Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany
Concert date: 13.07.2013
Attendance: 10.000
Ticket price: 95,00€
After two days in Balingen our heads were heavy, our legs tired and our faces baked by the sun, but the running order for day three (counting the warm-up day with Candlemass) was having none of it, no compromises! At ten in the morning (okay, a few minutes later) the main stage was kicked off by Rebellious Spirit, local hard rock up-and-comers who were camping in the VIP area just a few meters from the RockLine crew. I’ve known the band since last year, when I caught them on the stage of sister festival Rock of Ages, and from what I hear, they haven’t managed to move their careers up a single notch since. They put a lot of effort into pushing the band forward, as the heavy promo campaign shows, but on stage they came across as far too shy and unsure of themselves. Rebellious Spirit follow the guidelines of the eighties hard rock school, but riffs that aren’t playful enough and Janikk Fischer’s boyish vocals keep them stuck deep in the waters of mediocrity, so in a scant forty-five minutes they couldn’t squeeze much more than a few curious glances out of the thin crowd.
The sun was only just starting its afternoon climb toward the top of the sky when Alpha Tiger took the stage, somewhat more seasoned German heavy metallers who, just like the band before them, put plenty of thought into how they look. The yellow-and-black scheme of the bandanas, guitars and even the mic stand instantly links them to American heavy rock veterans Stryper, though the German lads’ music is even rawer and more aggressive. They, too, look for inspiration for their work, the fruit of which is the current album »Beneath The Surface«, in the eighties heritage, as the W.A.S.P. and Riot covers in their repertoire proved. Their stage presence was more confident, and the frontman was more convincing both in his vocal delivery and in talking to the crowd, so Alpha Tiger deserve a thumbs up for their set.
It’s a weird feeling when one of the festival’s most anticipated highlights arrives before noon! Third on the bill, playing to an already somewhat bigger crowd below the main stage of this year’s Bang Your Head!!! festival, were Hell, British heavy metal veterans who never managed to release a single album during their classic eighties run, so their name eventually sank into complete oblivion. The band got back together a few years ago and started a new, this time more fruitful journey, finally releasing their debut »Human Remains« in 2011, which has been the backbone of their live repertoire ever since. Hell brought a proper show to the stage! The theatricality of newly recruited frontman David Bower knows no bounds! The rest of the band gave the vocalist a reliable instrumental foundation, but next to his polished stage show they were reduced to extras. Bower had the microphone strapped to his face, so his hands were free the whole time, ready to suck whatever good was left out of every last soul in the front row! A wide vocal range, a charismatic personality and a well-honed performance that included toying with the crowd put Bower, and the whole band with him, in an excellent light, and I get shivers just thinking what kind of hellish atmosphere Hell whip up in a more intimate club setting. Given the strong support the band currently enjoys in the metal world, a strong label (Nuclear Blast) and, not least, the good connections of the famous producer and Hell guitarist Andy Sneap, there’s probably no need to worry that Hell will vanish from the metal map any time soon.
The next hour belonged to British heavy metal veterans Angel Witch. Unlike the band before them, they managed to put out three albums in the eighties and for a short while ruled the roost among the most popular names of the new wave of British heavy metal. From what we saw, though, their golden years are clearly behind them, even though their current album, »As Above, So Below«, released last year, is very, very decent. Angel Witch came across as far too static on stage, the songs they played had no fire in them, and on top of that they got the unlucky slot right after Hell, when the folks below the stage were reveling in the primal form of heavy metal, which Angel Witch sadly couldn’t replicate. The only remaining original member, Kevin Heybourne, can’t really be blamed for anything except a bored stage demeanor. The man keeps the band alive despite constant lineup changes, and it seems that with the current lineup and the new album he’s once again found a formula that, if not a winning one, is at least a consistent one. The set list once again consisted almost exclusively of songs from the cult debut »Angel Witch«: White Witch, Sorcerers, Angel of Death…, with just one newer track squeezed in, Guillotine. Loyal fans of the band, myself included, are surely annoyed that songs from the second and third albums never make it into the set. Sure, they’ve been overshadowed by the debut for three decades now, but they’re just as brilliant. The Brits closed their set of mixed feelings with the immortal classic Angel Witch, which finally coaxed a bit of energy out of the crowd, but sadly they only confirmed my thesis from their Vienna solo show a few months ago (report here): they’ll have to change something radically in their live formula if they ever want to treat fans to another concert triumph.
Sometimes a pleasant surprise comes from the direction you’d least expect! It was delivered by Morgana Lefay, Swedish power metallers who almost completely froze their activity in the new millennium and so quickly dropped off the current metal map. From the opening track The Source of Pain onward, the band held a firm stance on stage, which blond frontman Charles Rytkönen, along with guitarist Tony Eriksson the only remaining original member of a band whose history goes all the way back to 1989, kept building on with a committed performance and constant contact with the crowd. In just under an hour of playing in the blazing sun, the Swedes presented themselves as a tight-knit unit with an intriguing presence, since their style combines two things that often clash in the metal world: aggressive twin-guitar riffs and a melodic side, best showcased by their mighty choruses. Among mostly older material they slipped in an interesting cover of In The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson), and they wrapped up their Balingen set with Maleficium, which once even got played on MTV.
After the breakup of Nevermore, extremely popular in the first decade of the new millennium, most of their fans found some consolation for missing Nevermore in the revived Sanctuary, cult American heavy / power metallers featuring two former Nevermore members, vocalist Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard. At first a cloud of doubt hung over the band, mostly because of Dane’s alcohol problems and the weaker shows that followed, but Sanctuary are slowly and steadily pushing it away. In Balingen they put on a show worth sinning for, and on the wings of Darel’s surprisingly good vocal form they gave hope again to those of us who hadn’t seen them before. Besides the eighties classics, they played us the brand-new Frozen, which the band can rightly be proud of from what I heard, and which also heralds a new, long-awaited album in the live setting. Original guitarist Lenny Rutledge was joined on guitar by Brad Hull, who came on board two years ago. The duo was extremely effective at laying down sharp riffs and building a dark atmosphere, though the real verdict on their partnership can only come after the release of the album in the works, which carries the working title »The Year The Sun Died«. The scorching sun in Balingen that day didn’t die (yet), nor did the psychedelic motifs of the Jefferson Airplane cover White Rabbit manage to chase it away, and to top off a successful showing the band added the original classics Soldiers of Steel and Future Tense.
Rage, one of the pillars of the German power metal school, hardly need an introduction. The trio of Peavy Wagner (vocals, bass), Victor Smolski (guitar) and Andre Hilgers (drums) is hugely popular on home soil, so a decent number of black-clad souls gathered below the stage. Rage released a new album last year, »21«, proving that despite their veteran status on the scene they haven’t said their last word creatively. With it, Rage moved away from the symphonic sound of its predecessor »String To A Web«, so the Balingen set, about half of which was filled with songs from the current record, was tailor-made for fans of their new-millennium sound, which they’ve stylistically returned to. Although Peavy is the undisputed boss of the band, it’s nice to see him give the guitar guru on his left, Smolski, free rein for the occasional bit of guitar showboating, like the one he pulled off during the speedy Soundchaser. It’s precisely this fruitful partnership between Peavy and Smolski, with consistently good releases in the new millennium, that has put Rage back where they belong. The duo on the front line laid down venomous lines and showed off tremendous tightness, while Hilgers rounded out the chemistry of this minimalist heavy metal machine behind the kit. Six years have passed since Mike Terrana got the boot, and he’s long been a full member of the band.
Next up were Thunder, one of the (most) exclusive names on this year’s festival bill! After splitting up, Thunder came back to life with a show at London’s High Voltage festival in 2011, and ever since they’ve been delighting fans with occasional appearances, even though their scale has shrunk considerably since the late eighties, when they were tearing up the British rock charts. Thunder put on a fantastic hard rock show focused on their finest album, »Back Street Symphony« (1989), from which they played Dirty Love, Until My Dying Day and Back Street Symphony, while the long-awaited hit Love Walked In surprisingly didn’t make the set. The central figure of the show was Danny Bowes, once a seductive brown-haired frontman and now a charming gray-haired one, who entertained the crowd between songs with spicy British Monthy Python-style humor. Thunder looked totally relaxed on stage. Since coming back to the scene (in the classic lineup!) with no label contracts hanging over their heads, they’ve obviously decided that their mission is limited to carefree fun on European stages, and that relaxed spirit and rock’n’roll tomfoolery settled over Balingen with feather-light ease during the hour-long set.
If the second festival day had so far been tailor-made for fans of the traditional heavy metal heritage, fans of a more aggressive metal school finally got their five minutes of pleasure at half past six in the afternoon, as At The Gates, representatives of the famous Gothenburg melodic death metal scene, stormed the stage. Representatives? More like one of its founders, along with In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. At Tha Gates came back to life after splitting in the mid-nineties with a one-off reunion tour in 2008. But the feel of a full wallet (read: the itch to play) was obviously magical enough that it didn’t stay a one-off tour. At The Gates fired up their machinery at full power in 2010 and kept on playing, which last year finally brought them to our parts as well. In the studio, At The Gates remain at four albums from the nineties, so fans of their classic sound had it made again this time! The band is in outstanding live form, and from the opening track Slaughter of the Soul onward the Swedes marched through the set like an express train with no reverse gear! Frontman Thomas Lindberg still rasps in that deep voice that makes you feel gloomy and hemmed in without meaning to, which is of course exactly his intention! In the middle of the set At The Gates paid tribute to the late guitarist Jeff Hanneman with the Slayer cover Captor of Sin, and in their old manner they closed their walk through their most celebrated album »Slaughter of the Soul« (1995) with the technical bomb Blinded By Fear. Necks were cracking like crazy as the melodic death metal lesson came to an end!
According to Peter »Mungo« Gregorc, a fellow BYH!!! sufferer every year, Iced Earth are one of the bands who, after the inevitable farewell of heavy metal dinosaurs like Maiden, Priest, Purple and Sabbath, will take up the torch of the genre’s giants and become one of metal’s main standard-bearers. He’s probably not far off. With every new release Iced Earth grow their fan base, something few bands that have been on the scene for a solid twenty years or more can boast. It’s a turbulent period for Jon Schaffer and company. After the first nightingale and signature voice Matt Barlow left the band to focus on family life, Iced Earth were forced to find a suitable replacement. They found him in Canadian frontman Stu Block, whom fans, judging by the great reception of the album »Dystopia«, have welcomed warmly. His performance was the main target of most eyes in the crowd. The likeable Block has definitely trained his vocals by listening to Barlow’s recordings, which was audible in the older classics like Dark Saga and Burning Times, but he has also already started building his own vocal identity, based mainly on quick tonal leaps from lows to highs and back. Hands thrown high in the air during the newest Dystopia and Anthem prove that the band’s ship is sailing in the right direction! The charismatic guitarist Schaffer commanded it from the left side of the stage with a grim, determined look, and by the looks of it, his uncompromising grip on everything going on around the band is the workhorse that pulls it forward. All five on stage were dressed in denim, which isn’t exactly a common sight in the metal world, but they get a pass since they’re Americans. Iced Earth built their set mostly from epic compositions with a distinctly atmospheric pedigree, and in that respect A Question of Heaven and Watching Over Me fit nicely into the set, while with Pure Evil and Iced Earth, fans of their early, strictly speed metal era got their share too. When the band had already tossed their souvenirs into the crowd, a thumbs-up from the head organizer hinted that they had a few extra minutes, so for a farewell they hit us with The Hunter. A fantastic show, after which Stu drilled the famous motto into our brains: »Each and every one of you is heavy fuckin’ metal«!!!
The grand finale of the seventeenth Bang Your Head was delivered by Accept, unbreakable standard-bearers of the most traditional heavy metal heritage. The festival keeps up the tradition of always having one German headliner, so for the second time in three years the legendary metallers from Solingen took the spot. If two years ago the show was filmed and (partly) released on DVD, this time around things were more relaxed, and the five on stage let loose without a second thought and literally exploded across the stage in front of the home crowd.
In the last three years Accept have come an incredible way. Their comeback exceeded all expectations, and in 2013 the Germans run like a well-oiled machine built from the best parts in their entire history! Even a band half their age wouldn’t be ashamed of the youthful exuberance of the main protagonists on stage, Mark Tornillo (vocals), Wolf Hoffmann (guitar) and Peter Baltes (bass), so with the immortal lumberjack riffs of marches like Restless and Wild and Losers and Winners, no wonder the crowd in the front rows acted like they’d lost control of their brain cortex! Besides the classic eighties hits, Accept filled a good chunk of the set with comeback-era songs. After a series of albums a notch below par in the nineties, the break was obviously long enough for the band’s creative side to refresh itself and put out two highly praised albums, »Blood of the Nations« (2010) and »Stalingrad« (2012), whose songs, mood-wise, add even more to the primal energy roaring out of the six-strings of the Wolf Hoffmann / Herman Frank tandem over the course of the show. One of the most monumental moments mid-set was the performance of Stalingrad, when after the instrumental part ended Tornillo came panting onto the stage and waved an Accept flag over our heads. The old boys on stage were enjoying themselves as if it were their last show. The smiles of happiness, which start behind the drum kit on the face of Stefan Schwarzmann, spread like wildfire to the rest of the crew, who breathed even more life into the songs with a dynamic performance. Frontman Mark Tornillo is a total hoot! With his slight build he resembles his predecessor Udo Dirkscneider, but compared to Udo’s annoying presence he’s the embodiment of positive energy, which in his old age has apparently become a regular companion of Accept. The only comical thing is the situation between songs, since the American-born frontman doesn’t speak German apart from a few words, so the addresses of the biggest German metal band (ok, let’s leave the Scorpions alone for a second) in the heart of Germany… come in English. During the longer instrumental excursions Tornillo stepped into the background and generally left the space to his comrade on the right side of the stage, Hoffmann, who with Baltes put on a slightly naive, fun-loving show for the crowd during Bulletproof. Meanwhile night had fallen over the grounds, and Accept used it as a backdrop to serve up their iron repertoire, which didn’t lack Fast as a Shark, Metal Heart and of course Balls to the Wall. Experiencing an Accept march in front of a twelve-thousand-strong German crowd: simply priceless!
Before and after Accept, cult German thrash metallers Exumer and their gothic death metal colleagues Crematory were raising hell in the neighboring hall, but the indescribable crush and the toll of three days of festival fatigue simply took their share. We’ll make it up to both bands at the first opportunity, of course!
Setlist
HELL:
1. Overture (Themes From ‘Deathsquad’)
2. Let Battle Commence
3. On Earth as It Is in Hell
4. The Oppressors
5. Blasphemy and the Master
6. Plague and Fyre
7. No Martyr’s Cage
—encore—
8. The Quest
MORGANA LEFAY:
1. The Source of Pain
2. Rooms of Sleep
3. Master of the Masquerade
4. Another Dawn
5. Hollow
6. Angel’s Deceit
7. I Roam
8. In The Court of the Crimson King
9. Maleficium
SANCTUARY:
1. Taste Revenge
2. Seasons of Destruction
3. Die for My Sins
4. Battle Angels
5. Frozen
6. World is Wired
7. The Mirror Black
8. White Rabbit
9. Soldiers of Steel
10. Future Tense
RAGE:
1. House Wins
2. Twenty One
3. Forever Dead
4. Straight to Hell
5. Feel My Pain
6. Soundchaser
7. Refuge
8. Higher Than the Sky
ICED EARTH:
1. Dystopia
2. Dark Saga
3. Pure Evil
4. Burning Times
5. I Died for You
6. V
7. A Question of Heaven
8. Anthem
9. Boiling Point
10. Watching Over Me
11. Iced Earth
————
12. The Hunter
ACCEPT:
1. Hung, Drawn and Quartered
2. Hellfire
3. Restless and Wild
4. Losers and Winners
5. Stalingrad
6. Breaker
7. Shadow Soldiers
8. Bucket Full of Hate
9. Bulletproof
(incl. Wolf + Peter Duel)
10. Pandemic
11. Princess of the Dawn
12. Up to the Limit
13. Fast as a Shark
————-
14. Metal Heart
15. Teutonic Terror
16. Balls to the Wall
Photo gallery
