{"id":194,"date":"2011-03-07T11:51:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T10:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.metal-festivals.com\/?page_id=194"},"modified":"2011-03-07T11:57:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T10:57:22","slug":"rock-festival-2007-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/new.metal-festivals.com\/?page_id=194","title":{"rendered":"Rock Hard Festival 2007 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rock Hard Festival 2007<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five years ago Germany\u2019s leading Rock- & Metal-magazine Rock Hard celebrated their 20 th anniversary with this Open Air Festival. The area around the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen situated in a nice green park with the stage right in front of a canal and the great organization of the Rock Hard – team created a unique festival atmosphere nobody wanted to miss anymore after Rock Hard Festival 2003. So planned as a one-time-event the RHF has become an important constant factor each festival summer. For its fifth time the Rock Hard Festival took place at the amphitheatre as it hopefully will the next 500 years! \ud83d\ude09
\nThis year the Rock Hard-organizors decided to declare the Friday as the third official festival\u2019s day which also happened on the Main Stage instead of the formerly used Side Stage in the park and raised the Friday\u2019s billing from four to six bands.
\nAt the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen appeared 24 bands (each band 45 minutes minimum) on one stage in three days for about 6000 visitors.<\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong>
\nBullet<\/strong> Friday afternoon, the festival season 2007 started with a Swedish old school-Metal Band which spread a lot of enthusiasm from the stage. Their music was pretty uninteresting, but not uninspiring. Tracks like \u201cHeading For The Top\u201d, \u201cLeather Love\u201d or \u201cBang Your Head\u201d motivated to drink the first festival beer or even a few more. Nevertheless: Musically nothing special!<\/p>\n

Crucified Barbara<\/strong> The next band from rockin\u2019 Sweden was an all-girl-band known from last year\u2019s Rock Hard Festival. In 2006 the opener had been missed by many fans because of doors-open-problems. Their setlist still mainly contained songs from their \u201cIn Distortion We Trust\u201d-debut like the opener \u201cPlay Me Hard\u201d, \u201cGoing Down\u201d, \u201cBad Hangover\u201d, \u201cMotherfucker\u201d, its title track and the hit \u201cLosing The Game\u201d. The fourpiece finished its set, supported by the Bullet-boys (Not to confound with the similar named US-Hardrock-band! ;-)), with the celebrated Mot\u00f6rhead-cover \u201cKilled By Death\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cataract<\/strong> In the early evening the Swiss Metalcore-brigade became my first personal attraction. And the band around fronter Fredi started with smashers from their current \u201cKingdom\u201d-album named \u201cWar Of Cultures\u201d, \u201cSacrificed For The Wealth\u201d, \u201cDenial Of Life and \u201cOn This Graveyard\u201d. In contrast to the agile Fredi and guitarist Greg M\u00e4der the two long-haired stringers should work about their live-performance. Meanwhile the crowd had no reason to worry about its live-action themselves. 150 fans created a pretty nice circle-pit which ended with the band\u2019s \u201cWhen Triumph Comes Loss\u201d-hit \u201cNothings\u2019 Left\u201d.<\/p>\n

Heaven Shall Burn<\/strong> The next lesson in Metalcore was taught by Germany\u2019s leading genre-band from Saalfeld. After 2005 they acted at the amphitheatre for the second time, but it was the RHF-premier of fronter Marcus Bischoff who had missed because of sickness and had got replaced by Andr\u00e9 Moraweck from their Maroon-friends two years ago. The band started with the surprising intro-sounds of Paradise Lost\u2019s \u201cHallowed Land\u201d before continuing with the \u201cAntigone\u201d-smasher \u201cVoice Of The Voiceless\u201d and caused a storm over the festivalsite nobody was able to flee from. Monsters from the new album \u201cDeaf To Our Prayers\u201d (\u201cCounterweight, \u201cProfane Believers\u201d, \u201cOf No Avail\u201d, \u201cMybestfriends.com\u201d) as the classics \u201cUnleash Enlightment\u201d, the hit \u201cThe Weapon They Fear\u201d or the two encores \u201cBehind A Wall Of Silence\u201d and \u201cTo Harvest The Storm\u201d had no matter to motivate the crowd to moshpits, headbanging and loud jubilating applause.<\/p>\n

Grave Digger<\/strong> What followed should become one of my most horrible live experiences! Musically mainman Chris \u201cBolle\u201d Boltendahl and his three comrades beginning by the pipers-intro \u201cScotland United\u201d and \u201cIn the Dark Of The Sun\u201d played a setlist considering all phases of their band history (\u201cExcalibur\u201d, \u201cHeadbanging Man\u201d, \u201cThe Grave Digger\u201d and the regular set closing \u201cKnights Of The Cross\u201d) just introduced two tracks from their new output \u201cLiberty Or Death\u201d by \u201cSilent Revolution\u201d and its title track which they played as the first encore. With their second encore \u201cHeavy Metal Breakdown\u201d they finished a True Metal-gig finding its supporters, but no one more. Thanks to our chief-editor and his girl-friend for leaving us in the auditorium supposed to wait at that place for a short while which should turn out into the whole 75 minutes of digital torture!<\/p>\n

Hammerfall<\/strong> Okay, I\u2019m not the biggest Hammerfull-supporter of all times, too. But in contrast to the Germans before the Gothenburg True Metal-genre leaders offered a cool show for another time. The stage had a cool stairs-decoration around the drumriser in which the big Hammerfall-letters left no physical doubt who was the Friday\u2019s headliner. Supported by pyro-effects and their old as new bassist Fredrik Larsson who played his first gig with his friends after he had returned from Evergrey replacing Magnus Ros\u00e9n the fivepiece presented a best of program focusing the classics like \u201cRenegade\u201d, \u201cGlory To The Brave\u201d, \u201cLet The Hammer Fall\u201d or the regular set finishing \u201cHammerfall\u201d after which they played the two encores \u201cHeeding The Call\u201d and \u201cHearts On Fire\u201d. Besides the classics they considered their new release \u201cThreshold\u201d by its title track playing as the opener and \u201cRebel Inside\u201d. Not my cup of beer, but well-entertaining!<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/strong>
\nMetal Inquisitor<\/strong> The NWOBHM-influenced boys from Koblenz played a gig uniting their best material of their two outputs \u201cThe Apparition\u201d and \u201cDoomsday For The Heretic\u201d like the set-opening title track of the second one, \u201cLogan\u2019s Run\u201d or the two finishers \u201cM4-A1\u201d and \u201cResistance Is Futile\u201d. With \u201cPersuader\u201d the underground-band even surprised with a new track. Of course they didn\u2019t surprise by their sound. Similar to the Friday\u2019s opener Bullet those bands have their limited number of die-hard-fans, but they don\u2019t win much new ones. So they did in Gelsenkirchen.<\/p>\n

Maroon<\/strong> Totally different became the performance of the next Metalcore-band whose fronter Andr\u00e9 Moraweck had gained RHF-live-experience as shouter for their friends of Heaven Shall Burn replacing their sick Marcus Bischof two years ago. About 200 fans stood right in front of the stage who created a cool moshpit while the audience became astonished by a very motivated unity celebrating smashers like \u201cShadow Of The Vengeance\u201d or \u201cIf I Lose, Welcome Annihilation\u201d. The fivepiece from Nordhausen seemed to have as much fun as the weirdos in front of the stage and finished an energetic appearance by \u201cWake Up In Hell\u201d (Hey, what a pit!) and the cover \u201cAusgebombt\u201d of the Thrash-legend Sodom in their hometown.<\/p>\n

Turisas<\/strong> With this band the two hours of acoustic torture was supposed to stick on my nerves. Finnish Folk Metal performed by a strange corpsepainted Finnish Band. Supported by an accordion they covered Boney M\u2019s \u201cRasputin\u201d, introduced three new tracks from their forthcoming release \u201cThe Vangarian Way\u201d and earned little applause which was even too much reaction. The only impressing effect was the action of the band to motivate the whole audience to stand up from their seats to celebrate their final title \u201cBattle Metal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Korpiklaani<\/strong> Another Finnish Folk Metal accordion-torture act should continue this ear-fuck. A couple of supporters danced uncoordinated to that sound. The northmen played a set considering \u201cSpirit Of The Forest\u201d as \u201cVoice Of The Wilderness\u201d by \u201cCottages & Saunas\u201d, \u201cJourney Man\u201d and \u201cHunting Song\u201d and added with \u201cLet\u2019s Drink\u201d as \u201cKarhunkaatolaulu\u201d two new tracks. After \u201cHappy Little Boozer\u201d all druids were ready to leave the place to go on a mushroom foray and the torture hours were finished.<\/p>\n

Ross The Boss<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t quite sure about the announced appearance of the Manowar-ex-guitarist performing \u201ca special Manowar-set\u201d. But Ross rocked definitely, in total contrast to his ex-band nowadays! Supported by singer Patrick Fuchs who did a great job (Of course he doesn\u2019t have the Eric Adams\u2019 voice. But honestly: Who does expect that?) and a tight backing-band they fulfilled Ross\u2019s first proclamation \u201cNo solos, no speeches, no bullshit!\u201d absolutely. Starting with the traditional \u201cManowar\u201d-opener the band celebrated \u201cShell Shock\u201d and \u201cDeath Tone\u201d to which the motorcycle-engine worked well for the first time. But those little effects didn\u2019t have real influence to the rock-factor of this show. After the hymn \u201cGloves Of Metal\u201d an own new band\u2019s song \u201cWe Will Kill\u201d followed which was able to hold the level. Of course so did \u201cThor (The Powerhead)\u201d, the celebrated \u201cFighting The World\u201d (including solo), \u201cHail And Kill\u201d and \u201cKill With Power\u201d to which Manowar-ex-drummer Rhino entered the drums to perform this classic including its solo. After a very well-entertaining as rocking performance the band finished it by \u201cHail To England\u201d and a \u201cValhalla\u201d \/ \u201cDefender\u201d medley.<\/p>\n

Vader<\/strong> After a metalheads-against-rassicsm-acition we totally support (!) proclaimed on stage the time had come for Death Metal. The Polish live-lunatics replaced Kataklysm in the billing. Allthough I would have preferred a performance of the Canadiens the fourpiece offered a solid show causing one headbanging ocean of flying hair. With their new drum-animal Daray the band brought a massive sound considering new \u201cImpressions In Blood\u201d-material (\u201cHelleluyah (God Is Dead)\u201d) as old neckbreakers (\u201cLitany\u201d, \u201cSilent Empire\u201d, \u201cBack To The Blind\u201d, \u201cWings\u201d, \u201cThis Is The War\u201d). With the Slayer-cover \u201cRaining Blood\u201d the Deathsters left a satisfied crowd for another time.<\/p>\n

Armored Saint<\/strong> The US-legend is back! The \u201cFrank Sinatra of Heavy Metal\u201d (That\u2019s my and the only description about him!), John Bush and his fellows motivated the big loyal fanship in front of the stage from the beginning by \u201cLong Before I Die\u201d, \u201cCan U Deliver\u201d, \u201cThe Pillar\u201d and \u201cGlory Hunter\u201d (Last mentioned one the band played for the very first time in Europe!) The quintet rocked their 75 minutes by the hit \u201cLast Train Home\u201d, \u201cFor The Sake Of Heavyness\u201d, \u201cUpon My Departure\u201d, \u201cSymbol Of Salvation\u201d, \u201cRaising Fear\u201d, \u201dMarch Of The Saint\u201d and \u201cReign Of Fire\u201d before the band finished the best show of this year\u2019s Rock Hard Festival by the encore \u201cLesson Well Learned\u201d known from their self-titled first EP. Phenomenal! After the show the meanwhile bearded singer showed our editors how down to earth he still is. Great show, great guys!<\/p>\n

Death Angel<\/strong> The Bay area-institution was supposed to play on the first Rock Hard Festival taking place in Gelsenkirchen 2003, but they needed to cancel. Four years later they invaded the stage. And although Armored Saint\u2019s performance stayed unbeatable the five boys rocked the stage. No matter as long you can count evergreens like to your repertoire as the opener \u201cSeemingly Endless Time\u201d, \u201cVoracious Souls\u201d, \u201cMistress Of Pain\u201d, \u201c3rd Floor\u201d, \u201cDisturbing The Peace\u201d, \u201cVeil Of Deception\u201d or \u201cStagnant\u201d your own. Of course the band didn\u2019t ignore their current album \u201cThe Art Of Dying\u201d playing its best songs \u201cThrown To The Wolves\u201d, \u201c5 Steps Of Freedom\u201d, \u201cThicker Than Blood\u201d and \u201cDevil Incarnate\u201d which couldn\u2019t be stopped by the sudden monsoon-rain which began after a few minutes of the show. Supported by fan choirs the fivepiece finished a hammer-appearance by \u201cBored\u201d and \u201cKill As One\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amon Amarth<\/strong> Because of the fact Amon Amarth play at every place offering electricity you usually know what to expect. Und you can be for sure you\u2019ll be getting it. So Amon Amarth performed a cool show without any sensations. The new stage design looking like a traditional dragon boat on which the drumset throned in the middle of huge shields. After the superfluous Joms-Viking-action-show the five Gothenburg guys had no matter keeping the crowd busy with the \u201cValhall Awaits Me\u201d-opener. The band performed a cool show full of familiar hymns like \u201cDeath In Fire\u201d, \u201cWith Oden On Our Side\u201d, \u201cCry Of The Blackbirds\u201d, \u201cFate Of Norns\u201d and \u201cAn Acient Sign Of Coming Storm\u201d which closed the regular set before the Swedes returned on stage to let their fans freak out to the encores \u201cVictorious March\u201d and \u201cPursuit Of Vikings\u201d. As always a cool Death Metal show, and as always in my opinion they should renounce their Viking-effects! But okay, it\u2019s their image. A cool show anyway!<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/strong>
\nSabaton<\/strong> Also the third band was supposed to be started by a traditional orientated band on this year\u2019s Rock Hard Festival. Although I probably won\u2019t become their biggest fan these Swedes knew how to entertain. Especially the sympathic frontman Joakim did this by his jokes. The band concentrated on older material because their recent album \u201cMetalizer\u201d was to brandnew to be known by too many spectators. So band as fans rocked to the opener \u201cPanzer Battalion\u201d, \u201cIn The Name Of God\u201d, \u201cA Light In The Black\u201d, \u201cInto The Fire\u201d \u201cAttero Dominatus\u201d, \u201cRise Of Evil\u201d, \u201cPrimo Victoria\u201d as to the last played titles \u201cBack In Control\u201d and \u201cMetal Machine\u201d and left a small but happy fan crowd.<\/p>\n

Hardcore Superstar<\/strong> The Swedish Hard Rock-band had to start for just a few fans. But his number raised while the band convinced by \u201cBag On Your Head\u201d, \u201cWild Boys\u201d and \u201cWe Don\u2019t Celebrate Sundays\u201d (But in fact they did!) as by the new songs \u201dBastard\u201d and \u201cMedicate Me\u201d. Especially fronter Jocke was an eyecatcher jumping the stage up and down. By their hymn \u201cKick Up The Upperclass\u201d the band left an entertained spectatorship.<\/p>\n

Dew-Scented<\/strong> Because of airline problems Naglfar who had been scheduled for this billing position were forced to stay in Sweden. They were replaced by the well-known Dew-Scented who I preferred to watch. From the beginning the headbanging front around fronter Leif Jensen blasted the crowd away by well-known death-thrashers like \u201cNever To Return\u201d, \u201cCities Of The (\u2018Fuckin\u2019\u2019) Dead\u201d and \u201cTurn To Ash\u201d before introducing the brandnew album \u201cIncinerate\u201d by the video-single \u201cThat\u2019s Why I Despise You\u201d to continue with the hammers \u201cBitter Conflict\u201d and \u201cNew Found Pain\u201d you can just bang to what the fans in front of the stage actually did without an exception. After playing by \u201cInto The Arms Of Misery\u201d another new track the fivepiece finished their great appearance with \u201cSoul Poison\u201d and \u201cActs Of Rage\u201d. So who cared about the rain while Dew-Scented? Exactly: Nobody!<\/p>\n

Dark Funeral<\/strong> But they did while the Swedes. Are Death-\/Thrash-fans harder than Blackies? Well, nobody is able to answer that generally. I incline to say it was a band-problem. A band has no influence on weather conditions, but of course it has on its stage-acting. So just a few die-hard-fans celebrated material from the current \u201cAttera Totus Sanctus\u201d \u2013 output (\u201c666 Voices Inside\u201d) as older stuff (\u201cSecrets Of The Black Arts\u201d, \u201cVobiscum Satanas\u201d and \u201cThe Arrival Of Satan\u2019s Empire\u201d), but most other visitors didn\u2019t take any notice. To stay dry seemed much more important to those.<\/p>\n

Tankard<\/strong> The weirdos from Frankfurt around their sympathic frontman and scene-original Gerre spread fun over the amphitheatre. Starting with \u201cWe Still Drink The Old Way\u201d and the classic \u201cZombie Attack\u201d the band had no matter to turn the whole festivalsite into a party area. And song titles like \u201cBeermuda\u201d, \u201cThe Beauty And The Beer\u201d, \u201cNeed Money For A Beer\u201d, \u201cDie With A Beer In Your Hand\u201d clarified what this show was about. So we followed the \u2018concept\u2019 and took part in the party. With the Thrash-classic \u201cRectifier\u201d, the party-anthem \u201cFreibier\u201d and the band-hymn \u201cEmpty Tankard\u201d the fourpack competed another well-entertaining show.<\/p>\n

Paul DiAnno<\/strong> In contrast to the Manowar-special of Ross The Boss the Paul DiAnno-gig with a \u201cspecial Iron Maiden-performance\u201d turned out into a boring one. Supported by his tight backing-band Phantoms Of The Opera who are also known as with their own band Re-Vision Paul seemed uninspired and showed a couple of voice problems. No magic atmosphere raised at all like many fans had hoped or even expected. So NWOBHM-classics like \u201cStrange World\u201d, \u201cRemember Tomorrow\u201d, \u201cSanctuary\u201d, \u201cRunning Free\u201d or \u201cPhantoms Of The Opera\u201d didn\u2019t have their usual effect. A disappointing appearance.<\/p>\n

Spock\u2019s Beard<\/strong> The next show should become totally vice versa: The Prog Rock \u2013 masters conjured a great sound followed by a cool performance, but nobody cared. Musically the fivepiece left no doubt by \u201cOn A Perfect Day\u201d, \u201cIn The Mouth Of Madness\u201d and \u201cGo The Way You Go\u201d they are the most talented band on the whole billing. The entertainment factor got fulfilled by cult-keyboarder Ryo Okumoto and the drum-duel between singer Nick D\u2019 Virgillio and live-drummer Jimmy Keegan which was brilliant. Last named one changed on the vocalist\u2019s position to perform the Led Zeppelin-cover \u201cWhole Lotta Love\u201d as the last title which ironically brought the most people in front of the stage.<\/p>\n

Axel Rudi Pell<\/strong> Many people discussed if this is the right co-headliner. However you answer this question there was no discussion about the tight performance. No surprise: The instrumentalists are well-known for their abilities and their best-of-setlist contained some interesting opuses. So it did in Gelsenkirchen by the opener \u201cFly To The Moon\u201d, \u201cMasquerade Ball\u201d\/\u201cCasbah\u201d (both performed in a medley), \u201cTear Down The Wall\u201d and the two in the end of the show played classics \u201cFool Fool\u201d and \u201cCall Her Princess\u201d. Not my cup of tea, but a nice show which just could have renounced the still superfluous solos.<\/p>\n

Thin Lizzy<\/strong> The Irish rock-legend could have done a great job, but they failed from the beginning. Due to technical problems the show started 30 minutes later. So the band just had 60 minutes left because of the curfew at 1:00 a.m.. But the band around mainman John Sykes and Scott Gorham didn\u2019t communicate about this, they just did their job. No more, no less! Of course classics like the opener \u201cJailbreak\u201d, \u201cDon\u2019t Believe A Word\u201d, \u201cCold Sweat\u201d, \u201cBad Reputation\u201d, \u201cThe Cowboy Song\u201d\/\u201cThe Boys Are Back In Town\u201d inspired the fanship to celebrate a Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll-party, but why does a band with so many hits still persist on its drum solo when time is so rare. Nobody knows! The two encores \u201cRosalie\u201d and \u201cBlack Rose\u201d set the end of this year\u2019s live-action on the Rock Hard Festival-stage!<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/strong>
\nJubileum!!!!! The Rock Hard Festival took place at the Gelsenkirchen Amphitheater for the fifth time, and of course the www.metal-festivals.com \u2013 team took part in for its fifth time, too! Again the festival organizors were able to hold the hight self-set hight standards (e.g. a very good toilet \/ restroom-situation for free, an uncomplicated security, Rock Hard – memberss always being close to the fans for answering their questions, etc.). The prices still stayed the same as the years before (e.g. 2,30 Euro for a 0,33l beer or softdrink).
\nThe Rock Hard Festival has become a strong factor in each year\u2019s festival season by its special service and the unique atmosphere! And we\u2019re looking curiously forward to rock Gelsenkirchen for the next five times starting in 2008! Be there!<\/p>\n

Special Thanks go out to Jenny R\u00f6nnebeck, Manni Glamowski, G\u00f6tz K\u00fchnemund and the RHF-team!!!!!
\nAt the Rock Hard Festival rocked, drank and partied Tobi Wan Kenobi, Lotte and Yvi!!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rock Hard Festival 2007 Five years ago Germany\u2019s leading Rock- & Metal-magazine Rock Hard celebrated their 20 th anniversary with this Open Air Festival. The area around the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen situated in a nice green park with the stage right in front of a canal and the great organization of the Rock Hard – team … <\/p>\n

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