Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Balingen /Messegelände / Germany
Concert date: 12.07.2018
Attendance: 12,000
It was the first day of the new Bang Your Head!!! festival. The jubilee one. Number twenty. Old friends in the old place. Everything pretty much the same. Everything stays the same. Just like every year. Two stages, one of them huge and outdoors, the other in the Volksbanksmesse hall right next door. At half past eleven it kicked off for real. Up on stage stood Swiss hard rockers Black Diamonds, who jumped onto the bill at the very last moment, replacing Kickin’ Valentina. That was also the only swap in the entire lineup of this year’s Bang Your Head!!! festival. The Swiss are known for having delivered quite a few seriously interesting bands over the years, from Celtic Frost to Coroner, and it’s not much different when they go for hard rock. They know how to shine here too (Krokus, Gotthard, China,…). Black Diamonds walk the same hard rock path, add a pinch of glam, but what counts in the end is the music. The quartet works great together. The big stage may have “munched” on them a little, since singer Mich is armed with a guitar and has to keep the rhythm going the whole time. But whatever. Guitarist Dee and bassist Andi brought more stage action with constant running around and egging on the crowd, and made up for the singer’s static position. A band that hasn’t been around long has two studio albums in its pocket and, believe it or not, a live album already. The set drew on »Perfect Sin« and the current »Once Upon A Time«, and the stage rang out with We Want to Party, Romeo & Juliet, Judgement Day, I’ll Be Ok, Love, Lies, Loneliness, Pieces of a Broken Dream, Thrillride, Vampires of the Night and Hands of Destiny. To finish, Black Diamonds topped off an extremely convincing and confident show with Chuck Berry’s Rock N’ Roll Music. For anyone who’d been waiting for, say, Crazy Lixx, Black Diamonds were a very nice warm-up.
The next band turned out especially eye-catching. Burning Witches from the town of Brugg. Swiss as well, and this time women. The all-female quintet has been around since 2015, and last year they released their self-titled debut, which they pushed hard in their three-quarter-hour set. What women can unleash when they take up heavy metal is reason enough to catch a Burning Witches show. Spandex, wild hair, and of course the poses and the stage antics. Singer Seraina Telli literally dominated with her explosiveness. She has incredible vocal power, with which she commands every moment of the show with authority. The stage was packed with them. The band got stronger this very year with guitarist Sonia Nusseldwer, who isn’t called “Anubis” for nothing, given her look and build. A lean, tall girl with spider fingers and incredible technical polish and perfection. Burning Witches played: Metal Demons, We Eat Your Children, Creator of Hell, Creatures of the Night, Bloody Rose, Save Me, Black Widow, Holy Diver (orig. DIO) and closed the show with Burning Witches. Fantastic chemistry, great sound, great performance. Everything. The girls head out on a joint tour with Grave Digger in winter 2019. After a show like the one we got in Balingen, it’s no stretch to predict they’ll steal the spotlight on that tour.
Eclipse are old friends of the Bang Your Head!!! festival. They played here last year too. They’ve been around for almost twenty years, but it took them quite a while to break through internationally. Their breakthrough album »Blead And Scream« finally put them there in 2012. They have a reputation as big perfectionists and stick to AOR revivalism, more precisely melodic rock the “Scandinavian” way, but they don’t skimp on the decibels. Most of the riffs are extremely hard-hitting and flirt shamelessly with heavy metal. The crew is led by a top-notch composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and, last but not least, arranger, Erik Martensson. Alongside him since the band’s founding is the excellent guitarist Magnus Henrikkson, Magnus Ulfstedt, who used to play bass in the band, is on drums, and since 2015 the bass spot has been taken by Phillip Crusner. As expected: an excellent show. Energy, confidence, tightness. As expected, all the reins were in the hands of vocalist Erik Martensson, who once again impressed with his piercing charisma and the way he pulls the crowd in so they follow him. In short, with his infectious energy and, of course, his convincing vocal character. The band has an arsenal of incredibly strong songs with hypnotic, ultra-catchy choruses, and Eclipse once again fired on all cylinders. They tackled the last three albums and lined up the following songs back to back: Never Look Back, Blood Enemies, The Storm, Wake Me Up, Stand On Your Feet, Jaded, Black Rain, Battlegrounds, The Downfall of Eden and I Don’t Wanna Say I’m Sorry.
Party and good cheer everywhere. And it carried on as the next band hit the stage. After the Swedes, it was time for the Finns. Reckless Love. Excellent glam metal and glam rock revivalists from the town of Kuopio. Like their countrymen Santa Cruz from Helsinki. Good buddies, they’ve done a joint tour, and Reckless Love had just released their fourth and latest studio album »InVader« at the time. The quartet is skillfully decked out, but not over the top. Sharply cut. Sharp as a tack. Once again the dominant role went to the vocalist. Olli Herman, with his lush, teased-up hair. Venomous hip swivels, constant flirting. Up front there were quite a few swooning girls who’d come to feast their eyes on the line-up of slim-hipped lads. Reckless Love too held the high level of the shows already played with full vehemence and justified their spot on the bill. A revivalism that’s perfect and polished. They owe plenty of thanks for inspiration to Def Leppard as well, and if you’re a fan of bands like CrashDiet, H.E.A.T. and so on…, you’ll adopt Reckless Love in no time. The band built the setlist from all four studio albums and played: Animal Attraction, So Happy I Could Die, We Are the Weekend, Monster, Beautiful Bomb, Edge of Our Dreams, Scandinavian Girls, Badass, Born to Break Your Heart, On the Radio, Night on Fire, and ended the show on a seriously hot note with the hit Hot.
Scots Alestorm brought a hearty shake-up to the festival grounds. They’ve got a solid crowd of followers. But it’s not comparable to what Alestorm pull out of the crowd at their shows in Tolmin (Metaldays festival). A somewhat older crowd definitely leads the way at Bang Your Head!!!, so there weren’t as many daredevil kamikazes, and certainly no inflatable props either, apart from the odd sword or axe,.. Even though it was Alestorm, with their inflatable duck, who carried a piece of Tolmin folklore over to their current new tour, »No Grave But Sea«. The band has basically become pretty self-parodying, but their at times downright bizarre goofing around keeps firing up the crowd. And Alestorm don’t hold back there, since it keeps winning them new fans again and again. Behind the stage hung a banner with two bananas out of which two goose heads peek. Their “drunken” expedition to Balingen delivered this repertoire: Keelhauled, Alestorm, Mexico, The Sunk’n Norwegian, Nancy the Tavern Wench, Rumpelkombo, Hangover, Captain Morgan’s Revenge, Drink in Fucked With an Anchor. Cliché power metal with the occasional folk ornament boosted beer sales on the grounds. And Alestorm really are unbridled. Doors are open to them everywhere, they’ve got massive mileage and, because of it, experience. Especially when it comes to taking command of a stage. The figure of frontman and singer Christopher Bowes, who also plays keyboards in GloryHammer, remains in himself the number one address for cracking you up. The man also turned heads in a white T-shirt reading »I Got Lost in the Gay Dolphin«, and kept teasing us with »Modern Talking«-style keyboards, which nonetheless get in his way enough that he likes to miss a note while singing, or occasionally slips off the ideal vocal line. But that doesn’t matter. That’s part of the band’s “folklore” and that’s how it should be. In 2018 it seems like nothing can possibly go wrong for them. They’re riding huge waves and climbing even higher. They confirmed that ten days later when they played the Metaldays festival in Tolmin, Slovenia.
The mostly mellow tones up to five in the afternoon of the festival’s first day were finally and mercilessly cut off by American legends of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal Exodus. With returnee Zetro on vocals, Exodus are finally the real deal again. Well, almost. Gary Holt is missing, of course, but as part of Slayer he hasn’t had time for his old comrades for quite a while now. Anyway, the guitar duo of Kragen Lum and Lee Altus (in a Scorpions shirt – what a “desecration” for a true thrash metal “die hard”), is mouth-watering all by itself. After the taped intro Call to Arms, the band partly went into Funeral Hmyn, then poured the opening into the new Blood In, Blood Out from the album of the same name, their tenth studio album, released in 2014. Time flies, guys, when are you recording a new one? It doesn’t even matter, the band, formed way back in 1979, left an indelible mark in the eighties with the album »Bounded By Blood«, and weighed down the set with songs from exactly that record: A Lesson In Violence, And Then There Were None, Deliver Us To Evil and the closing piece of shrapnel Strike of the Beast. Add Parasite from »Pleasures of the Flesh« and the »Fabulous Disaster« standard that never goes missing from a proper Exodus setlist, meaning Toxic Waltz, and all the answers are right there in front of you. Exodus are an unbreakable fortress of the most orthodox school of thrash metal and remain its first defenders in 2018 as well. Zetro is an incredible comedian, but he can also show his true “badass” side of an unbridled hooligan. The old songs work perfectly vocally with Zetro. People went wild, and it was clear this was a show where serious injuries among the audience were possible. Quite a few people went looking for pieces of clothing and shoes after the show, and the author of this piece wasn’t looking for guitar picks, but for his watch. Mosh pit after mosh pit. Zetro demanded it. The energy of the outstanding riffs demanded it, the outstanding aggression that Exodus kept raining down on Balingen like cluster bombs full of napalm. The band didn’t skip one more very good studio record either, »Tempo Of The Damned« (2004), when they tackled Blacklist. As said. Legends who remain big legends on stage too. Toxic waltz and express mail delivery straight to hell! Uncompromising. Let’s hope they’re back in Europe as soon as possible. For club shows, of course!
It’s no longer news that a warm-up show was held here the day before. Blood God opened it with their gig. But the next day, in the Volksbankmesse hall, the very same Bloodgod changed their outfits and musical style and turned into the trio Debauchery. Old-school AC/DC and Accept riffs were swapped for a kind of death metal variant, with a clear footing in old-school rhythms and riffs, of course. Death’n’roll. A stage full of skulls, and a trio smeared in red paint that of course gives the impression of being completely bloodied, necrophilia, zombification, the smell of rot. In their getup the band also kind of borrows Rammstein’s look. They give off a feeling of bizarreness. A Stuttgart trio, then, that brought a real change of pace with an excellent show, starting with Warmachines at War, continuing with Wampire Holocoust, Zombie Blitzkrieg, all the way to the extremely convincing and relentless destruction in the closing stretch of the show, when Blood for the Blood God, Thunderbeast and Demonslayer followed. We only caught part of the show, since it overlapped with Finland’s Amorphis.
Amorphis released an excellent new studio album this year, »Queen of Time«, and their one-hour show was also a great chance to promote it. They played no fewer than five songs from it. This album really does deserve a hearty showcase. The band keeps up excellence, professionalism and flawless execution on stage. Nothing goes wrong for them. Everything is thought through and polished to the last detail. Esa Holopainen drew quite a bit of attention with a Rush »2112« shirt, although most of the focus naturally went to vocalist Tomi Joutsen, who wore a Grave shirt. Perhaps the most distracting thing was the posing of returning bassist Oppu, but otherwise no complaints about the band’s extremely convincing new show. Joutsen nailed the growls and clean vocals brilliantly, the band delivered tremendous tightness, great sound and an almost routine stage presence and communication. Amorphis played the following set at the show: The Bee, The Golden Elk, Sacrifice, Silver Bride, Bad Blood, Wrong Direction, Heart of the Giant, Against Widows, The Castaway, Daughter of Hate, Death of a King and House of Sleep.
At the names Peter “Peavy” Wagner (vocals, bass), Manni Schmidt (guitar) and Christos Efthimiadis (drums), a connoisseur of the German heavy metal scene would say that’s Rage in their 1988 to 1994 era. Actually, Rage never broke up. They play all the time, but Peavy has a completely different lineup around him in Rage. Still, with his two old companions Manni Schmidt and Christos Efthimiadis he does still step on stage together. Occasionally, but he does. As Refuge. And this crew plays through the legacy of Rage from the turn of the eighties into the nineties. But that’s not all. The same crew released an album of completely new material this year too, »Solitary Men«. The band got a hearty chunk of time, an hour and twenty minutes. They played in the hall. It was especially nice to see excellent guitarist Manni Schmidt back on stage, who spent a decade of his career with Grave Digger as well and always impressed with inventive guitar phrases and especially great solos. This was one of the band’s few concert appearances this year, and the first one at all. So it was an exclusive. Having them play Rage classics like Shame on You (the opener), then Solitary Man, Invisible Horizons Baby, I’m Your Nightmare Power and Greed Mind Over Matte, which Rage actually don’t play anymore today, and other Rage tracks like The Missing Link, Nevermore and of course the best known, Don’t Fear the Winter, is naturally a real mini-fantasy for a true Rage fan. The hall was packed solid. Maybe it’s the late hour, or the fact that the band doesn’t play together regularly, so you could hear the odd slip-up and flub, but otherwise it was a gorgeous adventure back to the days of old Rage. The band of course didn’t skimp on completely new material either, and included the songs: Summer’s Winter, The Man in the Ivory Tower, Hell Freeze Over and From the Ashes, which bring no stylistic departure from the classic Rage days, so they bound brilliantly with the iron-forged Rage repertoire.
Unfortunately Refuge’s set overlapped with Doro, who (interestingly) got a slot fifteen minutes shorter than Refuge’s, and I had to hurry toward the main stage, where the crowd was packed in. German queen of metal Doro Pesch , who last year rolled through the Metaldays festival with her band, is a frequent guest at Bang Your Head. This time she played almost 100% of a setlist of pure Warlock material, and somewhere in the middle of the show slipped in two of her own songs, All For Metal (from the upcoming new studio album) and the older Burn it Up. Otherwise it was Warlock to the bone, from the opening Earthshaker Rock, through I Rule the Ruins, then Burning the Witches, True As Steel, East Meets West, Für Immer, Hellbound, a cover of Breaking the Law (Judas Priest) and a closing peak with All We Are and Metal Tango. Doro is Doro. Charisma beyond compare. With her presence and special performance, she once again ran into huge support from the crowd, who sang along with the band the whole time, belting out the verses. The German crowd creates an ecstatic feeling. Always. That’s why there’s a rule that you watch German bands in Germany. That’s where the mood at a show reaches its peak. Doro made extra use of this affection and incredible support, and the band also tackled the song Raise Your Fist in the Air, from her own album Raise Your Fist« (2012). Party! Doro is at home in Balingen!
In the hall, an hour and a half of stage time went to excellent US death thrash metallers Skeletonwitch. A band that’s been on the scene for fifteen years and has six studio albums in its pocket, they’ve earned a place in the hearts of fans of first-rate riffs, great solos, handled by the guitar duo Scott Hendrick and Nate Garnette, quality albums and shows. Recently they swapped singer Chance Garnett for Adam Clemans, and many thought Skeletonwitch wouldn’t be the real deal anymore. Interestingly, the new album »Devouring Radiant Light« came out right in between. That is, in the days after the Bang Your Head!!! show and right before the band’s Metaldays appearance, where we caught the band on stage twice this summer. So the band is already deep into promoting the new album, the first with the new singer and, most importantly, a very good new album, which is a logical continuation of the EP »The Apothic Gloom«, with which they opened the show (the song Red Death, White Light). Those two fresh releases made up the bulk of the whole set, but the band didn’t skip the predecessor »Serpents Unleashed« either, playing I Am of Death early on and closing the show with that album too (the closers This Evil Embrace, Beneath Dead Leaves). Great communication, incredible bite, focus, confidence and power. It was proud and really pleasing that an American band was finally back on the bill, one that leans heavily on the old guidelines of thrash metal and fertilizes it with sinister death metal structures. The band didn’t skip the older ones either: Beyond the Permafrost, The Horryfying Force (Desire to Kill) and Gorge Upon My Soul and Crushed Beyond Dust. Deadly and thoroughly toxic boiling (and frying)!
Europe released a fantastic new studio album last year, »Walk the Earth«, which just wouldn’t leave, and wouldn’t be taken out of, this writer’s CD player. Europe are also old friends of the Bang Your Head!!! festival. This time they arrived as the headliners of the festival’s first day. They also prepared a festival setlist. Only the opening stretch went to the two brand-new songs Walk The Earth and The Siege, then a switch to the mega hit Rock the Night and the sensation Scream of Anger, which, after Last Look At Eden, was joined by another »Wings Of Tomorrow« song, Wasted Time.
Joey Tempest decisively dominates, filling the whole stage. Even when the main spotlight swings onto John Norum (during the solos), Tempest quickly steps up alongside Norum. A bouncy figure brimming with energy. A funny incident happened right at the start, when Tempest’s mic died, just when he was out on the catwalk. A tech ran up to Tempest, who hadn’t even noticed his mic had stopped working, and literally planted himself in front of him. Once Tempest realized what was going on and swapped mics with the tech, he took advantage of the poor guy by theatrically not letting him go back backstage and blocking his way, so the tech couldn’t get past Tempest. Another excellent show, not just from Tempest, who wins you over with his charisma and infectious charm, but from the whole crew of incredibly experienced old cats and protagonists of the finest version of classic Scandinavian hard rock, which followed in the footsteps of Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and Rainbow. Norum is the king of hard rock guitar. Once again he stunned with his perfectionism, his incredible sensitivity in the solos and the other little details that adorn his playing and put him in a special place among the world’s guitarists. Europe are a band that pulls you in right away. Alongside the exceptional stage charisma and presence, there’s of course a catalog of exceptional hits, and this time they slipped in the ballad Carrie, joined by: Superstitious, Cherokee and of course the unforgettable, eagerly awaited The Final Countwdown, with which Europe closed their show at Bang Your Head festival!!! From the notorious »The Final Countdown« album, the inclusion of »Heart of Stone« was also a real treat. From the newer ones, that is »Rag Of Bones« and »War Of Kings«, came Firebox, then Hole in My Pocket and War of Kings. The band put the setlist together with great, skillful finesse. Cunning. It was full of mini-highlights and of course a final crescendo right at the end, with those roaring hits. An outstanding performance. A great show. A band that, let’s hope, will keep reigning on stages for a long time, and above all, with the kind of inspiration the current »Walk the Earth« shows, keep recording new studio albums. Europe thus justified their role as favorites of the festival’s first day with feather-light ease.
But the evening was far from over. The revelry moved into the hall. On stage there stood Amaranthe. Some kind of ugly duckling of metal(?), where you hear everything in one. Even minestrone. From metalcore to death metal and (you don’t want to read this) pop. With three vocalists and even hip-hop tricks. The female vocal brings operetta, then there are two male vocals. One clean, the other a gnarly growl. Like putting a bit of oil in ice cream, or alcohol in a salad. As said. Quite a musical mishmash, which finally confused the creator of this piece so much that he fled the hall. You can only wonder how the masses fall for such cheap tricks in music.
Considerably more tangible musical substance came next from Finnish melodic death metal champions Insomnium, who only stepped on stage at one in the morning. They played the whole current album »Winter’s Gate«, and added older tracks to the setlist, namely: The Primeval Dark, Mortal Share, Revelation, Where the Last Wave Broke, The Killjoy, One for Sorrow and While We Sleep. Insomnium had a free hand to play until half past two in the morning. Thursday was ideal for everyone who loves this band and is on vacation right now. That is, school kids and students. Basically the young guard of metalheads. And that guard mostly backs the band. My brain’s processor was showing its first malfunctions by then, so some restorative surgery was in order, in the form of a refreshing sleep and listening to the ELP album »Brain Salad Surgery«. I believe it was very hot at Insomnium, and we’ll make it up to the band with a report as soon as possible. Until then, you can console yourself with the current one, from when Insomnium played Ljubljana at the end of this March.
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