Blind Guardian - Cannibal Corpse - Riot V - Moonspell - Orden Ogan - Nightingale - Black Trip - Discreation
[Dajana] Aaahhh, damn, and here it is… the last festival day. Time flies so bloody fast. Despite some rain showers on the road, the weather turns out to be much better than forecasted. Well, it though didn’t benefit all the running noses around. Never mind! We stayed the course!
:: Pics ::
[Psycho] The traditional awake-with-noise ritual this morning got celebrated by :: DISCREATION ::. But after this very cold night they had really a tough position to get anybody in front of stage. That DISCREATION are in need for more rehearsals for a better interplay and the awkward solos didn’t help either. At least the new singer Marco did a good job, besides, the show was crap.
[Sui] Instead of listening to that bumpy Death Metal I would have loved to sleep a bit longer. Especially the lead guitarist seemed to be quite insecure, which sounded even more unmistakable when he used the boost for his leads and solos. No good day for the Hessians. And the fabulous reputation in the underground that preceded them according to the program DISCREATION could not live up to at any time.
[Dajana] *yawns* Next time I gonna book a hotel around the corner…
[BRT] I wanted to see DISCREATION, now I have seen DISCREATION and was disappointed. On CD they kick asses, live on stage they were rather lame. And yes, they did not sound well-rehearsed. Maybe a smaller club stage next time?
Setlist: Planetary Punishment, The Hunter, Procreation Of The Wretched, The Silence Of The Gods, Tombworld, Breeding Terror, To Cosmic Shores, Megacorpse
[Psycho] Next up is a band where opinions differ. To me it was the umpteenth Thin Lizzy copy that played the ROCK HARD FESTIVAL and all of them were superfluous so far. Same goes for :: BLACK TRIP :: that stood out the epigones by worse singing. A potpourri of songs from the bands the members formerly played in would have been much more interesting.
[Sui] On one hand I really like the 70s vibe and that Thin Lizzy get so much appreciation 30 years after Phil Lynnot’s death is great to see too. So, yes, I had expectations towards BLACK TRIP. And the Swedes did not only appreciate Thin Lizzy, they went one step further and shamelessly copied them. Where the young fellow countrymen Dead Lord keep themselves a hint of originality, the seasoned musicians in BLACK TRIP (formerly of Entombed, Dismember, Nifelheim to name a few) do not. Also in terms of stage presence they were not able to hold a candle neither to their idols nor to the younger mates. What’s left is a rock-solid show (seems to become a brand for the Swedes), uninteresting and out of mind after 5 minutes.
[BRT] Yes and no! BLACK TRIP is surely no paragon of originality but better or worse than Dead Lord? No way! Live BLACK TRIP are way more energetic. The guys have fun on stage and that you can see and hear. A friend of mine believed to have sensed cocaine in singer Joseph Tholl, as he speeded over the stage like a maniac. Well, drugs or no drugs, BLACK TRIP is pure fun, but smaller stages suit them better.
P.S. The intro was a crusher! The groovy Botvid Grendlunds Park from Orgel & Drum Duo Sagor & Swing let your ass immediately swing… and made the toenails of our Hammond organ hater president audibly curl. You’re doing ok Psycho?
[Psycho] Thank you for this hint. I just recovered from the sound crash…
Setlist: Die With Me, Danger, The Bells, Berlin Model 32, Shadowline, Tvár Dábla, Subvisual Sleep, The Storm, Radar
[Psycho] Let’s go on with :: NIGHTINGALE ::, the band of the both Swanö brothers. And I guess, most of the fans at the Amphitheater haven’t seen them live so far, me included. I had no idea what to expect and got enjoyably surprised. We got crispy Prog Metal, living from great melodies and not so long solo passages. Great to listen to. The Edge Of Sanity classic Black Tears at the end of the show wasn’t even necessary – but extremely great :) Only downer was the fact that all keyboard stuff came from tape…
[Sui] I admit, I have never heard of NIGHTINGALE before. Luckily it has changed now. Although singer Dan Swanö was technically voiceless in the beginning, the show of the Swedes (yes, Swedes again) developed to a surprising high class experience. Accomplished Prog Rock with great melodies, catchy despite the complexity, epic and varied. That’s the way Prog works on a festival Reminded me a bit of Threshold.
[Dajana] Here I’m a nose ahead. I know NIGHTINGALE for a long time and have seen them playing live several times (check out our live reports from the 10th anniversary tour of the Swedes ;)). 10th anniversary… that was 2005, such a long time ago… And it became very quiet around the band. Till 2014, when NIGHTINGALE returned with the strong Retribution album. I was much looking forward to the show at RHF and got more than expected :) Much likeable I found the bow Dan Swanö did for his brother Dag, who wrote many of songs they played tonight
[BRT] Hmmm. Yes, Retribution is a great album and one of my personal highlights of the last years. I also was looking forward to the show, but then the technics failed. And later it got also clear that the band wasn’t well-rehearsed. Especially Dan Swanö was much staring on his fretboard and so acted quite static. Well, ok, the sound became great and NIGHTINGALE played with Chasing The Storm Away probably the best song of the festival. Oops! Metal Church fans around…
Setlist: Nightfall Overture, Raincheck On My Demise, Hideaway, Forevermore, Into The Light, Chasing The Storm Away, Revival, Steal The Moon, Black Tears (Edge Of Sanity cover)
[Sui] Did someone of the NOCTURNAL HALL crew see :: ORDEN OGAN ::? Was probably rock-solid…
[BRT] Nope. We did not hear anything. There was something? We were at the Metal market for successful and solid shopping…
[Psycho] And there was the Whisky booth right at the exit of the market…
[Dajana] Well, yes, I saw them, of necessity. The photos, you know… And exactly, it was a solid show of the Blind Guardian epigones. ORDEN OGAN are pretty much successful with their current record Ravenhead and sold out bigger venues of their last tour. Though, I found the show rather static. And the lengthy Currywurst story to F.E.V.E.R. was as trivial as unnecessary.
Setlist: Intro, Ravenhead, Here At The End Of The World, We Are Pirates, Deaf Among The Blind, Sorrow Is Your Tale, F.E.V.E.R., The Things We Believe In, Outro: In Grief And Chains (Instrumental)
[Psycho] My last :: MOONSPELL :: show dates back quite some time, although the Portuguese have released strong records again the last couple of years. But today MOONSPELL focused on older material from their most successful era and so the crowd was almost freaking out at every song. Apart from that, not that much has changed: Fernando Ribeiro still can’t sing but outweighs this with his charisma. The cape at Vampiria remains embarrassing but is probably inevitable. Fitting to the last song, Fullmoon Madness, the sun came out again, what more you want? ;)
[Sui] Oh dear, it was a cape? I thought it was a bathrobe. Never mind. MOONSPELL was ok but not thrilling. The charisma of the singer one probably senses much better in front of stage. Another rock-solid show, but not that kind to make me a fan of the band.
[Dajana] MOONSPELL did not only release strong albums lately but also played outstanding shows. Just remember their latest one with Septicflesh in support of their current album Extinc. And MOONSPELL did everything right at the ROCK HARD FESTIVAL: They played the best from Extinct first and then enthused the fans with all the great classics they have to offer. Just great!
[BRT] Hmmm…? MOONSPELL just left a question mark. There was nothing to feel, nothing that left an impression. The carnival-like clownery was just silly. Altogether not a bad show but their music left me cold. If I now refer to Samael and Rotting Christ (both lately seen live), MOONSPELL get often named in the same breath than they definitely lost.
Setlist: Breathe (Until We Are No More), Extinct, Opium, Awake, Ruin & Misery, The Last Of Us, Vampiria, Mephisto, Ataegina, Alma Mater, Full Moon Madness
[Psycho] I’m actually not used to the work of :: RIOT V :: and yield the review to someone else knowing it better. All I can say that it was an entertaining and dynamic Power Metal show.
[Dajana] I’m not familiar with RIOT V either… A gap in musical education I guess.
[Sui] RIOT V got warmly recommended to me. And they left a good impression. But in direct comparison with Metal Church, RIOT V has the weaker material. No doubt, their songs were powerful, their singer great and the band tight and showed much passion. But in the length of time the riffwork became a bit one-dimensional and the refrains a bit kitschy. Highlight anyway was the track Swords & Tequila in honor of late founding member Mark Reale. Once again a solid show.
[BRT] I’m no expert either. The New York City band has way too many releases out to know them all. The debut Rock City is from 1977, you know? But the record, Fire Down Under, everybody should know. Well, RIOT V is a great live band with a lot of energy and enthusiasm on stage, presenting many hit songs. But yes, I agree, it gets monotonous over the time regarding pace and melodies. Additionally the high-pitched voice of singer Todd Michael Hall was most time close to the bone. Besides that the gig was fun and Swords And Tequila was able to get everybody up.
Setlist: Narita, Ride Hard Live Free, Fight Or Fall, Fire Down Under, Angel Eyes, Flight Of The Warrior, Bloodstreets, Take Me Back, Road Racin’, Warrior, Swords And Tequila
[Psycho] The most extreme band of the festival was :: CANNIBAL CORPSE ::. With their long and successful band history they would have actually deserved a headliner slot.
[Dajana] Yes, on Friday for example…
[Psycho] To me the show was quite ambivalent. The band was technically the best of the whole festival and their tight playing made my jaw drop. I have rarely seen such a precise show without losing the groove. On the other hand the singing of Mr. Corpsegrinder sounded live even more one-dimensional than on CD. Basically he was grunting something unintelligibly, permanently on the same pitch. At the end it turned out to be a massacre, with the biggest moshpit of the festival and thoroughly cleaned ears…
[Dajana] Hmm… yes, it’s probably like that. Though, CANNIBAL CORPSE was a welcome change in today’s billing, a lovely massacre and a crass antipole to the following band.
[BRT] Sorry, CANNIBAL CORPSE, we'll never become a couple, I hope you understand… Technically extremely great music meets nerve-wracking, extremely one-dimensional Coprsegrinder barks and held back stage acting. And not enough blast beats… joke aside. It seems I’m the only Death Metal fan that can’t do that much with CANNIBAL CORPSE. To me it isn’t more than a half hour of “nice entertainment”.
Setlist: Evisceration Plague, The Time To Kill Is Now, Scourge Of Iron, Death Walking Terror, Stripped, Raped And Strangled, The Wretched Spawn, Pit Of Zombies, Kill Or Become, Sadistic Embodiment, Icepick Lobotomy, Covered With Sores, Born In A Casket, I Cum Blood, Unleashing The Bloodthirsty, Make Them Suffer, Hammer Smashed Face, Devoured By Vermin
[Psycho] After the cannibalistic riff massacre the first song of :: BLIND GUARDIAN :: was like Pop. What a contrast. Well, I know I do them wrong this way but they could not enthuse me either. I actually wanted to deal with them noncommittedly. In fact I lost sight of BLIND GUARDIAN in the mid-90s, don’t know their albums they released since then and even don’t know how they sound today. On this evening I had to realize that everything around the band is perfectly made but left me emotionally cold. Melodies are boring and too much like any, choirs from tape a rather embarrassing and the songs too long without any epic and highlights. That’s the way I can imagine designer metal is made from the drawing board… Admittedly, I was a minority with my opinion; the packed and crowded Amphitheater cheered and celebrated the band.
[Dajana] Nightfall over Gelsenkirchen. So to say. A BLIND GUARDIAN show can be a bombastic and stirring event. And it can be not. I have experienced both. To me the headlining ROCK HARD FESTIVAL show was neither specially thrilling nor specially bad. But there is one thing to grant them for: BLIND GUARDIAN was the band that sold out this festival day. The show was… I hardly want to say it… solid.
[BRT] I don’t know the back catalogue of the band nor can I do that much with the stuff I heard from them over the years. But yeah, admittedly, the show was great! All those bombastic songs went down well. And I also agree with the “designed metal”. Everything is really well done, but without emotions and edges. And then there is the weak point, singer… thingamabob, isn’t it? Yes, BLIND GUARDIAN surely have beefed up the number of attendees but were also to blame for the huge amount of the so called “Wacken-crowd” down there in the arena. Well, you can do this but you must not.
Setlist: The Ninth Wave, The Script For My Requiem, Nightfall, Fly, Tanelorn (Into The Void), Prophecies, The Last Candle, Lord Of The Rings, Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill), Journey Through The Dark, Imaginations From The Other Side, Sacred Worlds, Valhalla, The Bard’s Song - In The Forest, Mirror Mirror
Summary:
[Psycho] And there it is over again, the ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2016. Despite cold and rain we still had luck with the weather. But also musically the RHF was a rather mixed festival compared to the previous years. Real highlights were with SATAN, SORCERER, METAL CHURCH and maybe CANNIBAL CORPSE rarely seeded and besides the headliner positions not always uncontroversial. A couple of bands didn’t meet the expectations and the promise to see D:A:D in 2017 again doesn’t really knock my socks off. There have been already quite a few bands playing the RHF several times and I don’t know why. If the organizers don’t pay attention this the RHF might be borne to the grave like the Blackfield Festival last year. Besides, there where tiny alterations regarding food but this sector is still developable.
[Sui] The RHF ended for me before CANNIBAL CORPSE entered the stage. Death Metal is not my cup of tea and BLIND GUARDIAN I urgently wanted to avoid. “Rock-solid” is the impression I got from the whole festival. There were not many real highlights (METAL CHURCH, SORCERER and ACCU§ER were my personal faves), as for that some mild disappointments (DESTRUCTION, BLACK TRIP) and failures (DISCREATION). The weather was average, the chips ok, nothing to really nag about, but no real enthusiasm either. Maybe it was due to the fact that there was only one sophisticated Thrash Metal band with ACCU§ER, maybe that this year’s edition was much Swedish and Teutonic-driven… To already confirm D:A:D for 2017 testifies a certain helplessness or poverty of imagination.
[Dajana] SECRETS OF THE MOON and CANDLEMASS got confirmed too for the ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2017, and this sounds promising. My opinion about bands playing the same festival several times is sufficiently known and does not be repeated. I also think the RHF 2016 was average. We already experienced much better editions. I loved to see METAL CHURCH, NIGHTINGALE and MOONSPELL. Due to my massive cold I was just happy to survive the festival without any bigger problems or even cancellations. Next try 2017 :)
[BRT] I think it was a good mixture of bands, especially the metal bands, but very much “played safe” and “how often they still are going to play the RHF?”. So, an average allover impression too. METAL CHURCH, SATAN, NIGHTINGALE and BLACK TRIP were my faves. And I unfortunately missed SORCERER. Ok, for the next year: maybe a braver approach? Most of all regarding the headliner…
[Dajana] With those words we say goodbye and hope to see you all back in the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen for ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2017. Cheers!
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