What a helluva Thrash fuckin' night that was!!! When things seems to get a little bit out-of-line in today's Metal music, it's old classic beloved bands like Frankfurt's pioneers of alcohol Metal, Tankard, that establish the somehow fluffy – in these days – meaning of Metal Gig in the eyes of core Metal fans. I was sure about what I was goin' to hear as I was walking down to An Club and the German thrashers definitely didn't want to let me, USA down. Grabbing the first beer (weird, ha?) form a lousy bartender (I saw his face's expression 3 hours later and he had surely got the message), I located my standing point and started watching the crowd summoning at the front rows for the first support act. C'mon guys, roll on, it's 7:30 already…

Suicidal Angels was on time and – apart from their young age – the Thrash Metal quartet surely made a remarkable appearance, fulfilling our ears with 20-25 minutes of pure bombastic speed oblivion! Surely hard-working, the band offered qualitative mid-80's Thrash in the vein of early Kreator, Destruction and the rest of the German- European Thrash bands, with a slight touch of Slayer in the riff-works. Supported by a fine sound (weird, for the club's fame) these guys surely enjoyed the gig – also proven by their endless headbanging – and the - 200 maniacs, till then - audience accepted the offer by following the band's chords with endless fist-raising and howls of delight! The band's first release, Bloodthirsty Humanity EP, has already come out and the band's recital indisputably gives good credit for what we should expect from them in the near future. Well done gentlemen, it's up to you for the next bigger shift…

Next on the bill, Crucifier is a well-established gang in the circles of Greek Thrash Metal. Hailing for nearly a decade now, dedicated to primitive European Thrash music – similar to Sodom's Obsessed By Cruelty thematic points or Kreator's Pleasure to Kill ultra-violence, the band surely intro-ed like a war hammer in front of a frenzied crowd with fiend for speed-demonized blasts! Two songs (one of them brand new) and a well-managed mosh pit took ground in the middle, and then… things moved a little bit fast! A guitar with broken strings, a nervous atmosphere, a new guitar supplied, another problem encountered (couldn't figure out if it was a "string" matter again), pressure from the club's crew for further action from the band, the band's 100% pissed off, the band leaves and is applauded by an understanding audience of now 250+ metalheads. Crucifier certainly deserved their slash of the pie from this Thrash gig…
Life goes on… A total of nearly 300 thrashers cry out for Tankard, whose majestic entrance with lager-hit Need Money For A Beer really blows the place out! It's not that surprising, being able to foresee what would happen, if you've been to another Tankard concert in your life. It was my 3rd time and surely my favorite so far, since Frankfurt's beerdrinkers & hellraisers put tons of energy for their audience, an audience that never stopped moshing, headbanging, slam dancing and – most of all – stage diving for more than 1 ½ hours. And how could someone predict something different, when smashing classics like The Morning After, Zombie Attack, Space Beer (what the hell went on here?), Maniac Forces, Gangreen's Alcohol superb beer-'n'-roll cover version and all-time Chemical Invasion were grouped so elegantly with killer tunes from the band's latest releases – like the killer Slipping from Reality (form Tankard's 2004 Beast Of Bourbon CD), or Rectifier – resulting in a pulverizing chaos on and off the stage.

Tons of sweat, singer Gerre in his usual positive mood playing tricks with his belly & throwing beer tins to the frenzied crowd, the rest of the band in demonic form, an average sound not letting the band down and incredible pleasure and passion in everyone's face for this band that still stands proud after 20 successful years of honest Thrash alcohol Metal. The encore, consisting of the pair of mega-Tankard classics Alien and Empty Tankard, simply burned down what had so far remained still, with endless stage diving – some jerks being so non-careful that prevented the band from playing properly, sometimes (Gerre and guitarist Andy got a little bit nervous at a time or two – I give them all thee right) – and lots of mosh pitting! A continuous applause saluted the band on its way off the stage, with none being disappointed of what he had witnessed during the previous 100 minutes!

We wanna drink some whiskey, we wanna drink some beer, outgoes the band's (Empty) Tankard anthem. We wanna see bands like Tankard more often should I add. Real Metal bands, high-spirited musicians with explosive songs, with the talent to bring the crowd to the state where… adrenaline starts to flow – we're thrashing all around – acting like a maniac… – TANKARD!!!