Morarock Festival 2008 – Day Three!

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Concert date: 22.06.2008
Attendance: 2106
Ticket price: 300

Day three of the Morarock festival had arrived. The headliners announced for the day were Germany’s Judas Priest, or in plain speak, Primal Fear. By far the biggest name of all four festival days. The organizer stuck to tradition here and gave the local bands a chance to prove themselves and show off on stage ahead of the steel eagles from Germany.

OVERTURES: 18.40-19.05
Day three kicked off with Overtures, proper locals really, from Gorizia. It’s a mixed Italian-Slovenian crew that leans heavily on the legacy of old-school Iron Maiden. On top of that they weave in venomous rhythms driven by double bass pedals and that typical Italian melodic pomp. Still, a much more direct band compared to everyone who played the day before, a much more stripped-down, “in your face” metal outfit. The guys chopped out Beyond The Waterfall, with a hugely successful lead motif, then Silent Observer, the rock-padded Faded Dream and Here We Fall. The musicians are technically very accomplished, and the vocals are strong and enviably polished. Of course, this is a new band that still has to prove itself. It has potential, but it needs to spit in its hands and really roll up its sleeves. Apart from the singer, the guys came across as very static, awkward and shy on stage. The drums punched right through the mix.

STEEL CROWN: 19.15-19.45
Steel Crown are a legendary Italian band that got back together in December 2007 for their first show after such a long break. RockLine caught that very show in the town of Rocnhi dei Legionari on 9.12.2008 (RockLine report HERE). So the band is born again. On stage they looked much more appealing than Overtures, because you can tell the singer is an “old hand”. He has tons of charisma and knows how to cash in on it on stage. The band also has more general kinetic energy, so they came across as much more dynamic on stage than their predecessors. The guys play an obscure old-school metal variety, with songs built under heavy inspiration from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. The solos stand out, since they’re built completely by the book and drilled to death, and for such excellent heavy, polished riffs they’re almost too pretty, too good, so they lose some daring and arrogance. In the half hour they got, the band played, among others, I Can Drream, Stay Poor, No Man Land For A Gypsy, Sunset Warriors… The crowd seemed rather indifferent during the set. Steel Crown served up a very well-tuned stage show.

SKANNERS: 20.00-20.40
Alongside Primal Fear, the strongest metal outfit of the festival’s third day. Hailing from Bolzano in South Tyrol, they surprised with a few hefty songs that lived up to the label of well-crafted riffing, backed by decisive, polished singing that hit dizzying heights with no trouble at all.

The band cultivates riff templates leaning on late, Painkiller-era Judas Priest, adding the harmonic touch of double third harmonies. Since it’s often underpinned by double kick and the vocal is high and screamy, they can pass for a somewhat prettified, softened version of Primal Fear, but like I said, only occasionally. The band, which is under the wing of My Grave Yard Records, was watched closely during the show by label boss Giuliano, who brought along a whole heap of interesting CDs that he sold at the festival, and that you could snag by haggling, at prices fairly bearable for the average Slovenian pocket. Anyway, back to Skanners. The band dedicated Rock City to the rock city of Brescia, but it was the brand-new songs from “Serial Healer” (2008, RockLine review HERE) that really set things on fire, since they have a particularly convincing metal reach live, especially the title track and The Soul Finder, which is smartly “arranged” for intensely closing the band’s concert sets. A cohesive, polished show, with dynamic stage play and quality tuning.

Skanners setlist:
1. TV Shock
2. Iron Horse
3. Time Of War
4. Welcome To Hell
5. Metal Party
6. Serial Healer
7. Starlight
8. Rock City
9. The Soul Finder

EXTREMA: 21.30-22.30
The ugly duckling of the festival’s third day, Extrema, is a hardcore metal band. The band isn’t new, though, it’s been around since 1986. Since info is scarce, I assume they started out playing thrash and then morphed into metalcore. The discography is likewise very thin in the years between 1986 – 1997. Today the band of course doesn’t hide the thrash elements in its music, and the vocalist gamely defies the many troubles Italian singers tend to have with English verses. In a good hour they sweated out boundless liters, with which they tried to whip the crowd into letting out its anger and aggression. The vocal is screamy, but when it calms down it sounds interestingly grunge-tinged, and it surprisingly reminded me of Chris Cornell from Soundgarden. In their career the band has played before shows by big names like Slayer, Metallica and Korn… Interesting. But did they convince? This is thrashcore for kids, which confirms that our Italian neighbors aren’t exactly masters when it comes to expressing the extremes of the metal craft. The somewhat unfortunate placement of this band on the festival bill spoiled the classic metal-flavored mood and drove away mostly those looking for melody, while the youngsters went wild and tore at the barrier below the stage.

PRIMAL FEAR: 23.10 – 00.30
At last I get to meet this band again. Five years have passed since we saw them at Slovenia’s Rock Otočec in July 2003. The band recently shook up its ranks once more. Henny Wolter (guitar, Sinner) came back, in place of Tom Naumann, who got the boot for bouts of immaturity, and the first bullseye at Casino Grosuplje – every band’s dream, the Swedish guitar guru, multi-instrumentalist, music arranger and writer Magnus Karlsson, as a replacement for Stefan Leibing, who left the band because of family commitments.

So the partnership of Ralf Scheppers, who probably remains the best German metal singer to this day, and Mat Sinner (bass guitar, Sinner) stays unblemished, which means Primal Fear remain what Primal Fear are. Straight-up metal that smacks you silly right between the eyes. The band stormed the stage with Sign Of Fear, a song from the current studio album “New Religion”. The career-defining album of the band somehow gives it a new vision and opens up new horizons for further growth. Magnus Karlsson also tried his hand on it as a guest, leaving obvious traces especially in the arrangements of the new record, particularly on Fighting The Darkness. This “super” epic from the new record worked brilliantly live. At the start, all attention was grabbed by the always above-standard Ralf Scheppers, who still sings like a siren, and in the second part by the third harmonies in the passages of both guitarists. It was an excellent build-up of drama, and the song gained a whole new quality on stage. Anyway, let’s go back a bit to the start. Primal Fear got people on their feet especially in the opening stretch with the classics Silver And Gold, Running In The Dust and Nuclear Fire, while Angel In Black and Under Your Spell have already become part of the band’s iron repertoire. A classic from the debut “Pirmal Fear” (1998) was dedicated by Ralf, on behalf of the band, to one of the Slovenian fans who was watching the show from the front row, which must surely be a special and undoubtedly great honor.

Primal Fear are celebrating 10 years, and this shorter summer festival tour was dedicated to that too. Karlsson is an outstanding guitarist, yet you could still miss Stefan Leibing. It showed a little in the band’s performance itself, since Magnus hasn’t yet drilled all of the band’s stage setups between shows. He plays like a madman, though. But compared to the devilishly fired-up Wolter, he’s a much more passive guitarist on stage during the solos, just as Leibing was.

Despite that, there wasn’t a single bigwig who could dispute the band’s top-notch execution and professional attitude that night. In one of the breaks, Ralf toasted the crowd with a bottle of wine again, which is becoming one of the trademarks of Primal Fear shows. Otherwise, the key ingredient was missing that night for it to be a thoroughly excellent gig. The crowd. There was a chronic shortage of it, and a louder response was missed too. Primal Fear delivered very high-quality sound, which worked most convincingly about 15m from the stage.

When the guys launched into Final Embrace, it hinted that the show was nearing its end. The band exploded once more with the hymn-like banger Metal Is Forever, in which Ralf’s vocal, extremely high and powerful, again took your breath away. The end of the regular set followed. For the encore the band came back on stage to play just one song. Chainbreaker, where people got stirred up one more time, and then they said their final goodbyes.

Primal Fear cut their set a bit short. From the encore they dropped the otherwise excellent Iron Fist In A Velvet Glove (“Nuclear Fire”, 2001), which is a particular shame, and Blood On Your Hands from the album “New Religion” (2007). The drum solo was axed from the repertoire as well. The reason the guys shortened their set most likely lies in the fact that tickets cost only 12,00€ (though the question is how much money the sponsors chipped in for the show) and perhaps in the passivity of the already small crowd below the stage. However I look at it, Primal Fear ate up all the competition at the festival that day. They’re still an incredibly high-quality band that proves all its strengths precisely through live shows. These can only serve as a lesson for young, not-yet-established metal bands. No wobbling, no dithering. Just authentic, full-on execution from the first shot, with incredibly polished stage play! Steel through and through!

Primal Fear setlist:
1. Intro
2. Sign Of Fear
3. Silver And Gold
4. Running In The Dust
5. Nuclear Fire
6. Face The Emptiness
7. Seven Seals
8. Angel In Black
9. Under Your Spell
10. Battalions Of Hate
11. Demons And Angels
12. Fighting The Darkness
13. Final Embrace
14. Metal Is Forever
—encore—
15. Chainbreaker