Rock Hard Festival 2009
The Rock Hard Festival has become an important Open Air – event in the yearly festival-schedule. Of course they’re festivals reaching much more visitor capacity with lots of bands on different stages. This isn’t the concept of the organizers from Germany’s leading Rock- & Metal – print – magazine giving this festival its name. Instead of being just another festival they offer a very special event taking place in the unique atmosphere of the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen.
As the year before six bands appeared on Friday, the following both days eight bands each rocked the stage. And none of those ones canceled their performance due to any problems. Another lucky aspect a festival organizer isn’t able to influence was the weather: No rain, just sun took care about the visitors’ mood. Its number raised for another time, so the organization was able to announce their festival as sold out.
At the Rock Hard Festival appeared 22 bands (each band 45 minutes minimum) on one stage in three days for about 8000 visitors.
Friday
Witchburner It didn’t seem to be a case of coincidence to let this year’s Rock Hard Festival – edition with the Bay Area – thrashback – trio get opened by the fivepiece from Fulda. They’re passion is old school – Thrash, and so they sounded while a few die-hard-fans celebrated “Invisible Violence”, “Blood Of Witches” as “German Thrashing War”. Anyway to me they were much too monotonous.
Angel Witch The NWOBHM – legend started with “Sweet Danger” and “Confused” in their set filled with classics from the self-titled output released in 1980 (“White Witch”, “Angel Of Death”) or even by its later released bonus tracks (“Dr. Phibes”, “Baphomet”). The most support fronter David Heybourne and his three comrades earned for their last self-titled track. I watched the band for the second time after Wacken 2000, but somehow their sound didn’t catch me as the NWOBHM – lunatics in the first rows.
Deströyer 666 Meanwhile many metalheads had entered the amphitheatre. They’re next live-event consisted of an Australian quartet which had moved to the Netherlands years ago where they still live. And although they’re usually a good live-event they disappointed me by an uninspired and motionless show. Black Metal – epics as “Australian And Antichrist” or “I Am The Wargod (Ode To The Battle Slain)” could as should have been performed much better.
Prong Prong is back! This conclusion was clear after 45 minutes of the Industrial Metal – machine from L.A.! The trio opened by “For Dear Life” and the support by the crowd increased enormously by each song. They considered their current longplayer “Power Of The Damager” by “Worst Of It”, but mainly concentrated on their classics which caused the mentioned support. Tommy Victor and his two bandmates thrilled their fans with “Unconditional”, “Beg To Differ”, “Prove You Wrong” as by the “Cleansing” – classics “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?” and the big 90ies-Crossover-club-hit “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”. Cool gig!
Jag Panzer US Power Metal of its best got offered by the fivepiece from Colorado. The quintet didn’t hesitate and opened with their hymn “Chain Of Command” and the classic “Future Shock” followed by the “The Fourth Judgement” – hammers “Tyranny” and “Black”. What a start! Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin sang like a god, the band played tight and many fans felt animated to massive support. The great interpretations of songs like “The Mission (1943)” from their latest “Casting The Stones” – release, “The Moors”, “Take To The Sky” and the finisher “Generally Hostile” and the reactions of the crowd resulted in one of the best Power Metal – appearances of the last years.
Opeth So the question was if Opeth would be able to fill a headliner position of a bigger metal festival. The one and only conclusion after the show was: Of course they can!!! Starting with the new “Watershed” – epic “Heir Apparent” and the “Ghost Reveries” – hit “Ghost Of Perdition” showed what a fantastic live band the Prog – gods from Stockholm are before mainman Mikael Akerfeldt presented his entertaining abilities by demonstrating his knowledge about German language (“Hallo! Wie geht’s? Fick mich!”). The band as the whole amphitheatre celebrated “A Godhead’s Lament”, “Leper Affinity”, the new “Hessian Peel” as “Closure” after which the fronter pointed out: “Some of you may be lucky tonight, fuck someone else in the tent like I did when I was young and went to festivals – or jerk off which might be quite as well!” After this amusing cabaret-style contribution causing much laughter the quintet performed the “Watershed” – hit “Lotus Eater” as tight as all the old and new epics before. Mikael introduced the band to the audience closing this by calling himself Mikael Hübsch to finish an overwhelming appearance by “Deliverance”. This was the best show I’ve ever seen on the Rock Hard Festival yet! Overwhelming!
Saturday
Evocation It was up to Swedish old school – Death Metal to wake up the metalheads. And the band which celebrated its comeback two years ago reached a respectable number of spectators as several active headbangers in front of the stage. They began by the same section opening their current album “Dead Calm Chaos” consisting of the intro “In The Reign Of Chaos”, “Silence Sleep” and “Angel Of Torment”. The fivepiece just considered their comeback-album “Tales From The Tomb” (“Feed The Fire”) as their self-titled old debut (“Veils Were Blown”) by one song each and focussed on their new material. The present fans celebrated the gig anyway finished by “Razored To The Bone”. By the way: Nice short skull-ornated microphone rack.
Grand Magus Their fellow countrymen were able to play for a raised crowd. The trio fascinated most of them by their cool Doom. Of course they didn’t have the option to move a lot because both stringers were bound by the vocal parts at their microphones. JB astonished by his clear as powerful melodic voice, bassist Fox did this by his eightstringed bass. Anyway tracks like the title-track of their latest release “Wolf’s Return”, the finisher “Kingslayer” and “Iron Will” for which JB animated the crowd successfully to sing it in German (“Eisen Willen”) the trio earned much applause.
Audrey Horne The Alternative Rock – act consists of members from the Metal-bands Enslaved and Sahg. Anyway the sound was totally different to the bands of the two sixstringers, but it definitely rocked. Beginning with “Dead” and “Confessions & Alcohol” from their debut-longplayer “No Hay Banda” aroused the interest of several spectators who might have found out what a newcomer jewel appeared in front of them. By earcatchers like “Last Call”, “Jaws”, “So Long Euphoria”, “Threshold”, “Bright Lights” from their current album “Le Fol” showed which high potential this auspicious newcomer has. The live-performance convinced completely, too. Especially vocalist Toschie took care about the contact to the fans jumping in the photo pit. Audrey Horne rocks!
Hail Of Bullets Like the year before with Asphyx Martin Van Drunen and Paul Bayens invaded with their old school – Death Metal – all-star-commando Hail Of Bullets consisting of members from Gorefest, Houwitser, Thanatos and as mentioned Asphyx. Their serious main theme of their debut-release “Of Frost And War” focusing the second world war, especially the east front, built up a total contrast to the sympathic aura of the fivepiece live. So “Red Wolves Of Stalin”, “Nachthexen”, “Stalingrad” and “Berlin” got celebrated by many headbangers. So the sympathic fronter Martin dismissed with the nice slip of the tongue “Wir sind am Ende gekommen!” before playing the last title by “Ordered Eastward” applauded by the fans.
Dragonforce The total posing excess was supposed to follow. There’s probably no band which polarizes more nowadays. Their sound is pretty close to the so-called Spaghetti Metal (my copyright) like Rhapsody (Of Fire), just even faster. So their two guitarists played much more tones than most of the bands did together that day for sure. And they celebrated this with several acrobatic acts like playing guitar with the tongue, using trampolines while playing, etc. Before ending the show by “Through The Fire And Flames” vocalist ZP left the stage and ran the stairs of the amphitheatre up to animate the fans. A high talented band with a very entertaining show, just the music was definitely not my cup of beer.
Forbidden After their reunion shows on last year’s Bang Your Head the Bay Area Thrash – icon was ready to thrash the amphitheatre. As the year before Russ Anderson, Craig Locicero & Co concentrated on their first two albums “Fobidden Evil” and “Twisted Into Form” containing the debut’s title track, “Step By Step” which caused the first circle-pits (Does that really work with Thrash Metal?), “March Into Fire” and the final “Chalice Of Blood” being announced with the suggestion to let all swim in the canal behind the stage. The band obviously had a lot of fun on stage while the crowd went wild. I just need to worry I wasn’t the only one who missed third album’s title track “Distortion”.
Jon Oliva’s Pain Jon Oliva returned to Gelsenkirchen, this time with his new project which made me as many spectators fear Jon would consider just a few Savatage – classics. But not at all: Jon Oliva’s Pain took the right choice to present by “Through The Eyes Of A King”. “Maniacal Renderings” and “All The Time” three newer tracks to complete the rest of the setlist by the Sava – evergreens like the opener “City Beneath The Surface”, “Sirens”, “Of Rage And War”, “Chance” with a worse interpretation of its choir-part, “Gutter Ballet”, “Tonight He Grins Again”, “The Hounds”, “Believe”, “Jesus Saves” and “Hall Of The Mountain King”. The song choice spoke for itself. Supported by his tight band, a clear sound (Just the piano sucked once for a short time!) and enthusiastic fans one of the most important voices in Heavy Metal celebrated with his musicians the most surprising as amazing performance of this year’s RHF! I have just the question why the three Pain-tracks got chosen from their first two releases instead of introducing some song from the current one. Anyway this show was fantastic!
Children Of Bodom So it became difficult to hold the level for the headliner. Anyway mainman Alexi Laiho and his comrades performed a powerful gig containing the opener “Needled 24/7”, the following “Bodom Beach Terror”, “Are You Dead Yet?”, “Hate Me!”, “Bodom After Midnight”, “Angels Don’t Kill” and the encore “Downfall” all the classics except for the not played “Silent Night, Bodom Night” as “Hatecrew Deathroll”. The fivepiece also considered three tracks from the latest studio album by “Smile Pretty For The Devil”, “Banned From Heaven” and its title track as hit “Blooddrunk” announced as “Black Jack”. The backdrop with the lime-red big COB-letters looked very cool in the dark and took care about the right visual atmosphere. Just Alexi’s fuck-affected comments between the songs were for another time very childish. Besides that it was a good appearance, but the real headliner of the day certainly was Jon Oliva’s Pain!
Sunday
Tracedawn The Finnish newcomers offered a refreshing start in the last day. Suomi’s candidate for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest convinced by their variable Melodic Death Metal – sound. The sixpiece played songs from their debut release “Without Walls” like its title song or “Out Of Violence” and also showed new material from the forthcoming album by “In The Name”. The band should improve their stage-performance as their tightness. Besides that this was a nice appearance of an interesting newcomer.
Firewind The Greek Melodic Metal – quintet had evolved over the years. Especially the songwriting had developped a lot. Their catchy melodies won spectator by spectator while their appearance. Considering nearly all outputs guitarist Gus G. & Co presented a good mixture of their discography by songs from the new album “Premonition” like the opener “Head Up High”, “Angels Forgive Me” or the hit “Mercenary Man” as older tracks like “Destination Calling” from their debut or the set finishing “Falling To Pieces”. And they even introduced by “Losing Faith” a brandnew song. Just the cover “Maniac” could have been replaced by an own composition. But anyway: A very solid gig!
Bullet So the time had come for some party in the sunny afternoon. The Swedes from Bullet returned to Gelsenkirchen after they had surprised by their amphitheatre-debut two years ago. Their Retro Heavy Metal – / Rock ‘n’ Roll – style infected several spectators to rock to material from their new output “Bite The Bullet” (the opener “Pay The Price”, the title track and video-single, the encore “Roadking”) as to classics from their debut-longplayer “Heading To The Top” (“Turn It Up Loud”, the second encore “Bang Your Head”). Fronter Dag Hell Hofer knew how to entertain the little crowd, so to many this appearance still was too short.
D-A-D The appearance with the most and biggest show elements of the whole festival wasn’t shown by some headliner or co-headliner, no it was done by the Danish Hardrockers from Disneyland After Dark! Their performance consisted of an impressing stage set, several cool created basses of Stig Pedersen and lots of special effects. And of course of a killing setlist beginning with “Riskin’ It All”, “Rim Of Hell” and “No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims”. The quartet around the Binzer – brothers also presented tracks from their new album “Monster Philosophy” like its title song and “Beautiful Together” which caused sympathic applause. This one raised when they played classics like “Reconstrucdead”, “Bad Crazyness” and their biggest hit “Sleepin’ My Day Away”. Supported by pyros and other special effects like Stig’s sparking helmet the fans watched an unforgettable Hard Rock – show.
Heathen Another important Bay Area Thrash – legend showed off on the amphitheatre stage. And the fivepiece got celebrated from the first track “Mercy Is No Virtue” on. Lee Altus & Co set the main accent on their first two releases performing “Hypnotized”, “Opiate The Masses” and the set finishing “Death By Hanging”. The band also introduced with “Dying Season” a new track from the unscheduled forthcoming album. The crowd became curious creating a circle-pit which seemed to be the newest weird fashion in Thrash Metal and celebrated their gods.
UFO The Blues-orientated Hardrock – legend showed an interesting performance causing very different reactions. To the majority their pretty motionless show didn’t really inspire, to the minority including me their tight appearance combined with the always present blues-feeling transported a special vibe. So the extended version of the classic “Rock Bottom” containing a long jam session in its middle might have bored most of the spectators, but thrilled a few others. The 30-years-old band from Great Britain rocked with the opener “Mother Mary”, the ballad “Saving Me” as by the classics “Only You Can Rock Me” and “Too Hot To Handle”. So in the end there was just the question why they didn’t play their biggest hit “Doctor, Doctor”. Anyway: Thumbs up for singer Phil Mogg who looked pretty wasted and who demonstrated the audience some of his German speech knowledge he had learned in school for three years, guitar-genius Vinnie Moore & Co!
Sacred Reich After their much jubilated appearance in Wacken two years ago the expectations were high concerning the show of the Thrash Metal – icon from Arizona. And the quartet fulfilled them definitely. The hammer beginning consisting of “One Nation” and “Independent” blasted a lot of fans celebrating their heroes from Phoenix by headbanging and moshpit action. So they did while “Crimes Against Humanity”, “Who’s To Blame” and the longplayer-debut’s title track “Ignorance”. The sympathic statements of fronter Phil Rind as the inspiring stage-action of the whole band took care about the best festival show besides Opeth. So after a dedication to the “beer country” Germany they thrilled the crowd by the Black Sabbath – cover “War Pigs”, the Thrash-hymn “The American Way” and the debut-classic “Death Squad” before the quartet left the stage to return with their biggest hit “Surf Nicaragua” as the encore earning loud reactions even minutes after the show.
Saxon The NWOBHM – evergreens always guarantee a cool Heavy Metal – party. So they did at the Amphitheater in Gelsenkirchen for the second time. Introducing material from their new album “Into The Labyrinth” by its opener “Battalions Of Steel”, “Demon Sweeney Todd” and “Valley Of The Kings” Biff Byford and his bandmates of course concentrated on their classics like “Heavy Metal Thunder”, “Strong Arm Of The Law”, “Motorcycle Man”, “The Eagle Has Landed” or “Wheels Of Steel” which found much applause by the audience. So the quintet could afford to renounce hits like “Crusader” and “Dogs Of War”. Supported by the eagle and a good light show the band offered a nice closure marked by the encores “Denim And Leather” and “Princess Of The Night”.
Conclusion:
The seventh Rock Hard Festival turned out to the most successful one yet. It got sold out on each day, the weather itself seemed to be a RHF – fan, too, each announced act finally appeared on stage and the atmosphere impressed for another time as a big family meeting of peaceful rocking madmen as –women!
For another time the festival organizers were able to hold their high standards offering a very good as clean toilet / restroom-situation for free and an uncomplicated security. The Rock Hard – members were always close to the fans as to their questions. The RHF-organization kept the prices for food and beverages constant (e.g. from 2,30 € to 2,50 € for a 0,33l beer or softdrink).
Special Thanks go out to Dani Lipka, Jenny Rönnebeck, Götz Kühnemund, Manni Glamowski and the RHF-team!!!!!
At the Rock Hard Festival rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte and Yvi!!!!!