STORMWARRIOR were a really good start of the second day. They have an easy going feel to their music that it's easy to just listen and enjoy. Still, they have enough energy to get people to wake up again. The catchy and energetic title track from the Heading Northe album was the show opener and really got the crowd started.

Still, I didn't feel the same energy as I did from them before the release of the new album. Maybe they were better and more dynamic now but I liked that raw and crazy energy. Now it felt like I've taken all the pictures I could in the first song. The poses and movements were repeated over and over again. I almost thought my camera had locked itself and I started thinking, maybe this band isn't ready for the big stages yet. There's no doubt about that they can draw a crowd big enough for such a stage and that crowd truly appreciated STORMWARRIOR. I did too! Sign Of The Warlord, Heavy Metal Fire, Valhalla and Thunderer were all good songs but visually they could have been better.

I was fully aware of Jack Starr's skills as a guitar player and I absolutely expected some high quality Metal from him. But I wasn't at all prepared to be blown away. And as he has changed the name of the band back to the more recognized BURNING STARR again, he triggered the curiosity among the visitors and people started gathering around the stage. This is a band that not has gotten even one ounce of the recognition they deserve. To put that in perspective, the low point of the set was the VIRGIN STEELE classic, that one felt a little plain compared to the rest of the songs. I really like VIRGIN STEELE too, but I absolutely prefer the BURNING STARR (or JACK STARR, GUARDIAN OF THE FLAME etc) material.

The stage came fully to life now, in a way I didn't think was possible from a small band. Sometimes it doesn't take a lot of action and running around to fill a stage, sometimes the magic is just in the musicians and that's all it takes. This was one of those moments, I totally forgot about what I was supposed to do, all I could do was watch. I was completely speechless. Not that the show lacked action in any way, Todd wdid not remain still for a second. But what really impressed me was his voice. It is in the vein of Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie James Dio and fits perfectly to both old and new material. Everything seemed so easy for him. I had really high expectations on this and I absolutely got what I wanted, even a little more! This was the best gig of the festival.

The festival also offered a listening-session to Jack's new studio album Defiance. That was one pleasant hour in a very uncomfortable concrete room. But it served its purpose so I guess that was good enough! Again Jack & co have put together one hell of a Metal record, as classic as it gets with a lot of interesting guitar playing and really nice melodies. I'm pretty sure he will take a huge step towards the top of the Metal scene with this one. Perhaps Under A Savage Sky was a little more creative and in one tiny perspective a little more interesting. But this new is absolutely great, more straightforward, has a really good production and maybe is a little easier to melt.Catchy songwriting is perhaps a better way to put it but without being too radio friendly.

The opening track, Day Of The Reaper is a catchy mid tempo tune with a slight folk feeling. It made me think about Classic Hard Rock ala WHITESNAKE and about NWOBHM in the style of ANGELWITCH. The Ancient Ones, that they also performed live, is a dark and suggestive piece with really nice melodies again with classic feeling closet to RAINBOW and IRON MAIDEN, though. But what really stands out from this song is Jack's guitar playing. His tone is really nice and the song has some really brilliant melodies. Defiance starts with a beautiful piano-intro that changes into a really Heavy groove. In this song Todd Hall stands out with his vocal skills and with this I started to realize how huge his capacity really is. The Beast Inside is a super heavy track and we get yet another side of Todd's voice. The opening lines are really dark and evil.

Musically this is the least interesting track on the alum. Indian Nation is about the American roots and the song has that feel over it. The whole arrangement and melody has a huge MANOWAR atmosphere all over it. Inquisitor is my favorite track of the album. A MAIDEN-esque guitar intro changes over in really heavy riff. It's Progressive, Melodic and very Dark. The King Must Die is a fast bastard that starts with a really nice duel between guitars and keyboard and later on changes over into a sing-a-long refrain. Live hit perhaps? Once A Future King, I can not, I will not... were the words echoing through my head after the listening-session. A song that gets stuck in your mind immediately, very catchy. This is the last original song of the album and it is a massive piece with huge orchestral and vocal arrangements. Again the MANOWAR-influences shine through. Sure it is an excellent album closer.

The record was produced by Joey DeMaio so it's not very strange the MANOWAR influences are obvious from time to time; guess he's been using some of his tricks, too. The capacity of Todd's voice becomes all clear at the end of the listening session as the record also contains two RAINBOW-classics, Catch The Rainbow and Long Live Rock 'n' Roll. Perhaps the latter one is a song you can fake it through and get away with it. But it's not at all so with Catch The Rainbow, to get that right you need to be able to sing and this version is almost painfully perfect.

At this point the confusion started to grow among everyone present at the festival. We were impatiently waiting for BRAZEN ABBOT and I even decided to skip the MANOWAR press-conference to see Joe Lynn Turner & co. But instead of getting some ambitious Power Metal we were served machine-tasting Goth Metal. BELOVED ENEMY showed up on BRAZEN ABBOT's spot and I made a run for it to the press-conference. The reason for this change and and whether BRAZEN ABBOT were going to show up at all nobody knew.

It felt quite awkward to stumble into the packed hall in the middle of the conference but it was worth the embarrassment. It was a happy and very excited band behind the counter that had a little hard time to wait for their turn to talk. The few minutes I caught were mainly about why Rhino was filling in for Scott Columbus. Ok, Rhino plays with HOLYHELL too and that made it all a little confusing. HOLYHELL, TITANIUM BLACK, JACK STARR and DORO were also right up there at the same press-conference. It's not like those other bands could get a lot of attention while MANOWAR were there. But yes, Rhino was filling in for Scott on these two gigs since Scott has been going through a lot of personal difficulties and had to take some time to heal. Of course I was up for it, Rhino said. When it came clear to him, that it was all of the six first albums that were going to be executed he realized he had to learn it all, for real this time. It was the same for me too both Joey and Eric said at the same time. I think it was only Karl that knew it all when we started rehearsing! Yeah, Joey continued, he even had to show me some of the bass lines. Just to see these guys talking away the time, telling silly stories about learning their own songs put them in a whole new perspective.

The Metal Queen Doro Pesch proved that she's absolutely worthy of her nickname. But I've never been really impressed with her before. Sure, she always looks awesome on stage but musically it has been a little plain for me. I can't really put my finger on what the difference was this time but I found it very enjoyable to watch and I surely appreciated the music too.

DORO seemed extremely satisfied with everything, her energy was contagious and she was sparkling like a diamond in the sun the whole time. I only wish that this could have gone for the rest of the band too. It was just bass player Nick Douglas that could compete with Doro's energy. It's very impressive that she still has that kind of fire on stage, she's been in this business for a long time now too, she will be celebrating 25 years as an artist later this year. And no one can say that this lady has been lazy since the WARLOCK days; she has a genuine catalogue of releases under her own name DORO to add to her archive. Still it's always the WARLOCK-classics that give her the loudest screams. And there was no exception this afternoon either. Songs like Burning The Witches, All We Are and Fur Immer are and will always be true classics. This was a great concert and I'm sure the event in December will be really spectacular.

From a tiny little woman to a huge man! Blackie Lawless only needed to take a few steps and he's at the front of the stage. The really bad thing with this gig was that it only lasted for 35 minutes, that's not really enough for a band of W.A.S.P.'s caliber. I missed the Crimson Idol shows last year and I was hoping for at least some of that now. Chainsaw Charlie doesn't really count even if I love that song.

Well, I didn't really believe they would do something that special since festival gigs normally mean a straight line of hits. And even if W.A.S.P.'s whole discography is nothing but excellent, I wanted so much more than the obvious hits. Wild Child, Love Machine, I Wanna Be Somebody... The really good thing was Blackie's voice, he sounded great and seemed very inspired to play. The backtracks didn't stand out this time compared to the last time I saw them. I think it's perfectly ok for a band to use pre-recorded parts to some point, as long as it doesn't take over the whole sound. It can even be a great effect booster sometimes too. This time I didn't even think about it so it must have been prefect. Of course, a festival gig has to be peeled off and pretty basic for the bands not headlining, but I missed Blackie's massive mic stand that he use to climb up on and rock forward and back. Ok, there was more movement from him from side to side instead but that stand is a nice feature at a W.A.S.P. concert and it looks really cool and evil. The performance from the rest of the band was flawless too, but the whole thing was just too short. I wanted more!

The rain started pouring down just when it was time to get in to the photo pit. Lucky enough my new friends offered me and my camera some cover with their umbrellas. It was quite powerful to watch all the flags slowly waving in the pale light from the stage and with the full rainbow in the background. When MANOWAR started playing the last few beams of sunlight broke through the clouds and the party started all over again. The concept of playing the first six albums in their entirety sure was a cool thing, though it might not be the best set-up for a concert. But that an album is well-balanced doesn't mean it works perfectly to play it live on stage from start to finish.

Well, there's really nothing to complain, since everything was almost perfect. The sound was great, lights massive and those three albums (Battle Hymns, Into Glory Ride and Hail To England) were and still are great. But it felt a little too much of a movie soundtrack sometimes, a little too atmospheric and grand rather than Rock'n'Roll.
Eric's voice was better than ever though and he could absolutely manage everything. He never sounded forced or pressured. That was great to hear because there has been reviews saying he's not as good as he used to be anymore. That's just crap, he sounded amazing the whole time. Perhaps that World-record breaking 5 hours + concert they did in Bulgaria just a week before 'Magic Circle' got him started for real rather than wear him out? To my surprise Joey DeMaio was quite anonymous for the main part and stayed in the back parts of the stage most of the time. On other MANOWAR concerts I've seen, Joey has taken a lot of the attention from the rest of the band with his speeches between songs. It was sort of a relief that they stuck to playing music this time since those grand anthems were pauses enough. Above the first three albums they also promoted their newer stuff, the brand new single Die With Honor and the smash hit from their latest studio album Warriors Of The World.

Following the good old MANOWAR tradition they closed the night with a taped version of Crown And The Ring

(photos by 'I Rule The Ruins' Erika)

STORMWARRIOR
JACK STARR
BELOVED ENEMY
DORO
MANOWAR