Bang Your Head!!! 2017 (Day Three) – Spectacular Mayhem with the Mighty HammerFall Hammer!

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany
Concert date: July 15, 2017
Attendance: 13,000
Ticket price: €109.00 (three-day ticket)

Day three brought a heap of metal subgenre deviations to Balingen too, though the emphasis was clearly on old-school traditional craft and power metal, which the closing stretch of the program confirmed with a set from Sweden’s HammerFall. There’s no need to keep hammering it home: Bang Your Head!!! is a festival for everyone with a more traditional musical taste and old-school leanings when it comes to rock and metal.

And that’s how day three kicked off, with the veterans of Teutonic thrash metal from Düsseldorf, Germany, Assassin, taking the stage. The quintet, active again since 2002, actually jumped into the lineup at the last minute, since Paradox were supposed to play in their slot. They had promised a special show after 28 years, with the original lineup reuniting, but the frontman and guitarist Charlie’s health took a turn for the worse again and ruled the band out. Assassin literally proved they’d jumped in at Balingen at five to twelve. They were pretty hoarse and sloppy. Of the original members only guitarist Jürgen Scholz is left in the band today. Clearly they don’t play much, or else they take pauses of several months between gigs. Either way, vocalist Ingo Bajonczak tried to patch up all these little mishaps with long speeches and humor, but at times you could really see that the band doesn’t have a handle on big stages, which they used in a rather clumsy way. The band played tracks from their current studio album »Combat Cahtedral«, and opened and closed the show with songs from the debut »Upcoming Terror«, namely Fighjt (To Stop the Tyrant) and Assassin.

Vain brought a lot more seriousness to the stage, and after the fiasco of Vince Neil’s set, the not exactly convincing Slaughter, those glam rock and glam metal phenomena, and Sunstripe, they pretty much saved the festival’s honor. Vain delivered a superb show, just like they did three years ago, when they played Balingen for the first time ever in their career. Clearly Davy was »loaded« again, and as a result the whole stage was full of him again. He also kept up the stage show-theater by studying the ladies in the crowd in detail, handing out compliments, and there was no shortage of other »juicy« spice from his lush imagination either. Besides the excellent vocal delivery that Davy, in his bad-boy way, still has today, it has to be pointed out that he’s backed by a top-notch crew of musicians. Even though the band released a very good new studio album this year, »Rolling With the Punches«, they knew well that people were expecting the older stuff from their career. They followed up a hugely energetic, razor-sharp show of excellent execution with Who’s Watching You, the closing Bite the Bullet, 1000 Degrees, Icy, Greener, Secrets,, Quick Step To Love and No Respect. Vain over Vince Neil as a BYH headliner any day. Definitely.

Raven are three eternal sonic usurpers, let’s just call them sonic terrorists, really a trio of poisonous old-school speed metal velocity led by the indestructible Gallagher brothers. A band from the days of the NWOBHM revival, true veterans of the scene. And it’s unbelievable what just three people can do on a stage. Three little devils. Pretty much everything. Barely an hour of Raven explosiveness and the wild rituals of brothers Mark and John. The latest studio album, the more than excellent »Extermination«, still echoes loudly even though it’s two years old, yet the band played just one song from it and otherwise built the set list around the albums »All for One« and »Rock Until You Drop«, from which they played half the set. The place came nostalgically alive, and Raven confirmed all their excellence and uncompromising spirit. Just like in 2013, when they played here in the hall. The band played the following songs: the opening Destroy (the only one from the current »Extermination«), All Monsters, Hell Patrol, All For One, Hung, Drawn & Quartered, Rock Until You Drop, Tank Treads (The Blood Runs Red), Faster Than the Speed of Light, On And On, Break the Chain and, rather unnecessary given their vast discography, the closing Mars Bonfire cover Born to Be Wild. That last move, or choice, is also the only (minor) minus of this set.

The NWOBHM times stuck around. Taking the stage were Diamond Head, led today by guitarist Brian Tatler, the only original member left. The band found stability especially after the arrival of the excellent Danish screamer Rasmus Bom Andersen, and last year recorded a new studio album, »Diamond Head«. The stability they found has once again flung the doors wide open to concert stages. When Diamond Head hit the stage, it’s clear what’s expected of them. Material from the eighties. As much of it as possible. The band knew that perfectly well and played their show accordingly. Apart from two new ones (Bones, Diamonds), they chopped out one classic after another, starting with the old Wild on the Streets, which only found a place on an album in the nineties, on »Progress And Death«, then straight to a swerve into the album »Borrowed Time« and its title track. Lightning to the Nations, The Prince, In the Heat of the Night, Shot Out the Lights, the obligatory It’s Electric and Helpless (both toward the end of the show) followed, and of course the closing Am I Evil?, without which a real Diamond Head show just can’t exist. The band surprised quite a few people by working in the song Starcrossed. It’s an older song that they only started playing live for the first time last year. So Diamond Head are a compact, solid unit, and the real drive comes from the superbly upbeat vocalist Rasmus Bom Andersen, who kept going nuts across the stage and pulled off some incredible stage acrobatics too. Not to mention his vocal output. Outstanding. The band is coming to Tolmin’s Metaldays festival next year! Definitely legends worth your attention if you ever get the chance. And Metallica knew that very well once upon a time.

It was time for somebody to remember the old-school version of eighties American speed/thrash metal. On stage stood Vicious Rumors. Last year the band released a new album, »Concusion Protocol«, and proved with it that they’re far from having said their last word. They presented the excellent new album on an autumn tour of Europe together with Dirkschneider. Summer festival season has arrived, and it’s also well known that Horst Franz is a big fan of this band, so Vicious Rumors are consequently very frequent guests at Bang Your Head!!! Before this summer, the band’s big boss Geoff Thorpe made some more lineup shuffles. Brian Allen came back as lead vocalist, an excellent singer with infectious charisma. That very charisma, which a frontman is supposed to bring to every band, was what was missing from Vicious Rumors after Allen temporarily left. Now he’s back. And Brian more than justified his theatricality. Thorpe also brought in the young and promising Gunnar Dügrey as second guitarist, who really shone with a few solos. Not just anybody can step into Taen Rasmussen’s shoes. The kid is proving he’s made of the right stuff. The band put together a proper old-school set list. Even the opening stretch started out dreamy, with material from their cult and most recognizable studio record, »Digital Dictator«, as Vicious Rumors demolished everything in front of them and fired off classics one after another: Worlds And Machines, Digital Dictator and Out of the Shadows. An exceptionally upbeat crew, looking like old friends reunited after a long time. Of course we Slovenians crossed our fingers too, since our own Tilen Hudrap was running wildly across the stage and swinging his Spector bass. On drums, of course, is Thorpe’s inseparable comrade Larry Howe, who once again delivered an excellent drumming performance. Interestingly, Vicious Rumors skipped the new album material entirely and brought back into the set list two excellent »Razorblade Killers« tracks, Let the Garden Burn and Murderball, which are tailor-made for Allen. The band also surprised with the inclusion of the »Welcome to the Ball« classic Dust to Dust, which they’ve played on stage very rarely in their career, and otherwise filled the set list with songs from the album “Vicious Rumors”: Hellraiser, Down to the Temple and the closing Don’t Wait For Me. The obligatory Soldiers of the Night (from the self-titled debut) wasn’t missing from the set list. Great show, great crew. Vicious Rumors remain an impenetrable stage fortress. The show was noticeably more intense, both in energy and in emotion and passion, compared to their gig in Brno in December, when they had to play as a quartet, without one guitarist. Let’s hope the band returns to Europe soon. For a new club tour, of course. By the way, VR did some lovely promotion for our webzine too, when drummer Larry Howe himself tossed a few Rockline T-shirts into the crowd at the end of the show. Vicious Rumors recorded this incredibly intense performance at Bang Your Head!!! with the aim of releasing the first official DVD in the band’s history. It will come out as a special package in 2019, when the band celebrates its 40th anniversary, and it was filmed by the same crew that shot Accept’s show here in 2015. Accept released that footage earlier this year as the DVD “Restless And Live”. So it’s no wonder that Vicious Rumors had the stage outfitted with a whole twenty guitar cabinets especially for this event. The set list also got one special touch for the occasion. The band opened a show with Worlds and Machines for the first time in their career, and also for the last time. So this is a historic event for Vicious Rumors, and the crowd that gathered will remember it for years to come, since the band’s set hit them right between the eyes, like a bolt from the blue. They got more than they had quietly hoped for. The band left not just sweat on the stage but blood too, and that “salto mortale” by our Tilen is the kind of story that, over the years, will become if not a myth then at least a legend.

The first real disappointment at the festival came with Dokken. Then again, it wasn’t even really a disappointment, as long as you know that Don Dokken is not the Don Dokken of the band’s golden days. Over the years the vocalist has packed on a fair few pounds, but that’s not even the point. The problem is that his voice has lost its distinctiveness, its stamp, its charisma, and has become completely watered down. Without such a top-notch backing crew as he has, Don Dokken probably wouldn’t be performing anymore today. Those guys give him incredible support. Especially when it comes to the out-of-the-ordinary guitarist John Levin, who was the main attraction and the central figure of the band’s show. His brilliant, technically flawless solos took your breath away, as did the incredible nimbleness and agility of this guitarist, who on top of all that also pulled off the backing vocals very skillfully. Those are super mandatory, after all. Especially given the boss’s worn-down vocal form today. Staying in the lineup with Don are original drummer Mick Brown and the “dreamy beauty” Chris McArvill, whose narcissistic self-infatuation, more or less, completely repels. That works for some parody act like Steel Panther, and even there it has to be theatrically staged, but not at Dokken. Don is so vocally dried up, in fact, that right at the start of the show, during Kiss Of Death, the crowd thunderously drowned him out on the chorus. That song later turned out to be the only track from the album »Back For the Attack«. The band prepared a good repertoire, building the set list around two imposing eighties classics, »Tooth And Nail« (the songs Don’t Close your Eyes, Alone Again, Into the Fire and the closing Tooth And Nail) and »Unchain the Night« (In my Dreams, the Hunter, Dream Warriors). The band also spiced up the set list with the title track of the album »Breaking the Chains«. In short. Everything stood as it should, apart from the vocal frailty of Don Dokken,. So it wouldn’t be a great loss if the man retired the band for good.

Next came the set from Canadian melodic death metallers Kataklysm. Genre-wise they were a radical departure from the rest of the festival’s third day. So much so, in fact, that the band could not get any real feedback out of the crowd throughout the show. The festival’s clientele is older and listens to different music, not so much bands from the death metal camp, and Kataklysm are even among the softer – that is, more accessible – representatives of their genre. It was a mirror image of what you can experience at this band’s shows at Tolmin’s Metaldays festival, which Kataklysm have visited countless times. During their set at BYH not a single crowd surfer was to be seen, whereas at their shows in Tolmin you’d rarely meet anyone who wouldn’t tell you after the gig that they’d crowd-surfed during Kataklysm. No special energy coming back from the crowd, then, apart from polite applause. True, the crowd in front of the stage also thinned out somewhat, and shifted around, but the band’s most die-hard fans were only a handful. Still, Kataklysm looked totally relaxed, committed and, of course, as good as usual on stage. The band put more emphasis on the current studio album »Of Ghosts and Gods«, and filled the rest of the set list with songs from older studio albums. Maurizio Iacono and crew remain an extremely tight, well-calibrated stage unit. Kataklysm play a huge number of shows, with plenty of experience and mileage behind them. Sadly, this time they didn’t have their real crowd by their side.

Finally things started to pop in the hall too. The program there was opened by The Unity, a new band from two Gamma Ray members, Henjo Richter and drummer Michael Ehre. The Unity are a sextet and play textbook power metal inspired by symphonic-operetta musicality. The other building blocks of the band are Stef E. (guitar), Jogi Sweers (bass), Sascha Onnen (keyboards) and the Italian-born singer Gianba Manenti, who was practically omnipresent on stage. The vocalist has an exceptional vocal range. He loses no power anywhere, not even in the extreme high registers, and truly comes across like an opera singer. Any Rhapsody Of Fire or Vision Divine would adopt him on the spot and call him their own. The Unity presented their self-titled studio debut and had more than an hour of time to promote it flawlessly.. Sure, it’s a repackaging of clichés and the guys aren’t reinventing the wheel, but it’s obvious that Gamma Ray took a longer break. Hansen made a solo album, Unitiy came into being. If you’re a hardened fan of everything that smells like power metal, The Unity will be yours instantly. In September you can hop over to Munich and catch them as the opening act for Edguy. Toward the end The Unitiy still played something from Gamma Ray after all. That was the song Send Me A Sign, and otherwise they loaded the show with their own material, namely: Rise and Fall, Firesign, No More Lies, God of Temptation, Close to Crazy, Calm before the Storm, Killer Instinct and Never Forget.

Shortly before the guitar deity himself, Michael Schenker, set the main festival stage ablaze, German death metal heavyweights and gloom merchants Disbelief started smashing through their material in the hall. The lineup of Karsten “Jagger” Jäger (vocals), Jochen “Joe” Trunk (bass), Alex Hagenauer (guitar), David “Dave” Renner (guitar) and Fabian “Fab” Regmann (drums) actually delivered at the festival what fellow scene comebackers and German death metallers Warpath, in a similar early slot, did a year earlier, except that Disbelief are a completely stable crew and so never took any break in their career. You have to be used to their death metal. In Germany they’re an extremely respected band for their body of work. That’s why there was no shortage of people in the hall during the show, even though the band overlapped with MSG, which was really a shame. But somebody has to be the victim. This time it had to be Disbelief, who were backed especially by younger fans of heavy sounds who listen to the extreme branches of metal like they breathe air. The band released a new studio album this year titled The Symbol of Death, and started their set with the album’s title track too. The band doesn’t mess around and is poison to the core when it thunders on stage. Superbly tight. From head to toe. Karsten sweated through himself in a moment and looked like a wet rag as he gnawed through the band’s poetry with his growl. Between the two guitarists Renner took the initiative, and everything of course revolved around the exceptional compact and crushing rhythmic kinetics that works superbly in the band. I had to cut the show short, as it was time to squeeze my way to the photo pit in front of the main stage, where the organizer had promised a very special performance by one of the most striking guitarists of the rock ‘n’ roll era.

Michael Schenker with three different singers and, finally, without the corrupting Francis Buchholz. The famous guitar ace, one of the most important rock ‘n’ roll guitarists ever to walk the planet and the eternal inspiration for many guitarists of the generations that followed this great guitarist! After a few years he returned to Bang Your Head!!! In the role of support act to the main headliner. Schenker took the stage with his famous black-and-white Flyin’ V guitar, and in the opening part he was joined on stage by vocalist Gary Barden. Schenker gathered an exceptional company around him, namely bassist Chris Glen and drummer Ted McKenna, while Steve Mann took care of rhythm guitar. In the first part Schenker, together with the upbeat Barden, strung together classics from the first two albums (Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Victim of Illusion, Attack of the Mad Axeman, Armed and Ready). Then came the inclusion of Coast to Coast (Scorpions), where Barden was joined by Robin McAuley and Graham Bonnet, who stayed on stage for three »Assault Attack« songs, namely Dancer, Desert Song and Assault Attack. Captain Nemo followed with Barden on vocals, and then finally Robin McAuley took the stage again, leaving a special impression with his exceptional voice of velvety finesse. It keeps an extraordinary freshness and expressive power even into his later years. The singer spiced up the show with great assurance alongside Schenker’s crew when he took on three McAuley Schenker Group classics: Love Is Not A Game, Bad Boys and Save Yourself. Of course Schenker didn’t skip the UFO moments either, as the show tipped into its closing stretch with Rock Bottom and the final Doctor, Doctor. Michael is Michael. Only he has that touch and only his guitar sounds like that. Unique. It wails so uniquely that this unique wailing instantly gives you goosebumps. There have been few guitarists like that in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. One of them is, for instance, Ritchie Blackmore. Throughout the show Michael smiled politely at the crowd, and he seemed exceptionally upbeat, cheerful and engaged. He visibly enjoyed the extremely loud and strong support he was getting from the audience. Michael showed off all his mastery, his exceptional feel for incredible control over the tones, which he colored with extraordinary, filigree-like refinement. On top of all that we also witnessed his famous stage poses, which have always inspired the young guard of guitarists. An exceptional show by an exceptional crew, one I’d have gone on listening to and listening to if the running time weren’t limited and the day didn’t have just 24 hours. Michael Schenker and his musicians put on one of the best shows of the whole festival, and if somebody labeled it the best show, I’ll tell you that’s saying it immodestly, but anyone making that claim wouldn’t be far off.

HammerFall played exactly twenty years ago at the, mark my words, second edition of the Bang Your Head festival, which back then was still held in a smaller hall in the middle of the town of Tübingen. Also on the bill with HammerFall at the time were Gamma Ray, Demon, Virgin Steele, Sinner, Flotsam And Jetsam and Sacred Steel. It’s also been twenty years since the release of the band’s studio debut, »Glory to the Brave«. HammerFall were simply in the right place at the right time, and after almost 25 years of activity they enjoy a great reputation among younger generations as well as among those who grew up on eighties metal. Last year the band released their latest studio album, »Built To Last«, which was also well represented in the set list, but HammerFall promised a special show at Bang Your Head this time. Okay, it was once again equipped with a bagful of smoke curtains and fire-breathing, just like in 2010, when they last played Balingen. So there was no shortage of pyrotechnics during the show. In the first half the band lined up song after song in their well-rehearsed manner, where every minute and second of the show is carefully studied. You know exactly who in the crew takes which position and where they stand on stage at any given moment. Slip-ups are rare, the band is incredibly routined and experienced. Okay, it’s true that Dronjak still can’t play guitar well, but that remains a minor remark. Oscar is just like that and will stay like that, and that’s exactly why Oscar is so “kvlt”, and he’s simply not allowed to be any different. Oscar does have one of the finest guitarists of his generation beside him. He enjoys exceptional support from him. That’s Pontus Norgren, Malmsteen’s former guitar tech, who is considered an exceptional virtuoso and recently joined the band Panzer too. In the first part the guys lined up the songs Hector’s Hymn, Riders of the Storm, Blood Bound, Any Means Necessary, Renegade, Dethrone and Defy, Last Man Standing, Let the Hammer Fall and Built to Last. Compared to the February set list, they left out only Bring It!

Then the three musicians who make up the band Draupner came on stage. They are Henning Andersson with a five-string violin, Görgen Antonsson with a regular violin and Tomas “Limpan” Lindberg, who plays the bouzouki, mandola and acoustic guitar. Also Swedes, which wasn’t hard to guess, right? Well, they first performed the instrumental Between Two Worlds, after which Joacim Cans joined them on stage and together they played the ballad I Believe. When the rest of the HammerFall squadron came on stage, the eight musicians played a medley of songs from the album »Glory to the Brave«, only the main guitar phrases of the songs: Stone Cold, Unchained, The Metal Age, HammerFall, Steel Meets Steel, and finally they dove into The Dragon Lies Bleeding, which they played in full. On the club tour they played only part of this song. One of the highlights was the anthem Glory to the Brave, which was practically sung by the whole of Balingen. Incredible energy at the festival in those moments. Emotional. Moving. The encore with Hammer High, then Bushido and the long-awaited Hearts On Fire, where the whole festival went nuts again with the band in a true atmospheric crescendo. A truly special show from the band. In every respect. The guys really put in the effort and prepared for this show, even though we quietly hoped they’d play the whole »Glroy To The Brave« album.

Anyone who found HammerFall too slow and too melodic headed to the hall instead and listened to Belgian speed metallers and revivalists Evil Invaders. The show by the four little devils once again delivered a breakneck experience of a hard-to-describe speed-up of everything going on. We photographers once again had trouble with them, and on top of that they also “entertained” us with a bagful of stage fog. A truly attractive show packed with exceptional potency, a hunger to prove themselves, excellent tightness and firm focus. The bulk of the material, with the songs Pulses of Pleasure, Fast, Loud ‘n’ Rude, Shot to Paradise, Master of Illusion and Starway to Insanity, was geared toward the still-current latest studio album »Pulses of Pleasure« (2015), but the band also presented two brand-new songs, Mental Penitenciary and the opening As Life Slowly Fades. A crazy show! And the very same Evil Invaders appeared ten days later at Tolmin’s Metaldays festival too!

After the closing fireworks that we witness every year at the end of the festival’s third-day headliner, the grand finale of the festival moved to the hall, where the legendary Axxis wrapped up this year’s edition. Today the only original members of Axxis are singer Bernhard Weiss and keyboardist Harry Oellers, joined by Stefan Weber (guitar), Rob Schomaker (bass) and Dirk Brand (drums). Since the current »Retrolution« is a turn back to hard rock roots (the band played Somebody died at the party, Heavy Metal Brother and Queen of the Wind from it), what followed was a run through the repertoire with an old-school set list, where the crew wasn’t ashamed to play songs from the cult »Kingdom of the Night« (Living In A World, Kingodm of the Night), »II« (Touch the Rainbow, Little Look Back) and even »Big Thrill« (Little War). Axxis also didn’t ignore their power metal era and spiced up the repertoire with tracks from the albums »Paradise In Flames« (Tales Of Glory Island), »Utopia« (Heavy Rain) and »Doom of Destiny« (Blood Angel). The band seems half energy and full of drive, and in Balingen they delivered a really nice, relaxed and engaged show, where all the players (except Weiss, of course) also presented their own solo spot, which wasn’t really necessary.

Three days of hopping from stage to stage took their toll, so we cut our Axxis viewing a bit short and headed to the tent and the campsite for some well-earned rest. And so the 21st edition of the festival slowly came to an end. Once again it brought an exceptionally diverse collection of acts, many of them ones you rarely get to see on stage. I speak on behalf of someone who lives in a part of Europe not far from the Alps, yet still south of them. Because facts are just facts, we’ll be heading to Balingen every year. We’ll make the pilgrimage there again and again, because it simply can’t be any other way, and the soul has to be fed somehow. The countdown has already begun!