Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Schwarzlsee / Graz / Austria
Concert date: 21.06.2013
Attendance: 20,000
Ticket price: EUR 69.90
Since the big heavy metal shows avoid us like the devil avoids the cross, we just go to them. This time the mighty Iron Maiden stopped near Graz, by the idyllic Scwarzl lake, at the See Rock festival, as part of their Maiden England tour. A slightly late departure from Ljubljana and an early festival start were to blame for us missing Swedish occultists Ghost, who are promoting their new record Infestissumam, proving they’re more than a flash in the pan. A little after three, on a gorgeous, sunny day, we finally made it to the grounds, which sit just a few dozen meters from a beautiful, inviting lake (if only I’d had swim trunks). And the festival wasn’t only tempting with Iron Maiden, since Jason Newsted’s new band (ex-Metallica) and Polish extremists Behemoth were well worth catching too. If the festival impressed with a solid musical lineup, it impressed a bit less with its inflated prices (0.5 l of (crappy) beer 5€ + 1€ for the cup), and the next day also with the cancellation of Motörhead. I’m not sure whether you could get to the lake with every kind of pass, but by the lake you could cool off in the shade and drink slightly cheaper beer. But let’s start with the most important thing. The music!
Shortly before four, Newsted took the stage, the brand-new band of Jason Newsted, of course known as the former bassist of the giants Metallica. Now, even though he had a more visible role in Metallica (where, despite a minimal songwriting contribution, he at least made sure in the nineties that the band still more or less held on to its reputation as a metal band), where he impressed with truly energetic and committed performances (just check out Cunning Stunts, for example), Jason left a stronger songwriting mark on Flotsam & Jetsam’s cult debut, Doomsday For the Deceiver, and after the death of guitarist Piggy he successfully kept the Canadian thrash oddballs Voivod alive. Still, after leaving Metallica Jason forever remained in the shadow of his former bandmates, on top of that he took a nasty shoulder injury, fought a dependency on painkillers and pills, and took up abstract painting. But this time Jason is returning to where he belongs – on stage with a metal band! This past January Newsted released the debut EP Metal, and the full-length debut Heavy Metal Music follows in August. In just under an hour the foursome served up tracks from both records, which sound like a mix of heavy metal with old-school thrash and a pinch of Motörhead rock ‘n’ roll. Jason remains outstanding as a frontman too, with stage experience, musical maturity and above all charisma oozing out of him, and his bandmates were no slouches either, delivering a booming, crushing, groovy musical foundation for Jason’s raspy vocals. Newsted put together a proper warm-up under the already scorching sun, and the crowd, which welcomed the »newcomers« warmly, got fired up even more at the end with the classic Whiplash (though it would have been nicer to hear something from the Jason era). Jason Newsted IS metal!
Next, Polish heavyweights Behemoth caressed our ears with the more extreme sounds of black/death metal and proved that this kind of music can work great even with the lights on (though maybe not quite as effectively). Behemoth played See Rock even though their drummer Inferno is recovering from an appendectomy; his seat was taken this time by the out-of-this-world drummer Kerim »Krimh« Lechner (-KRIMH-, ex-Decapitated), so top-level drumming was never in question. Behemoth attacked the Austrian crowd with no compromises and no restraint, crushing and tearing from the first note to the last like a great Beast. The hellishly massive, loud and clear sound let Behemoth spread their wings like a fallen angel and play a surprisingly mighty show that probably brought all the God-fearing to their knees, fingers crossed. Nergal easily commanded the crowd as a self-assured frontman, and the crowd followed the band surprisingly well (after all, it was the festival’s only extreme metal band), and Adam Darski shows no sign at all that just over two years ago he was fighting for his life against leukemia. His vocals sounded brutal and roaring this time, and Nergal has clearly gained a lot of fitness and strength after his serious illness, so the only visible trace of it is the short hair, slicked back in Satyr style (although Darski had a high forehead even before, heh). A good choice of songs (besides the obligatory classics, the ancient Moonspell Rites from the EP And the Forests Dream Eternally was the big surprise), an energetic, loud and convincing performance are proof of Behemoth’s inexhaustible power, and it’ll be interesting to hear what the new record The Satanist, coming out at the end of the year, brings.
Christians to the Lions is one of the classics by the aforementioned Behemoth, and I’d have preferred to see the Poles feed the lions American alternative act Stone Sour, who carved out the next big chunk of the festival schedule. Stone Sour are one of the most popular American »alternative« bands, which is no wonder, since the band features members of the ultra-popular and big-selling Slipknot, vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root, and besides, the band is closer to the waters of alternative rock than to metal. In a good hour Stone Sour presented material from all their studio records to an already sizable crowd, with probably their most successful, Come What(ever) May, and the first part of the concept double album House of Gold & Bones leading the way. So we got heavily »downtuned« guitars with modern riffs and an overly self-assured and (to me personally) annoying frontman in Corey Taylor. The soft, sweetly sounding melodies mostly set the tender Austrian souls on fire, who were melting (while the rest of us got a sugar overdose) especially during Say You’ll Haunt Me, Bother and Through Glass. You’d expect the Austrian crowd, which has a strong base in metalcore and similar more modern genres, to cheer Stone Sour on loudly, and that’s more or less how it went, but I’m firmly convinced Stone Sour would fit much better at some festival like Nova Rock than directly before Iron Maiden. Toward the end of their set Stone Sour paid fairly decent tribute to the forefathers Black Sabbath with a cover of the classic Children of the Grave (although in their version, despite Corey’s confident vocals, I’d rather not hear it), and they (logically) closed their show with the two most »Slipknot-sounding« tracks, Get Inside and 30/30-150. Since Stone Sour took their name from a cocktail (one part whiskey, one part orange juice, a splash of lemon soda), let me finish by saying I’d much rather wet my throat with Stone Sour than torture my ears.
At exactly nine, what we’d come for finally began! As so many times before, the UFO classic Doctor Doctor boomed from the speakers, and then, with the lights off and the stage bathed in bluish light, the first apocalyptic notes of the eternal classic Moonchild rang out. Even before that, it seemed the guys had treated themselves to a bit of cheesy English humor at the expense of a crowd that had been standing under the scorching sun all day. The screens (in keeping with the theme of the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, of course) ran footage of vast glaciers, and it was downright soothing to look at all that cold water. On this tour Iron Maiden are commemorating the cult concert video Maiden England from 1988, which is based on the even more legendary 7th Tour of a 7th Tour, clearly dedicated to the eternal heavy metal classic Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The setlist was mostly known in advance, since more than three quarters of it consisted of songs from that concert, but that didn’t spoil the immense pleasure of meeting the heavy metal elders again one bit. Quite the opposite! Those of us who are a bit younger had previously only been able to drool over that classic tour on YouTube, and this time we got to witness it in almost unchanged form. The trip back in time apparently has a rejuvenating effect on the band too, because from the first note to the last Iron Maiden sounded like cocky twenty-year-old kids. The eternal teenagers took over the stage the way only they can: the big boss Steve Harris with his commanding gaze and a foot up on the monitor, the ever-smiling uncle Dave Murray, the living guitar whirlwind Janick »the ninja« Gers, the refined soloist Adrian Smith, the fantastic Nicko McBrain behind his drum fortress, and the unforgettable Bruce Dickinson, who filled every inch of the stage once again. Dickinson sounded better by the minute and exploded for the first time in the unforgettable (first) peak of the show with the epic The Prisoner. »I am not a number, I am a free man« boomed the unmistakable voice of the legendary Patrick McGoohan, lead actor of the cult series The Prisoner, which Iron Maiden spectacularly unfolded for us with the song of the same name, and we nearly teared up at a track that was hard to believe we’d ever hear live again. They gave the Maiden crowd no time to breathe and, after the classic 2 Minutes to Midnight, served up the anti-war epic Afraid to Shoot Strangers from the rather overlooked record Fear of the Dark. Despite years and years of playing and accusations of routine touring, the Maidens can still surprise! As always, for The Trooper Dickinson puts on the uniform and waves the »Union Jack«, and once again the eyes are hypnotically drawn to the greatest heavy metal frontman of all time. Dickinson’s stage intensity is still breathtaking, since a more active frontman is hard to find. Jumping, hamming it up and lively banter are Bruce’s trademarks, but they pale next to his vocal performance. True, he no longer reaches for the »air raid« heights the way he used to, but his voice holds experience, maturity and the ability for incredible interpretation. Dickinson was in phenomenal form again, he seemed fresh and rested, and vocally once more superb and convincing, whether it was the short »rocker« 2 Minutes to Midnight or the epic feast Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Phantom of the Opera, Iron Maiden’s first real epic, was another surprise, with some bratwurst and morning-after curry wurst jokes in between, heh. During Run to the Hills, the stiff one, came the first moment for the star of the evening to appear, none other than Eddie, who this time marched onto the stage as General Custer, followed of course by the obligatory game of cat and mouse between him and Gers. The second third of the show was reserved for, without a doubt, the mightiest moment of the evening, the title track of the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. In that ten-minute epic Maiden laid out everything they’re capable of before us – wonderful, unforgettable, mystical atmospheres, Harris’s torn-off bass lines and the pyrotechnic guitar playing of Murray and Smith. Dickinson was divine as the narrator (with an unforgettable “Danzig” hoodie), and the cherry on top was added by Michael Kenney (Harris’s bass tech, in fact) on keyboards during the mysterious instrumental section, which finally explodes into one of the best transitions in rock history! Unforgettable, superb, brilliant and goosebump-raising. During the iron classic Iron Maiden, which closed the main part of the show, the megalomaniacal Eddie appeared again, this time in the form from the cover of the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, complete with a fire-spewing head! In the encore the immortal voice of Winston Churchill and the most inspiring speech of the Second World War boomed out, »We shall fight them on the beaches … We shall never surrender!«, which Iron Maiden brilliantly set to music with the unforgettable Aces High, during which Dickinson’s mature voice shone again, and the Maidens said their final goodbye to See Rock with Running Free, even showing a bit of spontaneity at the end with Nicko’s drum solo and Bruce’s introduction of the band – he especially had fun with Nicko, introducing him as the most handsome man in the world, too beautiful even for Playboy, Playgirl and… Farmer’s Weekly Magazine. The Monty Python-style »Always Look On the Bright Side« always sends the crowd off at the end, and after a show like that, life really is a whole lot brighter.
Iron Maiden once again prove they’re one of a kind. Repeating the 88/89 tour clearly has a refreshing effect on them too, because they showed once more that, despite 30+ years in the game, nobody can match them for youthful energy. The sound at the festival during Iron Maiden wasn’t the most perfect this time, as it was too muddy and the guitars dropped out several times, but the Maidens managed to get past that (minor) gripe too. With this tour the pioneers of heavy metal remain the biggest of the biggest, and all that’s left is to meet up with them again in Zagreb. Up the Irons!
Setlist
NEWSTED:
1. Heroic Dose
2. Soldierhead
3. Godsnake
4. Long Time Dead
5. … As the Crow Flies
6. King of the Underdogs
7. Twisted Tail of the Comet
8. Skyscraper
9. Whiplash
BEHEMOTH:
1. Ov Fire and the Void
2. Demigod
3. Moonspell Rites
4. New song
5. Conquer All
6. Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
7. Decade of Therion
8. At the Left Hand ov God
9. Slaves Shall Serve
10. Chant For Eschaton 2000
STONE SOUR:
1. Gone Sovereign
2. Absolute Zero
3. Mission Statement
4. Made of Scars
5. Do Me a Favor
6. RU486
7. Say You’ll Haunt Me
8. Bother
9. Through Glass
10. Children of the Grave
11. Get Inside
12. 30/30.150
IRON MAIDEN:
1. Moonchild
2. Can I Play With Madness
3. The Prisoner
4. 2 Minutes to Midnight
5. Afraid to Shoot Strangers
6. The Trooper
7. The Number of the Beast
8. Phantom of the Oper
9. Run to the Hills
10. Wasted Years
11. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
12. The Clairvoyant
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
— encore –
15. Aces High
16. The Evil That Man Do
17. Running Free
Photo gallery
