Location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany
Date: Saturday, 16.07.2016
The third and final day of the 21st Bang Your Head!!! festival in the German town of Balingen finally brought a completely dry, sunny day. Of course, it wasn’t without its morning mugginess, but we tamed that by hiding out in the shady spots of the old town center. So we caught the Swedish revivalists of old-school heavy metal and heavy rock, Black Trip, who opened the last day’s program on the main stage at exactly 11:30 a.m., only in the closing minutes of their set. The band has been around since 2004 and has two albums under its belt. After birth pangs, or rather some early years of finding their feet, they only caught the wind in their sails in 2011, when the lineup settled down. Although the band is a young one, its members are seasoned. It’s led by guitarist (and former bassist) Peter Stjärnvind, who once played in Entombed and Nifelheim, and the lineup is rounded out by two former Enforcer members, vocalist Joseph Tholl and drummer Jonas Wikstrand, plus guitarist Johan Bergebäck and bassist Sebastian Ramstedt, who came over from Ordo Inferus. After the album »Goin’ Under« from 2013, the band released its second album »Shadowline« last year, which was enough to put together a nice 40-minute set woven from old-school metal inspiration. In the closing minutes of the show, as much as we caught of it, it wasn’t hard to hear the influences of Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and UFO. If you’re a sworn devotee of the old metal school, Black Trip are a band worth checking out.
The girls took over the stage next. Well, let’s say ladies instead. Veterans of heavy metal. The all-female Girlschool. Instead of minding their grandkids at home, in their early sixties they still prefer roaming the stages of the world. They did their last proper tour just last autumn, when they opened the evenings together with Saxon for the late punks of rock’n’roll, the one and only Motörhead, on their final tour promoting the album »Bad Magic«. It’s great to see them defying time. Three of them are original members and inseparable since 1977: Enid Williams on bass, singer and rhythm guitarist Kim McAuliffe, and drummer Denise Duffort. After the tragic death (from spinal cancer) of original member Kelly Johnson, lead guitar duties were taken over by Jackie Chambers in 2008. The quintet is still sharp as a razor. The classics from the album »Hit And Run«, six of which made the set (C’mon Let’s Go, Future Flash, the title track, The Hunter, Kick It Down, Watch Your Step), sound phenomenal, truly “evergreen”, and even in their later years the band shows incredible confidence and tight, compact chemistry. Most of the stage was filled by Jackie Chambers, who actively strolled from Kim to Enid and then back to the far left side of the stage (her spot). Girlschool opened their mostly classic set with a track from the debut album »Demolition«, namely Demolition Boys, and also paid attention to the same album at the very end of the show, when the band pulled off a cover of the Gun classic Race With the Devil, followed by the (missing) and always-expected Emergency, closing their set in grand style. The set was also filled out by three newer songs: I Spy from the album »Legacy« (2009) and Come the Revolution and Guilt As Sin from the current studio album »Guilty As Sin« (2015).
Next up were the Dutch symphonic power metallers Delain, led by the distinctive voice of the charismatic singer Charlotte Wessels. Without any special effort she quickly enchanted the crowd with her polished stage presence and soulful, expressive vocals, which dominate the band’s musical identity throughout. The band is awaiting the release of its new studio album »Moonbath«, announced for the end of this August, and alongside Charlotte the Delain lineup includes Martijn Westerhold (keyboards, the band’s boss), Timo Somers (guitar), newly joined rhythm guitarist Meren Bechtold and drummer Ruben Israel. There was no bassist on stage. Who the band’s current bassist is, only Delain know. Maybe they’re looking for one, because the same story repeated itself just over ten days later, on 28.07.2016, at the band’s show in Tolmin (Metaldays festival). That lack of low end, or the “bass leg”, wasn’t missed all that much, perhaps also thanks to the seven-string guitar Merel uses on stage, which contributed to a beefier, if not downright fatter, sound of the guitar lines. Anyway, for fifty minutes the stage belonged to Charlotte Wessels. The girl lifted the crowd in no time with her dynamic performance and constant encouragement. The set list was dominated by songs from the album »We Are The Others« (Not Enough, Get the Devil Out of Me, Mother Machine, the title track), and the band opened the show with Suckerpunch, taken from the current EP »Lunar Prelude«. In the middle of the set, Delain also decided to introduce a brand-new song called The Glory And the Scum, which will get its regular spot on the upcoming new studio album. Yet another typical Delain composition, cut with a high degree of musical value, which usually goes hand in hand with the band’s pomp-decorated symphonic power metal. The rest of the set was filled by the »The Human Contradiction« songs Don’t Let Go, Army of Dolls and Here Come thre Vultures, and the band also seasoned the set list with two songs from the debut album »Lucidity«, The Gathering and Sleepwalkers Dream.
The first peak of the festival’s last day was carried onto the stage by the locals, Tankard. By this point they had gathered by far the biggest crowd in front of the stage. Which is no surprise at all. The band’s whole musical identity, judging by the name alone, calls for mixing harder sounds with alcoholic brews. Hectoliters of the stuff poured, which belongs to general German beer-drinking culture, and of course venomous thrash metal riffing all over the place. This is a band that always lays on its goofball lucidity “thick” in its musical expression, and the creator of this whole theater is of course the flinty giant Andreas Geremia, the fear and trembling of scales the world over. The quartet is rounded out by Andreas Gutjahr (guitar), Frank Thorwarth (bass) and Olaf Zissel (drums). Although the band has a whopping 16 studio albums under its belt, a bit under an hour was decidedly too little to cover the whole discography during the set. Whatever. That’s not even the point, since the sheer presence of “Gerre” on stage is the main magnet that every eye and ear is glued to. The man kept making fun of the stage cameramen, showing them his bare belly from point-blank range, and he didn’t leave the photographers out either. The third track, called Rules for Fools, was especially fun, when a push-up bra flew onto the stage for “Gerre”. The man, whose act filled him with a heap of manly confidence, naturally pulled it over his head after a short inspection. Well, after the song The Morning After, which of course targets the heavy head after the previous night’s drinking storm, Horst stepped onto the stage with his crew. They were all equipped with bottles of beer, and the guys also brought two tables and bar stools onto the stage. The stage thus turned into a proper pub, where for the rest of Tankard’s set the festival’s entire organizing crew, some dozen people, cheerfully kept the beer flowing. Upon arriving on stage, Horst even gave Gerre an “air guitar”, which the latter didn’t mess with much. Juicy comments, self-irony and clowning around at their own expense, biting black humor at the expense of a deluded life in a brave new world; in short, you needed to know a little German too, and the whole thing of course hit its true mark, one you’ll hardly forget. Tankard well and truly oiled and creamed the crowd. Balingen smelled of beer fumes long after the show. Quite a while after, when A Girl Named Cerveza (»Dekle po imenu Pivo«) rang out at the end, followed by the band’s closing (and expected) anthem (Empty) Tankard. A crazy show! »Rest in beer!«
Great White, missed in Europe for far too long, finally took pity on their fans on the soil of the old continent too. We’ve now seen Great White at Bang Your Head!!! twice, after 2008, when they played with Jack Russell still in the lineup! The lineup has changed by one name since then, and precisely in the singer’s slot. It was inevitable and necessary for the band to be able to survive and continue its career at all. The vocalist job was taken over by the experienced former XYZ singer Terry Ilous. Lead guitar is still of course Mark Kendall, joined on rhythm guitar by his inseparable companion Michael Lardie (also in charge of synthesizers), the bassist since 2008 is Scott Snyder, and on drums, like Lardie, Audie Desbrow has stuck it out since 1985. The band delivered a fantastic show. In terms of sound, performance and energy output. The crowd was waiting impatiently. Everyone gathered in the fan pit. Absolutely everyone who showed up. And believe me, there was no shortage of girls, and especially some more mature, older ladies, in the audience. The band opened its hard rock mass with the new album »Elation« and the song I’ve Got Something For You, then quickly “flipped the record” and headed toward the classics. That was heralded by a minor hit from the album »Hooked« (1991) called Desert Moon, and the crowd shot up into the air when Great White hit the »Once Bitten…« classic Lady Red Light soon after. The guys went back to the album »Hooked« once more and shook out their version of the The Angels original Can’t Shake It. Then came a jump to the album »..Twice Shy« with the outstanding House of Broken Love, followed by the »Once Bitten…« number Save Your Love. The crowd boiled over again at the feverishly awaited »…Twice Shy« classic Mista Bone, and the band surprised next with the song Big Goodbye from the album »Psycho City«. When Great White struck up Rock Me, it became clear we were approaching the closing part of the show. Ilous masterfully kept the audience with him, and the band stretched the song by a few choruses in the outro, pulling a few extra quanta of energy out of the crowd. The catchy chorus of Rock Me once more joined the audience into one body, and for the finale Great White played the missed, expected and cheekily teasing Once Bitten, Twice Shy, to which the whole of Balingen danced. Ilous was the first and really the only question mark of the show. Exceptional voice, exceptional frontman. Terry shone and justified wearing the giant shoes left behind by Jack Russell when he left the band. Let’s hope Great White visit Europe with a proper series of headline shows, because these sporadic appearances once every (nearly) ten years haven’t been excusable for a long time now.
Next came the legendary German heavy metallers Grave Digger from Bochum. The quintet of Chris Boltendahl (vocals), Axel Ritt (guitar), Stefan Arnold (drums), Jens Becker (bass) and newcomer Marcus Kneip (keyboards) is an old acquaintance of Balingen’s stages, and they last played here two years ago, as the main headliner of the “warm-up” day. Well, Grave Digger offered a rather predictable show, made up of a set of the band’s already well-worn classics. A sort of shortened “best of”, as many songs as the guys could cram into the trimmed, barely-over-an-hour slot available. The criticism isn’t over yet. The band dared to skip at least one song from the notorious and, to this day, best album of Grave Digger’s whole career, »Knights Of The Cross« (1998). Worth mentioning too that they again overlooked the otherwise excellent classic album »Heart of Darkness« (1995), which is watering things down. From the album »The Reaper« (1993) we also got the already-heard-many-times Wedding Day. The band didn’t forget to put two newer songs from the current album »Return of the Reaper« in the set, Tattoed Rider and Season of the Witch, and it also entirely needlessly touched on the not-so-successful album »The Clans Will Rise Again« (2010) with the song Highland Farewell. Along with the obligatory standards, namely Dark of the Sun (in the opening spot), then The Round Table, Excalibur, of course Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching) and the closing, stretched-out Heavy Metal Breakdown, this show revealed no special flaws. Only the one we’re used to. Boltendahl’s specific growl simply demands that the odd higher line “slaughters” the man. There he either adapts the vocal or comes off theatrically funny, because he can no longer handle the high lines well with his growl. Perhaps that’s exactly why Knights of the Cross dropped out of the set, a song that really shouldn’t be missing from any proper Grave Digger show.
During the Grave Digger show, the neighboring Messehalle hall also came alive, where the German thrash metallers Warpath from Hamburg opened up. Checking out the band, formed way back in 1991, was definitely worth it, especially given the predictable Grave Digger show on the neighboring stage. In forty minutes the quartet played compositions from its first (and only) four albums, all recorded in the nineties. It put on an excellent show of solid riffy “groove” vise grip and dramatic shifts of atmosphere driven by a gloomy backdrop and the occult, with singer Arnie’s demonic stare properly enchanting those present a few times. Allegedly the band is working on new material. An excellent overture to the third day’s program on the smaller stage, then. Later it even turned out that the little stage of the Messehalle was in many ways stealing the spotlight from what was happening in the open air at the big stage, where of course most of the festival’s visitors flocked.
That held true in the following slot too, when the great rock’n’roll gurus Uriah Heep took the main stage. These didn’t particularly impress with their presence either. On stage they presented what was really a shortened set from their March headline tour of Europe. They kicked off the show with two punchy seventies classics and of course obligatory items of their iron repertoire, Gypsy and Look At Yourself, followed by what was really the only true delight of the set list, the performance of one of the best, if not at least the most interesting, songs on the album »Look At Yourself«. I’m talking about the compositionally very interesting and mysterious Shadow Of A Grief, with its stretched-out progressive psychedelic instrumental section. In an hour on stage the band also shook out three new songs from the album »Outsider«, The Law, Can’t Take That Away and One Minute, while the rest of the running time was filled by the “worn-out” Stealin’, the ever-mystical »Magician’s Birthday« classic Sunrise, the predictably obligatory Easy Livin’, and, as always, the big hit built on just two chords! That’s (again deliberately stretched) Lady in Black. Although Uriah Heep are incredibly experienced masters of their craft, having been on the scene for a solid 46 years, it’s interesting that their static presence on the festival’s giant stage was largely boring. Even Bernie Shaw didn’t exactly eagerly use the catwalk and the available empty stage space. The most energy through movement over the show came from the band’s new bassist Dave Rimmer and of course the ever-wild drumming gymnast Russell Gillbrook. All in all, a usually good but routine and predictable performance by legends.
Just like during the Grave Digger show, it was worth ducking into the Messehalle during Uriah Heep too. The Uriah Heep show overlapped with the set of the American icons of melodic rock, Tyketto. The band, which has confirmed a few shows in Europe this autumn, with dates located in the northern part of Europe, decided to play its classic album »Don’t Come Easy« (1991) in full in the available time. But not the way we’d be used to, rather from the opposite end. From the back forward. So they wisely saved their big hit Forever Young for the end of the show. But since Danny Vaughn and the crew decided to heat the enviably full hall all the way up, he slipped three consecutive songs from the album »Strenght in Numbers« (1994) into the second half of the show, Rescue Me, Meet Me In the Night and The Last Sunset! That was followed by the big finale with Wings and of course the aforementioned Forever Young, which closed the show. Danny Vaughn, who just turned 56, acts like a 20-year-old. In his excellent and incredibly well-preserved voice, in his very build, in his stage agility. The man is incredible. With all his charisma and just the stage figure itself. A generator of energy and positive vibes that filled the venue throughout the show. He remains an exceptional frontman. The lineup of today’s Tyketto is rounded out by bassist Chris Childs (Thunder), original member Michael Clayton Arbeeny (drums), Ged Rylands (keyboards) and Chris Green (guitar). The band, which has just announced the release of a new studio album called »Reach«, due in Europe in the middle of this October, delivered a bravura performance. Perfectionism all over. Both in sound and in performance. From head to toe. After the melodic rockers Dare, finally a second similar act at the festival, one that’s otherwise terribly hard to catch on European stages! Attractive and exclusive! We can also say this: it’s unlikely that a Slovenian concertgoer will ever again get such a chance to meet Tyketto as this year’s edition of Bang Your Head!!! offered.
In the late afternoon, Bang Your Head!!! had an interesting presence waiting on the main stage! The band Dirkschneider, which was temporarily renamed from U.D.O. for a special occasion last year. Its leader is of course Udo Dirkschneider, the famous former first voice of Accept. Udo chose this move to once again draw the crowd more heavily to himself and to his band’s name. The Dirkschneider repertoire in its purest form covers only Accept material that was made with Dirkschneider in the lineup. And since Uncle Dirkschneider’s voice serves him practically perfectly even in his later years, which his performance in Balingen this time unambiguously confirmed, Udo weighed very well the decision why he doesn’t want to return to the team of today’s Accept, active again since 2009. The decision is purely commercial. He calculated that with his own band he can earn considerably more than by playing Accept classics alongside his former Accept companions Wolf Hoffmann and Peter Baltes. So, alongside Udo Dirkschneider, the quintet includes the ever-faithful, long-time member of the crew, bassist Fitty Weinhold, then drummer (and Udo’s son) Sven Dirkschneider, and guitarists Russian Andrey Smirnov, who handles most of the solos, and Finn Kasperi Heikkinen. The venue became packed to the brim when Udo marched out onto the stage through wisps of grimly cold fog and, with the crew, violently struck up a new Accept-style march opened by Starlight! Everything. All of the stage play typical of Accept, Dirkschneider carried over into their own show. As a result, they used and filled the stage incredibly skillfully and optimally. Udo has outstanding charisma, so he didn’t have to strain much to get the crowd into rowdy participation. His figure is simply enough to have the crowd eating out of his hand. The band also included the excellent Midnight Mover in the set, which with the effectiveness of its catchy chorus hooked the crowd even tighter. Then came the no less cult London Leatherboys (very early in the set), also Princess of a Down, then Breaker, Restless And Wild, Son of A Bitch, Screaming for a Love-Bite, and the show tipped into its peak in the second half, when Dirkschneider mercilessly fed the venue, hungry for Accept music, with cult guitar lines of the noblest ingredients of Teutonic metal origin, headed by the expected Metal Heart, Fast As A Shark, Balls to the Wall, while the show was closed by Breaker, a song Accept haven’t included in their setlists on current tours for quite some time. Absolute destruction from the first second to the last! Hellish atmosphere. Notorious German metal to the bone subjugated the home crowd for a good hour, rocked it in its bosom and pampered it. Hypnotic. Fanatical. It’s incredible what the German crowd lets out with all its devotion to the magic of metal. Especially the home-grown kind. Dirkschneider is a must-see at shows in Germany! See you at the autumn meeting, then.
The continuation of this report will read as blasphemy to many a true defender of the German heavy metal scene. Even more, with it I could draw the wrath of 97% of the festival’s visitors. Namely. In the neighboring Messehalle, while the Dirkschneider show was in full swing on the main stage, the cult British prog metallers Threshold were advertising themselves, quite modestly and quietly, all on their own. Yes. Their own roadies, that is, sound techs. Although the band played in Orto bar a few years ago and in Gradisca d’Isonzio in the heart of the Slovenian borderland, shows by this band near Slovenia are a real rarity. Since this is a quintet of absolute musical perfectionists and great masters of musical artistry, refined both compositionally and sonically, Threshold brought a real balm for those true music gourmets who seek a live performance close to perfection. And indeed. For one hour, from the first second to the last, Threshold maintained exceptional sound. The instruments, with Wilson’s vocals at the center (he served up yet another fantastic vocal performance), sat in a brilliant arrangement of the desired balance. Everything was audible. Clearly audible. The band once again impressed with incredible kinetics and stage dynamics during the performance. Both guitarists, Karl Groom and Pete Morten, ran from left to right the whole time, facing off against each other with crossed guitars, or shoulder to shoulder, turned toward the audience. Occasionally they were joined by bassist Steve Anderson and of course Damian Wilson, who still hasn’t trimmed his Neanderthal beard. The latter treated us to a whole theater again during the show, when he jumped off the stage and started freely walking among the crowd. There was no shortage of comments in the vein of: »Oh how nice it is to be able to stand wherever I want and sing at the same time«. When one of the monitors started suspiciously buzzing, Wilson of course thought the cause was his own sound. The flinty singer solved this mystery too by walking from the stage to the mixing desk, where the sound tech whispered to him that Anderson’s speaker was “crackling”. Wilson instantly declared Anderson guilty: »It was you Steve. You Mr. Crackler!« Wilson sang almost the entire super EP The Pilot in the Sky of Dreams out in the crowd, which was once again the peak of the whole Threshold show. At one moment of the show, the silhouette of a rock eminence briefly appeared on stage. Uriah Heep guitarist Mick Box, who had played the main stage before, stepped onto the stage for a moment and shook hands with Wilson, and in this way, watching the show from the wings behind the monitors on the left side of the stage, showed his respect for the band. The band opened its show with the »Dead Reckoning« (2007) opener, the catalyst of a crushing riff, Slipstream, which built a phenomenal atmosphere in the room with its infectious chorus melody. The moods of course came across as melancholic, and British melancholy is incredible. So is the mysticism. Threshold know how to conjure mysticism. Especially when combining their music with multi-part vocal harmonies, with Richard West, as is usual and standard at a Threshold show, also using a vocoder. Goosebumps were guaranteed with that performance and the perfect sound. The current studio album »For the Journey« (2014) was represented by the songs Turn to Dust and, toward the end of the show, Watchtower on the Moon. Alongside the cathartic Pilot in the Sky of Dreams, the centerpiece of the Threshold show, there were also The Art of Reason (»Subsurface«, 2004), Long Way Home (»Hypothetical«, 2001), Mission Profile (»Subsurface«, 2004) and the song Ashes (»March of Progress«, 2012), with which Threshold closed their exceptional set. Brilliant. No holding back. One of the strongest sets of the whole festival. The “modest” Threshold, used to the worst and used to playing in concert “holes” too if need be, blasted the audience of some 1,500 people, who didn’t give a damn about the Dirkschneider show at the center of the main stage, into the heavens of perfect artistic execution. Such concert moments are among those you wish would never end.
The main headliner of the festival’s third day, Iced Earth, jumped into the program at the last moment. Allegedly the organizer had already made a deal with another act that was supposed to take the headliner role, but it fell through, and at Horst and the crew’s request Iced Earth flew literally straight from the studio, where they’re recording a new album, from the USA to Germany, and so saved the festival. Horst came out to tell the band so on stage personally and warmly thanked Iced Earth. Let’s be honest, though. Without the organizer digging deep into his pocket and offering a very, very good fee to the band and the crew accompanying it on shows, Iced Earth would never have flown across the Atlantic. So money is behind it all, and for Schaffer it’s also a matter of prestige, since they had only ever played Bang Your Head in the middle of the program and never as headliner, as the opportunity has now offered.
Since the band is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the classic album »The Dark Saga« (1996) this year, Iced Earth arranged the set so that it bowed to songs from this album. Given that Iced Earth played their last show at this year’s edition of the “cruise” festival 70.000 Tons of Metal in early February, the band’s appearance on Balingen’s stages was definitely an exclusive. Right at the start the band announced that the show would be dedicated to playing material from the album »The Dark Saga« and so began the show with none other than the song The Dark Saga. During the show Iced Earth are a fairly static band, with the exception of the short, slight, but extremely agile runner and phenomenal screamer Stu Block. In an hour and a half the band fired off 16 songs in total, five of which came from the last two studio albums »Plagues of Babylon« (Chthulu, the title track and Democide) and »Dystopia« (V, the title track), while the rest of the material belonged to the band’s classic years. That is, material recorded up to 2001. The album »Something Wicked This Way Comes« (1998) was represented by the excellent Burning Times, then My Own Savior, which closed the regular part of the show, and, right at the tail end in the encore, Watching Over Me, which all of Balingen sang together with Block. The album »The Dark Saga« rang out, besides the opening title track, with five more tracks: the uncompromising Vengeance Is Mine, the quietly expected ballad I Died for You, the surprise of the set list Slave to the Dark, logically followed right after by Question of Heaven, and, in the obligatory encore, the phenomenal The Hunter. Of the older material the band touched only Pure Evil, with the material from the album »Burnt Offerings« entirely overlooked, but it didn’t forget to play Damien (»Horror Show«, 2001),
Drummer Brent Smedley returned to the current lineup. Yet again. Obviously he’s one of the few members Schaffer fully trusts and whose wishes he consistently follows. In short, a tour doesn’t go by without Schaffer replacing at least one member of the band. Otherwise a brilliant performance of the material, with a few added sound samples, that is, pre-recorded choirs and orchestrations, which, given the content of the songs on the album »The Dark Saga«, is completely logical and fitting. It was surprising to realize that, for example, Iced Earth didn’t close the show with the song Iced Earth. Either in the regular part or right at the tail end of the show, in the obligatory encore. But otherwise there’s no complaining about what we saw and lived through. A spectacle. In terms of the excellent set list, an excellent execution of the gig. Sonic characteristics optimal. Stage lighting no less so. One might miss, amid all this, the performance of some older song, especially from the first three albums, which could have replaced one of the newer songs in the set, but otherwise as said. No complaints.
The third festival day came to an end. None other than our friend Horst stepped onto the stage with his little daughter, handed out a few nice words to the crowd, and the crowd waited for the magnificent fireworks that followed. And they did happen. But the festival still wasn’t over. During the whole Iced Earth show, those who weren’t into Iced Earth could follow the show of the cult Swedish death metallers Unleashed on the Messehalle stage, who surely delivered another phenomenal show. After Iced Earth there was enough time left for all the crowd that still hadn’t gotten its proper musical fix to pack into the hall and watch the German industrial metallers Crematory, whom we also caught in passing and watched, but because of drained batteries we soon left and headed toward the tents, where a well-deserved sleep awaited us, and the next day’s return to Slovenia. Drawing the bottom line, I can write that this was the second three-day edition of the 21st festival overall. It went off excellently. No delays, and for the most part all the performances came off in full. Even the weather, despite the black forecasts, held out. It rained only once, on the first day, during the Candlemass show, and again in the morning hours of the second festival day. So the festival grounds were mostly covered with clouds, which shielded us from losing water. Until next year! Bang Your Head!!!! See you again.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
