Location: Munich / Backstage / Germany
Date: 30.09.2014
If the last Tuesday of September saw a convoy of four-wheeled tin cans streaming from the homeland toward Germany, mostly because of the Champions League match between Germany’s Schalke and our own Maribor, it wasn’t only the purple-clad fans heading off to the land of the forever-booming economy. At least three of us from the country below Triglav had reserved Tuesday night for a concert experience in the heart of the Bavarian capital. The Backstage Werk club, which was already breathing with full social lungs by the time we arrived at the “scene of the crime,” was hosting the “Space Police: Defenders of the Crown” tour, which brought three representatives of German heavy and power metal under one roof. The perfect reason for Rockline to be there, too!
Shortly after eight, the evening was kicked off by Starchild, a newly formed German heavy metal outfit that made itself known this year with the release of its self-titled debut (review here). As a newer side project, Starchild can’t afford a solo tour at home, but they were more than welcome as the evening’s warm-up act ahead of bands like Unisonic and Edguy, since they carry the same metal DNA that’s dear to every fan of the German heavy metal school. No wonder, with a rhythm section of bassist Jens Becker (Grave Digger) and drummer Michael Ehre (Gamma Ray). The band’s central figure, though, is someone else. The conductor’s baton on stage belonged to Sandro Giampietro, a vocalist, occasional guitarist and undisputed engine of the show, who kept the band’s torch held high through a set of just half an hour. Young Dennis Hormes’ melodic guitar lines, paired with harmonic multi-voice choruses, formed the pure-blooded framework of a new, classic-sounding German heavy metal outfit, one we may or may not get to catch live again. Starchild closed the set with the self-titled track, and the crowd’s loud response was proof enough that Giampietro and company are kicking in the right direction.
Second up to introduce themselves to the Bavarian crowd were Unisonic, a quintet that’s already well known despite only a few years of mileage in the metal ranks. Unisonic are made up of old tomcats of the German heavy rock scene, so the crowd took them to heart as early as their self-titled debut two years ago. But the caravan rolled on, and Unisonic forged a new hot scepter this year with their second album “Light of Down” (review here). After a bombastic intro, the band members spread out across the stage, and a real explosion erupted in the front rows of the already packed Backstage at nine o’clock when the first nightingale, Michael Kiske, stepped out, whose voice became immortal in the second half of the eighties as part of the cult Helloween classics. Unisonic make music in the realm of catchy hard rock and heavy metal with the occasional burst of double bass drum pedals, and that energetic combination hit right from the opening track, For The Kingdom. During a pause, the thousand-headed crowd started chanting “Kiske, Kiske”, which only fired up the frontman even more, and he showed off a sky-high vocal register in the chorus of Exceptional. Unisonic came across as a well-oiled live machine that, despite its professional approach, isn’t a stranger to goofing around, too: the ever-smiling guitarist Kai Hansen stuck out a foot to trip Kiske mid-set, but Kiske didn’t fall for it. It’s precisely the guitar duo of Hansen / Many Meyer (I’d already watched the latter at this very club a few months ago as the guitarist of the legendary Krokus) that delivers the high-octane instrumental passages with cleverly placed, infectious choruses, the high points of Unisonic’s songwriting. It’s also nice that after just two albums, the quintet’s repertoire is already almost entirely original material, with the Helloween hit I Want Out slotted in right before the finish. Fifth gear, no handbrake, so unlike today’s dull Helloween rendition, it hit the nail right on the head and offered a perfect mental switch-off before the night’s climax. The climax? For plenty of people, Unisonic already was that!
The biggest chunk of the evening’s schedule went to the tour’s headliners Edguy, likeable German power metallers who have always been considered oddballs in the metal world. This year Edguy released a new album, “Space Police: Defenders of the Crown” (review here), returning to their classic sound and delivering their best record in over a decade. On the promo tour they’re tearing across Europe this fall, and the stop closest to us was right in Munich.
Edguy opened the show with fresh material from the current album and quickly proved themselves a superbly tight unit. The sonic freshness (admittedly laid over a layer of keyboards) and the lively vocal lines of the front guitar line-up, with Tobias Sammet in the middle, along with the catchy chorus of the album’s title track Space Police, easily filled the lips of the jam-packed club. After a quick glance back at the previous decade with Out of Vogue (“Rocket Ride”, 2006), it was on! Frontman Sammet, known for working the crowd, started pulling jokes out of his sleeve between songs and entertained everyone in his native language. There’s nothing wrong with chatting, as long as you don’t cross the healthy line of reason. Toward the end of the show the banter began to drag on like a bad soap opera, and Sammet stole a song or two worth of the total time available, which is apparently standard practice at Edguy’s headline shows. Given that his vocal form is still very solid, which he proved with a sky-high scream at the end of Babylon, the time theft is (for now) unnecessary. But no worries, the showman approach is one of the trademarks of the quintet from central Germany, and it finds fertile ground especially among the fairer sex, who make up a bigger percentage of the crowd at Edguy shows than at most other metal events. Tobias Sammet, as the primary stage presence, has a polished, charismatic approach in which he doesn’t make a single move by accident. His innate host’s talent overshadowed the other members of the band, so apart from Bohnke’s drum solo, none of the remaining instrumental trio got enough room to maneuver and prove themselves.
Crowd favorites that stood out were Superheroes, Vain Glory Opera and the ever-moving Land of the Miracle. Even though Edguy cultivate a simple, even naive lyrical sensibility, their songs, together with the band’s wisecracking approach, grab the listeners right away in the claws of melodic catchiness. The peak of this at-times almost operetta-like approach came with the cover of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus, during which a hundred fists in the air spontaneously followed the chorus. As usual, Edguy saved the best for last! The adrenaline fever hit its maximum when Tears of a Mandreake shook the Backstage, followed in the encore by Lavatory Love Machine and King of Fools. Judging by the satisfied faces in all four directions, Edguy’s cheerfully upbeat party won over the well-heeled German crowd, so by their own promise they’ll soon be back in the Bavarian capital. Believe it or not, in more than two decades of playing, this was only their first solo show in Munich. Before that, they’d only played this city of two million as the opener for rock giants (Aerosmith, Scorpions, Deep Purple…).
words: Urban Bolta
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
EDGUY:
1. Love Tyger
2. Space Police
3. Out of Vogue
4. Superheroes
5. Defenders of the Crown
6. Vain Glory Opera
7. Drum Solo (Imperial March (Darth Vader Theme))
8. Ministry of Saints
9. Rock Me Amadeus (Falco cover)
10. Babylon
11. Land of the Miracle
12. Tears of a Mandrake
—encore—
13. Lavatory Love Machine
14. King of Fools
UNISONIC:
1. Venite 2.0 (intro)
2. For the Kingdom
3. Exceptional
4. Star Rider
5. Your Time Has Come
6. When the Deed Is Done
7. King for a Day
8. Throne of the Dawn
9. I Want Out
10. Unisonic
STARCHILD:
1. It’s My Race
2. Runner
3. Eyes of History
4. Still My Planet
5. Reaching the Land
6. Starchild Theme (intro)
7. Starchild
