Bang Your Head 2007
After our chief-editor Tobi Wan Kenobi had experienced the tenth anniversary of the Bang Your Head Festival in 2005 we decided to send a team to Balingen. To clarify our motivation about our BYH-ambition both chief-editors and our photo-queen travelled to South West Germany to breathe and enjoy the BYH-atmosphere, co-assisted by our Suebe crew.
The Bang Your Head is a festival with a one-stage-concept on the exhibition center of the little nice town Balingen. Because it’s placed in the town the festival visitors have several opportunities to refill several organs by visiting the supermarket or the fast-food-restaurants placed around the festival area. The bands start pretty early considering the strict curfew at 11 p.m. set by the city of Balingen. Before the two regular days on the Main Stage the festival starts with a Warm-Up-Show in the W.O.M.-Club in the neighbour town Hechingen. So it did this year. On the Exhibition-Center Balingen and in the WOM-Club Hechingen appeared 24 bands in 27 performances on one stage (different stage on thursday) in three days for about 13.000 visitors.
Thursday (Warm Up Show)
Age Of Evil A very young band had the honour to open the 2007-edition of the BYH-festival. The oldest member of the US-band is 18 years old. So to come to Germany and play this opening slot the parents accompanied their sons who showed their instrument abilities. Musically their definitely orientated 80ies style which was even emphasized by their hairdos baited the first visitors in front of the club stage to watch and listen to “The Storm” or the cover “Call Me Evil” known from the US-Thrash-icon Ballistic whose bandleader Tom Gattis is the big promoter of the boys. Nothing spectacular, but we’ll see how they’ll evolve in the future.
Lethal After Steelheart cancelled their BYH-appearance the organizors were able to present the phenomenal Lethal. Discovered on their great comeback-show at the Keep It True Festival the US Prog Power Metal-band which had shrinked to a completely short-heared fourpiece (second guitarist Erik Cook was forced to cancel his appearance due to health reasons) showed they hadn’t lost anything of their magic. Starting with “Fire In Your Skin” the band filled their set mainly by “Programmed”-material except for the openers of the “Your Favorite God”-EP (“Swim Or Drown”) and the brilliant “Poison Seed”-album (“Down”). Tom Mallicoat still sounded like a young voice god and looked a little bit ridiculous with his straw hat by the way. A strong performance found its end by the milestones “Immune”, “Pray For Me” and “Killing Machine”.
Onslaught This British Thrash-band became the big surprise of the evening. Tired by so many superfluous reunions this fivepiece which had been founded 25 years ago kicked ass. This comeback-band presented strong new tracks from their new release “Killing Peace” like its title track or “Burn” as their classics like “Angels Of Death”, “Metal Forces” as “Demoniac”. The final “Onslaught (Power From Hell)” closed a gig which earned the support of numerous convinced metalheads. Fronter Sy Keeler and his comrades showed a performance of a band which is still hungry and ready for more to come. Don’t miss them!
Vicious Rumors The US Power Metal-legend from the Bay Area returned successfully. They began by three new songs from the current “Warball”-album (“Sonic Rebellion”, “Mr. Miracle”, “Dying Every Day”) which fit to the set full of great classics (“Don’t Wait For Me”, “Digital Dictator”, “Soldiers Of The Night”, “On The Edge”, “Abandoned”). After the regular finisher “March Or Die” the jubilating crowd didn’t have enough and they got “Lady Took A Chance”. The band around mainman Geoff Thorpe showed a motivated appearance which got celebrated by the full club. In my opinion the voice of Jason Rivera (also known from Helstar and Destiny’s End) still doesn’t really fit to the Vicious Rumors-sound as the voices of his prodecessors had done, but the fans didn’t seem to care about this aspect as much as me and celebrated the band fanatically. A fantastic opener of the probably best BYH-club-show-line-up of all times.
Friday
Adramelch The official Main Stage-program was started by the Italian Power Metal-band with the much too high-pitched vocals of Vittorio Ballerio which still didn’t feel good and made me frightened to have Mr. Spock-ears after their gig. The Italians who replaced the canceled Violent Storm didn’t convince me in the early Friday morning and closed their set by “Was Called Empire”.
Wolf The praised Melodic Metal-band from Sweden didn’t really raise the level in my opinion. Bad luck they had to play against a strong rain which was a big contrast to the sunny weather of the BYH-weekend in general. Their set mainly contained material from the current “The Black Flame”-output. This appearance just satisfied die-hard-fans celebrating “Wolf’s Blood”, “Evil Star” and “In The Shadow Of Steel”, but didn’t win any new ones.
Girlschool The rain reduced itself from the “C’mon Let’s Go”-beginning expressed by the oldest completely female band in rock business, Girlschool. The female parallel of Motörhead rocked the stage and pleased the spectatorship by “Hit And Run”, “You Got Me” and “Yeah Right”. In the end the sun shined while “Emergency” before “Take It All Away” finished a nice Hardrock-set of the British ladies.
Praying Mantis Their fellow countrymen had the pleasure to play to stabilised weather conditions beginning with “A Cry For The New World”, “Can’t See The Angels” and “Turn The Tables”. The twin-guitar-melodies of the Troy-brothers as the confident voice of Mike Farland guaranteed cool interpretations of their NWOBHM-classics like “Lovers To The Grave”, “Children Of The Earth”, “Rise Up Again” and “Letting Go”. This appearance spread fun over the festivalsite. Good show, nice guys, especially drummer Benji who partied a little bit too much on Saturday night, so his bandmates just found him short time before their shuttle left to the airport.
Lethal After their great show in the W.O.M. Club the night before the Progsters again left no doubt about their high live qualities. Mr straw hat Tom Mallicoat and his band fascinated by “Programmed”-classics like its title track, “What They’ve Done” and “Obscure The Sky” as by “Your Favorite God”-material like “Swim Or Drown” or the silent “Balancing Act”. Celebrated by numerous fans the US-boys played their second phenomenal gig within 16 hours. Hopefully they’ ll return with a new album and a club tour.
Vicious Rumors The US Power Metal institution also was able to hold the self-set high standards of the night before. The club-headliner convinced absolutely for another time by new “Warball”-tracks like “Immortal” as by older killers like “Minute To Kill”, “You Only Live Twice” or the final “March Or Die”. After the encore “Mr. Miracle” the Friscos got celebrated a lot and left the stage to party a lot. Great band, nice guys.
Evergrey First of all the Prog Metal-band from Gothenburg started with massive sound problems which disturbed during the first few songs like the opener “Blinded”. Second disturbing aspect was the performance of the new session-bassist Christian Grönlund (known from Freak Kitchen) which looked a little bit gay instead of rockin’. Nevertheless the band around Tom S. Englund fascinated by new “Monday Morning Apocalypse”- compositions like “Still In The Water” or the title song as well-known masterpieces like “Solitude Within”, “Nosferatu”, “Recreation Day”, “A Touch Of Blessing” and “The Masterplan” which kept the supporters’ heads banging. Despite the mentioned little problems in the beginning of the set: Great appearance!
Dark Tranquillity You think Melodic Death Metal in Balingen doesn’t work? Dark Tranquillity rocked the stage and invaded the hearts of most spectators. Those ones didn’t expect such an inspiring show pushed by the agile fronter Mikael Stanne. The second Gothenburg-band in a row started with the new “Fiction”-smashers “Terminus” and “The Lesser Faith” to let follow the well-known “The Treason Wall” and “The Wonders At Your Feet”. Further “Character”-songs (“Blind At Heart”, “Misery Crown”) and tracks from the album before named “Character” (“The Endless Feed”, “My Negation”, “The New Build”) filled the biggest part of the set which got completed by “Final Resistance” and the oldie “Punish My Heaven”. After the show Mikael Stanne went into the photo pit to shake as many hands as possible. Very sympathic! And the big winners of this year’s Bang Your Head!
Thunder Before this appearance we had wondered why the British Hardrock-institution had such a high position in the billing. After this well-entertaining appearance we knew why. Opening with “Loser” and “Backstreet Symphony” the band earned much applause. So after a while nearly the whole festival ground participated in party rockers like “You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down”, “The Devil Made Me Do It” and “Love Walked In”. So the gig turned out into a cool Rock party and there was no need to ask or worry about Thunder’s billing position.
Amon Amarth The quality of this year’s BYH-edition was the program offering different contrasts. One of them were the Vikings who appeared in Balingen for their third time. This time they brought a big live show supported by Viking performers and lots of pyros. The fivepiece from Stockholm did a good job choosing their best tracks consisting of the opener “Valhall Awaits Me”, the following hits “Runes To My Memory”, “Death In Fire”, “Cry Of The Blackbirds” and the set-finishing hammer-trilogy “An Ancient Sign Of Coming Storm”, “Victorious March” and “Pursuit Of Vikings” (Dapdadapdapdap! ;-)). Johan Hegg & Co had no matter to keep the crowd busy by banging their heads and said goodbye by handshakes with the fans.
Heaven And Hell This showcase was a Black Sabbath-concert! The reunion of the mark-II-line-up appeared under the Heaven And Hell-label not to be switched with the still active mark-I-line-up with Ozzy Osbourne. But who cares about the strange performances of last mentioned one when you’re able to see Black Sabbath with Mr Ronnie James Dio who’s still one of the very best singers in Rock and Metal in his age of 65 years (!) nowadays. Even the stage design was unique: The musicians were surrounded by a gothic church and graveyard fences. From the roof three windows hung on which the album covers of the Dio-years and the musicians were projected. Supported by a wonderful light show the four veterans inspired the complete audience by the hammer start “Mob Rules” to let follow the fantastic “Children Of The Sea”. By “I” they played one of two “Dehumanizer”-songs. After the epic “The Sign Of The Southern Cross”, “Voodoo” and “The Devil Cried” drummer Vinnie Appice performed a drum solo. After the solo the band continued by the second “Dehumanizer”-track “Computer God”, added the epic “Falling Off The Edge Of The World”, with “Shadow Of The Wind” a new song from the current compilation “The Dio Years” before Toni Iommi performed a guitar solo. By the way: Both mentioned solos were really brilliant and didn’t harass me like 95 percent of unnecessary ego-trips called solos usually do! Anyway, after Iommi’s shown abilities the band fulfilled their regular set by my favourite “Die Young” and a 25 minutes lasting version of “Heaven And Hell” with many improvisations. After this showcase the geniuses returned jubilated by the masses and performed the encore “Neon Knights”. And all of us knew: We were witnesses of a very special and unforgettable concert!
Saturday
Age Of Evil Because of their well-working appearance at the warm up show two days ago the youngsters got their chance to play again, but this time on the Main Stage. This unscheduled gig was pretty close to that one at the club. And a few hours as beers later the Teenie singer united with the singing lady of Girlschool to represent the federation of hardrocking generations.
Archer The first official band of the day was Archer whose members are pretty young, too. In comparison to the band before they sounded much more variable. Besides that they demonstrated how stage-action works. So the US-boys earned applause and chants in the crowd.
Mystic Prophecy Back to Power Metal we got transferred by the Bavarian fivepiece. Supported by the agile performance of their singer R.D. Liapakis the band played the opener “Shadows O My Sins”, “In The Darkness”, “Evil Empires” and with “Dark Forces” a new track from their forthcoming release “Satanic Curses” before they dismissed by “Burning Bridges”. Those few spectators standing in front of the stage applauded.
Powermad After 18 years the Minneapolis Speed Metal-machine was back in track. The now shorthaired fronter Joel DuBay and his reunited band brought a powerful appearance to Balingen, despite some sound problems. With classics like the opener “Terminator”, “Nice Dreams”, “Absolute Power”, “Escape From Fear”, “Slaughterhouse”, “Plastic Town” or “Blind Leading The Blind” the band should have no matter to excite the fans. But those were partially unsatisfied because of reduced melody lines and unsung passages. Nice, but it could have been great!
Mercenary It was up to Danish Dynamite to perform the first killer-show of the day. In contrast to their latest appearances I had got the impression each of them had been a step backwards the Melodic Metal(-with-a-touch-of-Melodic-Death-Metal)-band which performed completely in black presented itself as a real live-act although the new bassist Rene Pedersen didn’t have the same live aura like his forerunner Henrik “Kral” Andersen. The rest of the band rocked. Drummer Mike Park Nielsen played with a cravat, keyboarder Morten Sandager played air-guitar during his key-breaks and his brother as singer Mikkel Sandager was in a distinguished mood. The band mainly presented songs from their recent album “The Hours That Remain” (the opening track “Soul Decision”, “My World Is Ending”, “Redefine Me”, “My Secret Window”) without ignoring the well-known “11 Dreams”-material (“World Hate Center”, the title track as the finisher). Cool show!
Amorphis One of the most interesting bands of this year’s variable billing was the Finnish cult-band. The sixpack played a well-balanced set in which they disclaimed songs from the very new album Silent Waters. Good decision, the crowd celebrated the well-known compositions like the beginning with “Leaves Scar”, “Against Widows” and “Into Hiding” with which their new sympathic fronter Tomi Joutsen showed his confident as indisputable interpretation of songs from all the band’s phases. By the way he got the coolest microphone with some 60ies-style he used and while banging his dreadlocks he performed the middle-phase-track “Alone”, the debut-oldie “Sign From The Northside” and the “Eclipse”-hit “The Smoke” in an excellent way. So after the silent “My Kantele” Esa Holopainen & Co closed their hammer-set with old and new by “Magic And Myhem” and “House Of Sleep” such outstanding nobody could name a favourite. Great gig!
Finntroll Last mentioned label didn’t work with this band. Its members were all uniformed in black including all wearing skirts. Muscially they offered nothing innovative, just their somehow-Folk-Viking-Metal-basics they evolved from to something unspectacular. This doesn’t satisfy the fans of the old days who didn’t really enjoy the performance of the new fronter Mathias “Vreth” Lilmans and doesn’t win any new ones. So the reactions from the auditorium were pretty moderate. The biggest reactions the Swedes earned by “Jaktens Tid”, “En Mäktig Här” and “Trollhammaren”. For another time we need to point out all those funny Folk Viking Metal-bands doesn’t really make fun at all!
Brainstorm In clear contrast to the Vikings before the Suebes always spread fun over any festival they play. The BYH-appearance of course became like a home match. This aspect got clarified by the band’s intro choice “Auf De Schäb’sche Eisenbahn” after which the best German Power Metal-band started a hits-only-setlist by “Worlds Are Coming Through”, “Hollow Hideaway” to continue by the wonderful “Shiva’s Tears”, the title track of the current masterpiece “Inside A Monster” and “Highs Without Lows” which performance caused la-ola-waves by the crowd. After some handshakes and the presentation of the new funny Live-CD/DVD-artwork the phenomenal as sympathic singer and entertainer Andy B. Franck went behind the stage and returned with a mini-motorcycle. After this Manowar-parody the fivepiece set the end of its performance by firing the hymns “Blind Suffering”, “The Leading/ Painside” as a medley and finally “All Those Words” which was sung by hundreds knowing they had won their home match clearly without any doubt.
Nazareth After 38 years of existence this formation was the oldest one of the billing and rocked much more than I had ever expected. From the beginning including “Night Woman”, “Razamanaz” and “This Flight Tonight” the band caught the audience celebrating a cool oldstyle-Hardrock-concert. Lead by their impressing voice of the 61 (!) years old Dan McCafferty rockers like “Alcatraz”, “Telegram” and “Hair Of The Dog” as the famous hit-ballads “Dream On” and the regular set finishing “Love Hurts” the band earned loud celebrations which achieved the musicians returned on stage to perform the encore “Morning Dew”.
W.A.S.P. In contrast to the last open air festival-show I had seen of Blackie Lawless & Co in Wacken their Bang Your Head-gig became a cool, entertaining and especially live played one. The mentioned playback-gig was boring, this one rocked. Okay, the backing-vocals weren’t live for sure, but that’s it. The US-band inspired the crowd to party to the opener “On Your Knees” followed by the hits “Wild Child”, “Inside The Electric Circus” and “L.O.V.E. Machine”. The sound rattled while this opening phase, but the numerous supporters didn’t care and continued rocking. So the LAs had no matter to get celebrated massively by evergreens like the wonderful “The Idol” and the band-hymn “I Wanna Be sSomebody”. After a pretty long break the band returned to play the encores “Chainsaw Charlie (Murders In The Rue Morgue)” and “Blind In Texas”. Great gig so far, but why didn’t the band use their whole 75 minutes to add hits like “The Headless Children” to their playlist?
Hammerfall The announced very special guest celebrated its tenth anniversary of existence and played a lot of well-known classics of their career their fans started singalongs, too. Starting with the new “Threshold” the fivepiece also presented the recent so-titled release by the single “The Fire Burns Forever”, the instrumental “Reign Of The Hammer” and the first encore “Natural High”, but the main accent lay on familiar songs like “Templars Of Steel”, “Riders Of The Storm”, “Renegade”, “Let The Hammer Fall”, “Bloodbound”, “Glory To The Brave”, “Crimson Thunder”, “Hammerfall” and “Hearts On Fire” as the second as last played encore. Supported by a fantastic anniversary extra show including masses of pyros and a cool stage design the Gothenburg guys performed a good professional show.
Edguy How many BYH-visitors had discussed about the headliner position of the fivepiece from Fulda the days before this weekend? Probably almost all! I personally had always been bored by several Edguy appearances on different festivals. But somehow it seemed Edguy had stopped this because their headliner performance rocked. Of course a couple of vocalist Tobias Sammet’s statements were ridiculous as unnecessary, but songs like the opener “Mysteria”, “Lavatory Love Machine”, “Tears Of A Mandrake”, “Out Of Control”, “Wake Up The King”, “Superheroes”, or the two encores “Avantasia” (from
Sammet’s so-named side-project) and “King Of Fools” were a definite invitation to party. Just the drum solo was superfluous. So you ask if Edguy own enough live quality to headline a big Metal Festival like the Bang Your Head? With a performance like this definitely yes!
Conclusion:
We enjoyed our first Bang Your Head – participation a lot!
We all savoured the very well-organised festival which uses the opportunities of the exhibition center, e.g. guaranteeing a very good toilet-situation. Generally the BYH is a very relaxed festival with nice visitors and a relaxed security. So this was a place we want(ed) to be! The prices were a little bit higher, but still okay (e.g. 3 Euro for a 0,33l beer or softdrink).
The Bang Your Head inspired us to let it become a constant factor of our festival season the next years. So we’re looking forward to return to and to rock in Balingen!
Thanks go out to Birgit Bräckle & Brooke-Lynn Promotion, Thomas Michel, Jagger, Andreas Reissnauer and the BYH-team!!!!!
At the Bang Your Head rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte, Yvi, Vera and Petra!!!!!