Extreme Music Blog

We presented this event with our METAL NIGHTS event series but actually it was pulled up by the BLEEDING NOSE guys. So I was really curious. The advance sale was great and the venue was completely sold out which means more than 1500 people would attend this show.

The good soul from our event crew – Tanja – had birthday this evening and we wanted to celebrate it at the show. So I went there straight by train. After a short visit in the venue seeing DEADLOCK doing the sound check I went back to a restaurant where we had a nice meal first. Good one. Afterwards we had some bubble water and beer at the parking lot.

Now we went back to the venue which was already really crowded. There was no space for one single more person. Unfortunately we missed DEADLOCK but regarding their sound check I have to admit that front girl Sabine Weniger did a good job – and did not look metal at all during the sound check.

SWASHBUCKLE were already on stage when we finally got our place. So time for another beer! The party boat was about to sail cross the ocean of people… To be honest we always made fun of SWASHBUCKLE. Anyway they seemed to be very nice guys who simply had fun and fired their songs straight out of the boats canon into the audience. Cool gig – despite my prejudices!

SWASHBUCKLE

A lot of people were waiting for DARK TRANQUILLITY. I do not know why they were not put on the billing as co-headliners. This would have suited them much better than playing in the middle of a very modern package. Anyway Stanne seemed to have much fun on this last gig of the tour. He enjoyed standing on the crash barriers all the time. And the audience seemed to enjoy this passion as well. The only bad thing I have to point out about this gig is the sound which was very high pitched and not quite transparent.

DARK TRANQUILLITY

As CALIBAN entered the stage I thought that they could not go beyond the euphoric reactions of DARK TRANQUILLITY and I was right. Somehow this band is not that interesting anymore but at least the kids went crazy. The first crowd surfers were spotted. A solid performance – nothing more and nothing less…

The security crew was looking forward to HEAVEN SHALL BURN and to have a lot more crowd surfers. The so-called “Grabenschlampen” whom you might also see at the Summer Breeze Open Air in front of the stages (the security guys who always wear red shirts) are enjoying shows like this one themselves. Their boss “Mille” asked me to join them behind the crash barriers and pull out some surfers. New experience – so I did it. Like expected, HEAVEN SHALL BURN started very powerful and the crowd went straight. First surfers were on their way to the stage. And me? Well I was hit by the head of the bass guitar in first instance. But nothing more. The sound was great and the guys really kicked ass! Songs like “Iconoclast (The final Resistance)” simply blew the audience away – and me too. During the encore, the singer made a funny announcement: “These guys behind the crash barriers have trained with me – it did not work out for me – but for them – people – make them prove that they are strong enough for you!” BAM! Dozens of crowd surfers at the same time. The first time I had to go up and pull out some surfers – and it was hell – good feeling though because most people give you a “Thank you!” when you have put them on the ground smoothly. After just a few minutes I was out of breath. But I could have kept going forever. Cool side note: at the end of the show, the singer was standing behind me and mixing up my hairs – now that is what I call a nice boy, hehe.
Great show, guys – and I am really looking forward to see this band again!

HEAVEN SHALL BURN

After the show is before the show. So we had to put down the light and get everything loaded in different vans. HEAVEN SHALL BURN left off to Leipzig and the rest of the tour package was leaving for home as well.

Finally, at 4 in the morning I could go home – not to mention the short stop at the SCR office where we had to unload some shirts (the new AGRYPNIE shirts for their upcoming “16[485]” album).

HEAVEN SHALL BURN – MySpace – Merchandise
CALIBAN – MySpace – Merchandise
DARK TRANQUILLITY – MySpace – Merchandise
SWASHBUCKLE – MySpace – Merchandise
DEADLOCK – MySpace – Merchandise

Thanks to Simon for taking me and the shirts “home” and to Björn for helping unload the shirts.
Thanks to Gregor for the pictures!

My decision to go to the so called SATANS CONVENTION (what a stupid name by the way) was based on the fact that I would reside in Lengerich this weekend anyway.

First shock was the fact that SIX FEET UNDER had cancelled the show. This alone would have been no issue for me because it was in no means one of the bands I wanted to see. But to to me this is a reason to lower the ticket prices. To still ask for 35 Euros for a show where the headliner is missing is a rip-off in my opinion. Including the fact that the

Unfortunately we missed the first three bands TRIOSPHERE, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS and UNLIGHT. But we met our friends from UNLIGHT later who were of course absolutely surprised about my appearance on this festival. Concerning other reports TRIOSPHERE managed to do quite well but did not fit in the billing with their sophisticated power metal music. ABIGAIL WILLIAMS seemed to be a matter of taste. UNLIGHT were claimed to be the best black metal band this evening.

We were quite in time to see the start of DESTRÖYER 666, a band which I wanted to see for ages but always missed. The black thrash mix of the Australian band surely met my taste. To be honest I had expected a bit more stage action from this four piece. Quite nice show and maybe the first highlight for me this evening although I had expected a bit more power.

DESTROYER 666

I have seen GOD DETHRONED already several times and last time was in October with Endstille, Hollenthon and others. As far as I can recall they never had a weak show so far and this should not change on Satans Convention as well. Again, female guitarist Susan was eye candy. But of course a metal show is about the music. GOD DETHRONED covered almost all of their albums and played a powerful set.

GOD DETHRONED

TAAKE singer Hoechst was still in my mind with his misbehaviour the last time TAAKE played in Essen. Showing up with a Swastika on your breast in Germany is not even rudimentary funny. This time he seemed to concentrate on the music instead. But rumors spread that he had made some strange statements in the backstage area which resulted in a close fight which Hoest lost against Schmier from DESTRUCTION. Maybe TAAKE should think about the quality of their performance instead of wasting time with bullshit… this was for sure the worst performance this evening.

Thrash metal veterans DESTRUCTION was a pleasure for my ears after the black metal vacuum cleaner (and do not take me wrong – I like black metal and even like the TAAKE recordings). Hell yeah what a power. I have not seen a strong performance of them for a long time. Maybe it was more powerful this evening than ever before. The audience seemed to agree as there was a circle pit and a lot of headbanging, in one word – enthusiastic responses. And DESTRUCTION enjoyed this show as well. Well done – winner of the evening!

A huge task for ARCH ENEMY to cheer the people up again after this intoxicating thrash metal set. Of course I expected a lot from the guitar front as ARCH ENEMY have two great talented guitar players in their line up. Maybe Michael Amott might be little bit more known due to his work with CARCASS but his younger brother Christopher is a bit more varied and plays insane lead stuff. It is always a blast to see this guy play. Turning up the volume for the (renewed) headliner is a common thing to do but if this leads to a bad sound it might be something you should NOT do. Unfortunately the second case happened to come true this evening. Being really tired and being not able to hear the sole guitar sounds from the mush of sounds made us leave the venue after 3 songs from ARCH ENEMY.

So we went home in an icy winter night with approx. minus 15 degrees Celsius with both, good and bad memories in our mind.

As promised I keep you posted and add all the reports for the concerts I have recently visited. Today we are going back to my birthday which – what else? – was celebrated on a concert.

I made an appointment with the event manager of the new venue called “Arena” which was mainly build for basketball because the EnBW Ludwigsburg team is in the premier league. But the concept was also to build a small arena for other sports events and for concerts. So Markus (A&R of SUPREME CHAOS RECORDS), Tanja (Catering management for the METAL NIGHTS event series) and I wanted to check out the new venue and its possibilities. Yet, this venue might be too large for any kind of events in the size we are doing but it is always good to know what range of venues we can possibly offer as local promoter. Thomas showed us even the smallest amenity of the venue and was quite patient in answering all our questions. At some points it was kind of hard to keep cool for us when we were next to Micheal Akerfeldt who was sitting around there phoning or when standing next to the gear of John Petrucci.

Anyway after the inspection of the Arena Ludwigsburg we picked up some beers to celebrate and bridged the time gap to the concert with boozing and talking about music.

I wanted to see UNEXPECT because I liked their myspace stuff. Unfortunately they were not able to transport it onto stage. Sure, they did a great job but simply did not meet my expectations. After approx. 20 minutes they had to leave the stage. Good and very progressive start for this night. Complex, sometimes even weired songs garnished with melodic female vocals and grunts. Interesting music.

After getting another beer and meeting some people, I was surprised by the clear sound that came from the stage. BIGELF blew me straight to the wall. Not with any kind of aggression but with sheer musicality and maybe a bit of nostalgia. 70s inspired rock with a modern progressive touch convinced me with its pure authenticity. Loads of analogue synthesizers and Hammond sounds played by the singer who was surrounded by various old fashioned keyboard instruments. The four piece was dressed up in proper style with bell-bottoms. And you could see and almost feel that they were breathing this kind of music every day. Great!

BIGELF

One reason to visit this concert was eventually to see OPETH. The Swedes have disappointed me on the last club shows with the new line up (Frederik on guitar). But after the furious show on Rockhard festival this year I was really curious if they could prove themselves this evening. And they could! “Windowpane” is nothing but a great start for a very soulful set followed by “Lotuseater”, maybe one of the best OPETH songs ever. OPETH abstained from most extreme parts this evening and concentrated on the more progressive rock songs – maybe to fit better to the other bands. Good playing, great and this time very funny announcements from Mikael who could emphasize his great voice with these songs. The only downer was that they missed out either of their hits “Deliverance” or “Demon of the Fall”.

Setlist OPETH:
1. Windowpane
2. The Lotus Eater
3. Reverie/Harlequin Forest
4. Burden
5. The Leper Affinity
6. Hex Omega

OPETH

Last time I saw DREAM THEATER they played in the Beethoven Saal of the Liederhalle in Stuttgart which is built for opera and classical concerts. The sound there was really bad because of all the reflecting walls. But in the Arena everything sounded right. Even James LaBrie did a good job and was showing a solid performance although I could not get the idea out of my head that he was behaving like a diva stepping off the stage all the time he had no vocals to do. DREAM THEATER is of course also about the musicians and their abilities. John Petrucci showed some good guitar solo stuff but he tried to keep it short. He got my sympathies for this and also for the fact that he had long hair again. And he must have done a lot of muscle training the last two years. Somehow he looked like he got out of prison right before the tour started. Of course Jordan Ruddess had his special show but looked really absurd with his wizard hat he put on for some songs. John Myung kept in the back mostly and you could hardly see anything of him. Too bad. Mike Portney of course was posing like always. My real highlight of the show was “The Mirror” / “Lie” from the “Awake” album which was played as the fluent combination like you can hear it on the album. Simply amazing. Because I am not into the “newer” stuff I cannot point out any other highlight. This might be also due to the fact that their real one and only hit song “Pull me under” was missing.

Setlist DREAM THEATER:
1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. The Mirror
3. Lie
4. Prophets of War
5. Wither
6. The Dance of Eternity
7. One Last Time
8. In the Name of God
9. The Count of Tuscany

What a nice evening and maybe the best birthday present for a music enthusiast like me. Although OPETH did not play “Deliverance” and DREAM THEATER threw aboard their hit “Pull me under” this was a great experience musical wise. But also the inspection of this new venue which was opened 1st of October made this evening unforgettable maybe even added an adventurous note.

Be sure to keep coming back. The next days I will put up the interview I did with Peter (OPETH) back in 2005…

DREAM THEATER: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise
OPETH: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise
BIGELF: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise
UNEXPECT: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise

Arena Ludwigsburg: Homepage

I know that it has been silent for some days again. First I was replacing the server with the NAS which finally arrived Tuesday customizing the whole piece which took about two days. Then surprisingly the power supply fucked up as I wanted to switch over to the UPS. I was so happy before this happened, upgraded the whole net to gigabit LAN.

But let us get back to the music. I want to report about the last shows I attended and will start with the latest which was today. I really had a full schedule these days and it will not stop until Tuesday.

Today it was time to get some old school feeling back into my mind. Why old school? There has not been a big death metal show in the good old Rockfabrik for ages! And it was Cannibal Corpse which I saw there about 10 years ago. Of course some of the old metal heads showed up…

Arriving a bit too late because OBSCURA started quite early at 7 pm I got at least the chance to see some of their songs. I had the Summer Breeze show in mind where the sound was a bit fucked up in my opinion. Maybe it was also because of the fact that a band like OBSCURA is made to play in clubs. Today the sound was better although the guitars were very quiet and hardly to hear sometimes. Anyway it was a pleasure to see them playing mostly songs from their latest output “Cosmogenesis” with a lot of joy and with a technical level of their own (although singer/guitarist Steffen later told me that everyone in the band was about to get really sick). This was a great start for an evening with four very different death metal outfits.

2009 was a great year for Swedish deathers EVOCATION so they had the chance to join this tour as well. To be honest I only saw one song because I have seen the bands so many times the last months that I was not really curious about the show. Additionally the sound today was really weak – no power at all – so I preferred to talk to some friends and have a beer instead. I also met EVOCATION singer Thomas and he was somehow confirming that this was a bad day sound-wise. We met in a quite funny situation. I was talking with some guys from their label Cyclone Empire with whom I work together very closely,  and Thomas seemed to remember me from some extreme festival boozing sessions which I obviously can hardly recall… a really a nice guy – if you are around and see these guys – have a beer with them!

How long was I waiting for this to happen? Back in the times when I used to work as DJ in the Rockfabrik (which must be more than 10 years ago) I have listened a lot to DYING FETUS and now I finally got the possibility to see them live. A friend of mine was later asking how anyone could like this music. I have not found any decent answer. They just kicked my ass like hell! Having in mind their “Destroy the Opposition”, “Killing on Adrenaline” records and the “Grotesque Impalement” EP they just left me without any wishes. I had to go really crazy on them. Bass player Sean Beasely looked like a beast holding a full scale bass guitar which looked like a toy in his hands. He shared the vocals with guitar player John and Tray showed up from time to time behind his drums to cheer up the crowd. Their precisely played high speed death grind resulted in the first circle pit of the evening, some crowd surfers were flying off the stage and the people went mad. Great live band – finally I got the proof that I missed something – nothing to add!

Rockfabrik and CANNIBAL CORPSE have something like a long-term relationship. Seems like they like to play in this venue. As I guessed from the CORPSE shirts every second attendee was wearing everyone was waiting for the real headliners. Maybe I have seen them live too often, maybe I should have listened a lot more to the last albums, but I  simply cannot say more than that it was a good show with a moderate sound. But it was also nothing less. The venue was really crowded and the people really enjoyed the headliners of this evening. After all those years some songs being censored CANNIBAL CORPSE could perform titles like “Hammer smashed face” or “Fucked with a knife” which was of corpse dedicated to all the women out there.

As conclusion I can state that this was a very nice death metal evening with 4 killer bands, maybe the perfect mix of different styles. I have to add that the audience was really great and caring this day which I miss on some concerts with extreme music these days…

I will keep you posted with new goodies and reports every day of this week and try to get some pictures for the reports – promise!

The links:
CANNIBAL CORPSE: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise
DYING FETUS: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise
EVOCATION: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise
OBSCURA: Homepage – MySpace – Merchandise

Just got home and will post this blog with the fresh impressions I have in mind. Although I have to go to work on 12th of October and was working till three in the morning the day before with organizing the concert (where we got very low attention – this time at least) you can read about a kind of compensation of the misfortune with some old school thrash metal which reminds me of my youth, some 17 years ago (and it also was a chance to put on my old school vest). I have to state in advance that there will be no pictures of bands because it was just about having fun this evening. But I cannot resist writing a few lines…

I did not know if there was any band playing as support but it turned out that it was HATRED from Bavaria filling in the support slot for this tour. They played an awesome show with some sing-alongs and decent thrash metal songs garnished with some heavy metal screams. They seemed to be quite experienced from the previous dates of the tour and the singer was communicating confidently with the audience. I had some fun with this band and I will pay attention to future live activities of these guys…

We finished a bottle of wine in my car listening to IRON MAIDENs “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” at my car during the change over. And I also got a short introduction to the light system Sasha (light jockey of the Rockfabrik) is controlling with his laptop. But now it was time for TANKARD. I have seen these guys live for about a dozen time and last time they disappointed me a little bit. But I put the blame on the festival setting for this – TANKARD are simply a band which is made for playing in clubs. And this evening proved me right. They started with “Morning After”. I do not know if any younger metal heads really had this feeling of going back some years. I immediately had the LP (yes – this cover HAS TO BE in vinyl size!) in my mind and went straight crazy with my friends. Everything seemed perfect – perfect sound, the band was in a perfect mood, the audience was great – everyone seemed to have fun. Not to mention such classics as “Zombie Attack”, “Spacebeer”, “Chemical Invasion”, “Alien”, “Freibier” or (the unavoidable) “Empty Tankard”. After “Freibier (für alle)” (which means free beer for everyone in English), Hasche (Rockfabrik booking agent) came on stage and brought a free bottle of Jägermeister for everyone – this was amazing if you keep in mind that TANKARD have played in the Rockfabrik for the last 25 years (of 27 years of band history) so this is a close relation ship. I remember the last time when TANKARD played in the bigger club downstairs and the bass player of my band KARKADAN (progressive melodic death metal) was doing a crowd surf, came back on stage and Gerre held him with one foot up so that he could not move (imagine that picture – still a running gag). I really enjoyed this gig with both, new and old songs. Headbanging was not that much fun for years!

I said before that there was no pictures – this is not the full truth. A friend of mine is currently living in Dresden and cannot attend this TANKARD tour because its route is not even near this area. Against my usual intention (I do not like all the autograph or photo shit) I tried to get the band to have a photo with me to send it to Maik (the friend in Dresden – we met 13 years ago both listening to thrash metal like TANKARD and metal in general). Here it is:

Me with TANKARD (left to right: Tankard sound engineer, Frank - bass, Olaf - drums, in the back - me, Gerre - vocals, Andi - guitars)

Nice shoot, isn’t it? Thank you guys for this one!

Here we go with the band pages:
TANKARD: MySpace – Merchandise
HATRED: MySpace – Merchandise

Now – finally off to bed (after organizing a show and attending another I am tired as hell) – got to work and rehearse tomorrow – I will keep you posted!