Performing: Axel Rudi Pell, Brainstorm, Eternal Reign, Kissin’ Dynamite
Location: Balingen, Messegelände, Germany
Date: Thursday, 13.07.2011
The year flew by, and the traditional German Bang Your Head!!! festival is back on our doorstep, a true paradise for every die-hard metalhead and rocker worth their salt. As usual, the day before the gates of the actual festival swing open, a warm-up “mini-festival” goes down in the Messehalle on the festival grounds. Last year it was dedicated to reviving the glory days of the N.W.O.B.H.M. legends, with Saxon wrapping up the night as headliners. This year the organizer handed the warm-up show over exclusively to local bands. The evening was painted old-school, in the glow of classic rock and power metal, by Eternal Reign, Kissin’ Dynamite, Brainstorm and headliner Axel Rudi Pell with his backing band.
Right at eight o’clock sharp, Germany’s Eternal Reign from Bremen took the hall’s stage. The band is a sextet made up of Björn Meyer (keyboards), Dirk Stühmer (vocals), Jörg Hassel (bass), Lennart Medebach (drums), Michael Sebastian (guitar) and Torsten Fünfhaus (guitar). A crew of seasoned old tomcats who like to rename themselves Eternal Dio when it’s time to morph into a Dio tribute band, they’ve been around since 2002 and, despite nearly a decade of existence, are only releasing their third studio album, “The Dawn Of Reckoning”, this August. Fifty minutes of sturdy warm-up, cruising through predictable, classically built, symphonically seasoned epics of the German school of heavy metal, didn’t set off any Teutonic tremors of a new musical revolution on this planet. But Eternal Reign came across as an extremely tight, well-oiled unit that cashed in on its role as first support act with fully confident, assured playing. They’re without a doubt musically interesting for fans of the melodic, original form of power metal rooted in classic hard rock, like late-romantic Black Sabbath (Dio, Tony Martin era) and/or Rainbow.
Kissin’ Dynamite are a quintet of potent young stallions who already played Bang Your Head two years ago. Back then they presented themselves as typical revivalists of old-school German heavy metal, both in the style of their song arrangements and in their looks. They’re locals, from Reutlingen near Balingen, and have barely passed the age of 18. Johannes Braun (vocals), his brother Ande Braun (guitar), Jim Müller (guitar), Steffen Haile (bass) and Andi Schnitzer (drums) are a real phenomenon in that respect. The band, which changed its name from Blues Kids to Kissin’ Dynamite in 2008 (after an AC/DC song), came to Balingen this time with a second studio album in their pocket, “Addicted To Metal” (2010). In the two years since we last saw them, Kissin’ Dynamite have completely overhauled their stage look and tarted themselves up as a sleaze rock band, evidently taking cues from the rising phalanx of the Scandinavian revival of that late-eighties sound, led by bands like Crash Diet, Hardcore Superstar etc… as well as from the success of those hot-blooded, cocky Australian rock n’ roll upstarts and AC/DC copycats Airbourne.
The band surprises with the sheer confidence and polish of their performance. They don’t lack dynamics or killer stage energy. The stage is their home, and it’s a pleasure to watch Kissin’ Dynamite’s hot-blooded yet finely honed stage show. With his teased-up hair, and especially once he’d slapped a hat on top, Johannes Braun was uncannily reminiscent of Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks), with the difference, of course, that Johannes is still in perfect vocal shape for his age, explosive when it comes to hitting the range and extremely convincing at carrying power through the registers. The band is still searching for its basic musical direction, but you can let that slide, since the guys are still wet behind the ears and are busy developing, virtuously, as they soak up the musical treasure trove. Fifty minutes of another great performance flew by in a flash.
Brainstorm are a power metal band that has crossed the German power metal school superbly with Teutonic touches borrowed from Euro thrash metal. They worked just enough of it into their riffs and rhythms to land on a recognizable, convincing mix of superior punch, through which a basic devotion to well-crafted melodies shines at every step, with no use for half-measure solutions. Hence the somewhat darker atmosphere that clings to their songs, compared to typical representatives of European-school power metal. The quintet, with original members Milan Loncaric (guitar), Thorsten Ihlenfeldt (guitar) and drummer Dieter Bernert, joined later by Andy B. Franck on vocals and Antonio Ieva (bass), has been knocking around the scene since way back in 1989. Even so, the band only released its debut in 1997. Brainstorm were given a longer set, which, given their tenure and impressive discography, whose quality bloomed especially after the arrival of the phenomenal vocalist Andy, is only fitting.
Brainstorm are an exceptional live unit. Their shows rank among the best when compared with their German power metal peers. The memory of how they overshadowed Primal Fear as the support act in Munich in November 2009, on Primal Fear’s European tour at the time, is still very much alive. Luckily, Axel Rudi Pell is a band cut from a completely different cloth, so that kind of comparison, weighing up who blows whom off the stage, doesn’t apply this time.
The sound was very solid, though Andy was a bit low in the mix, and the stage delivery was devastating. Brilliant playing, great vocal form from Andy, perfectly placed backing harmonies from the rest of the band, an extremely tight rhythm section and massive curtains of solid riffing. An unstoppable onslaught. A great setlist, running through Forsake What I Believed, Highs Without Lows, Blind Suffering, Shiver, Worlds Are Coming Through, Hollow Hideaway, All Those Words, Fire Walks With Me and, to close, How Do You Feel and Under Lights, really lifted the evening to a higher level, and the heat in the hall rose to boiling point, which the crowd’s fantastic participation and support confirmed.
Axel Rudi Pell is a legend in Germany. A man who got his chops in the eighties in Steeler before launching his solo career, he’s a musical oddball. He comes from the school of Richie Blackmore and everything that smells of Rainbow or old Deep Purple. His quintet is built that way too, and tries to function within that template. The lineup, unchanged since 1998, consists of Axel on guitar, Hardline singer Johnny Gioeli, one of the best metal drummers around, Mike “The Troll” Terrana, keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg, and the only member who’s been in the band since the very beginning, bassist Volker Krawczak.
As expected, the band kicked off its set with material from the latest studio release, “The Crest” (2010). That meant the well-oiled hard rock number with an anthemic feel, Too Late! Axel, who in his stage presence, gestures, use of sound and soloing style makes no secret of the lessons he took from Richie Blackmore, naturally dresses the part on stage in the same manner.
Johny Gioeli shone vocally from the first second to the last. The DVDs “Live Over Europe” (2008) and “One Night Live” (2010) already prove that Gioeli is back in full vocal form and that the botched vocals on the live release “Knights Live” (2002) are just a fleeting memory. A hallmark of Axel Rudi Pell shows is that the songs are thoroughly seasoned with jams. The band leaned on that more and more in the second third and the closing stretch of the gig.
Mike Terrana soon arrived at his solo spot, in which he once again had everyone in attendance rolling their eyes in disbelief at everything that can be coaxed out of a drum kit. Terrana is a wizard, and his solo could go on as long as he likes without the listener ever getting tired of it. Still, this time Mike reined in the headlong character of his solos a bit, which only he can pull off, thanks to regular training that probably reaches the level of an athlete’s regimen. Anyone who knows Mike Terrana’s work in Rage will do a double take at what the heck the guy is doing in Axel Rudi Pell’s stereotypically built style. It’s obvious that Mike enjoys channeling the persona and work of Cozy Powell when he’s on stage with Axel. Well, to be even more precise, Mike joining the backing crew of Tarja Turunen’s outfit is an exotic move overall, but a logical one once you remember the fat paycheck.
Of course, Axel and company laid on a heap of stretched-out jams. He treated himself to an especially generous helping during the Rainbow cover The Temple Of The King, which just would not end. Here it’s worth highlighting the outstanding contribution of keyboardist Doernberg, who skillfully covered for the playful Axel on stage during the tricky performance of this superior song. That superb reinterpretation of a Rainbow classic further confirmed that Axel’s lineup has quite a bit of mileage behind it. Axel didn’t hold back elsewhere either. Here and there he wove in the characteristic melody of the Deep Purple classic Mistreated, and again the Doernberg–Pell duo drew attention by working in motifs from the Purple song Burn.
In this whole rhapsodically conceived show of classic hard rock seasoning and symphonic variety, the underused excellent voice of Johny Gioeli somehow kept pushing to the foreground. In that sense, an Axel Rudi Pell gig would surely catch fire more if it were made up of more short songs and less instrumental “showboating”. That would also lift the show in dynamics and interest, but as it is, the content kind of fizzles out, since the crew on stage is rather static throughout the performance.
Just as eye-catching is the sloppy stage presentation of the rest of the frontline, especially the rolling “giants” Doernberg and Krawczak, who long ago earned a hefty dose of lessons from boss Axel in that department. But they obviously aren’t obliged to heed them. Gioeli, too, could add a touch of elegance on stage and swap the baggy black metal tees for a stylish shirt in the future. What the hell am I “blabbering” about? The band has been trudging across stages like this for almost fifteen years, and there’s surely no change coming.
An hour and a half of excellent playing that still held a few reserves back. But the great guitar virtuoso is happy with his shows with his crew and doesn’t lose sleep over it. So the feeling after the concert experience is that it’s perfectly enough to see Axel once in your life. If you never catch his gig, you’re not missing much. You would be missing out, though, if you skipped Deep Purple. “The German Blackmore” and his crew justified their role as headliners; the German crowd knows the band very well, and holds it in the highest esteem and respect. They gave them a great reception again this time in the Messehalle, and the pre-festival warm-up evening was a full success.
Of course, the partying didn’t end with the gig. It was time for some juicy views of the “striptease” dance of nimble, rubber-limbed, shapely bunnies, with the beer flowing in streams long into the night.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
