Rock Hard Festival 2010
For another time the summer festival season got opened by the mighty Rock Hard Festival also being one of the season’s highlights. Everybody knows about the nice familiar atmosphere the RHF organizers are able to offer in the probably most wonderful festival location of the Amphitheater within the Nordsternpark of Gelsenkirchen. So the festival got competely sold out for the second time in a row.
This year the Rock Hard Festival happened while the Ice Hockey World Championship lead in its deciding phase around the best four nations to which Germany sensationally belonged, after it all had started two weeks ago in the same city of Gelsenkirchen by the opening game with Germany defeating the favorites from the USA and about 80.000 enthusiastic fans creating a new world record for spectators’ attendance. So we were very busy between the great festival and the historic success of the German team.
The festival had no band cancellation and the weather was wonderful, so everything was set for an amazing weekend.
At the Rock Hard Festival appeared 22 bands (each band 45 minutes minimum) on one stage in three days for about 7500 visitors.
Friday
Ketzer The German Black Thrash Metal commando opened this year’s RHF edition by “I Am Your Unholy God” and “Warlust”. They entertained the punctual metalheads by all tracks from their “Satan’s Boundaries Unchained” debut except for one (“Inverted Cross”) and dedicated “The Fire To Conquer The World” to the departed Ronnie James Dio.
Necros Christos The slowmotion Black Death Metal from Berlin didn’t seem to interest too many spectators. No sensation when a pretty unknown band just plays its “Triune Impurity Rites” material (“”Red Wine Runs Out Of The White Skull Of Jesus”, “Black Mass Desecration”) without any contact to the audience.
Katatonia To me the following quintet was one of the biggest attractions of this year’s RHF billing. Reinforced by the new Per Eriksson and Niklas Sandin replacing the Norman brothers the Swedes started by the opener “Forsaker” of the current “Night Is The New Day” masterpiece they also played “The Longest Year” and “Day & Then The Shade” from. The rest of the set consisted of material from the albums “Viva Emptiness” (“Ghost Of A Sun”, “Evidence”, “A Premonition”) and “The Great Cold Distance” (“Deliberation”, “My Twin”, “July”, “Leaders”). I also would have liked to hear some hits from the previous albums, but that is a matter of luxury: This band has too many great compositions for 45 minutes. Anyway it was a fabulous appearance which caught the attention of a respectable spectatorship!
Sabaton Totally different was the following act. The next Swedish band played clear Power Metal. Titles like “Panzer Battalion”, the title track of the brand new release “Coat Of Arms”, “Attero Dominatus”, “Primo Victoria” and the final “Metal Machine” stressed what the show was about. The astonishing huge crowd of supporters enjoyed the performance of the very agile band. Good show!
Bloodbath After in Wacken and at Party San I was able to watch one of the very rare shows of the mighty Death Metal collaboration of members from Opeth and Katatonia. After an intro the all star band started with “Ways To The Grave” many fans had seemingly waited for. The band acted tight during their fourth appearance ever, just fronter Mikael Akerfeldt seemed to miss his guitar. I missed the former outfit including the original corpsepaint a bit. Anyway the fivepiece animated the fan crowd to headbang for “Process Of Disillumination”, the title track of their very first EP “Breeding Death”, “Mouth Of Prayer”, “Mass Strangulation”, “Blood Vortex”, “Outnumbering The Day” and the as cannibal song announced encore “Eaten”.
The Devil’s Blood To put the Dutch faves of Rock Hard chief editor on a headliner position was a surprise. Ordinary 70ies rock mixed with an occult show using animals’ blood added by some other effects from the parallel world of the misanthropic nerds of this planet from a new band with just one official full-length-album. Did it work? No! This show turned out completely ridiculous, musically as visually. Just those ones got impressed by the occult show who usually gets scared having the worst nightmares after watching “Scream 1-3”. After having by Opeth the best headliner ever just one year later we saw on another friday by this unintended comedians the most horrible as boring one.
Saturday
Orden Organ For friends of Blind Guardian as similar Power Metal sounds this group from Arnsberg was the right sound to get awake. Supported by pretty much pyros and smoke in the sunny noon they played the title track of their new output “Easton Hope” and the Running Wild hommage “We Are Pirates” which found its applause.
Evile The new wave of Thrash Metal acts brought several interesting bands. The British fourpiece played a refreshing show for all the still tired visitors by “Infected Nation, “Now Demolition” and “Enter The Grave”. To me it became too montonous after a while, but most spectators enjoyed.
Bulldozer Italy got their own Thrash Metal heroes back. After 21 years they reunited to publish “Unexpected Fate” last year and to play live. It was interesting to watch fronter AC Wild suited as a priest perfoming from behind a pulpit. “Minkions”, “Fallen Angel” and “Whisky Time” satisfied the Trash fans, but I’m not quite sure if more spectators got convinced.
Artillery And the Thrash Metal day continued by the well-known Danish fivepiece. They seemed to interest more fans than their predecessors which celebrated “10000 Devils”, “By Inheritance”, “When Death Comes” and “Terror Squad”, but finally the band should have invested more in their stage performance which got missed a lot.
Raven The NWOBHM legend from Great Britain is a phenomenon: As older they get the better live shows they play. So the Gallagher brothers and drummer did in Gelsenkirchen by “Take Control”, “Live At The Inferno”, “All For One”, “On And On” and the final “Break The Chain” containing a cool short Dio-dedication.
Exhorder It’s been a very long time since the last show of the Thrash Metal weirdos. In the meantime fronter Kyle Thomas released the very cool Floodgate album. The band started with “Slaughter In The Vatican” into a set presenting by “The Law”, “Death In Vain”, “Legions Of Death” and the self-titled “Exhorder” classics from both studio albums. Cool nostalgic appearance, just a little bit too less stage action.
Accept Accept without Udo Dirkschneider? The first try with David Reece and “Eat The Heat” in the 90ies didn’t work. So this time Wolf Hoffman, Peter Baltes & Co tried their luck with Mark Tornillo and this time many fans got surprised by a pretty Udo-compatible, but still own voice being able to interpret new material by “The Abyss” and “Teutonic Terror” as the classics “Metal Heart” as opener, “Restless And Wild”, “Son Of A Bitch” and the amazing final consisting of “I’m A Rebel, “Balls To The Wall”, “Princess Of The Dawn” and “Fast As A Shark”. To me this kind reunion didn’t really feel authentic, but no reproval to the new vocalist. The big majority considered this gig as one of the best at the amphitheatre 2010.
Kreator But the Trash Metal legend from Essen was supposed to exceed this at their home game. After beginning with “Choir Of The Damned” and “The Pestilence” Mille and his companions set a clear thrashing statement by the following “Hordes Of Chaos”, “Phobia” and “Enemy Of God” who was the powerhouse of the saturday billing. After this beginning the quartet performed by “Endless Pain”, “Pleasure To Kill”, “Terrible Certainty”, “Extreme Aggression” and “Coma Of Souls” a classic section of title songs from their first five albums in the right chronologic row. Supported by video projections which didn’t work for a while the band succeeded without any doubt and played by “When The Sun Burns Red”, “Flag Of Hate” and “Tormentor” three much celebrated encores. Awesome!
Sunday
Sacred Steel Aaah! True Metal at 12.00 a.m., as known as in the deepest night, wasn’t that I was looking for. And the voice of sympathic fronter Gerrit P. Mutz who took a short trip into the audience was horrible. So there were just very few purists having fun while the opener “Metal Is War”, “Heavy Metal To The End”, the title track of the current “Carnage Victory” release and the set closing “Wargods Of Metal”.
Keep Of Kalessin Black Metal of its better kind followed. The Norwegians didn’t need any corpsepaint shit. Therefor they presented interesting hard music by the highspeed new “Reptilian” tracks “Dragon Iconography” as opener, “Judgement”, “The Awakening” and the eurovision song contest input “The Dragontower” besides more familiar tracks like “Armada” or “Crown Of The Kings”.
Crashdiet After innovative Black Metal the complete billing contrast got done by Glam Rock. The quartet started with their Sleaze hymn “Riot In Everyone” into a typical Hardrock show referring to the music as to the stage posing action. But also the material from the brandnew “Generation Wild” album (“So Alive”, “Bound To Fall” and the final “Generation Wild”) rocked.
Orphaned Land What definitely didn’t rock was the following act. The band from Israel is sympathic for sure, but their oriental Metal stuck on my nerves as especially the ridiculous female dancer did. “The Kiss Of Babylon”, “Ocean Land” and “Norra El Norra” found their audience, but to me this was no Metal at all.
Virgin Steele The next slot was announced as Classic Metal set. And the Power Metal institution from New York City held this promise musically renouncing all the instrumental classic music parts. Hopefully nobody had understood anything wrong before. But the setlist wasn’t classic at all: By “Symphony Of Steele”, “Rain Of Fire” and “Noble Savage” which got dedicated to Ronnie James Dio and Peter Steele they just played three older songs While guitarist Edward Pursino looked a bit like Al Bundy vocalist David De Feis showed an awesome vocalist performance interpreting “The Wine Of Violence”, “Kingdom Of The Fearless (Destruction Of Troy)” and “Wings Of Vengeance” while he reonounced his keyboard which got sampled as the bass got. Good show which could have been much better!
Nevermore Supported by new guitarist Attila Voros who did a very good job Seattle’s finest began by “Beyond Within” and “The River Dragon Has Come” in front of a pretty filled up amphitheatre. The band considered by “Your Poison Throne”, “Emptiness Unobstructed” and the title track “The Obsidian Conspiracy” three songs from the forthcoming new album which made curious. The crowd reacted with massive headbanging action especially celebrating “Born”, “Inside For Walls”, “This Godless Endeavor” and the final “Enemies Of Reality”. Best show of the day!
Sonata Arctica To let play the Finish band after Nevermore was a wrong decision. It became much emptier in front of the stage. But Toni Kakko & Co didn’t get disappointed and opened motivated after the intro by “Flag In The Ground” and “Black Sheep”. So they earned more and more support during their co-headliner slot like Melodic Metal hits as “Full Moon” or “Don’t Say A Word” deserved it.
Rage & Lingua Mortis Orchestra Before the festival I wasn’t quite sure if the reanimation of Rage’s classic concept was worth a festival headliner. But I was wrong. Covered in a nice light show and supported by a brilliant sound the trio from Herne and the orchestra showed from the beginning by “Turn The Page” and “From The Cradle To The Grave” this will be a wonderful RHF 2010 closure. In the set they got supported by a female singer performing a “Lingua Mortis Medley” and the following songs together. So this show turned out to a fabulous event finished by “Alive But Dead” and “Higher Than The Sky”.
Conclusion:
The eighth Rock Hard Festival should have become another big success. As I mentioned all confirmed bands were able to appear, the weather was wonderful and our little trips away from the festivalsite to watch the phenomenal German team were excellent. 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). By the way: The Rock Hard Festival won a new media partner by the popular WDR TV channel and its show “Rockpalast” presnting a special of the Rock Hard Festival in the end of july. So be prepared!
Special Thanks go out to Dani Lipka, Jenny Rönnebeck and the RHF-team!!!!!
At the Rock Hard Festival rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte and Dumbo!!!!!