Bang Your Head!!! Festival 2018 (Day One) – Legendary Europe Deliver the Closing Highlight!

location: Balingen /Messegelände / Germany
date: 12.07.2018

It was day one of the new Bang Your Head!!! festival. The jubilee edition, the twentieth in a row. Old friends in the old spot. Everything pretty much the same. Everything stays the same. Just like every year. Two stages: a giant one outdoors, and another inside the Volksbanksmesse hall right next door. At eleven thirty it kicked off for real. 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 change on the entire program of this year’s Bang Your Head!!! 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 turn to hard rock. They know how to shine there too (Krokus, Gotthard, China,…). Black Diamonds walk the very same hard rock path, add a pinch of glam, but what counts in the end is the music. The quartet works superbly, though the big stage may have “chewed them up” a little, since singer Mich is armed with a guitar too and has to hold down the rhythm the whole time. But whatever. Guitarist Dee and bassist Andi brought more stage action with their constant running around and firing up the crowd, and made up for the singer’s static position. The band, which hasn’t been around long, has two studio albums in its pocket and, believe it or not, already a live album. The repertoire was built from the albums “Perfect Sin” and the current “Once Upon A Time”, and from the stage rang out 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. Anyone waiting for, say, Crazy Lixx got a very nice warm-up from Black Diamonds.

The next band turned out especially eye-catching. Burning Witches from the town of Brugg. Swiss as well. The all-female quintet has been around since 2015, and last year they released their self-titled debut, which they pushed hard through a three-quarter-hour set. To see what women can pull out of themselves when they take up heavy metal, a Burning Witches show is all it takes. Spandex, vicious hairdos and of course the poses and stage antics. Singer Seraina Telli literally dominated with her explosiveness. She unleashes incredible vocal power and commands every single moment of the show with authority. They filled the whole stage. The band was strengthened this very year with guitarist Sonia Nusseldwer, who is not called “Anubis” for nothing, given her look and stature. A lanky, tall girl with spider fingers and incredible technical polish and mastery. 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 the song Burning Witches. Remarkable tightness, great sound, great performance. Everything. The girls are heading out on a joint tour with Grave Digger in winter 2019. After a show like the one we got in Balingen, it’s no exaggeration to predict they’ll be stealing the show on that tour.

Eclipse are old friends of Bang Your Head!!! They already played here last year. They’ve been around for almost twenty years, but needed quite a while to break through on the international scene. Their breakthrough album “Bleed And Scream” finally put them there back in 2012. They’re famous as great perfectionists and stick to the AOR revival, or more precisely, melodic rock the “Scandinavian” way, but they don’t skimp on decibels. Most of the riffs are belted on extremely tight and shamelessly flirt with heavy metal. The crew is led by a top-notch composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and, last but not least, arranger, Erik Martensson. With him since the band’s founding is excellent guitarist Magnus Henrikkson, on drums is Magnus Ulfstedt, who used to play bass in the band, and the bass spot has been filled since 2015 by Phillip Crusner. As expected. A superb show. Energy, confidence, togetherness. Vocalist Erik Martensson held all the reins, as expected, and once again wowed with his piercing charisma and the way he knows how to pull the crowd onto his side so they follow him. In short, with his infectiousness and of course his convincing vocal character. The band has an arsenal of extremely strong songs with hypnotic, ultra-catchy choruses, and Eclipse once again caught fire full-bloodedly. They went through 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 no letdown when the next band hit the stage. After the Swedes, it was the Finns’ turn. 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 together, and Reckless Love had just released their fourth and so far last studio album “InVader” at that time. The quartet is skillfully decked out, but no joke. Sharply chiseled. Spiked up. Once again the dominant role went to the vocalist. Olli Herman with his lush, teased-up hairdo. Venomous wriggling, constant flirting. Up front quite a few squealing girls who came to feast their eyes on the line-up of slim-hipped boys. Reckless Love also kept up the high level of the shows already played with full vehemence and justified their spot on the bill. A polished, perfected revival. They owe quite a bit of their inspiration to Def Leppard too, and if you’re a fan of bands like CrashDiet, H.E.A.T., etc…, you’ll take to Reckless Love in no time. The band put together a 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 closed the show in the hottest way possible, with the hit Hot.

Scotland’s Alestorm caused a serious shift at the festival grounds. They have a hefty crowd of followers. But it’s nothing compared to what Alestorm get out of the crowd at their shows in Tolmin (Metaldays festival). A somewhat older clientele definitely leads at Bang Your Head!!!, so there weren’t as many daredevil crowd-surfing kamikazes, and certainly no inflatable props, except for the odd sword or axe,.. Even though it was Alestorm and their inflatable duck that carried a piece of Tolmin folklore onto their current, brand-new tour “No Grave But Sea”. The band has actually become quite self-parodying, but their at times downright bizarre silliness keeps igniting nonstop. And Alestorm don’t hold back there, since it keeps bringing them more and more fans. In the backdrop hangs a banner with two bananas out of which two goose heads peek. Their “drunken” expedition to Balingen delivered a repertoire with the songs: 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 occasional folk ornaments boosted beer sales on the grounds. And Alestorm really are unrestrained. Doors are open to them everywhere, they’ve got serious mileage and with it experience. Especially when it comes to commanding stages. The figure of frontman and singer Christopher Bowes, who also plays keyboards in GloryHammer, remains in itself the first address for cracking you up. The man also drew attention with a white T-shirt that reads: “I Got Lost in the Gay Dolphin”, and kept teasing again and again with “Modern Talking”-style keyboards, which nonetheless get in his way just enough that he likes to miss a note while singing, and sometimes slips off the ideal vocal line. But that doesn’t matter. It’s part of the band’s “folklore” and that’s how it has to be. In 2018 it seems like nothing can possibly go wrong for the band. They’re riding giant waves and climbing even higher. They confirmed that ten days later, when they played Metaldays festival in Slovenia’s Tolmin.

The mostly soft tones up to five in the afternoon of the festival’s first day were finally cut off without mercy 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, who as a member of Slayer 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 “desecration” for a true thrash metal die-hard) is enough to make your mouth water. After the intro Call to Arms, the band partly went into Funeral Hmyn, then poured the opening part into the new Blood In, Blood Out from the album of the same name and their tenth studio album overall, released in 2014. Time flies, boys, when are you recording a new one? That doesn’t even matter, the band, founded way back in 1979, left an indelible mark in the eighties with the album “Bounded By Blood”, and so they loaded the repertoire with songs from precisely that album: A Lesson In Violence, And Then There Were None, Deliver Us To Evil and the closing shrapnel Strike of the Beast. Add Parasite from the album “Pleasures of the Flesh” and the “Fabulous Disaster” standard that never goes missing from a proper Exodus setlist, namely 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 too. Zetro is an incredible comedian, but he can also show his true “badass” side of an unbridled hooligan. Vocally, the old songs work perfectly with Zetro. People were tearing themselves apart, 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 upon mosh pit. Zetro demanded it. It was demanded by the energy of outstanding riffs, of outstanding aggression, which Exodus showered over Balingen the whole time like cluster bombs full of napalm. The band didn’t skip another extremely good studio record either, “Tempo Of The Damned” (2004), when they tackled the number Blacklist. As said. Legends who remain big legends on stage too. A toxic waltz and express mail delivery straight to hell! Uncompromising. Let’s hope they come back to Europe as soon as possible. To club shows, of course!

It’s no longer news that a warm-up show took place 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 outfit (costumes) and musical style and transformed into the trio Debauchery. The old-school AC/DC and Accept riffs were replaced by 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 with red paint that of course gives the impression of being completely bloodied, necrophilia, zombiephilia, the smell of rot . In their getup the band somehow also borrows Rammstein’s look. They give off a sense of bizarreness. A Stuttgart trio, then, who delivered a great change of pace with a superb show, starting with Warmachines at War, then continuing with Wampire Holocoust, Zombie Blitzkrieg, all the way to the extremely convincing and relentless destruction in the closing part of the show, when Blood for the Blood God, Thunderbeast and Demonslayer followed one another. 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 a full five songs from it. This album really does deserve a hefty showcase. The band keeps up excellence, professionalism and flawless execution on stage. Nothing goes wrong for them. Everything is thoroughly studied and polished. Essa Holopainen drew quite a bit of attention with his Rush “2112” shirt, although most of the focus naturally went to vocalist Tomi Joutsen, who wore a Grave shirt. What perhaps bothered most was the posing of returnee bassist Oppu, but otherwise, no holding back, we were blown away by the band’s new, extremely convincing show. Joutsen nailed the growls and clean vocals brilliantly throughout, the band delivered extreme tightness, great sound and an almost routine feel for the stage and communication. Amorphis played the following repertoire 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.

With the names Peter “Peavy” Wagner (vocals, bass guitar), Manni Schmidt (guitar), Christos Efthimiadis (drums), a connoisseur of the German heavy metal scene would say that this is Rage in their 1988-1994 era. In fact, Rage never broke up. They play all the time, but Peavy has a completely different line-up beside him in Rage. Still, with his two old companions Manni Schmidt and Christos Efthimiadis, he does still step on stage together. Occasionally, that is. As Refuge. And this crew plays through the Rage legacy from the turn of the eighties into the nineties. But that’s not all. The same crew also released an album of entirely new material this year, “Solitary Men”. The band got a hefty chunk of time, an hour and twenty minutes. They played in the hall. Above all, it was great to see excellent guitarist Manni Schmidt on stage again, who spent a decade of his career in Grave Digger too and always impressed with inventive guitar phrases and especially great solos. It was one of the group’s few shows this year, and in fact the first, 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 of course a real mini-fantasy for a true Rage fan. The hall was packed solid. Perhaps it’s the slightly late hour, or that the band doesn’t play regularly, but you could hear the odd slip and fluffed note; otherwise, 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 tied in brilliantly with the iron-forged Rage repertoire.

Unfortunately Refuge’s show overlapped with Doro, who (interestingly) even got fifteen minutes less than Refuge, and we had to rush to the main stage, which was jam-packed with crowd. The German queen of metal Doro Pesch, who played Metaldays last year with her crew, is a frequent guest. Bang Your Head. This time she played almost 100{3b444c4401662b81bcc31e7c37f77191607db8c9c69c7ad9c1e637a8af67ed0e} of a setlist of pure Warlock material, tucking two songs of her own into it somewhere in the middle of the show, namely All For Metal (from the upcoming new studio album) and the older Burn it Up. Otherwise Warlock to the bone, from the opening Earthshaker Rock, through I Rule the Ruins, then Burning the Witches, True As Steel, East Meets West, F’ur Immer, Hellbound, the cover Breaking the Law (Judas Priest) and the closing highlight with All We Are and Metal Tango. Doro is Doro. Charisma without equal. With her presence and special performance, she once again met with tremendous 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 the rule goes: you watch German bands in Germany. That’s where the mood at a show reaches its peak. Doro made additional 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 the 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 carved themselves a place in the hearts of fans of first-class riffs, great solos, handled by the guitar duo Scott Hendrick and Nate Garnette, and quality albums and shows. They recently 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 the meantime. That is, in the days after the Bang Your Head!!! show and just 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, a sensible 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 entire repertoire, and 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 closer This Evil Embrace, Beneath Dead Leaves). Excellent communication, incredible sharpness, focus, confidence and power. It was proud and downright pleasing that an American act finally made it onto the program again that leans heavily on the old thrash metal guidelines and fertilizes them with ominous death metal structures. The band didn’t skip the older Beyond the Permafrost, The Horryfying Force (Desire to Kill) and Gorge Upon My Soul and Crushed Beyond Dust either. Deadly and thoroughly toxic boiling (and frying)!

Europe released a fantastic new studio album last year, “Walk the Earth”, which absolutely refused to leave this writer’s CD player. Europe are also old friends of Bang Your Head!!! This time they came as the headliners of the festival’s first day. They also prepared a festival setlist. Only the opening part went to the 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 accompanied by another “Wings Of Tomorrow” song, Wasted Time.

Joey Tempest decisively dominates, filling the whole stage. Even when the main spotlight beam climbs 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 as he was out on the catwalk. A tech came running up to Tempest, who hadn’t even noticed his microphone no longer worked, and literally planted himself in front of him. Once Tempest realized what was going on and swapped mics with the tech, he treated the poor guy to a bit of teasing, theatrically refusing to let him go back backstage and blocking his way so the tech couldn’t get past Tempest. Another superb 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, incredible sensitivity in playing the solos and the other small details that adorn his playing and give him a special place among the world’s guitarists. Europe are a band that pulls you in right away. Besides the outstanding stage charisma and presence, there is of course the musical catalog of outstanding hits, among which they slipped in the ballad Carrie this time, keeping company with: Superstitious, Cherokee and of course the unforgettable and eagerly awaited The Final Countwdown, with which Europe closed their show at Bang Your Head Festival!!! From the infamous “The Final Countdown” album, the inclusion of the song “Heart of Stone” was also a real treat. From the newer ones, “Bag Of Bones” and “War Of Kings”, Firebox, then Hole in My Pocket and War of Kings followed. The band put together the setlist with remarkably deft subtlety. Shrewdly. It was full of mini-highlights and of course a final crescendo right at the end, with the performance of those roaring hits. An outstanding performance. A great show. A band that, let’s hope, will reign on stages for a long time yet, and above all, with inspiration like the current “Walk the Earth” shows, keep recording new studio albums. So Europe, with feather-light ease, justified their role as the favorites of the festival’s first day.

But the night was far from over. The partying moved into the hall. There on stage stood Amaranthe. Kind of the ugly duckling of metal(?), where you hear everything in one. A whole 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-like flourishes, then there are two male vocals. One clean, the other a knot. Like putting a little oil in your ice cream, or alcohol in your salad. As said. Quite a bit of musical mess, which finally confused the author 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 was offered next by Finnish melodic death metal champions Insomnium, who only took the stage at one in the morning. They played the whole current album “Winter’s Gate”, and added older numbers 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 currently on vacation. That is, school kids and students. Basically the young guard of metalheads. And that guard mostly backs the band. My brain’s processor was by then showing its first malfunctions, so restorative surgery was urgently needed in the form of a refreshing sleep and listening to the ELP album “Brain Salad Surgery”. I’m sure it was very hot at Insomnium, and we’ll make it up to the band with a report at the first opportunity, as soon as possible. Until then you can console yourselves with the current one, when Insomnium played in Ljubljana at the end of this March.

author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik