stage. In just under an hour they played the classics of their career, taken from five studio albums, opening with the barbed Spiter and closing an outstanding performance with The Calling. Let’s hope for a new studio album, since the last one came out a full nine years ago.
Before the dust of excitement over the Leatherwolf visit had fully settled, the stage was taken over by the no less legendary Babylon A.D., back together since 2013. They’re once again, believe it or not, playing in their original lineup. The San Francisco quintet laid out the classics of their trade, hard rock crossed with primal heavy metal, loaded with extremely catchy melodies. Derek Davis with his piercing vocals, the polished guitar duo of Danny De La Rosa and Rob Fresch, plus bassist Robb Reid and drummer James Pacheco, likewise delivered one of the nicer highlights of this year’s festival and, with an excellent performance, effectively kept up the top-notch mood Leatherwolf had left behind. During the show they tossed a few of their T-shirts and a bunch of copies of their new live album »Live XXV«, released last year, into the crowd. Among other things, the band played the opening Back in Babylon, then Hammer Swings Down, Shot o’ Love, So Savage the Heart, Maryanne, Bad Blood, Sally Danced, Bang Go the Bells, The Kids Go Wild, Desperate, Slave Your Body, and wrapped up the set with a cover of the UFO song Lights Out.
For the next hour, hot Finnish metallers Battle Beast raised hell at the festival. An attraction that’s climbing and fighting its way into the bigger bands of the new generation, led on vocals by the imposing domina-like, bejeweled singer Noora, certainly didn’t disappoint. She opened her fiery performance with Let it Roar and went on to play mostly material from the album »Battle Beast«, complemented by songs from the debut »Steel« and the latest effort »Unholy Savior« (2015). The Helsinki power metallers do lean on worn-out clichés, but they pulled off an extremely focused and well-thought-out show, with a fired-up Noora ruling the stage with her distinctive, piercing vocals. This is a band that will probably climb quite high on the metal scene.
The Dead Daisies are a band that, at first glance, doesn’t even belong at a festival like this. But once you look at the names that make up the group, the doubts are unnecessary. Richard Fortus, who has returned to Guns N’Roses, is now replaced in the band by none other than the outstanding Douglas Aldrich (ex-Whitesnake, ex-Dio, ex-Hurricane, Burning Rain). Not only visually but also in playing style, he fits in much better. Doug also knows drummer Brian Tichy and bassist Marco Mendoza well from the past. Former Motley Crue vocalist John Corabi was in charge of the vocals, while the other guitar spot was filled by band leader David Lowy. The band presented the new album »Make Some Nosie« (2016), which followed its predecessor »Revolucion« after just a year. Besides playing new songs, namely the title track Make Some Nosie and Long Way To Go, the band spiced up the show with three covers: a seriously fun version of Midnight Moses, originally by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, then, in the middle, they »cut« their own songs with the Free classic All Right Now, and, pretty much as expected, closed the show with a souped-up version of the Beatles classic Helter Skelter. Up to that point, The Dead Daisies were the band that made by far the best use of the stage, and with a cheeky show full of teasing mischief they brought extremely positive energy. Raw, melodic, ruffian hard rock, torn up and crumbly around the »edges«, full of superb solos from Douglas Aldrich, the incredible rhythmic kinetics of the unshakable Mendoza/Tichy duo, and fronted by the ever-cocky, bouncy little fella Corabi. One hell of an attraction! Full of experience, routine and confidence.
The following hour belonged to Dragonforce. The ultra-sonic Brits, guys who turned power metal into so-called »nintendo metal« thanks to their extremely fast playing, laid out a repertoire of their best classics. In other words, a best of. That’s due to the release of the »best of« compilation »Killer Elite: The Hits, The Highs, The Vids«, coming out on July 22, 2016. Just looking at them makes your mouth stretch into a long, wide grin all by itself. Raised on fast food and »scratchy drinks« (Coca Cola, Fanta, Sprite), Dragonforce wielded their instruments mercilessly. As expected, a good share of resulting little slip-ups crept into the performance, in the form of missed notes or sloppy endings (especially with the tremolo), but that didn’t dispel the excellent energy that these cheerful, lively guys transmitted to the crowd through their happy little music.
Next came the set by Swedish doom veterans Candlemass, which we only caught in passing, since it was time to recharge our batteries. The band brought the required dose of gloomy vistas to the festival and, as a result, wrapped it in an entirely different culture of mood as Mirror, Mirror, A Cry From the Crypt, Dying Illusion, Demons Gate, Emperor of the Void, The Well of Souls, At The Gallows End, the expected Crystal Ball and the closing Solitude rang out. Fronted by singer Mats Leven, Candlemass are enjoying a real renaissance, as proven by the freshly released EP »Death Thy Lover«. Howling at the sun turned into howling at the downpour. With their presence and massive riffs, Candlemass summoned a real deluge over Balingen. Before this show, the band last played the festival in 2013, at the warm-up show, as the headliner.
Carcass are certainly one of the most attractive bands in the defense of metal extremes. The horrifying dismemberers are considered masters of the technical polish that stands behind the band’s brutalized presence. They are always a pleasure to watch. A year after we caught them at Metaldays, their Balingen show only reinforced that realization. Jeff Walker remains an outstanding captain, the charismatic boss of the band, with an excellent growl. Without any special effort he led the crowd into the realm of scalpels and other surgical tools, which sliced and tore at the innards throughout the band’s superb set, lasting a good hour. Walker, whom we saw a few days ago in Kranj, where he played with Brujeria, didn’t forget to warmly thank the crowd that came to cheer the band on at the end of the show, and we enjoyed, among other things, the opening Exhumed to Consume, then Incarnated Solvent Abuse, Captive Bolt Pistol, Reek of Putrefaction, Corporal Jigsaw Quandary and Heartwork. A one-hour anatomy lesson of the human body like only you could dream of. After the show you pat yourself down to check that all your organs are still in place, especially both kidneys and the liver.
Already during the Carcass set, it paid off for many who aren’t used to the extreme spheres of metal to move over to the Volskbankmesse hall, where the venue had long since come alive with a show by extreme metallers Debauchery Vs. Blood God, who were then followed by Voodoo X. A band that hadn’t been around anywhere for 26 years and reunited exclusively for this one show in Balingen. Melodic rock, in other words. On vocals the dark-skinned Jean Beavoir (Crown of Thorns, ex-Plasmatics), on guitar original member Tommy Lafferty, and the really attractive name of Uwe Fahrenkrog-Peterson, who earned millions as the keyboardist of the immortal Germans Nena. Voodoo X released the album »Vol 1. – The Awakening« in 1989, and when songs from it rang out, including I’m On Fire and Voodoo Queen, it became clear that over all those years the album hasn’t lost one bit of its evergreen quality and compositional shine. Short and sweet. We’d all have survived without the Led Zeppelin standby Rock And Roll, too. The Voodoo X set was thus one of the bigger exclusives at this year’s Bang Your Head!!! festival.
No less attractive was the arrival of British melodic rockers Dare. They play extremely rarely, and this year’s show at Bang Your Head was practically their first of the year. The band played just two days before the release of their new studio effort, which Dare titled »Sacred Ground«. The band is led by the still charismatic Darrel Wharton, who founded the group in 1985 after Thin Lizzy broke up. Wharton had previously been Thin Lizzy’s keyboardist and recorded their last album »Renegade« with them. So it’s no surprise that Dare worked a cover of the Thin Lizzy song Emerald into their set. The band also exclusively presented new material, with Wharton half-jokingly apologizing in advance in case Dare hit a wrong note or a wrong verse got sung. The band simply hadn’t yet had the chance to play these songs live. But with the support of excellent guitarist Vinnie Burns, whom we managed to catch in 2014 at Frontiers Rock festival, where he played with Three Lions, Wharton has nothing to fear. On Wharton’s left Burns, on his right Nigel Cutterbuck, a bassist with equally extensive experience on the team! An outstanding show. Wharton in excellent spirits. Vocally and performance-wise. There were Sea of Roses, Storm Wind and We Don’t Need A Reason, and of course the long-awaited classics from the debut »Out of the Silence« (1988), led by the superb Abandon, followed by Into the Fire, The Raindance and King of Spades.
Now, the bulk of the first day was of course aimed at the main stage, where shortly before 9:30 in the evening everything was ready for the legendary thrash metal titans Slayer to take it over. The quartet of Kerry King (guitar), Tom Araya (bass, vocals), Paul Bostaph (drums) and Gary Holt (guitar) stormed the stage at the end of the tape intro Delusions of Saviour, which, as expected, spilled into the new song Repentless. Slayer in their standard pose. Kerry almost like a petrified figure with his characteristic jerky short neck movements, the standard Araya lazily shuffling now to the catwalk, now to the left or right side of the stage, and, besides Bostaph, who had no other choice, the second most fired-up member of the band, Gary Holt, who as a replacement for the late Hanneman has, to this day, fit into the team more than superbly. Slayer more than pleased their fans’ tastes, since the setlist, alongside the expected must-haves from the albums »Seasons in the Abyss«, »Reign in Blood« and »South of Heaven«, was loaded with even older songs, that is, tracks from the debut »Show No Mercy« (1983), led by Black Magic, Die by the Sword, Fight Till Death and Antichrist. However much Slayer have lately been the target of criticism for being burnt out and for stage »laziness«, the show was graced by excellent sound and excellent execution, and Araya sang the whole concert at the required quality level. Evidently Slayer concerts are the ones to go to in Germany, because that experience from Zagreb, where they played with Anthrax just under two months ago, casts a slight stain on the band’s name, especially given the dreadful sound that accompanied the band’s show in Zagreb. Well, that experience was forgotten in an instant. An hour and a half of perfect thrash metal slaughterhouse. The crowd came to about 8,000 heads, somewhat less than expected, but the show certainly carried the most fired-up heads off to Slayer heaven. A solid gig, no minuses this time. You eventually get used to the fact that all the solos are the same. Even when they’re played by Gary Holt, who here merely carries out his superiors’ orders. Maybe his pinch of showmanship is slightly off, since posing has no place in a band like Slayer. Anyway, those are minor remarks. In short! Devastation all around, and the band justified its role as the headliner of the festival’s first day.
The first day thus wrapped up on the main stage, while the most unshakable could keep banging their heads through sets by Equilibrium and Ektomorf in the neighboring Volksbankmesse hall. We survived the opening day happily, also because it saw only a single downpour, as the sky was mostly sullen and filled with heavy clouds that crept menacingly across it all day long.
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