Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Date: Monday, 03/18/2013
A little after eight, Brazil’s Shadowside took the stage in front of a surprisingly decent crowd and showed that the only exotic thing about them is that they come from Brazil and that the band is fronted by vocalist Dani Nolden. In a way-too-long forty-minute set, Shadowside served up generic power metal you can hear on every street corner. To make matters worse and even harder to swallow, the awful sound pushed the lone guitar down under an unbearable rumble of bass. The singer’s fairly solid vocals, which thankfully stayed far from any gothic twittering, couldn’t lift the experience despite the effort. The crowd stayed sleepy and gave the band only the occasional bit of applause, which they wouldn’t even have deserved after their dreadful take on the Motörhead classic “Ace of Spades”.
But of course, this time we were really waiting for just two masters of German power metal, the first of them maybe even more than the second, since German heavyweights Gamma Ray, with the legendary Kai Hansen, were playing here for the first time ever. The anticipation was huge, and that made it all the sweeter that Gamma Ray delivered right from the very start with the Power Plant stormer “Anywhere in the Galaxy”. The crowd breathed together with the energetic, brilliantly rowdy band from the first note, repeatedly interrupting the four-piece and visibly surprising them with spontaneous chants of “Gamma Ray, Gamma Ray!” Charismatic frontman and German metal scene legend Kai Hansen didn’t let us down, getting the whole crowd going, delivering a fantastic vocal performance and a stellar repertoire that included anthems like “Men, Martians and Machines”, “The Spirit”, “Empathy” and “Rise”. Kai wore a huge grin the whole time, and the band radiated almost childlike joy in playing on stage. Of course there was no shortage of jumping around, climbing up the platforms on both sides of new drummer Michael Ehré’s drum kit, bassist Dirk Schlächter’s “Manowar-style” posing, and “Judas Priest” hip-shaking. It was the latter, together with the brilliant guitar harmonies from the Kai Hansen/Henjo Richter duo, that got the biggest rush of excitement. Since Gamma Ray had just released the new EP “Master of Confusion”, they also gave us two brand-new tracks, the title song and “Empire of the Undead”, which, after the rather average To the Metal!, promise a new Gamma Ray wrecking ball. Kai and the gang sent the crowd through the roof when Kai announced the iron-clad Helloween classic “Future World” with its famous guitar intro, then said goodbye with the clichéd, average ode to metal “To the Metal”, and finally bowed out in grand style with the fantastic “Send Me a Sign”.
After half an hour of setup, veterans Helloween took the stage in seriously pompous fashion. The obligatory AC/DC anthem “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” flowed into the live-performed “intro” “Wanna Be God”, and the Pumpkins stepped out from behind a camouflage curtain. The post-apocalyptically wrecked stage, decorated with pumpkins hidden behind gas masks, announced that the pumpkin soldiers would be rulers of a new world, and yet Helloween still kicked things off by plunging us into a fantasy world with “Nabatea”, the first single from the new album “Straight Out of Hell”. With its epic “dark-ish” feel it was even more convincing live than on record, and it’s a real shame that Helloween soured that hugely promising start a bit afterwards with an unfortunate choice of repertoire. We got as many as five tracks from the average new record, and sadly exactly the ones that aren’t among its better ones. Instead of “Live Now!” and the boring ballad “Hold Me In Your Arms”, “Burning Sun” or “World of War” would have been a much better pick. Still, Helloween lifted the crowd into the air with their left pinky right at the start with a great take on the eternal classic “Eagle Fly Free”. Worth stressing here: Andi Deris held up very confidently all evening, though his vocals have let people down in the past. This time it went like butter, even if the mixing desk helped him out on the highest screams more than once, but the fact that he got through the Kiske-era songs satisfactorily says enough. After that, despite top-notch playing, good sound and the ever-in-high-spirits Markus Grosskopf and Michael Weikath (their moves, poses and wild grimaces leave absolutely nobody cold), the 7 Sinners track “Where the Sinners Go” and the novelty “Waiting For the Thunder” took the energy down a notch, but then came the first peak of the night, the Time of the Oath steel torturer “Steel Tormentor”, ruined only by the unnecessary and pointless drum solo from Dani Löble, who now sits behind a fortress with no fewer than four bass drums. Totally unnecessary and over the top with the posing. Luckily, Weiki’s “I’m Alive” and the incredible “Falling Higher” fixed the taste. It’s a real shame that nineties Helloween remain so overlooked. The songs are clearly tailor-made for Deris, and the material from the excellent trio of Master of the Rings, The Time of the Oath and Better Than Raw remains some of the best that happened to heavy metal in the nineties, and an unjustly overlooked era. On that front, Helloween impressed much more on the first edition of the Hellish Rock tour. Still, Helloween don’t deserve too harsh a rap, since they win people over mainly with an energetic performance and likable stage presence, and this time Deris in particular did really well, with a Kiss shirt and a Gene Simmons impression, and even more so by not dragging out the crowd interaction to infinity with stale jokes during “Power”. In the first encore Helloween set the place on fire with the infectious hit “Dr. Stein”, and the most anticipated moment was without a doubt the finale, where Kai Hansen once again joined his old colleagues, or rather Markus and Weiki. The guys did a top-notch run through the medley of the eternal Halloween (a pity not the whole thing, like on the first tour), and even more thrilling was the throwback to the debut Walls of Jericho with “How Many Tears” and “Heavy Metal (Is the Law)”. An incredible performance, mostly thanks to the fantastic Kai, who gave people goosebumps especially when he stood shoulder to shoulder with Weiki and the two served up phenomenally played harmonies. And the last, undoubtedly top-notch moment was the closer with probably the biggest hit in German metal, “I Want Out”, where Gamma Ray (except drummer Michael) joined Helloween on stage. The performance sent the crowd into ecstasy, and the only thing that maybe bugged was dragging out “I Want Out” for too long, but the sight of Kai next to Markus and Weiki made up for any possible shortcomings.
The hellish rock was a success, and Helloween left a good six hundred heads satisfied, but still a bit hungry for a better choice of songs. The Pumpkins are no doubt one of Germany’s biggest bands and will always be welcome here, but they’re capable of way better, and that setlist could really use a serious shake-up. Gamma Ray, on the other hand, won people over all the more, and let’s hope Kai keeps his promise and returns to our parts with a headlining tour too.
author: Rok Klemše
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
SHADOWSIDE:
1. I’m Your Mind
2. A.D.D.
3. Highlight
4. Hideaway
5. Gag Order
6. Ace of Spades
7. Waste of Life
8. Angel With Horns
GAMMA RAY:
1. Anywhere In the Galaxy
2. Men, Martians And Machines
3. The Spirit
4. Gamma Ray
5. Master of Confusion
6. Empire of the Undead
7. Empathy
8. Rise
9. Future World
10. To the Metal
— encore —
11. Send Me a Sign
HELLOWEEN:
1. Wanna Be God (intro)
2. Nabatea
3. Eagle Fly Free
4. Straight Out of Hell
5. Where the Sinners Go
6. Waiting For the Thunder
7. Steel Tormentor
8. Drum Solo/I’m Alive
9. Live Now!
10. Hold Me In Your Arms
11. Falling Higher
12. Hell Was Made In Heaven
13. Power
— encore 1 —
14. Are You Metal?
15. Dr. Stein
— encore 2 —
16. Halloween/How Many Tears/Heavy Metal (Is the Law)
17. I Want Out
