Bang Your Head!!! 2018 (Day Three) – The “Vampirologists” Powerwolf Step Into the Festival Headliners’ Boots

location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany
date: 14.07.2018

Last day! Two bands fewer on the bill than the day before. Kickoff at half past eleven. Yep. The lineup keeps shrinking. Year after year. More and more, and the organizer isn’t exactly in an enviable financial state. Fewer impressive names, fewer acts overall. Maybe the choice of headliner for day three is just more proof of that: none other than German power metallers Powerwolf. Believe it or not, three and a half years ago they played Ljubljana’s Metelkova, in the Gala hala. Anyway, let’s head to the grounds.

The weather held. Day three was bathed in sunshine again. On stage stood Evertale, German power metallers who’ve been around since 2006. Decent. The quartet came out confident, even if musically they don’t bring anything special to the table. They missed the boat by about ten years if they wanted to win wider international recognition, since interest in power metal gradually fizzled out afterwards. From the original lineup, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthias Holzapfel, lead guitarist Matthias Graf and bassist Marco Bächle are still on board. The band has a new drummer, Simon Hofmeister. In short: the band has only just put out its second studio album, »The Great Brotherwar«, last year, and they presented it with zeal and conviction in a more than solid “morning” set.

Second up were old-guard British metallers from the days of the famous movement known as the N.W.O:B.H.M. Cloven Hoof. Formed in Wolverhampton in 1979, the band released an exceptionally good new studio album last year, »Who Mourns For A Mornig Star?«. Of the original members, the eternal Lee Payne on bass is the one still in the lineup today. The sharply dressed, chiseled man stepped on stage decked out in classic “battle gear” from the old-school days (studded leather), when metal was still young and innocent. Nostalgia. As for the rest, the quintet is made up of a completely rejuvenated and refreshed lineup: Chriss Coss on rhythm guitar, the excellent lead guitarist Luke Hatton, the great singer George Call and Danny White on drums. You’d have liked to see at least Russ North, who “came and went” in the band, but things clearly didn’t work out with him. In 2009, Cloven Hoof played at this very same venue with a completely different lineup, one that, by seniority, was a better fit for catching the eighties train than the current one. Whatever. The band put together an excellent setlist, mostly of old material, and gathered a bunch of diehards at the front of the stage who’d spent their teenage years in the early eighties. From the EP »The Openning Ritual«, for instance, they cut loose with the superbly epic mini-suite The Gates OF Gehenna. And that wasn’t all. A run through the good old repertoire in under an hour, including Highlander (from the cult »Sultan’s Ransome«, 1989), plus Nova Battlestar from the album »Dominator* and the closing Reaching for the Sky. Insane show. Anyone who missed this can stop going to classic heavy metal gigs. The debut »Cloven Hoof« was represented by the title track and, almost at the tail end, the utterly frenzied Laying Down The Law. Inquisitor (»Eye of the Sun« 2006) also turned up in the set, while the new album was represented by Time to Burn and Song of Orpheus. Cloven Hoof are a band with an excellent old-school metal pedigree. The riffs are masterfully constructed. They grab you right away, while the band keeps its dark presence. If you still don’t know what old school is, you absolutely must check out this wildly obscure, overlooked but excellent outfit. Thoroughly cult and, luckily, indestructible. Thanks to the stubbornness, will and perseverance of the remarkable Lee Payne. His mere presence on stage tells you metal runs through his veins.

We stayed in N.W.O.B.H.M. territory afterwards, when the famous Tygers of Pan Tang took the stage. Not long ago they released an incredibly successful and unbelievably solid album, though one leaning heavily towards hard rock roots, more than you’d expect. They titled it »Tygers of Pan Tang«. They’ve been in an unchanged lineup for a while now, though it’s clear it’s been properly refreshed. The band, co-founded in 1978 by guitarist Robb Weir, today the only original member, performs and plays quite often. And as a result they’re superbly tight. We caught them a while back in Vrba in Carinthia. Weir has found an exceptional partner on lead guitar in Micky Crystal, Craig Ellis plays drums, Jacopo Meille handles vocals brilliantly, and red-haired Gavin Gray wields the bass. Tygers of Pan Tang are both powerful and confident in their delivery, and they know how to make good use of a big stage. With a repertoire built from a series of cult classics from the first three albums, they could lean back and ride the passion and emotion of the crowd of nostalgics who stood rooted in front of the stage. The band also slipped in the newer and excellent Keeping Me Alive (»Ambush«, 2012), while the new album was represented by the incredibly successful Only The Brave (the first song of the concert), Devil You Know and Glad Rags, which rolls along on an almost glam rhythm. But most people were of course waiting for the run of unforgettable classics, and they got them, courtesy of: Raised On Rock, Love Don’t Stay (both from »Crazy Nights«), Gangland, Hellbound (both from »Spellbound«) and Slave to Freedom, Euthanasia, Susie Smiled (all three from the debut »Wild Cat«). They surprised quite a few people by working in the ZZ Top hit Tush, and for the tail end the band saved up one more cover, Love Potion #9 (orig. The Clovers), which actually came out on the fourth Tygers Of Pan Tang album, »The Cage«. A venomous, uncompromising rattle from a legendary band that is far from saying its last word! New material is surely in the works. Don’t worry. A new studio album, of course.

We stuck around in the days of the good old N.W.O.B.H.M. Because “Grannyschool” took the stage, okay, I’m lying. Girlschool it was, really! The respectable ladies went about it this time just like always. With great expectations, routinely and in line with established practice. But they had quite a bit of trouble with the sound in the first part of the show. So the chemistry never really kicked in either. For a good chunk of the set, Girlschool were chasing their sound, though they somehow overcame these problems with experience and routine. Still, you could feel a slight absence from the quartet, in the sense that they hadn’t quite made the right connection with the audience. In the opening part of the show, that is. Then things got sorted and it all rolled the way it should. Ten days later, Girlschool delivered a much better show in Tolmin, with a similar setlist. Anyway. If you’ve got a crowd below the stage that grew up on your music, there’s nothing to fear. And sure enough. With a run of tracks from the cult »Hit And Run« and the debut »Demoliton«, Girlschool got through their set like proper pros. They played the following setlist: Demolition Boys, C’mon Let’s Go, The Hunter, Hit and Run, I Spy, Come the Revolution Play, Take It Like a Band, Never Say Never, Screaming Blue Murder, Future Flash, Kick It Down, Watch Your Step, Yeah Right, Race With the Devil (orig. The Gun) and of course the infamous Emergency. The band is in a lineup that is basically identical to the one from 1978, when the band was formed. Denise Dufort on drums, Enid Williams on bass, singer and rhythm guitarist Kim McAuliffe and Jackie Chambers on lead guitar, who replaced the original Kelly Johnson in 1999.

Next came the excellent and highly esteemed Irish black metal gloom-mongers Primordial, who, true to form, brought a proper black mass to Balingen and carved out a gate to hell. Primordial have played here before, and yet. They always get slotted into the daytime, even though a band like this would sound incredible in some dark forest full of gnarled trees, on the blackest of nights, with wolves howling and relentless winds blowing, just like at the band’s show in Tolmin this year. If they could fire off every round there and deliver a top-notch festival finale, at Bang Your Head!!! they had to hit the brakes and cut the setlist short. They opened their hour-long set in grand style. With the superb Nail Their Tongues, stretched out past ten minutes, taken from the current, newly released »Exile Amongst the Ruins«, and joined later by To Hell or the Hangman and Upon Our Spiritual Deathbed. Early on the band played No Grave Deep Enough from the album »Redemption of the Puritan’s Hand« (2011), and from »To The Nameless Dead« came As Rome Burns (in the middle of the set) and Empire Falls, with which Primordial closed their excellent show in the most ominous way possible. Coffin Ships from the album »The Gathering Wilerness« (2005) rang out too. All the attention goes to the man of theater. The one and only Alan Nemtheanga, who literally hypnotized the crowd. Not just with his presence, but with his stage momentum, his theatrics, his acting. With his preaching. Death everywhere and the black, howling night. The birth of evil and perdition. Temptation all around. Yawning chasms and hollows from which there is no return. A heap of Celtic folk elements and superb dark bombast. Even though Alan is at the center, you sometimes almost forget what a great band is backing him. How superbly they bite and what a mighty sound Primordial create. As a whole. Gibson SG guitars and a Rickenbacker bass. Old school. Yet singular and unique. They don’t make bands like this anymore. At the same time, the compositions are all long and incredibly demanding to listen to. Carried on the wings of a mighty, chilling atmosphere, full of spells and blasphemous hypnosis. Theater, in other words, that would shine even more intensely in a different setting than it did in Balingen.

Japan’s Loudness are always a big attraction when they reach European stages. This time was no different. The crowd gave them a proper welcome. Long-lived Japanese metallers with the exceptional Akira Takasaki in the lineup, a man who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the greatest in his trade when it comes to guitar playing. His playing is full of hellish speed, and he learned a lot from Blackmore. Neoclassical and baroque tricks in the Malmsteen mold are not in short supply, and the man shines in “exotic” solo passages and breakneck showmanship. There’s never, ever a shortage of bubbling salvos of exceptional guitar soloing, and that’s really the basic appeal of every Loudness show. But Akira is far from alone. There’s Minoru Niihara on vocals and bassist Masayoki Yamashita, who are, alongside Akira, the other two original members, while drums have been handled by Masayuki Suzuki since 2008. This afternoon, though, Loudness weren’t the Loudness you’d expect. Something was off. The communication on stage. Bassist Yamashita was pushed all the way back for three quarters of the show. He stuck by the monitors, which stood almost in line with the drums. He only came to the front line when he had to take part in backing vocals, which he did rather limply and indifferently. Only in the last quarter of the set, when he showed a bit more life and finally planted his right foot on the front monitor, did Niihara turn to him theatrically, lift his sunglasses and see him off with bulging eyes in the style of: “Oh, good morning, welcome back among us”. The band played a run of their best-known tracks and presented the new album »Rise To Glory«, which also opened the show. They played the following repertoire: Soul on Fire, I’m Still Alive, Crazy Nights, Like Hell, Heavy Chains, Go For Broke, Until I See The Light, Let It Go, This Lonely Heart, Crazy Doctor, In the Mirror, S.D.I. In short. Loudness are always worth watching. Whenever there’s a chance. Simply because the legendary Japanese metallers are still great on stage. They probably had some kind of spat before the gig, there was quite a bit of reserve and odd looks on stage. We caught them in a more convincing light ten days later, when they played Slovenia’s Metaldays festival.

At the same time, the neighboring hall woke up. German power metallers Mystic Prophecy were playing there, and because of the overlap we only caught part of them. The band has a new member, a Greek guitar virtuoso. A proper “Gus G.” school graduate going by the name “Evan K”. At this show he proved himself with incredible technical polish. The repertoire was mostly the current album »War Brigade« and »Killhammer«, and the band didn’t forget to remind us that it recently released a covers album, »Monuments Uncovered«, when they performed their own take on Oldfield’s Shadow on the Wall. Compact, tight, in tune and of course confident. The band was backed by a deeply invested crowd, which only proves that Mystic Prophecy are at home in Germany. They played the following setlist: Kill the Beast, Savage Souls, Killhammer, Burning Out, The Crucifix, Shadow on the Wall (oig. Mike Oldfield), We Kill! You Die!, To Hell and Back, Metal Brigade, Evil Empires, War Panzer, Ravenlord.

The show by Pretty Maids stirred up quite a bit more interest. They play Bang Your Head!!! pretty much every year. Or at least over the last few years, the stalwart Danish rockers have been extremely frequent visitors to Balingen. So why would this concert be any more interesting than the earlier ones? Simple. It’s 30 years since the cult »Future World« came out, and so the band decided to play the whole album. From the first track to the last of this cult classic. The question wasn’t really how it would sound. That’s not even a question. Pretty Maids are simply too good for anything to go wrong. The only question was how Ronnie would handle the vocals, since it’s known that in recent years he’s lost a bit of range and power. But he held up exceptionally well and sang at a high level, in good form for the day. The legendary vocalist delivered the best he’s got right now, and the crowd was in ecstasy, probably witnessing a live performance of a cult album for the first time, the last time and never again. Pretty Maids filmed this show for a DVD. And that wasn’t all. The running time was hefty. An hour and a half, and the band backed up the last third with tracks from the new album »Kingmaker«, even one track from »Motherland«, and Pandemonuim, also newer. There was still enough time left to bow to the older »Red, Hot And Heavy«. The repertoire they played went like this: Future World, We Came to Rock, Love Games, Yellow Rain, Loud ‘n’ Proud, Rodeo, Needles in the Dark, Eye of the Storm, Long Way to Go, Mother of All Lies, Kingmaker, Bull’s Eye, Little Drops of Heaven, Pandemonium, Back to Back and, as an encore, Red, Hot and Heavy. Hand on heart. Pretty Maids coming to the main stage meant that, even before Powerwolf, we’d actually watched the main headliner of the festival’s third day.

While Pretty Maids were playing, the legendary American old school speed metallers Hexx were playing in the hall. They reactivated in 2011 after a long hiatus. I also spent most of my time enjoying Hexx myself, since this show of theirs was an exclusive. Today Hexx has only two original members, guitarist Dan Watson and drummer John Shafer, while the rest of the crew is made up of Bobbie Wright (guitar), Mike Horn (bass) and vocalist Eddy Vega. Last year the band released an excellent new studio album, »Wrath Of The Reaper«. The big question was how Eddy would pull off the older songs, and how much of the magic known from the old studio tapes the band can still regenerate on stages in 2018. Hexx killed it. Despite the quintet’s relative stiffness, Eddy ran around the stage like mad and worked out, while keeping the mood dynamic with his punchy, furious, high-ranging and slightly harsh vocals. Too bad there weren’t more people in the hall, because the band delivered an excellent show. Hexx weighted their show with tracks from the cult albums: »Under the Spell«, »No Escape« and »Morbid Reality«.

With the Pretty Maids and Hexx shows, the most interesting part of the third day’s program was basically over. Three more acts followed before the end of the festival. Metal revivalists Visigoth in the Volksbankmesse hall, who got a hefty chunk of time and so had the chance to play almost the entire current album »The Conqueror’s Oath«, adding songs from the album »The Revenant King«. The band brings nothing new, but they bite with commitment and fire. In a set of over an hour they played the following repertoire: Dungeon Master, Blades in the Night, Blood Sacrifice, Warrior Queen, Outlive Them All, Hammerforged, Salt City, Steel and Silver, Traitor’s Gate, Mammoth Rider, Iron Brotherhood, Final Spell, The Revenant King.

Because of the unfortunate overlap, we had to skip most of Visigoth. Their show overlapped completely with the evening’s headliners, hot German power metallers Powerwolf. We first saw them in Balingen in 2009, in the pouring rain. They played around noon back then, and there was no feeling that this band, with their “copy-paste” element, would ever get any bigger. Anyway. Superb stage sets, a pile of pyro effects and smoke. A proper stage production, in other words. Even though Powerwolf are an incredibly generic band, one that makes up for the genericness with the glitz and kitsch that adorn their stories about werewolves, vampires and other creatures once conjured up by the fertile human imagination of sprawling Transylvanian heresy, they’re followed by a sizable congregation of fans. And the loyal German crowd, loyal to every headliner in Balingen as a matter of tradition. So, a turnout as it should be. The band put together a setlist mostly made up of tracks from the recently released The Sacrament Of Sin, its predecessor Blessed And Possesed and Blood Of the Saints. They played the following repertoire: Blessed & Possessed, Army of the Night, Resurrection by Erection, Amen & Attack, Demons Are a Girl’s Best Friend, Dead Boys Don’t Cry, Armata Strigoi, Let There Be Night, All We Need Is Blood, Fire and Forgive, Werewolves of Armenia, Incense & Iron, Sanctified With Dynamite, We Drink Your Blood, Lupus Dei. Plenty of glitzy scenery that the performance “hid” behind. A real party playground to close things out. But for everyone who has already seen plenty of gigs in their life and come across many bands with at least a shred of conceptual recognizability, Powerwolf won’t stay in the memory notebooks for very long.

The last band on the bill at this year’s Bang Your Head!!! were Swedish sleaze and glam rock and metal revivalists Crashdiet. Finally something again for everyone who’s into Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and the like. The band has taken on yet another new singer. This time it’s Gabriel Keyes, and otherwise they’re in a lineup identical to the early part of the band’s career. Outstanding turnout, quite a few screaming girls up front, lots of lipstick and teased hair (in the crowd too). Excellent energy. Time for party time. Switching off. The band delivered the best they know how and can right now. The Swedes really played superbly, no slip-ups. Maybe as a quartet they’d benefit from one more guitar, to sound even more bristling and louder, but everything works with total confidence. Martin Sweet covers a huge amount of space alone with his guitar and does it very effectively. The guitarist and his buddy, bassist Peter London, have held on to the most sleaze and glam lipstick-posing over the years. Even though Gabriel drove things really well and handled the repertoire confidently, he lacks charisma. The guy comes across as too “nice” on stage and gives off the look of a good boy. You definitely can’t expect him to fill the shoes of the irreplaceable founder and late vocalist of the band, Dave Lepard, and yet. Despite the vocal competence, the feeling hung in the air throughout the show that the whole thing was missing the dot on the “i”. The band played the following repertoire: Tikket, Riot in Everyone, So Alive, Queen Obscene / 69 Shots, We Are the Legion, Down With the Dust, In the Raw, It’s a Miracle, Die Another Day, Blues Jam / Used to Love Her (orig. Guns N’ Roses), Cocaine Cowboys and, as an encore: Breakin’ the Chainz, Miss Pain / Rebel, Generation Wild.

So that’s another Bang Your Head!!! in the books. The twentieth one. Maybe day three’s program was missing a more attractive, resounding name to put right at the very end. The interesting stuff effectively wrapped up that day with Pretty Maids, so there was no sense of a closing crescendo. Still, what wasn’t missing this year either was the famous fireworks and, of course, a hearty “see you later” until next year, when we head back to Balingen to party again.

author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik