Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Schwarzl-Freizeitzentrum / Unterpremstätten (Graz) / Austria
Concert date: July 30, 2015
Attendance: 4,500
Ticket price: €70.00 (general admission) / €100.00 (`wavebreaker`)
This year’s See Rock festival, just a stone’s throw from Graz in Austria, served up only a one-day lineup. Even so, the organizers rounded up a bill interesting enough that you just couldn’t say no. Especially with the festival headliner’s name on it: Judas Priest, the eternal British gods of metal.
July is a month that is almost always overloaded with festivals. If this year’s Metaldays will go down as one of the hottest festivals ever, with the mercury in Tolmin hitting 38°C during the week, the weather did a complete about-face already on Sunday, July 26, 2015. The rain came. And kept coming. It was still coming down on that all-important day, July 30, 2015, when See Rock was on the calendar. Relentlessly. At least in central Slovenia. Then, driving east into Styria, the rain started to ease off around noon somewhere near Šentilj. The sky stayed shut, stuffed with dark clouds. Even when Jernej and I rolled up to the venue. Still threateningly overcast, but no rain. Honestly the ideal weather for »outdoor« gigs. No scorching heat, no downpour. If it holds, of course.
Until Kissin’ Dynamite hit the stage, there wasn’t actually much going on worth mentioning. The local Graz bands got a modest slice of playing time: Rest in Fear (who play Metaldays every year too), Mad Soul Empire and Ebony Archways. Two more Austrian acts followed: Visions of Atlantis – symphonic power metal with female vocals, a band that leans toward Lacuna Coil, say – and also the hardcore crew Cannonball Ride.
The festival really jumped up a level a little after three in the afternoon, when Germany’s Kissin’ Dynamite took the stage. The band from Swabia played Metaldays last year too. Formed in 2006, when the guys were barely 15, they’ve put out five studio albums to date. They played the current one, »Megalomania« (2014), in a set that ran a good half hour and included DNA, Running Free, Love Me, Hate Me, I Will Be King and Operation Supernova. The quintet is superbly tight, and their mix of classic heavy metal with glam metal mischief and teasing adds up to a convincing dose of live fun. One more thing. Excellent German drummer Andre Hilgers helped out behind the kit; before this he’d drummed for, among others, Rage, Lingua Mortis Orchestra, Sinner, Axxis and Silent Force.
Next up were Hamburg’s Beyond the Black. A young band that’s only been around for two years, with the debut studio album »Songs of Love And Death« (2015) in their pocket. These hyper-melodic symphonic power metallers aren’t bringing any musical revolution. Over a half-hour set, the sextet came across professional and confident, presenting their first studio album and kicking off with the opening single In the Shadows. Even though they’re at the very start of their career, they showed really good chemistry on stage and a nice sense of stage dynamics, and of course the most sympathy from the crowd went to singer Jennifer Haben.
Third on stage were the Americans Ill Nino. A band from New Jersey whose members actually have Mexican, or rather Latin American, roots, they’ve been holding their ground on the scene for fifteen years now. In 40 minutes the band laid out a colorful selection from their discography. The guys basically belong to the metalcore genre, but they often weave Latin melodies into their sound, even tribal Latin rhythms, which sets them a bit apart from the average. Though you can feel some naivety, the set had a nice load of eruptive energy, plus some lucid imagery, and it really whipped the festival with its tail. It also took a handful of fans on a nostalgic trip back to when they saw them in mid-August 2007 in Koprivnica, Croatia. Back then Ill Nino played before The Cult and Scorpions.
The small crowd still proved that it’s mostly made up of hard rockers and classic metal fans. So Doro’s set drew a nice pile of »diehards« armed with beer, who came to enjoy the antics of the small, dynamic and devilish Doro Pesch and her backing band. The lineup stays unchanged. Her longtime members Johnny Dee on drums and Nick Douglas on bass are in it, while Luca Pinciotta and Bas Maas handle guitar duties. It was one of Doro’s few festival appearances this summer. The setlist more or less delivered what you’d expect: Warlock classics. In fact all but two of the songs played (Revenge and Raise Your Fist in the Air), which come from Doro’s latest studio album, »Raise Your Fist« (2012). The quintet delivered an excellent show, played with everything they had. Doro was clearly the queen of the spotlight, thanks not only to her dynamic, tireless stage performance but also to her trademark gestures and her chats with the crowd. With Doro’s set the festival climbed another atmospheric step. Higher, that is.
Just right. Because next up were the great legends of German metal! Actually, alongside The Scorpions, one of the oldest working bands in the business. Accept. Barely a week ago they thoroughly torched Tolmin’s Metaldays, where, as one of the main draws of the festival’s third day, they delivered a fantastic show. This time Accept only had an hour. Mid-year the band took on a new drummer and a new guitarist. Christopher Williams is actually a lesser-known name among drummers, while the other name sounds very familiar, at least to fans of German power metal. Hermann Frank’s spot is now filled by former Grave Digger and Rebellion guitarist Uwe Lulis, who evidently came through a serious broken leg from a motorcycle crash three years ago. Accept keep enjoying a new spring. You can’t overlook that, and it’s been true since 2009. The third album since the reactivation with new singer Marc Tornillo, titled »Blind Rage«, keeps proving that the crew, led by seasoned old cats bassist Peter Baltes and guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, is in no way short of fire and inspiration. Because of time limits the band had to trim the setlist, dropping older classics like Midnight Mover, No Shelter, Bulletproof and Losers And Winners, plus newer songs such as the excellent Shadow Soldiers, or Darkside of My Heart and Dying Breed, but that didn’t dent the superior detonation the veterans set off. Exceptional tightness, every little gesture and move rehearsed to the last detail. Hoffmann in the spotlight with his Flyin’ V guitar and solos, wild man Peter Baltes next to him, and the ever good-humored Marc Tornillo, who once again delivered an excellent vocal performance. Several times during the show Hoffmann let Lulis step forward, where the two »tore it up« together (well, »the old-timer« Hoffmann can’t do that anymore) shoulder to shoulder. Judging by what I saw at their Metaldays show, in Tolmin they stood shoulder to shoulder only twice during the concert. The fact is that Lulis and Williams bring remarkable freshness to the crew, and it’s downright astonishing to realize that the incredibly committed newcomer Williams even outdoes the work of his predecessor Stefan Schwarzmann. The legends’ set, closed as expected by the bomb that is Balls To The Wall, delivered one of the highlights of See Rock. Quietly expected. The band plays a ton of shows and has found a new, exceptional drive, both in its hunger to perform and creatively. Accept is a band whose shows are professionally rehearsed, but at the same time you feel extraordinary fire and heart when they play this material on stage!
KoЯn, a band cut from completely different cloth, consequently pulled a totally different crowd in front of the stage with their stature and sound. Mostly the younger generation. Korn got 70 minutes of playing time, so because of time limits Here to Stay and Freak On the Leash got cut from the setlist. The stage was dressed up and full of candles. The first minutes of the show belonged to drummer Ray Luzier. Slowly the others take their positions: Brian »Head« Welch (on the left), James »Munky« Shaffer (on the right) and Reginald »Fieldy« Arvizu between the drums and Welch (left again). Touring keyboardist Zac Baird kept the band company on stage too. Amid a nice load of produced stage junk, vocalist Jonathan Davis finally took center stage. Interesting, though: Davis didn’t have his stylized cobra-shaped mic stand, just a perfectly ordinary one. Davis, dressed in a dark purple »shell suit« tracksuit with orange Adidas stripes, slipped into the role of a »badass« troublemaker in no time, and also the victim of carnal desire. At the stand he occasionally literally shook with all the intensity evoked by his feverish rush through the verses. The alternative metal outfit remains a stage sensation. They play phenomenally. Tight, with a massive wall of sound backed by occasionally more complex, puzzle-like rhythmic loops, while leaving plenty of room for the seductive »groove« that pulls you in. The band spiced up the performance of some songs. Ball Tongue, for example, included bits of It Takes Two (orig. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock), while Korn wove the chorus of Alive into the second chorus of Need To. A penetrating, devilishly tense show full of groove and mischievous provocation. Korn hold on to a highly attractive position among bands of modern, alternative and flexibly experimental metal. An outstanding show.
The grand finale of the festival went to one of the most important bands when it comes to pioneering and shaping the starting points for the development of modern metal. The one and only Judas Priest. They released their current studio album, »Redeemer of Souls«, last year, and until this summer they hadn’t done any tour in Europe dedicated to promoting it. Belgrade was initially on offer as an option for catching the band, but confirmation of a show at See Rock, much closer to Slovenia, of course tipped the decision on where to go to listen to and watch Judas Priest this time. The venue was swallowed by darkness when the sound of the Sabbath classic War Pigs rang out.
The stage was suddenly bathed in giant beams of red light and haze as the band launched into the concert onslaught of the opening new song, Dragonaut. The small crowd finally closed ranks, and the front of the so-called »wavebreaker« (fan pit) became impassable. Plenty of heads were boiled and soured by an overload of alcohol derivatives, of course, but all in all the energy worked at a high level, and the crowd bleated along especially in unison when the band moved on to the classic Metal Gods , with Halford in his trademark robotic walk, and right after it one of the nicest surprises of the night, Devil’s Child (»Screaming For Vengeance«, 1982).
This show also confirmed that new guitarist Richie Faulkner is getting more and more support and trust from the band’s elders, led by Glenn Tipton and Ian Hill. Over the years Faulkner has grown into an exceptional guitarist, which was confirmed, among other things, by his excellent solo spot, in which not a single second of his playing was boring. Faulkner plays most of the main solos on the new songs, and he’s also almost more in the foreground during the stage action than the great Glenn Tipton. The latter evidently is slacking off in his concert preparation too, since he allowed himself a few mild bits of sloppiness in the note-laying within his solos.
But of course what we care about most is Rob Halford’s form. As expected, he once again got plenty of support from the mixing desk. Even so, his screams weren’t taped; they’re still organic live, a product of his own throat. And on top of that, they worked very well. Of course Halford has adapted the melody lines of the originals to his mature years so he can get through the show more easily, while at the same time hinting in a few spots that his great trademark as a vocal oddity remains, after all these years of defiance, unshaken. Halford first drove that home in the closing screams of Victim of Changes, which he nailed with total confidence. That seasoned energy saving, Halford masterfully carried over into the final stretch of the show, when he completely »lost it« in the indispensable classic of every Judas Priest concert, the phenomenal Painkiller. And Halford’s arrival on a motorcycle didn’t go missing this night either. We got that before Hell Bent For Leather.
The setlist felt a little predictable. Once again the forever-overlooked »Ram it Down« (1988) got a short pull, as did »Point of Entry« (1981). Overall the show should have run at least ten minutes longer and thrown in another classic, if not a live surprise, instead of taped intros and outros. Even so, the show confirmed that the veterans are still in decent live form and handle their job with confidence. The show was excellent. Given that the band is in the middle of writing material for a new album, it will most likely come out next year, and let’s hope it’s followed by a real new European tour.
The question is whether See Rock will survive. Attendance was catastrophically bad. Just 4,500 people. The organizer had already cut the festival from two days to one early on. Precisely because the two-day format was putting his bank account in the red. Well, even that didn’t help. Why on earth there weren’t more people at the festival will remain a big mystery. It may simply be that people are a little fed up. The real Judas Priest fans are too old and can’t be bothered with gigs anymore, while the young ones are too young to identify with the band’s character and work, so Judas Priest shows don’t interest them enough to make the trip. That’s one possible explanation. So let’s hope the festival sticks around in the years to come.
Setlist
ILL NINO:
1. Intro
2. If You Still Hate Me
3. Te Amo…I Hate You
4. This Is War
5. La Epidemia
6. I Am Loco
7. Corazón of Mine
8. Live Like There’s No Tomorrow
9. How Can I Live
10. God Save Us
11. Liar
DORO:
1. Earthshaker Rock
2. I Rule the Ruins
3. Burning the Witches
4. Raise Your Fist in the Air
5. Metal Racer
6. True as Steel
7. Revenge
8. Für Immer
9. All We Are
10. Hellbound
11. East Meets West
ACCEPT:
1. Stampede
2. Stalingrad
3. London Leatherboys
4. Restless and Wild
5. Final Journey
6. Princess of the Dawn
7. Pandemic
8. Fast as a Shark
9. Metal Heart
10. Teutonic Terror
11. Balls to the Wall
KORN:
1. Blind
2. Ball Tongue
3. Need To
4. Clown
5. Divine
6. Faget
7. Shoots and Ladders
8. Predictable
9. Fake
10. Lies
11. Helmet in the Bush
12. Daddy
—encore—
13. Falling Away From Me
JUDAS PRIEST:
War Pigs (taped intro)
Battle Cry (taped intro)
1. Dragonaut
2. Metal Gods
3. Devil’s Child
4. Victim of Changes
5. Halls of Valhalla
6. Turbo Lover
7. Redeemer of Souls
8. Beyond the Realms of Death
9. Jawbreaker
10. Breaking the Law
11. Hell Bent for Leather
—encore I—
12. The Hellion
13. Electric Eye
14. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
—encore II—
15. Painkiller
16. Living After Midnight
Beginning of the End (taped outro)
Photo gallery
