I have to admit; it took me a lot of effort to get out of bed the morning after the Pre-Party and I cursed the organizers for putting that many great bands on the bill so damn early. Of course, I only had myself to blame but those Pre-parties are great fun and always bring on a good mood (and some damn great concerts as well). This year was no exception. So I dragged my feet down to the 13th edition (my 6th) of 'Bang Your Head' festival. Actually, this year they were celebrating 10 years as an Open Air Festival. Eventually, I arrived at the hosting place just in time for TYR.

The fact that I like TYR is no secret and what could have been a better start than some well built, half undressed metalheads? (Yes, I admit that I missed CONTRACASH completely, that were just too early). TYR started off magnificent with those three-part vocal arrangements that build a nice wall of noise.
The sound was very rough and the wind made it kind of worse. Not at all suitable for Folky Pagan Metal, for that it needs to be a lot smoother. The energy that usually TYR spread over the crowd was a lot less than usual. Towards the end of Wings Of Time both the sound and the energy got better and for Ramundu Hin Unge it was great; but it was not enough and a little too late to save the experience.

One thing I don't like with this Old School Thrash Metal nostalgia that goes on now is that people won't listen to these bands' new efforts. It's almost always the old stuff that gets the best response from the crowd no matter if they've been there for the originals or not. Of course, I love the old AGENT STEEL material too, but I think Bruce Hall is way better singer than John Cyriis. His voice is a lot more dynamic which doesn't really come out in the older material. The old stuff just doesn't have the same depth as Omega Conspiracy, Order Of The Illuminati and Alienigma. I think these albums swipes the old ones of the road at ease. They opened their set with mighty It's Not What You Think and I was really surprised seeing Bruce Hall's new style. His evil look with the shaved head is gone and with the half grown out hair he looks a little like a street bum. Do you like my new hairstyle?, he asked between two songs. I'm having a bad hair year! It's growing back, slowly but surely...

We also got Agents Of Steel, Bleed For The Godz, Unstoppable Force and the set closer Mad Locust Rising that sunny morning. But if I could have had something to say that would be about the setlist; it should have a lot more new material. Still it was amazingly good. I thought AGENT STEEL did great on the VICIOUS RUMORS tour too, but they topped that with margin now. The absolute highlight of the festival was Ten Fists Of Nation. I'm sure AGENT STEEL would have been top of all if the sound had been a little better. The guitars were not really distinct and the sound was really sharp. The dynamic playing between Juan Garcia and Bernie Versailles didn't come through all the way. But besides that little source of irritation it was just awesome.

After a dose of world-class Thrash Metal I wasn't at all up for KORPIKLAANI. I do like them but Wood-Metal isn't my thing and since I've seen them already this summer, the Metal Market and other things felt more attractive.
FORBIDDEN though were absolutely one of my main attractions for this festival. And to get to see them twice was just awesome. First at the really sweaty stage at the pre-Party and of course the regular festival-gig too. They started off really strong with an amazing sound and the guitars were blasting from the speakers. The riff maestros Glen Alvelais and Craig Locicero were in their perfect element. They have a nice treasure chest of songs to pick from and there were no way songs like Forbidden Evil, Off The Edge or Step By Step would make me feel dull. I guess I wasn't alone there, just judging by the headbanging around me this reunion was much longed for and very appreciated. But even if the music was hyper and Russ Anderson's voice sounded great the whole time, it wasn't enough action on that huge stage. At the club-show, that was absolutely no problem, then it felt as intense and crazy it's supposed to but on the big festival stage it felt a little still from time to time. I might have had a little too high expectation on this; not that it was bad at all but I think I was expecting more. I expected to walk away from the gig feeling like I've been ran over by a steamroller and I wanted them to have the same energy as they had in the last song Chalice Of Blood during the entire set. But all that didn't happen...

The downside of seeing bands over and over again is that it sometimes feels more like repetition or a re-run rather than a fun event. Ok, there's no way in hell RAGE can do a bad concert! They stuck to their standards now too but I wasn't at all excited to see them this time. I never really got into it. The competition was hard and there were other bands on the bill that tickled my nerves more, of course... But if RAGE had done something completely different this time compared to the spring tour I bet I would have had RAGE in the top of the festival. It was still really good; the sound was great and both old and new material worked excellent live. I must say that Carved In Stone is one hell of an album! It seemed like RAGE had a good time too, a little later in the evening Victor Smolski and new drummer Andre Hilgers (who make sure Mike Terrana won't be missed) showed up in the crowd and I bet they've had more than a few beers to drink after their set. Well, Victor at least. It was fun to see him posing for pictures, writing autographs, looking really loose and relaxed just enjoy a day in the sun.

Mike Tramp's WHITE LION... Or as they were actually announced WHITE LION. If that was right or wrong since Vito Bratta isn't in the lineup nowadays I leave for others to discuss. Before the show I couldn't care less. This was way too soft for me, it even was that back in the Pride-days. But I have to admit, this was actually surprisingly good. I never expected that! I absolutely thought we would be served some cheesy love-songs rather than high quality Melodic Hardrock. I really like Mike's voice too, perhaps even more with FREAK OF NATURE than WHITE LION, since they were closer to my music taste. Despite my negative attitude WHITE LION managed to catch my attention and I found myself watching every move on stage. They were just as Hair Metal as supposed to be, a lot of poses, colorful outfits and a lot of showing off. They were absolutely good at that. I sure like it when I'm proven wrong, even if it is about my own boundaries. With a little help from WHITE LION I realized that I can appreciate really Melodic Hardrock too, as long as it is well written and well played. But one Hair Metal band a day is enough so GREAT WHITE will have to impress me some other time.

Matt Barlow's return to ICED EARTH stirred up a buzz in the Metal world, with both good and bad reactions. I guess just as many wanted Ripper to stay as who thought this was the happening of the century. I wondered if it would be different this time. If Matt really could find the passion for the music he used to have because even if the 'Horror Show' tour was magical I didn't feel as satisfied afterwards as I've done seeing ICED EARTH before. And me, being a Ripper fan, was a little disappointed when Jon Schaffer announced the reunion since I love both Glorious Burden and Framing Armageddon. I actually still doubt Matt will be able to top that.

It only took seconds for Matt to convince me that this is the way it's supposed to be though. (Ok, it took a little more than that actually, I had to think about it long and hard and analyze the show at 'RockHard Festival' before I really could melt it all) This evening I was absolutely ready to see the show with open eyes and an open heart. Matt looked a lot more secure this time. Very convincing that this is the right place for him and his voice was stronger than ever. He managed to give me goose-bumps both with his screams and his softer more passionate voice. I just wanted to throw away my camera and dive out in the crowd and start rocking away when the first notes of Declaration Day blasted from the speakers. The beautiful loves tory in Dracula almost brought tears to my eyes and Melancholy (Holy Martyr) was just awesome. He still has one thing to prove though, that The Crucible Of Man, Something Wicked Part II will be as good as the previous two records before I fully approve this reunion. But I admit this was damn good and the best concert of this year's 'Bang Your Head'.
Operation Balingen was the slogan for this year's festival and QUEENSRYCHE with their 3 hours Operation Mindcrime set closed the first day of the festival. About 10 minutes after schedule the intro started and the screams filled the air. Even the otherwise quite photographers went nuts in the pit between the stage and fence. And the show was very striking, a quite clean stage with only a stair and some brick-walls. The props were mainly the band, one Geoff look-a-like, Pamela More, a few more characters and the act between them all.

I've never been a fan of QUEENSRYCHE, I wanted to puke on Operation Mindcrime when it was released 20 years ago but I've actually turned around, now I quite like it and this was something I really was looking forward, too. I must say I thought the first part of the show was absolutely amazing, very powerful with the dress-changes, lights, acts and props. The sound was great and I was completely sucked into it all. I only wish I would have done my homework better and dug a little more into the whole story though, I felt a little lost from time to time. But people more familiar with this band claimed Geoff Tate was cheating a lot with the melodies, improvising and missing out on the really high notes. That was nothing that I was aware of but what do I know... The band performed flawless though.

A 3 hour show for real is not really the same as 3 hours on paper. I can understand they needed a break after the first part of Mindcrime but 20 minutes... That was too long I think, some action might have kept people more interested and have them staying for the whole set. Most people actually left in the break so this event was perhaps a little too much for a festival. I guess everyone expected some more really special songs after the Operation Mindcrime mastodon set, four songs in total was a disappointment even to me. Walk In The Shadows, Empire, Jet City Woman and then ending it all with Silent Lucidity was quite strange. It's a beautiful song sure, but to end with it. Not really something that got the party-mood going.

(photos by the 'I Walk Among You' Erika)