Mad Sin - Onslaught - Tank - Mother Misery - Contradiction - Eure Erben

Bullet - Disbelief - Hate - Switchtense - Manticora - Eat The Gun - Vesania - Negura Bunget - Dawn Of Disease - Inferi

[Dajana] How time flies. Autumn is about to reveal its beauty while the nights grow colder. Savoring the last warm days I set out for the last open air in this year: the TUROCK OPEN AIR 2011. Once again the Turock club presents its own stage at the annual Essen.Original city fest. In front of its own doors and under the protective hands of the St. Gertrud Church ;) And of course the entire city fest was for free!

[Dajana] Common people, daily life usually means work on a common Friday. So the NH crew was not able to attend the festival right from the beginning, we rather appeared and left scattered, sort of. However, let’s what we get together ;)

[Bert] For sure a lot of Guiness ;-)

:: pics :: Friday :: Saturday ::

Friday, September 16

Mad Sin - Onslaught - Tank - Mother Misery - Contradiction - Eure Erben

[Bert] My first band to get into this festival had to be :: CONTRADICTION :: I saw last time felt 2645 years ago, sharing stages with Suiciety. They offered kind of restrained but straight Metallica influences Thrash Metal, pretty much unspectacular, not to say boring. For sure CONTRADICTION did their best, delivered a lively show but that’s all that got stuck in mind.

[Dajana] My first festival meeting was :: TANK :: legendary NWOBHM band, founded back in 1980, disbanded in 1989 and reunited 1998. So how do TANK sound in 2011? Well, not that rough and dirty anymore ;) As expected the Brits focused on their new album War Machine and as a counterpart on 1983s This Means War with Stormtrooper from the 1982 debut as the band’s grand finale.
[Bert] Ah yes, Doogie White is for sure a very talented singer (a naughty little beggar who feels reminded of Dio…). I could hardly figure his voice with the old material but with the new stuff his vocals proverbial hit the nail on the head. His stage presence and energetic stage-acting made this show awesome. Up-tempo songs made me think of Iron Maiden, but at the end it was a solemn one, a Dio/Sabbath-like one that marked the highlight.
Setlist: This Means War, Judgement Day, Echoes Of A Distant Battle, Phoenix Rising, Feast Of The Devil, Great Expectations, The War Drags Ever On, Stormtrooper

[Dajana] It remained to be very British, the goblet was just handed on :: ONSLAUGHT :: Musically however, it became much louder and gruffer. Thrash till death! ONSLAUGHT strikingly got stuck with the first both records yet played material from their most recent album Sounds Of Violence too. The guys had to face some technical difficulties, at points second guitar completely failed but it did not harm the show itself. Band and crowd were in high spirits cheering for each other and quickly moshpits were going on. Great setlist, great show!
Setlist: Killing Peace, Born For War, Let There Be Death, The Sound Of Violence, Angels Of Death, Metal Forces, Code Black, Demoniac, Burn, Onslaught (Power From Hell)

[Dajana] To complete and top off the first festival day :: MAD SIN :: marched up. Psychobilly veterans - and so refreshingly different ;) I was quite amazed by the performance of singer Köfte, so much energy. Would not have expected to see him jumping that high ;) Yep, worthy finale for the first evening.
Setlist: Cursed, Point Of No Return, Outta My Head, 1000 Eyes, Brainstorm, Wreckhouse Stomp, 2-3-4, Nothing’s Allright, Straight To, Gonna Get Her, Brand New Caddy, Dead Moon, Speak No Evil, 9 Lives, Communication Breakdown, Psychotic Night

[Dajana] Over and out. The first day of TUROCK OPEN AIR was a short one. People vanish quickly and so I do, another morning shift’s waiting.

Saturday September 17

Bullet - Disbelief - Hate - Switchtense - Manticora - Eat The Gun - Vesania - Negura Bunget - Dawn Of Disease - Inferi

[Dajana] The second day did not evolve the way I actually wanted. Well… be that as it may. I arrive late catching the last tunes of :: NEGURA BUNGET :: only. And they already started belated. According to reports they only played 3 songs and had a lot of sound problems. Too bad.
[Bert] Sunny afternoon and a band like NEGURA BUNGET. But yes, it surprisingly worked out. Only 3 songs were played, 2 from the most recent record Virstele Pamintului. During the first one sound problems were significant, inhomogeneous, badly mixed, so I agree with the reports. It got much better afterwards. There was not much going on and 25 minutes have been way too short. I rather would have seen them in a cosy club with tons of smoke and all that fuss an evil Black Metal band has to dish up… erm… yes, I really liked it ;) Ambient-like Black Metal with flutes and archaic instruments that probably rested for approximately 666 years in Transylvanian soil. There's something to be said for that.

[Dajana] Ok, first a beer and then symphonic Black Metal the Norwegian style, if you know what I mean ;) :: VESANIA :: are right on tour with Hate, Inferi and already mentioned Negura Bunget. Stage settings and band outfit looked like VESANIA got stuck in the year 2007 when Distractive Killusions was released. And yes, that’s what they played too. After all these years I really expected new tracks. On the other hand, VESANIA is just a side project for all involved members. Nevertheless, time has come guys, hurry up. And there is really something going on… ;)
Setlist: Posthuman Kind, Infinity Horizon, God The Lux, The Dawnfall, Hell Is For Children, Rage Of Reason, Mardukes Mazemerising

[Dajana] Photographers seemed to have a blast, fooling and joking around all the time (me included of course), priceless moments galore *laughs* When :: EAT THE GUN :: jumped upon stage we still were out of… order. Münster-based sidekicks promptly delivered the next quantum of good mood while presenting their brand new album Runner, released in July. „Straight-in-your-face RRrrrocK”. Yes! That’s what we got, on a highly energetic level. It was truly a pleasure to watch them performing live.
[Bert] EAT THE GUN I did not have on my radar. A great live band, absolutely! Ok, they will not win any award in the category “originality” but regarding their live show there was no way around this band on both days. If you have missed them, you missed something special!
Setlist: Runner, The Remedy, Blood Running Black, Not Dead Yet, The Evil In You And Me, My Retribution, I’m Obsessed, Solitary Sinners, Viva La Insane

[Dajana] Next up was :: MANTICORA :: a band I had for some reason saved in my mind as a Hungarian Gothic Metal act. But no, they emerged to be a progressive influenced Power Metal band. From Denmark. Thank goodness. Once again some sound problems narrowed the pleasure; partially the vocals were not to hear out but all in all MANTICORA rocked the stage properly.
[Bert] Too much drama, too much fair… a specific of European Power Metal and MANTICORA don’t fall short in this matter. Technically a high-class performance but taken as a whole there was too much of everything.

[Dajana] Following :: SWITCHTENSE :: we nastily missed due to the need of a certain Schnitzel with fries. The last tunes we snatched left an impact. Damn! Slightly Hardcore-influenced Thrash Metal the American style performed by Portuguese sunny guys.
[Bert] The Schnitzel affair, you know. We closed the gap at the last two songs. I got the feeling of melody-freed Anthrax with a New York Hardcore list… Great stuff, asskicking performance!

[Dajana] Back to the already mentioned tour with the last band missing from that special billing :: HATE :: Black Metal the second. Not symphonic this time but with a rough Death Metal notation. And as the band name already implies: a full chunk of hate.
[Bert] HATE used to be nice at best. With their wannabe-evil corpse-paint they sounded like a band who just had won the Behemoth-sound-alike contest. As for that HATE then was too characterless. Ordinary Black Metal without any recognition value, sorry.

[Dajana] Tada… time has come for the highlight Nr 1: :: DISBELIEF :: I just love them, love to see them playing live. Whenever there is a possibility to catch a show, I’m there ;) Sound probs were still omnipresent killing Jaggers voice. But it went even worse. Due to curfew and delays DISBELIEF’s setlist got rigorous shortened. Gosh darn it! Almost the half of the songs got cut. Too bad. Too bad. But hey, DISBELIEF gonna embark on a short tour in October.
Setlist: A Place To Hide, Room 309, Sick, The One, Hell Goes On, The Return Of Sin, Navigator

[Dajana] Time Disbelief had to immolate headliner :: BULLET :: lazed away right after during the change-over. Fuck that could have been two more songs for Disbelief. Afterwards Swedes hard rockers needed sort of a warm-up. I don’t know drunk, tired, jetlag? It took 2, 3 songs till BULLET got in full swing. Finally sparks ignited and there was no holding them back anymore. Hard Rock, Rock’n’Roll extraordinaire. A hell of a party, a hell of a show. These mates are just awesome and one can’t get enough of them!

[Dajana] With this fulminant peal of thunder TUROCK OPEN AIR 2011 comes to an end and we once again had a great weekend. Thank you Peter, thank you Turock crew – we truly had a blast :) Weather kept smiling with us most of the time too. Perfect scenery for my brand new cam: baptized of beer and sustaining its first scratches. Yep, world is ok ;)