Location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany
Date: 15.07.2016
And so the second day of the 21st edition of the legendary Bang Your Head!! festival in Balingen, Germany, rolled around. The night was fresh and the morning properly cold, since a heavy downpour came through overnight and kept pouring buckets until the early morning hours. Then the rain stopped. Thank god. Another outstanding lineup of top-notch bands, each with its own artistic character, all rooted in metal and hard rock, with the second day’s program mercifully leaning toward thrash metal.
What a trio format can do in music was shown more than clearly by American metallers Night Demon, who kicked off the second day of the festival at half past eleven. The main stage heated up in no time under their stamping guitar riffs as the untamed trio of Jarvis Leatherby (bass, vocals), Brent Woodward (guitar) and Dusty Squiers (drums) rolled out their own songs. The band is brilliantly tight thanks to the heaps of gigs they’ve left behind them. Full of power, and using every inch of the stage. Jarvis and Brent did a lot of running back and forth. And as you know, the stage at Bang Your Head is huge, but for a sharpened, potent trio like this it’s just about right. Revivalists who, with sheer heart, delivered an outstanding opening to a new festival day.
Freedom Call are the well-known power metal jokers. German power metal from head to toe. A German story. Who would have thought a band with such a cliché approach would survive on the scene for so long? But the quintet thinks otherwise, and with regular album releases and regular touring across the old continent, they’ve built up a nice crowd of home-grown fans who stand behind the name. Eight studio albums, with a ninth in the works. The group, which once featured guitarist Sascha Gerstner (Helloween) and drummer Daniel Zimmermann (ex-Gamma Ray), is still driven forward by singer and guitarist Chris Bay and his partner in crime, bassist Ilker Ersin. In a compact, well-rehearsed and, as expected, more than confident set, the band played Union of the Strong, Tears of Babylon, Freedom Call, Farewell, The Quest, Hammer of the Gods, Power & Glory and Warriors. Happy metal to the core!!!
Then things got a lot more serious when the great veterans of American metal took the stage, a band that, with its vision, unwittingly popularized the elements of epicness and bombast in the compositions it created. Kansas’ Manilla Road are led by the indestructible Mark “The Shark” Shelton, joined for years now by the bald vocalist Bryan “Hellroadie” Patrick, with the hugely hairy Neudi Neuderth staying on drums, while the considerably younger Josh Castillo holds down the bass. The band delivered a hearty mix of classics, with standout versions of Crystal Logic, the excellent The Mask of Red Death and Death By The Hammer (the last two from the album “Mystification”, 1987), followed by Necropolis, The Riddle Master and the opening Flaming Metal System. So, as you can gather from the previous sentence, most of the material came from the cult record “Crystal Logic” (1983). But Manilla Road didn’t skip the current studio album “The Blessed Curse” either, cutting in The Truth in the Ash from it. The rest of the set was filled out with songs from the album “Open the Gates” (Witches Brew and the closing Heavy Metal to the World), while the superb album “Deluge” had its honor saved by Hammer of the Witches. As expected, Shelton also took the vocals on his shoulders, and they remain one of a kind. Nasal, hollow, gloomy. They sound weak, yet they shake you incredibly. It’s precisely these quirks that give the songs their special flavor and co-create the extremely dark atmosphere. That’s why his place in the band’s sound is beyond reproach and indispensable. “Hellroadie” of course kept the crowd with him throughout like a pro, establishing a pleasant contact, even if it was through sunglasses. On top of that, as expected and as Manilla Road’s music demands, he let loose a few ear-piercing screams that flew up into the sky. Whatever their tenure and years, rust just won’t cling to this band. Epic and raw, in other words. A superb performance by legends. Let’s hope we catch them on some stage again soon.
Especially attractive was the visit of Chris Impellitteri, or rather the band Impellitteri. A band with one of the most “messed up” names on the planet, at least when it comes to typing it out. Chris is the guy who’s considered one of the fastest guitarists in the galaxy, and he comes across as a happy combination of Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie J. Malmsteen. You could call it a blessing in disguise. That means he’s an elusive, hard-to-catch acrobat who, with all the notes his ultrasonic bursts of fire scatter around, can eventually get tiring on the ear. Joining him on stage were the superb Rob Rock (vocals), loyal round-faced bassist James Pulli and the freshly baked member of the lineup, drummer Ander Johansson, who has plenty of experience working with Yngwie J. Malmsteen and is also well known to HammerFalll fans. In an hour on stage, Chris and his crew made the festival fans happy with a “pure” set list of their own. In other words, he played his own songs. From his own albums. Rob Rock, who visibly puts on a kilo or so around the middle every year, once again floored us with a superbly crafted performance. When you looked over at Chris, his antics raised the question: “Why the hell do Impellitteri play so little around the old continent?” Even more: they basically don’t play at all. Anywhere. Among other things, the band played two songs from the freshly released album “Venom” (We Own the Night, Time Machine), delivered the obligatory Stand in Line, the superior Answer to the Master, and also tracks like The King is Rising and Speed Demon, both from the album “Crunch”. Impellitteri opened the show with the slick charger Warrior (album “Eye of the Hurricane”). In between, Chris entertained the crowd by noodling evergreen riffs from well-known songs like Heaven and Hell and Smoke on the Water, which there was no need for, but the man obviously enjoys “provoking” his audience. Fast, Faster, Impellitteri! An exclusive and unforgettable, if not downright one-off, appearance!
For thrash metal connoisseurs, the show by veterans Sacred Reich, from sizzling Phoenix, Arizona, was more than welcome. The band works in its original four-piece lineup: vocalist and bassist Phil Rind, lead guitarist Willey Arnett, rhythm guitarist Jason Rainey and drummer Greg Hall. A band of two bristly-haired guitarists and a chubby rhythm section! After their BYH appearance in 2009, Sacred Reich have now played here for the second time in their career. They’re hard to catch on stage, and this year they’re also coming to Metaldays, so it’s definitely worth swinging by there too. Especially if you’ve never seen Sacred Reich live. They play outstandingly. A tight, compact unit, Rind’s vocals still serve him decently, Arnett is an exceptional soloist, and the band delivered a bag of classics, with tracks from the more experimental albums like “Independent” and “The American Way” not left out either. Of course alongside the obligatory delivery of cult evergreens from the first two studio albums, “Surf Nicaragua” (1988) and the debut “Ignorance” (1987).
Metal Church, yet more great American heavy metal veterans, took the stage in the worst of the heat, much like two years ago in Tolmin, but this time the suffering was relieved by low cloud that suddenly crept over the festival grounds from behind the nearby hills. Strengthened by the returning Mike Howe, a man of unimaginable vocal heights, and in the standard format represented by boss and guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof, drummer Jeff Plate (Savatage), Steve Unger (bass) and guitarist Rick Van Zandt, Metal Church delivered an outstanding show, especially thanks to a vivid set list that covered every era of their career. Headed by the brilliant mini-suite Watch the Children Pray, which was joined in the set by another “The Dark” classic, Start the Fire. With Howe back in the lineup, tracks from “Blessing in Disguise” (the opening Fake Healer, with Badlands later) and “The Human Factor” (the title track, which closed the show, plus Date With Poverty and In Morning) returned to the live set too. The band also paid attention to the new (and excellent) album “XI” with the songs No Tomorrow and Killling Your Time, and fired off a little bonbon from the self-titled debut “Metal Church”, Beyond. Metal Church also properly surprised with the inclusion of Gods of Second Chance, which comes from the overlooked and (often unfairly) “hated” fan-reviled “Hanging In Balance”. In short. Energetic, seamlessly tight, wild and untamed. Howe enchanted with his vocals, every vein in his neck bulging, and the man’s face of course went extremely red over the course of the hour. Guitars shredded with incredible focus, and the rhythm line with cannon-like power and filigree precision. All in all: an outstanding stage performance by a legendary band that instantly blows the classic heavy metal fan away to the metal heaven they crave.
Before Canadian thrash metal heavyweights Annihilator even went on, the sounds of ferocious Welsh glam metal shook the neighboring Volksbankmesse halle. On the stage there, Tigertailz were “snarling” away. These rascals, who also played in Vrba in Carinthia at the end of this April, dragged a good 1500 curious souls into the hall, who had plenty to see and hear. The band justified its wild nature and flashy look with a superb comedy show, cunning use of the stage, and effective crowd-baiting, and the crowd really went off during the gig. As expected, the quintet of Berty Burton (bass), Matthew Blakout (drums), the only original member in today’s lineup, Jay Pepper (guitar, backing vocals), and commander on vocals Rob Wylde leaned on their most successful album, “Bezerk”, of which they played about half. Scandalous and merciless. The original glam metal barrage, straight into your silly forehead!
A quarter past six in the afternoon, the famous Jeff Waters took the stage. One of the most interesting and special guitarists of the metal era and, of course, the big boss of Canadian thrash metal legends Annihilator. Right from the start the sight of him was a surprise, since Jeff didn’t begin his set strapped into his famous (red or black) Flyin’ V guitar, but had a replica Gibson SG next to him. A gorgeous one, in metallic cinnabar red. Poisonous! Jeff has once again completely changed the lineup. Countless times already. Besides Jeff, Annihilator now also include rhythm guitarist Aaron Homma, who joined the crew last year, and the two absolute newcomers this year: Fabio Alessandrini, with a head of hair arrangement that would fit any glam metal band, and the mane-curled bassist with the “peculiarly bulging eyes”, Rich Hinks. As expected Jeff took over the vocal duties and opened the show, like barely a year ago in Ljubljana, with the classic King of the Kill. Later it was joined by Second to None from the album of the same name. The guys certainly didn’t skip the classic W.T.Y.D., the obligatory Set the World on Fire rang out, and so did the newer Creeping Death from the current “Suicide Solution”. Of course Annihilator didn’t forget Never Neverland and Phantasmagoria either, while Jeff saved his ultra-classic Alison Hell for the very end of the set, so the mood peaked right at the finish. Waters remains an exceptional wizard, and his playing is of course unique poetry from the six-string bible. Annihilator remain on the scene a uniquely eclectic doctrine of their own artistic mission in many ways. Hats off to a legend like Jeff Waters!
If Impellitteri were the exclusive appearance of the festival’s second day, then the performance peak of the day was conjured up by the one and only Testament when they stepped onto the famous Balingen stage. The great masters of the thrash metal craft. The famous guitar duo of Eric Peterson / Alex Skolnick remains the fear and trembling of stages the world over and a huge inspiration to many guitarists! The band is still led by the indestructible Native American chief Chuck Billy, and it’s reinforced by the Death to All Tour tandem on the rhythm line: the superb Gene Hoglan on drums and one of the best bassists in the metal world, the bearded Steve DiGiorgio. An exceptional lineup, an exceptional fortress. Testament destroy live. Tongues of fire from sharpened riffs swallowed the festival grounds unstoppably, often stealing attention even from Chuck’s giant ego, and as expected the main concert experience of pure delight came from both guitarists’ superb solos, especially the moments of shared solo duels. Peterson and Skolnick are today regarded as a cult guitar duo, much like K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton once were in Judas Priest. Although a new studio album is on the horizon, announced for this October (a tour is already announced too, with Testament opening the evenings before, yummm…. Amon Amarth), the band fired off as many as three songs from the still-current “Dark Roots of Earth”, which brought them to Tolmin in 2012 (Testament are coming to Tolmin this year too, so be there). The core of the repertoire was made up of cult classics Into the Pit, The Preacher, The New Order and Disciples of the Watch (all from the album “The New Order”). The only “Legacy” classic, Over the Wall, landed in the set list right at the start and effectively catapulted the crowd into the air in an instant. Practice What You Preach was of course there, and Testament also spiced up their show with two tracks from one of the most aggressive albums of their career, “The Gathering” (D.N.R., Three Days in Darkness). Testament kill. Top-class execution and virtuosity from a squad of top-class musicians! And as said! The resulting peak of the second festival day.
At the same time as Testament, an interesting show was going on in the Volskbankmesse hall. It should actually have started almost half an hour before Testament, but the band dawdled. Dawdled like crazy. Once you work out who the band is, the dawdling seems almost natural. Especially when you remember that heavenly, rolling drunkenness of the very same band on the stage at Ljubljana’s Križanke, way back on 20.09.2012. Ladies and gentlemen! Scottish hard rock veterans Nazareth. Now strengthened by singer Carl Sentance, who inherited the giant shoes of the retired Dan McCafferty in the lineup. Finally a singer who has at last “stuck” in the band after McCafferty’s departure. Carl Sentance was the focal point of the show. How would his voice sound, since nobody can really imagine who, under this godless sky, could replace Dan McCafferty’s unique vocal figure? Starting with Razamanaz, then on to This Flight Tonight (orig. Joni Mitchell), the excellent ballad Dream On, the cheeky Hair of the Dog, the expected and demanded Love Hurts (orig. The Everly Brothers), during which the older “ladies” in the crowd melted, and in the encore with Broken Down Angel, Nazareth made it clear that perseverance more than pays off. Sentance isn’t as throatily screamy as McCafferty (who is still regarded as the true male version of the late icon Janis Joplin), but it’s incredible to realize how nicely his tone of voice suits the band’s classics. A surprise. Nazareth are defying the odds and haven’t said their last word yet.
The second day was also special for having the highest attendance of all three days of the festival. The headliner of the day was Twisted Sister, who after 40 years in business are (finally) saying goodbye. The original lineup, apart from the drummer position, filled by former Dream Theater drummer, a gentleman by the name of “If Dream Theater don’t want me anymore, every other act in the Milky Way wants me in their lineup” Mike Portnoy, was given a whole hour and fifty minutes of playing time. With a modest discography, the band as expected pulled the show along on routine, with the band’s smooth talker, Dee Snider of course, telling funny anecdotes from the world of rock’n’roll between breaks, while part of the running time went on a totally unnecessary rendition of The Rolling Stones standard It’s Only Rock’N’Roll and a considerably stretched-out version of the mega-hit We’re Not Gonna Take It. The band also served up a pyrotechnic garnish to the show, just like two years ago, when they last played here. Twisted Sister also allowed all the photographers to shoot the entire concert from up close, that is, from the so-called photo pit. From the first to the last second. Otherwise it was played and sung with distinction. Nothing to complain about there. The audience was thrilled, moved, visibly enchanted, and that was the band’s main goal anyway. To deliver a superior rock’n’roll spectacle. We’ll see whether the promise really holds and whether, given the announced retirement, we’ll really no longer see Twisted Sister on the world’s stages in the future.
For everyone who was (or were) a little bored during Twisted Sister’s predictable show and Snider’s verbal braiding, comfort was offered by the performance of Swedish death metal darklords Grave, which took place at the same time in the Volksbankmesse hall. Ruinously occult darklords and the proverbial Swedish performance perfectionism “par excellence” more than superbly countered the superficial glam metal manner of the famous American “show off” approach raging on the main stage, barely a hundred meters away, for a thinned-out harvest of visitors.
About 20 minutes after Twisted Sister, Grave were followed in the hall by British NWOBHM veterans Satan. As far as this name goes, you’d wish to meet more bands with pioneering pedigree at festivals like this in the future. That is, those who are real derivatives of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The band used its show to flintily present the excellent new studio album “Atom by Atom”, from which the first-rate mini epic suite The Fall of Persephone rang out, along with Ruination, My Own God, Fallen Saviour and the title track Atom By Atom before it. Brian Ross remains the epitome of an extremely charismatic vocalist. Last year he also visited the stages of Tolmin’s Metaldays festival as part of the lineup of another NWOBHM veteran act, Blitzkrieg. Brian once again impressed with exceptional vocal power and high screams on the verge of madness, which he wows with at his shows even in his mature years. The vocalist of course spiced up his show with famous reflections of black British humor. Steve Ramsey, the original member and leader of Satan, is now joined by the excellent young guitarist Russ Tippins, who played most of the hardest guitar parts, especially the solos. The lineup of today’s Satan is completed by original bassist Graeme English and drummer Sean Taylor. Of course the band also paid attention to the classics from the first two albums, “Court in the Act” and “Suspended Sentence”, and after Opression, in the first verse of the closing Time to Die, Ross had an extremely unpleasant and unusual mishap. He forgot the lyrics, and visibly fumed on stage. Satan are a must for all fans of old-school metal pioneering! You can catch them at this year’s edition of Metaldays, in Tolmin, Slovenia!
When Satan finished their set, the only ones left in the Volksbankmesse hall were the festival-goers who just couldn’t go to sleep yet. There were fewer than two hundred of them. All drunk. Or drunk at least 95% of those present. So Killcode took the stage. A band that’s a happy crossbreed of several genres. They’re a relatively young, or new, band, but with a polished artistry and stage presence. A band with mileage, in other words. You could feel it in the homogeneous and compact performance. The band combines elements of raw rock’n’roll, crosses that with elements of punk, often pulls the whole thing toward Guns N’ Roses, adds a dark look reminiscent of The Cult, and the whole thing, especially sonically, is aimed at modern approaches and creating a fat groove. Excellent soloing is naturally part of it. The quintet had an hour at their disposal. After it, festival organizer Horst unexpectedly walked on stage and handed the guys beers. On the way off, he said they could play until two in the morning, or as long as the crowd would let them. Fired up and emboldened, Killcode headed back on stage and played one more song. An excellent performance for the late night of the second day, which slowly but steadily tipped into a new morning! The third, final day of the festival was appearing on the horizon.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Nataša Pišljar (Metal Church)
