Venom - Pentagram - God Dethroned - Flotsam And Jetsam - Architects Of Chaoz - Space Chaser
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[Dajana] The Berlin-based cats :: SPACE CHASER :: can be happy to open the ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2015 in front of a crowded place and excited festival fans. And they kick off highly energetic. Musically it's a complete Overkill worship, played with a hell of enthusiasm and fun. The party is on!
[BRT] Young, wild, Thrash Metal with Overkill tendencies. SPACE CHASER got me immediately. The guys played their asses off but might come over even better in a club. Never mind. The boys know how to heat up the crowd.
[Psycho] This is what I call a brilliant kick-off and prompt respectable mosh pits start. Musically I'd say it was a mixture of old Anthrax, Gama Bomb and a bit of Overkill – definitely a great introduction to 3 days of noise.
[Sui] Amazing, how many idols can be heard out of SPACE CHASER. As for me I believe to have heard a strong Bay Area influence. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I was still sober. However, it was great and the crowd thanked the band with the first circle pit, I hardly ever experienced that early at this festival. Old school Thrash Metal can be so fresh and unspoiled. First highlight!
Setlist: Loaded To The Top, Thrashold, Watch The Skies, Interstellar, Overlords, Predator, Decapitron, Caught In A Mosh (Anthrax)-Cover), Skate Metal
[Dajana] New band – old mates! :: ARCHITECTS OF CHAOZ :: is the new project of Paul Di’Anno and his backing band The Phantomz, The band's debut The League Of Shadows is set to be released on the Friday after this festival. Paul Di’Anno got rolled on stage in a wheelchair and put over into a chair from which he performed from the whole set. His knee, you know… By the way, Paul Di’Anno sent wishes for a swift recovery to Bruce Dickinson, while his band remembered photographer Jörg Litges we sorely missed. Hey Jörg, we drank a lot of beer on you up there!
[Psycho] A start with a handicap into the new band career I'd say. Paul Di‘Anno could only sing while seated. But that was not the reason why I did not recognize him vocally. Still, he delivered a great performance. The song material, however, didn't captivate me and neither the crowd, as it seemed, because no one knew the new stuff, since it gets released a week after the festival. Need to give it a listen back home…
[Sui] Who'd have thought that you can rock out while seated? But you can! Paul Di’Annos voice doesn’t has anything to do with his older work anymore, but he is still in good voice and live things always sound a bit different. Right, the crowd calmed down a bit, which in my opinion was not due to a lack of quality in the songs, but just because no one knew the material. The songs are good enough to make me look forward to the debut of AoC.
Setlist: Erase The World, Horsemen, Architects Of Chaoz, Dead Eyes, How Many Times, When Murder Comes To Town, Children Of Madness (Battlezone cover), Killers (Maiden cover)
[BRT] :: FLOTSAM & JETSAM :: I missed almost completely, but was there right on time to cheer one of my all-time faves, Iron Tears. Singer Eric A.K. is and will always be an outstanding singer!
[Psycho] Shame on you to miss one of the highlights of the whole festival! The Arizona veterans delivered an (almost) flawless classic set that hardly left anything to be desired. And if so, then only due to the playing time. Eric A.K. was (as usual) in impressive shape and his mates didn't fall short a bit. If FLOTSAM & JETSAM would now finally release a strong new album, they could re-start at full force again.
[BRT] Sorry, could not help it but will see them at Headbangers Open Air probably as headliner.
[Sui] FLOTSAM & JETSAM always was one of these bands that could have made it, if there were no "if”. How timelessly great their early songs still are today they proved here and now. With a good live-sound and much delight in playing they swept all ambivalent feelings away that some of their studio efforts left. In this shape they would have deserved a co-headliner position. Setlist: No Place For Disgrace, Desecrator, She Took An Axe, Dreams Of Death, Hammerhead, Iron Tears, I Live You Die, Suffer The Masses
[Dajana] Back then :: GOD DETHRONED :: were a Death Metal institution and live a brute force. The latter they still are. The sound was brutal. But their performance did not really catch me.
[Psycho] The Dutch extremists had no chance to compete with the American heroes. Their tracks were too average, too dull and their performance wasn't that great either. I used the chance to introduce RHF-newbie Stephan to the Amphitheater.
[Sui] Despite the fact that Death Metal with blast beats isn't my cup of tea, GOD DETHRONED left a good impression. But maybe it was the beer that was finally kicking in ;)
Setlist: Intro, Hating Life, Art Of Immolation, Through Byzantine Hemispheres, Nihilism, Boiling Blood, Swallow The Spikes, Soul Sweeper, No Man's Land, Soul Capture 1562, Villa Vampiria, Sigma Enigma, The Grand Grimoire
[BRT] Yeah, yeah, :: PENTAGRAM ::! I'm a fan. But the show had its flaws. Bobby Liebling‘s backing band was, compared to the frontman, quite young. PENTAGRAM did not look like a band, rather like Bobby Liebling + band. Beside this, PENTAGRAM played many great songs (Petrified, Sign Of The Wolf… woah), impressed us with the outfit of the day (ouch) and most of all with the moronic-demonical-weird stage presence of the hippie veteran Bobby Liebling. I hope he will stay clean and be with us for a long time yet.
[Dajana] Hahahaha, yes, despite all the love for this band, and PENTAGRAM is a great band, but Bobby seems to be not from this world. I had the feeling he didn't know where he was or why. BUT, he made it through the entire show and he didn't need lyric sheets on stage. So, hats off and respect! This show was bizarre, though…
[Psycho] I too, was wondering: Is that a real band or is that Bobby Liebling + band. Hard to say, this show was definitely strange. The master himself did his best to go for the craziest outfit of the festival. Hard to believe, his victory will be surprisingly contested. Musically I found this 70s Doom well-played but quite unspectacular. But if he can earn his pension with it, it may be granted to him wholeheartedly.
[Sui] I have no idea what kind of substances left an impact on him tonight, but there seemed to be quite a few. To me the old little man seemed to be lost between his younger and significantly fitter backing musicians, which I would not call PENTAGRAM. Yes, he not only made it through the entire show, he also delivered a convincing vocal performance. Most of all the shows was suffering from the song material that kind of went by with hardly any highlights.
Setlist: Sign Of The Wolf, Forever My Queen, The Ghoul, Review Your Choices, Starlady, Ask No More, When The Screams Come, All Your Sins, Dying World, Petrified, Relentless, Be Forewarned, Last Days Here
[Psycho] Anticipation was high, expectations too (even with me), but :: VENOM :: weren't able to deliver. Solely in the category "most ludicrous stage outfit" Cronos was the winner of the festival. His little-girl-sport-top combined with his red knee-length boots remained unrivaled. To me, that's not enough and that, ironically, was due to the musical quality the band has gained meanwhile. With the chaos of the days gone by also the band's charm has gone. The old tracks offer too much banality to score and the new songs no one will hear. That turned this show quickly into a just average matter.
[BRT] VENOM raised the bar high at last year's Party San Open Air, so they only could fail tonight. Cronos' stage outfit was… you know. But the band was visibly in high spirit and played many hits. Also some new stuff that couldn't compete with the classics.
[Psycho] Since announced "special effects" weren’t more than just normal pyros, the show became sort of boring. Bummer. So the Amphitheater was then left to be destroyed the next day ;)
[Dajana] Fashion victim Cronos... hahahaha. His bib… I don’t get over it. However, in my opinion it wasn't an average performance. Maybe not that spectacular than mentioned PSOA show, but good enough. I loved to chant „Evil in league with Satan“ again :)
[Sui] Yes, I too was looking forward to see VENOM playing live. Wrongly, it seemed. I largely agree with Psycho. VENOM is a band that lives from its legacy but there wasn't that much to see and to hear from it. The new material sounds like any, and the old stuff was played too clean.
Setlist: Rise, Hammerhead, Bloodlust/Black Flame (Of Satan)/Bloodlust/Die Hard, Long Haired Punks, Buried Alive/The Evil One/Welcome To Hell/Antechrist/Countess Bathory, Flight Of The Hydra, The Death Of Rock'n'Roll, Grinding Teeth, Pedal To The Metal, Warhead // Black Metal, In League With Satan, Fallen Angels, Witching Hour
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