Author: Sebastijan Videc
Photos: Jerneja Jerak
Video: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Schwarzlsee, Graz, Austria
Concert date: 02.08.2014
Ticket price: 109.90€/149.90€
After a hot rock Friday that left rosy memories on the skin of quite a few people there, an even hotter metal Saturday was on the cards. Even the drive from the Styrian metropolis toward Austria hinted that Mother Nature would be joining in on the day’s program, as steeply rising cumulus clouds were quickly merging into threatening storm masses.
With a whopping nine bands on the bill, Saturday kicked off very early, at least musically, at quarter past twelve. We caught the Graz locals Norikum right at the end of their set. In their short slot, the youngsters mostly promoted songs from their debut Regress In Progress, released this year. With their mix of melodic death and thrash metal, they somehow managed to entertain the rather small crowd gathered in front of the stage.
Belphegor were the next to conquer the stage. In their good twenty years of existence, the band from Salzburg has firmly claimed its spot on the black metal scene. Black metal bands playing in daylight always lose a bit of the overall atmosphere, and the blazing sun doesn’t spare the genre-mandatory face paint either. When it comes to corpse paint, special mention goes to guitarist Sigurd, whose three-dimensional hand paint was so good it looked like a half-decayed skeleton was rubbing the strings. And we can’t skip the fact that all the blood you see on stage (and in the videos) is real! Fake blood is for pussies, says frontman Helmuth. Belphegor are releasing their new album Conjuring The Death on August 8, and the staging as well as the setlist were geared toward promoting it. Helmuth growled his parts into a microphone while masked in a gas mask (Gasmask Terror).
Apparently all that summoning of Satan, zombies and similar creatures and deities seriously pissed off Nature, because a dark gray mass started rising west of the grounds and soon blotted out the sun. It looked like last year’s scenario was about to repeat: sun blazing on the first day, then on the second a heavy storm with hail cutting the afternoon sets short. Soon the dark clouds covered the sun, and the sudden chill finally pulled a few more people in front of the stage, just as the Americans Hellyeah were starting. The band is actually one of those so-called supergroups made up of musicians from several big names in rock. In this case that means bands like Mudvayne, Bloodsimple, Knives Out! and, probably best known around here, Pantera. Vinnie Paul, drummer of the latter and brother of the late Dimebag Darrell, started playing again with Hellyeah after a long absence following his brother’s death. Charismatic frontman Chad had no trouble getting the crowd going with a mix of older hits and new material from the recently released Blood for Blood. A sound that’s slightly reminiscent of the aforementioned Pantera plus an energetic performance make Hellyeah an excellent live band. After the show the members could be spotted among the audience, and Vinnie was wearing a T-shirt reading We Remember Dimebag!
Next up were the German folk merrymakers In Extremo. A big crowd of musicians in leather outfits with a whole host of instruments, from the well-known ones to those whose names only the biggest connoisseurs know. They’re evidently hugely popular in German-speaking countries, since the grounds were at their fullest of the whole day right during their set, and their tunes got most of the crowd dancing and revelling. A pair of bagpipes, assorted percussion, plucked strings, hurdy-gurdy and the like, in harmony with a classic rock lineup and lyrics in German: a recipe for success across our northern border.
The big storm was moving north, just a stone’s throw from Graz, when another set of black metal legends, Dimmu Borgir, took up their battle positions with the help of pyrotechnics. The core of the band, singer Shagrath and guitarist Silenoz, has been plowing its way through the black metal underground for 21 years. Despite accusations that their symphonic leanings and musical experimentation have cost them touch with true black metal, they still hold a status that hordes of fans worship. Four years have passed since their last record, Abrahadabra, and a new album isn’t expected until next year. With a handful of shows, Saturday’s among them, Dimmu Borgir are returning to the stage after a good year of silence. With their more progressive, at moments even thrashy guitar sound, rich synthesized orchestral backing and impressive pyro effects, the Norwegians put on a real show. And just like Belphegor before them, they were unfortunately done no favors by their time slot. Still, they managed to lure even more people up front, who, unlike on Friday, trickled in very slowly.
Saxon, who replaced the Norwegian darklords on stage, need no special introduction. They’re one of the few bands that hasn’t wavered much in quality over their long history, onstage or in the studio, and, as their latest album Sacrifice proves, they’re nowhere near ready for the scrapheap. Scarratt and Quinn confidently lay down a distorted sonic foundation for Biff’s excellent vocals, which, despite his 63 years, don’t show them. With twenty albums under their belt, there’s no shortage of hits to build a setlist from. Classics like Heavy Metal Thunder, 747 (Stranger in the Night) and Wheels of Steel were joined by a few tracks from the current Sacrifice. Sadly, it increasingly looks like Saxon can no longer entertain younger generations – after the disastrous turnout last year at Kino Šiška, a drop in the crowd was noticeable at this festival too. Such a shame, because Saxon are one of those NWOBHM bands that helped pave the way for the entire heavy metal scene.
With their set, Saxon opened the big finale of Saturday night, as the hugely popular Blind Guardian were up next. The Seerock show was only their third after an almost two-year break, which the members used for rest, side projects, and work on the upcoming album as well as the long-in-the-making orchestral album The Dwarves. Saturday’s show proved that Hansi and the gang, along with their loyal metal family, were hungry for each other. Despite Hansi’s perhaps slightly dulled frontman act, the band created a fantastic atmosphere worthy of the Blind Guardian name. The expected walk through the band’s biggest hits tied the crowd together with a magical thread that pulled everyone into a mass singalong, especially on ballads like Bard’s Song, and they wrapped up with the classics Mirror, Mirror and Valhalla. Mark May 21, 2015 in your calendars as a must-see show in Ljubljana!
Saxon and Blind Guardian successfully warmed up the crowd for probably the biggest stars, or at least the treat of the evening – Twisted Sister! The guys you wouldn’t bring home for dinner got the whole place on its feet, and even the people sitting in the VIP stand got a proper scolding from Dee Snider. TS are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their breakthrough album Stay Hungry this year, which also coincided with 30 years since their last show in Austria. The band sincerely apologized for such a long absence, in words but above all with an excellent, energy-packed performance. That they’re true rockers at heart is also shown by the fact that they played probably their biggest hit, We’re Not Gonna Take It, pretty soon after the start. Dee Snider accompanied that decision with the words that those who came to see them only for that one song could leave, and those who came to see Twisted Sister should stay. The guys are, true to their image, posers indeed, and they even let photographers shoot the entire concert from the photo pit. In fact, the whole stage was full of them, especially Snider, who slowly stripped down over the course of the show, while the pyro did its thing during The Fire Still Burns, and especially during Burn in Hell, with Snider lit by a red spotlight. Guitarist Jay Jay French also took a swipe at the kids who show up on the various Idols, X Factors and the like; the kids tremble and thank the crowds because they had to slog for a whole 15 weeks to become famous, while famous rock and metal bands had to slog for decades to get there. TS played a truly excellent show, and were sent off the stage with loud ovations.
The closing act of the night, ten past midnight, went to the American thrash giants Slayer. They returned to Seerock once again and brutalized the last atoms of strength out of a mostly younger crowd than the day before. A well-oiled machine, which Slayer certainly are, cut precisely through the soft tissue in front of them and proved once more why they’re one of the most popular bands in the world. They caught Seerock somewhere in the middle of their European summer festival tour. Kerry King, on the right side, showed he’s still the king of shredding, and the only minus goes to Araya’s vocals, which at times lose depth and consequently just screech into the microphone.
Seerock is evidently becoming a very popular festival right in our backyard. A lovely setting for resting and camping by the lake, the stage’s proximity to all the side activities (zipline, wakeboarding, paintball,…) as well as the improving organization of the event itself all promise growth for the festival. True, a two-day ticket for the so-called wavebreaker – fan pit costs as much as a weeklong one for Metaldays, but for that you get a whole heap of big rock and metal names in two days, or you can choose to chill out to your favorite music while lounging on the shore or soaking your ass in the warm lake.
Setlist
Blind Guardian
1. Sacred Worlds
2. Welcome to Dying
3. Nightfall
4. The Script for my Requiem
5. Mordred’s Song
6. Bright Eyes
7. Tanelorn (Into the Void)
8. Imaginations From the Other Side
9. The Bard’s Song – Into the Forest
10. Mirror Mirror
11. Valhalla
Twisted Sister
1. Stay Hungry
2. The Kids Are Back
3. You Can’t Stop Rock’n’Roll
4. Captain Howdy
5. Street Justice
6. We’re Not Gonna Take It
7. I Believe In Rock’n’roll
8. Shoot ‘Em Down
9. Under the Blade
10. The Fire Still Burns
11. The Price
12. Burn In Hell
13. I Wanna Rock
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14. Come Out And Play (intro)
15. S.M.F.
Slayer
1. Hell Awaits
2. The Antichrist
3. Necrophiliac
4. Hate Worldwide
5. Postmortem
6. Mandatory Suicide
7. Captor of Sin
8. War Ensemble
9. Born of Fire
10. Disciple
11. Seasons in the Abyss
12. Dead Skin Mask
13. Raining Blood
14. Black Magic
15. South of Heaven
16. Angel of Death
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