Gods Of Metal 2006

It’s 8:40. We roll up to the grounds and almost run over a tent of Chetniks at the Idroscalo entrance, or more precisely an Italian “metal standard-bearer” who was already haunting the festival forecourt at the crack of dawn with a pirate flag. Meanwhile the Italians were busily setting up stall after stall, all of them stuffed with “fake” shirts. Bootleg tees are part of Italian culture anyway, and the Italians are true masters of the craft. It’s a joy to watch them try so hard to talk you into buying a shirt with the Metallica emblem on top and, underneath it, the complete artwork from Grave Digger’s “Knights Of The Cross” (1998). After a long, seriously exhausting but fun wait, we finally ended up inside Idroscalo park, whose entrance area was merrily dotted with white portable toilets that looked utterly wrecked from the heavy “excretory” activity of the folks who had visited them over the first two days of the festival.

CRUCIFIED BARBARA: 10.00 – 10.30
It’s 10:00. Crucified Barbara, Swedish representatives of dirty rock’n’roll written along the lines of good old Motorhead and in places dragged through the doom legacy of Sabbath, started raising hell, and they were seriously fired up. The quartet mostly played songs from their debut “In Distortion We Trust” (2005). The nice morning wake-up call lasted half an hour. Midway through the set the band lost one of its guitars, which showed how green the girls still are. Two blondes, a redhead and a brunette. Still, this kind of music isn’t the kind where losing one of the two guitars hits the quality of the performance or the live sound all that hard. If anything it was almost welcome. The singer’s guitar covered the sound picture nicely with the smeared wash of its riffing, so the girls got off the stage very luckily. The first guitarist was finally back on stage by the end of the set. A merrily rowdy morning start to the festival.

SONATA ARCTICA: 10.55 – 11.35
At 10:55 Sonata Arctica took the stage, a hugely popular band with the youngsters. A proper Finnish “boom”. Basically a souped-up version of Stratovarius, meaning technically skilled and trained to play at the highest possible speeds. The sound did a fair bit of damage to their overall picture. Singer Tony Kakko also wasn’t having his best day, and it showed through the whole set, especially when he went for his highest notes, where his voice ran out and, a few times when there was no need for it, he unfortunately rasped ugly. Guitarist Janne’s performance again took your breath away, proving he truly belongs among the fastest players on Earth. Sonata Arctica played seven songs, including two from the debut, 8th Commandment and My Land, and closed the show with the seven-minute epic The Cage. At the end they fired up the crowd once more with a short skit, Vodka Song, and then, after 40 minutes, left the stage for good.

EDGUY: 11.55 – 12.40
Edguy, who took over the stage after them, are a metal approach grown on the doctrine of the second school. What was said earlier about Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius could now be applied to Edguy as a school-trained band in the spirit of Helloween and Gamma Ray. Edguy served up an enviable sound, which means the guys have collected plenty of this kind of experience over their ten years. It was the third band of the third day, and their sound was better than their slot would suggest, as an opposite case. So for the first time at Gods Of Metal something really “hissed” off the stage in an impressive way. Tobias Sammet was brilliant with an excellent vocal performance, which justified the description of him as a “cross-over” of Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween) and Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden, solo). Full and explosive vocals in every register. Edguy came across tight and coherent, and their stage act was a real treat. A fun show, with Tobi climbing around the stage lighting rig. The first tougher bite came with Tears Of A Mandrake. The piano was sampled in the background. The drums, meanwhile, were simply too small for Edguy, and you could tell that such a modest kit couldn’t do justice to the band’s bombast and explosive charging. Felix Bohnke’s drum kit was simply outgrown by Edguy. An excellent show, limited only by what you get as the third act out of ten. An offer Edguy used to the fullest. They especially delighted the crowd with the demanding Majesty, King Of Fools snuck onto the setlist too, and they closed the show with Vein Glory Opera.

GAMMA RAY: 14.20 – 15.15
Angra’s successors were Gamma Ray. Gamma Ray finally drew a clear dividing line through the sonic inconsistency of the festival’s third day. It was the first set that lifted the festival to the level you expect. For my taste, the lineup should have kicked off on 3.6.2006 at Gods Of Metal with Gamma Ray. Gamma Ray! What can you even say about such perfection? You can see the band is in top form. You can see they’ve just come back from North America, where they filmed a live DVD in Quebec, and last but not least, you can see that Daniel Zimmermann just got off a tour with Freedom Call. In short, Gamma Ray were perfect. Perfect for their slot, let’s be clear, which was fifth band in the running order. Like Angra, Gamma Ray hauled their own drums onto the stage, which they had “screwed” together backstage during Angra’s set. They flayed the people at the front alive by opening their show with Gardens Of The Sinner, an excellent song from the excellent record “Powerplant” (1999), and sent adrenaline straight through everyone’s veins. In the front rows people’s heads were properly spinning, and the crowd was packed far tighter into the space between the stage and the mixing desk, which stood 50 m apart, than before Gamma Ray. Man On A Mission poured oil on the fire. The wicked New World Order certainly didn’t let the crowd out of its claws, and then came a song written by Gamma Ray drummer Daniel Zimmermann, Fight, from the album “Majestic” (as boss Kai Hansen announced it). The band stayed there and continued with the mid-tempo metal march Blood Religion, whose guitar motifs always point back to good old Running Wild. An excellent longer epic, seasoned with shifts of motifs and moods. Pretty soon, though, Gamma Ray simplified things and called on their metal subjects to close ranks for what is by now clearly an iron-clad part of their repertoire, Heavy Metal Universe. But that was only an innocent warm-up for the big party that followed. A few regrets had already been voiced on our bus ride to Milan. Namely, on the bus I put forward the hypothesis that it would be very nice, with Gamma Ray playing at the same festival as Helloween, to see Kai Hansen on stage together with Helloween as a special guest during their set. And to make the most of the occasion, a pious wish crept into the hypothesis too: a Ride The Sky sung by Kai Hansen, which Deris simply can’t sing at Hansen’s level. Well, the picture got twisted a bit. Gamma Ray uncompromisingly and without a shred of respect challenged Helloween by tackling this “Walls Of Jericho” (1985) Helloween classic, which Kai Hansen wrote for Helloween. Hansen sang phenomenally, and there’s no need to explain how much the crowd lost it during this song. Gamma Ray didn’t stop; they played about two thirds of Ride The Sky, then slid in a slick transition to Future World, abruptly switching the repertoire again while staying with Helloween. Now they were already racing through I Want Out, which they played in full. Hansen shone vocally, and Ride The Sky was the peak of Gamma Ray’s show, as was the whole Helloween medley performed by Gamma Ray, during which the crowd kept merrily going wild. A commercial trick for all the clueless! Now you know too that Gamma Ray are a band that plays old Helloween songs at their concerts! To finish, they went back to their own repertoire and closed their stellar show with a classic that never misses from the band’s setlists, Rebbelion In A Dreamland. In short, the Gamma Ray set was the herald that the festival had suddenly grown by a few solid steps and climbed to a noticeably higher level of quality. The metal rhapsody had truly begun!

Gamma Ray setlist:
1. Gardens Of The Sinner
2. Man On A Mission
3. New World Order
4. Fight
5. Blood Religion
6. Ride The Sky (incl. Future World)
7. I Want Out
8. Rebbelion In A Dreamland

STRATOVARIUS: 15.45-16.45
After their reunion two years ago, the lords of melodic Scandinavian power metal were back on the stages again. Following the upheavals that thoroughly shook the band’s reputation and standing, Stratovarius found new creative strength and, in the revamped lineup of Timo Kotipelto (vocals), Timo Tolkki (guitar), Jens Johansson (keyboards), newcomer Lauri Porra (bass) and Jörg Michael (drums), triumphantly followed Gamma Ray onto the stage. Stratovarius showed they hadn’t lost a shred of their shine and, judging by the crowd’s thunderous reaction, not a shred of respect either! They played great. The sound was much more precise than Gamma Ray’s, meaning more sophisticated, less raw and more refined. The Scandinavian approach, simply. They kicked off straight away with Hunting High And Low, from the album “Infinite”, which more or less rounds off the band’s most fruitful, most creative period. Paradise followed, and that’s where the only flaw of the show appeared. Singer Timo Kotipelto was seriously wrestling with the chorus, which meant he gave out in the highest registers and rasped ugly a few times. It didn’t happen again through the rest of the set, though. Probably Kotipelto hadn’t warmed up his voice before the show. The sound was big. The new bassist Lauri Porra convinced everyone he was made for this band, and his bass rattled lightning-fast through the intricate melodic lines. The sight was truly nostalgic. Brilliant musicians together again and back in full swing. Honestly, only then did I really realize how much the scene had actually been missing them. In the first part Stratovarius fired up the crowd by running through the classics. The crowd was especially loud for the band’s unforgettable classics Speed Of Light and Kiss Of Judas, while in the second part Stratovarius also played United from their current studio album “Stratovarius” (2005) and Eagleheart from “Elements pt I.” (2003). The band marked its repertoire with no fewer than three songs from their excellent album “Infinite” (2000). Besides the already mentioned Hunting High And Low, it was joined by A Million Light Years Away and Phoenix, and they closed the show in a seriously impulsive way, sending the crowd into delirium once more with the classic Black Diamond. The band delivered a compact, tight and mature performance. In fact, they were the band that interested me most among the “power metal” acts at the festival, to see how they’d fare on stage, reawakened. They showed they’re still as big and magnificent as ever and that they’re entering a new period, taking a new step in their evolution, because you could feel a kind of calm in the band during the show, so it’ll be very interesting to see what they come up with in the studio in the future. In short, routine, experience and love of music in perfect interplay. Excellent sound, excellent performance and an excellent change of pace. A real relaxation for the ears after the raw Gamma Ray punch and before the return to the traditional “power metal” sounds that were brought back to the stage by…

Stratovarius setlist:
1. Hunting High And Low
2. Paradise
3. A Million Light Years Away
4. Speed Of Light
5. Kiss Of Judas
6. Eagleheart
7. United
8. Phoenix
9. Black Diamnod

HELLOWEEN: 17.10 – 18.10
… Helloween. They had a bit more room on stage. I’d always seen Helloween playing small stages until now, but what an incredible difference it makes when you put Helloween on a big stage. How well a big stage suits the band, and an open-air space too. How skillfully they used every option the stage at this year’s “Gods Of Metal” offered, and how they lobbed the ball back to Gamma Ray. Helloween are definitely the band that always knows how to season its live shows with a tasty dose of fun. And they’re not arrogant about it, like the little fuming Tobias Sammet (Edguy); they simply go at it with a healthy sense of humor. They don’t flatter themselves and make just the right amount of fun of themselves. The sight of Deris in a white jacket, from about 50 m away from the stage, which was the view I had, briefly conjured up Biff Byford (Saxon) in front of my eyes, because of the hairdo and because Biff wears a fur coat. Well, once I “adjusted” my visual perception back into the right position, it definitely wasn’t Biff Byford on stage. As I said, Helloween brought the traditional German rough-edged raw sound back to the stage and simply bewitched the crowd with their big riffs. They were in excellent spirits and didn’t hide how great they felt or how playful they were on stage. The biggest surprise of all with his switched-on mood was Weiki, who on small stages doesn’t show much activity at all, but is routinely absorbed in smoking his cigarettes while doing his job like a pro. So Helloween, who weren’t in a “headliner” slot, burned as if they actually were. Deris wasn’t scared off by Hansen’s take on Ride The Sky three hours earlier. He sang the repertoire flawlessly and hit the highest notes too, those of his predecessor Kiske, in a lovely “clean” tone with just the right amount of power. Why only Kiske? Because Helloween didn’t play any songs from “Walls Of Jericho” (where Hansen sings) at this show. They opened with the complex song from “Keeper of the Seven Keys pt III. – The Legacy” (2005), titled The King For A Thousand Years, then jumped back to the eighties and Eagle Fly Free. A leap back into the land of the “rabbits” with Hell Was Made For Heaven and back to, heh heh heh… you won’t believe it, the first ballad of the festival, Tale That Wasn’t Right. Helloween were relentless again after that. Mr. Torture tortured us thoroughly, so the heads under the stage were flying merrily around again, and then we were already soaring with If I Could Fly, the brilliant hit from “The Dark Ride” (2000). Power followed, and that gave me a real fright, since I thought they’d break up the song again and torment the crowd with calls to sing “Ohhhh-ohh-ohhs”. Luckily that didn’t happen, which still annoyed me, because the album “Time Of The Oath” (1996), which this song comes from, has a few tracks that could easily replace the “overplayed” Power. Guys! It’s time to put Steel Tormentor back on the setlist, or surprise us with Before The War. Anyway, what they didn’t do during Power, they then did very subtly during Future World. The crowd had to shout along with Deris “Ooooh – ohhhh – ohhh” and then yet another “ooooh”,….. how boring,… And then, to top it all off, came Mrs. God, evidently the chosen one of Mr. Torture, followed by the famous Dr. Stein, and we had a whole palette of human characters on stage. I must not forget the two enormously big fat pumpkins that inflated on both sides of the stage during the show, which was hugely fun and added a nice dose of extra pomp to Helloween’s power metal, which is seasoned with pomp anyway. Like I said! Helloween are in excellent form. You can really tell they toured this past winter, that they’re still very fresh, and that they have two very fired-up new members: the former Rawhead Rexx drummer Dani Löble and the slightly less new but still very keen nephew of Rudolf Schenker (guitar, Scorpions), Sascha Gerstner (guitar). The pumpkins were “super-pumpkin-tastic”. And it’s a real shame that someone living on Slovenian soil doesn’t get the chance to see them live in this kind of setting more often. The one-hour show was played “to zero” with flawless polish. The only thing I missed was a bit of freshness in the setlist, which was basically a recap of their setlist from this year’s last tour, just shortened and adapted for a one-hour set at Gods Of Metal. Whatever! Pumpkins, hats off!

Helloween setlist:
1. King For A Thousand Years
2. Eagle Fly Free
3. Hell Was Made For Heaven
4. Tale That Wasn’t Right
5. Mr. Torture
6. If I Could Fly
7. Power
8. Future World
9. Mrs. God
10. Dr. Stein

18:10 End of the Helloween show. I sank onto my “rucksack” and tried to doze off for 20 minutes. No way around it! After seven bands and only one break, which I finally took, plus a measly 4 dl of beer that trickled down my parched throat and “cost” me an enormous €5.00 (do not buy beer at concerts in Italy!!! Even if you bring the empty glass back, they just laugh at you and don’t give you your €1.00 back like they do in the German-speaking countries of Western Europe!!!!). Anyway, a soothing, light but still somewhat restorative sleep in the safe shade behind the mixing desk and my shortened version of it helped me properly recharge my batteries.

MOTORHEAD: 18.35 – 19.35
Motorhead! Yes, now it was Motorhead. Motorhead and one hour. That doesn’t go together, it just doesn’t add up. Well, we lived through that too. Exactly at 6:35 pm a “rumble” came from the stage: “Good Afternoon!” Is it Alright?!?! We are Motorhead!!! And we play Rock’N’Roll!!!” Why did Lemmy ask the audience if it was all right? Because they usually start their shows once the sky is covered in black darkness, and so Lemmy always greets the audience with “Good Evening!” when he walks on. This time it just stayed at afternoon. The opening already announced that this show would be something special. Which is a strange thing to say, really. What can possibly still be special about a Motorhead show after 31 years of these legends, when there isn’t a trick they haven’t pulled yet? The setlist, of course. Something very interesting happened with Dr. Rock, though nothing unusual for when Motorhead hit the stage. The space between the stage and the mixing desk was covered by a thick curtain of dust that people created by going crazy, stomping wildly and sending a ton of dirt into the sky, enough to almost give you a headache. So the stage soon couldn’t be seen at all. Stay Clean and the stage was practically boiling over. Then the first crusher from the left and the song Love Me Like A Reptile. Aaaaaa!!!!! This is what I was waiting for, guys!!!! Lemmy is standard. Sunglasses, which is nonstandard, but the vocals definitely that recognizable one-of-a-kind sound, as if coming from a corpse lying and decaying at the bottom of a deep ocean. A trademark, a signature. The Iron Chancellor was as fired up as ever this time too. The man who turns 61 at the end of December this year was the master of the stage. An icon, a true rock legend. If there’s any musician who completely defines the definition of a rock legend, it’s definitely Lemmy. After three songs Phil asked the crowd to snap out of its “passive stance” (which wasn’t true at all) and make as much noise as possible. Heh, people couldn’t care less about the words of “little” Phil Campbell! The Iron Chancellor was in no way willing to put up with such ignorance, and suddenly it thundered from the stage: “That’s terrible!!!” In an instant the startled crowd followed its heartless shepherd and began whipping up a thunderous storm under the stage. Lemmy was visibly pleased and announced the song Metropolis. Killers followed, from the album “Inferno” (2004). Wow, how it ploughed through the eardrums. The charging goes on and another surprise follows, Over The Top. Yes!!!!. But that’s not all yet, because with I’ve Got Mine the band touched on the album “Another Perfect Day” (1983), which music critics carelessly and deliberately tore apart, deciding with their media campaign in 1983 to erase the band from the rock scene. But they failed! How lovely it was to hear this forgotten classic again! Then another classic, No Class, and people fell into headless delirium again! Motorhead definitely didn’t forget their latest album “Inferno” and revived its spirit with the “sped-up” version of their phantom song Orgasmatron, which in its new version is called In The Name Of Tragedy. This one was a truly merciless crusher that tore at the ears beyond all limits. Just ‘cos You’ve Got the Power (Don’t Mean You Got the Right) from the album “Rock’N’Roll” (1987) was announced by Lemmy as a “slow rock’n’roll ballad”, and Motorhead let us catch our breath for a moment. Dance On Your Grave and we’re back in the “Robbo years”. Nothing to say. Surprise after surprise. Going To Brasil is another switch-off that again woke up the festival population, and Killed By Death definitely caused smoke to fill the sky as far as the human eye could see. People were spinning, the sight was simply killing-me-with-laughter. Everywhere you looked people were flying over one another. Somewhere arms were flapping in the air, elsewhere legs…. In short, it was hard to hold yourself back at the beats of Motorhead’s satanic march. Multiplied by salvos of dust winding up into the sky, the whole scene looked like the Battle of El Alamein. And that was by no means all Motorhead had to say. Next came the execution with Aces Of Spades, followed by the rampaging Overkill with its famously bravura drawn-out outro, and after the show I saw some poor guy with shreds of torn shirt and trousers hanging off him, blissfully strolling around in nothing but his underpants. No wonder, since he’d had a proper Motorhead orgasm as his head weathered the storms. In short, Lemmy and company were the moral winners of the day. The toll suffered by the crowd certainly testified to that. A compromise-free raw portion of rock’n’roll right between the eyes is, to some extent, a bit of an accident, for which the population of planet Earth should be offered additional health insurance. The bastards are indestructible and march indestructibly on. Where’s the end? Oops, far, far away… Especially given Phillip Campbell’s statement that they’ll release a new album on 01.09. this year. To finish, Lemmy bid us farewell with the line: “And don’t forget! We are Motorhead and we are rock’n’ fuckin’ roll band!” Legends, thank you for an unforgettable kingdom of madness!

Motorhead setlist:
1. Dr. Rock
2. Stay Clean
3. Love Me Like A Reptile
4. Killers
5. Metropolis
6. Over The Top

DEF LEPPARD: 20.00 – 21.30
Def Leppard! Definitely a band that was a special honor to see live. Seeing Def Leppard anywhere near Slovenia is a real rarity these days. Gods Of Metal was the ideal opportunity. Def Leppard shared the “co-headliner” slot with Whitesnake that day and earned an hour and a half for their set. The world became a stage. When I got to my feet, having “dozed off” again during the break, I couldn’t believe the view of how the stage had suddenly grown. The lineup of Joe Elliott (vocals), Rick “Sav” Savage (bass, backing vocals), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals) and Vivian Campbell (guitar, backing vocals) turned things upside down at the festival. The very start of the show was a real turning point in the sound. The precisely crafted sound took your breath away. Like it came out of a box of “princess” doughnuts. The perfect antipode to the fuming sharpness and relentless rock’n’roll punkishness of Motorhead’s rampaging and monstrous sound. Def Leppard were tuned a bit quieter, but the sound was, as I said, “styled to zero”. Almost like in a studio. “Def Leppard definitely brought an enormous dose of glamour and pomp to the stage. The “backing” vocal lines were sung unbelievably in tune and flawless. The boys were cheeky enough, and Collen didn’t forget to show off his muscles while hacking at his “Strat”, while Savage, from a distance, already looks so much like his relative Barbie in image. Anyway, Def Leppard were an excellent change of pace for the festival. In eighty minutes they filled the air with stage perfection, brought by an excellent hall (“arena”) sound, a real American sound. Like I said, you absolutely have to experience Def Leppard in an arena. The unique “light show” reached special dimensions in combination with the setting sun and a sky bathing in the evening glow, across which the last clouds wandered sleepily and over which, every now and then, a passenger plane that had taken off from the airport right next to the festival greeted us. That fit nicely with the performance of Rocket. In short, the guys were in excellent form, but there was a touch of loftiness about it, a touch too much of that English grandeur. Somehow the audience couldn’t melt together with the band on stage. The band’s routine pushed to the fore, even though Def Leppard, “gentlemanly”, didn’t skimp on thanks to the crowd when it cheered them on during the show. They did disappoint a little with the encore, though, since it included only Pour Some Sugar On Me before they rushed off home. There were still five minutes left, which they didn’t use. So, “arena sound”, especially thanks to Allen’s drums. The band unbelievably tight. Polished details, the most beautiful vocal harmonies of the festival. Instruments in ideal balance. Everything came out so nicely that it was almost too pretty for a festival. Elliott of course no longer has the vocal range he used to, but he still sang in grand style throughout the show. You absolutely have to see legends in an arena. The Americans are luckier again, getting to enjoy the joint Journey and Def Leppard tour this summer.

Def Leppard setlist:
1. We Will Rock You (taped intro)
2. Hell Raiser
3. Rock Rock (Till You Drop)
4. High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night)
5. Let’s Get Rocked
6. Hanging On The Telephone
7. Make Love Like A Man
8. Promises
9. Hysteria
10. Let It Go
11. Rock On
12. Rocket
13. Photograph
14. Armageddon It
15. Animal
16. Rock Of Ages
—encore
17. Pour Some Sugar On Me

Meanwhile, as we waited for the stage to be prepared for Whitesnake, it was announced that the great Joey DeMaio, bassist of Manowar, who judging by his statements and behavior is for many the dumbest musician in heavy metal, which of course doesn’t apply to Manowar’s music, which has its own recognizable and clear shine, was supposed to come on stage. Joey wasn’t there, so they simply played a tape of his speech. In it he told those present how proud he is that Gods Of Metal was born with Manowar, which this year is running for the tenth year in a row, and at the same time announced that Manowar will again be the headliners at the next Gods Of Metal festival. His address ended with the highly impressive words: “Hail, Kill and Fuck The World!” Probably we’ll all now roll up our sleeves together and obey the words uttered by the most enlightened fool, or rather bassist of Manowar.

WHITESNAKE: 22.00 – 23.30
And to finish, the founders of modern “hard rock”. The name Deep Purple is a prototype for many a musical style that developed out of their style, and Deep Purple is the band that gave us two important groups. Rainbow and Whitesnake, who absolutely turned and shook the very development of rock history, completely independently of each other and each in their own way. Whitesnake can be said to be one of those bands that were first to “style” what was hinted at by the first-generation bands and what Deep Purple or Uriah Heep were doing with their heavy riffs.

The band hit “right between the eyes” with Burn and the Italians went nuts! From start to finish Whitesnake had excellent stage sound, which was a good mix of “arena” glam perfection and relentless rock’n’roll rawness. So they definitely felt more familiar to the ears and to European rocker habits than Def Leppard, who kept a bit of distance from the crowd throughout. Coverdale was wound up and didn’t hold back! The band cheekily slipped the main motif of Stormbringer into Burn and performed the outro in a pompous, blissed-out way. The “fade out” was explosive and you could immediately tell the instruments were in the hands of exceptional masters of “hard rock”, masters of their trade. Coverdale greeted the crowd and added: “You must have been waiting for us a whole day! I’ve was told from 9:00 a.m.? A perfect time to start a day with rock’n’roll!” The giants of hard rock rolled out their hits one after another and people were seeing flashes before their eyes. Coverdale egged the people on as if it were nothing and the Italians completely merged with the band. It was a fantastic show. Real communication between band and audience! The band charged in with Love Ain’t No Stranger, then the fourth track, Is This Love, calmed the scene. Where were you then, Tereza, to spin around together in a passionate embrace to this song?!?! A leap back to the rattling with Ready An’ Willing, and the adrenaline rush again has no end in sight! Then the guys left the stage and only Doug Aldrich stayed on it. Doug, who earned exceptional renown back when he played with Ronnie James Dio on the “Killing The Dragon” tour in 2002, is definitely a chapter in himself when it comes to younger-generation “hard rock” guitarists today. His spot reached the limits of spontaneity. Of course, and absolutely, it’s primarily a matter of routine, but Doug gets so into it that he totally sucks you in during his performance, with his approach. This time was no different, and he whirled and whirled explosive riffs, which looked as if he were hammering them out of his head purely by feel and showering us with the lightning speed of his fingers, which delivered first-class juicy solos. In short, a solo spot where you have no chance of getting bored for a moment. During Crying In The Rain something similar befell Tommy Aldridge on drums. A majestic riff and a majestic song swept the stage in a flash and subjugated the audience, and then, somewhere in the middle of the song, Aldridge found himself alone on stage and delivered a unique and unforgettable drum solo. His double bass pedal ruled supreme at the festival, out of everyone’s. Aldridge was properly going off, and during the show, in a rush, he hurled both sticks into the crowd and carried on soloing with his bare hands. Aldridge is a true animal, and thank God Coverdale gave him a solo spot so he could thoroughly empty his batteries. How much energy this drummer has, and how worthily he stepped into the shoes of the great drum wizard Cozy Powell. Dan Zimmermann, whom we watched with Gamma Ray and whose performance on stage that afternoon had already blown my head off, said himself in an interview that Tommy is one of his greatest role models. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City is a song written in the style of Mistreated, and that’s the function it had on stage. One of the most beautiful compositions was also one of the peaks of the show; once again Coverdale simply reminded us what his unique “velvet Marlboro” voice still means in rock music today. The explosive Here I Go Again closed the regular part of the show. Of course they came back for an encore. First they struck up Take Me With You, then tackled another of their most beautiful creations, Still Of The Night. This song was always something special. From a typical hard rock opening riff with a touch of blues, it slowly takes on the dimensions of a purely classical approach and delivers its atmospheric peak in the superb instrumental middle section, which reaches boiling point in the outro. Whitesnake know this, which is why the song is placed at the end of the setlist. Simply a perfect song to get the crowd completely worked up, then wish them goodnight and send them home to bed unsatisfied in grand style.

The band is in excellent form. It includes the new member, bassist Uriah Duffy, who has nicely succeeded Marco Mendoza. Reb Beach, who recently helped Kip Winger revive the reborn band Winger, and Aldrich are ideal partners who absolutely don’t let a single mistake sneak into their stage repertoire. Equal, tight and unbelievably self-assured. When routine turns into spontaneity and you can’t say anything other than absolutely genuine, convincing in the 110% sense of the word. Hard to top and, put simply in one word, perfect. Aldridge on drums, meanwhile, earned an award at the end of the show. Someone threw a bedsheet onto the stage reading “Cozy was here!”, which is an extremely flattering compliment, not one you get just like that. The legendary Coverdale definitely proves he hasn’t forgotten how to serve things up. He’s obviously wound up to the very end. His stage act proved it; Coverdale properly let loose a few times, and in places his moves during the “letting loose” even bordered on truly androgynous… But still that well-known demonic machismo, which fills his poetry too, absolutely leads the way. He egged on his colleagues on stage throughout and also urged the audience on, who, despite visible exhaustion, really did take part with the band, fully immersed. The Italians are incredible. They never ran out of energy, even though they’d been squatting under the stage since 10:00! And Whitesnake are an absolute must, always relevant, even in 2006!

Whitesnake setlist:
1. Burn (incl. Stormbringer)
2. Slide It In
3. Love Ain’t No Stranger
4. Is This Love
5. Ready An’ Willing
6. Doug Aldrich Guitar Solo
7. Crying In The Rain (incl. Tommy Aldridge Drum Solo)
8. Band Introduction
9. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
10. Fool For Your Loving
11. Here I Go Again
—encore—
12. Take Me With You
13. Still Of The Night
14. We Wish You Well (taped outro)

The third day of Gods Of Metal was tailor-made for lovers of melody with a tougher rock approach and lovers of explosive, polished vocals. So it brought rockers and heavy metallers together under one roof. There were lots of young people who cheered on the power metal bands in particular, and those bands absolutely didn’t disappoint. Quite the opposite. There was a healthy dose of rivalry among the acts, and from Gamma Ray upward you could clearly tell that every next band wanted to play an even better show and challenge whoever would take the stage after them. Attendance, by eyeball estimate, was about 15,000 maniacs (the whole Gods Of Metal festival can hold 20,000 in total). Apart from the insane food and drink prices, it was an unforgettable event we’ll definitely be going to again. Organizer Live In Italy pulled off this important music event at an exceptional level, and the crowd left the grounds visibly satisfied.