Sodom - Destruction - Tankard - Satan - Year Of The Goat - Sulphur Aeon
[BRT] I got woken up with booze and coke. It’s said to replace the toothbrushing with a coffee-like impact at the same time. Ok, put a bad face on the good matter and gave canned beer to the brain cells afterwards. The people around didn’t look any good. Don’t think that anybody was kept sober last night. The sun is burning painfully and the grill got fired too. Dusty.
[Psycho] Yes. Day 1 and the sun still smiles. Funny enough that the sun always does this at the heavier acts… Though, there was a cold wind (at all days) that drove the sound-man mad. So the Friday was affected by a blurred sound. Luckily it got better the other days. The first festival day was under the sign of the Teutonic-Triple-Thrash-Terror. Remember how Kreator destroyed the Amphithetaer last year. I was curious how the competitor would do it. But at first we went through a relaxed accreditation procedure at the press point.
:: Pics ::
[Psycho] Opening act :: SULPHUR AEON :: kicked off in front of a well filled theatre. Announced as Germany’s best Death Metal band they suffered badly from the poor sound. Especially at the atmospheric or fast passages most details were rather to sense than to hear. Additionally the stage acting was quite lame. Hence, the band wasn’t able to ignite a spark. Regarding the response of the crowd, one of the worse openers of the last years.
[BRT] Objection, your Honor! As the president of the anti-blastbeats/Hammond-organ committee you are not objective in this matter! To the jury: please disregard this message. Apart from that the sound in the pit was definitely clear and powerful. But yes… How to join a gloomy death metallic gathering in honor of the Great Old ones when the sun is shining and the alcohol level is at 5,08 per mill? Well, that’s a question that settled in a twinkling of an eye as the five high priests of SULPHUR AEON kicked off so furiously and fired their poisonous brew of death and black metal among the large crowd. Songs from both records, Swallowed By The Oceans Tide and Gateways To The Antisphere, went down awesomely, while the audience started to mosh heavily, although that was not a party-like opening act at coffee and cake time. Experiment well done! If this live celebration was to blame for the bad weather the next two days… then Cthulhu might catch the guys!
[Dajana] Nothing else left to be said. I’m a huge fan of SULPHUR AEON but I have to agree with Psycho, their lice performance was rather lame. I have seen them performing live much livelier in the past. Maybe it was too early and too sunny for the cultists…
Setlist: Incantation, Abysshex, Titans, Swallowed, Inexorable Spirits, Gateway To The Anti, Onwards... Towards
[Psycho] Next up was :: YEAR OF THE GOAT :: and they generally did not fit into this Friday’s run of bands. But why they did sound so powerless with even three guitars I could not understand. Ok, I also did not get what is so occult on this uninspired ancient Hard Rock. Much as the predecessors they seemed to be nailed on the stage. Boring show without highlights.
[BRT] Also YEAR OF THE GOAT played at the wrong time of day and improper weather conditions. I find their music quite autumnal. Never mind. Their solemn seventies sound works fine for me. Reminds me rather of The Doors, Thin Lizzy and The Eagles than of Doom Metal and though sounds fresh and… different. Their new album, The Unspeakable, even offers Pop-like traits at points but significantly suffered from the inhomogeneous sound here live on stage. But I have to agree with the old man when it comes to occultism. This label is meanwhile really stale and does not fit at all.
Setlist: The Key And The, ...Of Fire, Pillars Of The Son, Black Sunlight, Of Darkness, Vermin, Riders Of Vulture
[Psycho] How the audience can be enthused :: SATAN :: right after proved. This band offered sweeping musicality, a delight in playing that was palpable and great and original songs. And finally there was noticeable response from the crowd too. Only downer (next to the bad sound) was the short playing time and the fact that SATAN did not consider the Suspended Sentenced album but played songs from all other records. To me the clear winner of the day!
[BRT] Ah yes, Atom By Atom is such a great and smashing song! The delight in playing SATAN banned on the new record raises the bar high. Here many of the Swedish milksops can cut a slice off. Besides, all is already said by Psycho.
[Dajana] It seems that SATAN were in league with the same and that he didn’t want to see his aura captured on my photos as his power let one of my cameras die the final error 99 death. So, only a limited amount of pics on this Friday. But it did not harm the pleasure of the show ;) Of course not…
Setlist: Intro, Trial By Fire, Blades Of Steel, The Devil‘s Infantry, 2035, Break Free, Atom By Atom, Siege Mentality, Oppression, Testimony
[Psycho] Ok, let’s go on with :: TANKARD ::. During their last visit at ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2012 I felt surprisingly well entertained by them. This time their show was rather boring. And this was not only due to the fact that Gerre run out of breath quite early. The show was straight, hardly any gags. TANKARD focused on fast thrashers but all in all quite one dimensional. Surprised was only the camera woman, who was dragged on stage by Gerre. He drooled over her for a second and then introduced her as A Girl Called Cerveza. My expectations were different. This show could have been much better.
[Dajana] Well, that’s the disadvantage of “fun bands”. It’s entertaining 2 or 3 times then it runs out of steam.
[Sui] When the last accords of Empty Tankard echoed through the Amphitheater I arrived and got my first beer drawn. I would have loved to see YEAR OF THE GOAT and most of all SATAN, but I at least made it to the Teutonic veterans DESTRUCTION and SODOM.
Setlist: The Morning After, Fooled By Your Guts, Rapid Fire (A Tyrant's Elegy), Rules For Fools, R.I.B. (Rest In Beer), MetaltoMetal, Not One Day Dead (But One Day Mad), Chemical Invasion, A Girl Called Cerveza, Rectifier, Empty Tankard
[Psycho] I was looking forward to see :: DESTRUCTION ::. The trio announced to focus on the first records and promised even more surprises for the ROCK HARD FESTIVAL 2016 show. In the 80s DESTRUCTION were one of my favorite bands and definitely the best of the Teutonic 4. This I can’t say nowadays anymore. Even with their special set they could not conjure the old feeling. So, to me the highlight of the show was the Venom cover version Black Metal, sung together with Gerre from Tankard and Tom from Sodom. Another good idea was to include the former DESTRUCTION drummers, at the end playing on three drum kits. But what the hell had Andy Brings (former Sodom guitarist) to do their on stage? Nobody knows. Not even he does probably… Ambivalent show not even the butcher could save, once again suffering from a blurred sound. No wonder that the response was even bigger at the Tankard show.
[Dajana] I found the behavior of Andy Brings excruciatingly embarrassing. The way he ripped the shirt from his chest and has thrown it into the crowd while prompting the audience to celebrate him like a Pop star. What an ego trip! WTF?
[Sui] In the 80s the Ami bands were always one step ahead when it came to Thrash Metal. Over the years DESTRUCTION passed me without any deeper impression. So I had no expectations aside from an entertaining trip into German Thrash history. Entertaining it was, without a doubt. First, because of the chopper swinging mad butcher, who staggered every now and then through the set snarling. Second, because the played the songs even I knew from the ur-era. Though, the show rather went down lukewarm, mostly due to the sound. At a trio every instrument must be highly present but the bass I could rarely hear. Well, I’m still no DESTRUCTION fan but the show was surely not boring.
Setlist: Curse The Gods, Mad Butcher, Eternal Ban, Life Without Sense, Nailed To The Cross, Invincible Force, Antichrist (Tommy Sandmann on drums), Reject Emotions (Oliver Kaiser on drums), Sign Of Fear (Oliver Kaiser on drums), Tormentor, The Butcher Strikes Back, Second To None, Death Trap, Total Desaster (Andy Brings on 2nd guitar), Black Metal (Venom cover – Tom Angelripper/Gerre), Bestial Invasion
[Psycho] Considering all shows on this first festival day :: SODOM :: were definitely a deserved and eventually a superior headliner. Technically speaking, SODOM offered even the most differentiated song material of the present Teutonic 4. Wow! Who would have expected such development in the 80s? Furthermore, a formidable mosh pit established during the show, while most of the refrains got sung along full-throated by the fans. This one can consider as good entertainment. Besides, SODOM dug up former guitarist Grave Violator to play Blasphemer, without any embarrassing moments. All in all I expected worse (better said nothing) and got positively surprised.
[Dajana] Yes, exactly! I was more than positively surprised! I didn’t have SODOM on my bill! And they were great. Really great! Much more… seeing Tom Angelripper standing there playing bass and singing… I got much reminded of Motörhead’s Lemmy. Tom the new Lemmy! Who'd have thunk it? Indeed, SODOM was a worthy headliner of the first festival day!
[Sui] Also at the SODOM show the bass sounded quite weak-chested but besides, they were a deserved headliner and painted the Amphitheater red. Less see-saw changes on stage, except for the Grave Violator guest performance, but more varied and - to me - better songs than Destruction in return. For the fans it was a home run anyway, gleefully used by the band. Anno 2016 SODOM is still a force to reckon with.
Setlist: In War And Pieces, The Vice Of Killing, Outbreak Of Evil, Surfin' Bird/The Saw Is The Law, Nuclear Winter, M-16, Sacred Warpath, Proselytism Real, City Of God, Sodomy And Lust, Blasphemer (Grave Violator on 2nd guitar), Agent Orange, Stigmatized, Remember The Fallen // Ausgebombt
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