'Keep It True Festival' Day 2

Saturday started with BATTLE RAM from Italy, one more band that I probably should listen to. They had already started when we got there but I can't have missed much. Classic Metal with a symphonic touch and quite decent songs. They got the groove going! My problem here was that I got bored quite fast but if that was because of the band or the aftermath of Friday's party I leave uncommented.

Then again, just half an hour later, I'm fully awake with a smile from ear to ear as FUELED BY FIRE enters the stage. More new wave of Bay Area Thrash Metal, high octane performance, speed, dirt and a lot of fun. This is the way it should be and I'm looking forward to hear more from these California dudes. Debut album Spread The Fire is a killer and, originally released in 2006, it should be time for a follow-up soon.

To me it's really hard to accept Metal that's sung in other languages than English. Of course, every now and then any odd language works perfectly but DEMON EYES was too much French for me. They played decent classic Metal that really is my style, but the language? Then the cover of METALLICA's Seek And Destroy in French was, well, not so enjoyable. But I got stuck there and watched the second half of the show and actually enjoyed it. So it goes, one band I wasn't interested in at all from the start caught my attention.

Right after DEMON EYES finished their set, the place started to fill up again. It was quite clear, I wasn't the only one looking forward to see CRESCENT SHIELD. I was really sad to see the end of two such great bands as DESTINY'S END and ONWARD but, then, having Michael Gant (vocals) and Dan DeLucie (guitar) in the same band, that's like a wet dream coming true. How can that fail? It can't, their debut album The Last Of My Kind is amazing classic US metal at its best. They served songs off that album and a highlight was having almost all of Tauberfranken Halle singing Come Forth The Barely Learned along with Michael in the start of The Passing and then screaming their lounges out as the guitar starts playing.

PHARAOH's first gig ever and that directly after CRESCENT SHIELD, that's a tough match I tell you. On the other hand, PHARAOH's new album Be Gone is great and will probably end up high on my list over 2008's best records. From an entertainment perspective they had no chance against CRESCENT SHIELD, but it sounded awesome. Both Tom Aymar's voice and the guitar harmonies were right on spot. Though it's a little bit disturbing when the bass player is fronting most of the time and not the singer, but apart from that it was great. And counting in this was Pharaoh's first gig, I guess in fact awesome is the real grade of this concert.

On the last album we killed the devil, CAGE singer Sean Peck says, and a lot of metalheads was a bit pissed off by that. So on Helldestroyer we brought him back!!!. Well, CAGE pretty much destroyed everything in their way this day. Full pressure from the start and what PHARAOH lacked in stage performance CAGE doubled times and times again. The follow-up to Helldestroyer will be released later this year and a European tour follows. I hope their plan holds because this is certainly something I want to see again. To me, this was the best gig on this year's Keep It True!
And after all energy and speed, DOOMSWORD was a nice break. I can't say I managed to keep track of new and old members of the band and who were on what record. Does that really matter? If you can deliver Doom with this kind of intensity and keep my interest for an hour, that's good enough. I prefer the newer material from DOOMSWORD, last year's My Name Will Live On blew me away, but I can't say their earlier albums did the same impression on me.

Then, both HEATHEN and MANILLA ROAD is sort of a blur, a little due to too frequent visits to the bar but also distractions from left and right. Sometimes it feels like it is too little time to hang out and talk with people on these events, just music and music non-stop. It's hard to avoid listening to it when you're inside the venue and from where I were both MANILLA ROAD and HEATHEN sounded great and I regret a little I didn't pay more attention. Well, it's easy to look back with regrets and think I should have done things differently but that won't change anything. I can just hope that I'll have more chances to see these bands and be smart enough to pay more attention that time. What I did? Chatting away with the guys from STRIKEMASTER, HELSTAR and more loose people?

I can't say JAG PANZER has gotten to me with their live performances before. Every time I listen I just wonder why, since I love their records, both new and old material. OK, to judge a performance like the one at 2005's Bang Your Head [fest], after the storm maybe isn't fair, but other bands with the same premises did great and JAG PANZER mostly appeared confused. Not even this 2-hour special show impressed me much.

Bringing Christian Lasegue back in the band was god for the music, even if I really admire Chris Broderick's guitar playing; it was a nice change to have more basic riffing and not licks and fills all the time. But again, it didn't do much for the live show. Harry Conklin is an amazing singer and takes on the stage well, but there's really no energy. The competition is too hard on KIT for a band to be lazy. I would love to see JAG PANZER on a real tour and have them prove me wrong, that they rock live! However I can't complain on the selection of songs played this night. I got everything I wanted to hear, from Shadowthief, Chain Of Command, featuring singer Bob Paruda, Iron Eagle, Take To The Sky and a lot more.

So it was time to go home again, 24 hours of metal in 2 days. 19 great bands and a whole bunch of cool and amazing people. Thanks to Tarek and Oliver for keeping the Metal spirit alive and do such a great job with this festival. It truly is a special occasion every time.

(photos by Erika Wallberg)

CRESCENT SHIELD

PHARAOH

JAG PANZER