There is just so much tradition concerning the HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR for me so as usual I couldn’t take part in the warm up show on Thursday (teaching wicked pupils their lessons instead). This year it was even less acceptable as the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary with a full third day this time. So I missed bands like WOLF or GRIM REAPER. The latter obviously did a much better show than at the Wacken Open Air a couple of years ago so Mr. Grimmet celebrated together with the fans and loads of beer that day (great band for festival promoters as they leave most of their earned money at the festival site). 2007 saw another change in terms of organisation as the stage was pulled back a couple of metres and the garden was closed for the public. Instead there was another meadow open for camping and the Metal Market took place at one of the campgrounds. The old solution was more “cult” but this way everything makes a lot more sense. Anything else? Oh, yes, the bands! As far as I remember there was some music there, too. The first band I was able to watch was RAVEN BLACK NIGHT from Australia. Never heard of ‘em before but I get the feeling that life (= METAL) passes me by unnoticed anyway. RAVEN BLACK NIGHT were sometimes doomy, sometimes thrashy and always to my liking. There were even slight Death Metal roots to be spotted. Good stage acting and a pretty amazing singer. I guess I’d like to have some of their stuff on CD as well. Up next was a completely useless Italian band called KALEDON. Melodic European Speed Metal. There are (or rather were?) some good bands of this genre but millions of mediocre nerve wrecking annoyances like these guys. Although I definitely didn’t need a break that early I joined most of the crowd and got hold of my first beer that day. Greetings to the crazy VOICES reader I met that Friday and who entertained me quite a bit, by the way. US boys BEYOND FALLEN were a lot more interesting (I’ve got a hang of that rather complicated US Power Metal sound anyway). Of course it’s easier to follow the songs if you know the albums but at least for me that’s not really necessary. Finally, the guys put up a good show so they made quite a few new fans, I guess. PARAGON  from Hamburg kicked off with ‘Armies Of The Tyrant’. Heard it a million times, seen it a thousand times, and – honestly – it gets a little boring. Without bass player Jan the band looks more usual, too, even though their new guy did a good job. Time for beer #2. WARNING SF (San Francisco) were the next highlight. Featuring Jon Torres (ULYSSES SIREN) on guitar these guys play traditional US Heavy Metal in the vein of old SAVATAGE. Actually, their cover version of ‘City Beneath The Surface’ caused my first fanatic worshipping at the HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR 2007. Their own songs earn to be mentioned, too, though, as they offer quite a broad variety of song writing. Quite a charismatic singer on top of that. Brilliant! Somehow I wasn’t really prepared for VENGEANCE. Too melodic for my taste at that point. Singer Leon Geowie proved to be a true oldschool entertainer, though, always flirting with the ladies in the audience. The band received quite good fan reactions and for ‘Arabia’ even I shook my little arse a bit. I never had any interest in SINNER (who were said to have received some of the best responses of the festival, though) so I took a little nap in the car, always a little afraid I might miss mighty HALLOWEEN (not the German WEENIES but the good ones from Detroit) but just in time I woke up screaming and crawled back to the altar. For their second time in Germany they hadn’t brought along any of their graveyard fences and stuff (would have been a slight space problem on the rather small stage anyway). Singer Brian Thomas surely can’t compete with the big voices of Heavy Metal but he compensates this with loads of mere presence. Somehow I always get into a stage of trance or whatever when seeing HALLOWEEN live and can’t recall much of the song titles (luckily Brian left me the set list for a copy with my camera earlier that day). But who cares? This is the stage I want to be in at least once each festival. Few bands can deliver. The equally fanatic crowd didn’t stop screaming for encores so despite of the curfew HALLOWEEN came back two more times. If you’re from Europe and you haven’t seen HALLOWEEN live yet there is another chance at the Keep It True Festival in April 2008, by the way. Of course I had left my HALLOWEEN CDs with me for the festival which turned out to be my personal rock bottom for the journey home. The next morning saw DECEPTIVE SILENCE from Germany opening the last day of the festival. They had been “praised” to me as a talentless Hardcore band so I was pretty surprised to hear their heavy doom riffs and a capable singer who managed almost everything from clean to growls or screams. That’s the way I like my start into the day. Recommended! I didn’t like KNIGHT ERRANT from Turkey very much. Compared with SKYCLAD because of their violinist they never reached the quality of the British drunkards. The songs sounded very much alike (no Turkish folklore recognisable for me but Power Metal instead) and their singer has no charisma at all. His pushing up the crowd seemed rather silly to me but on the other hand quite a few people seemed to like their stuff. Not my cup of tea. It’s amazing how the HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR promoters always manage to find yet another entertaining NWOBHM band! HOLLOW GROUND naturally didn’t reinvent the steel but who would have expected that anyway? What I find really thrilling about those old British bands is that they usually give shows to remember. HOLLOW GROUND’s singer put so much heart into his job it made me wonder why these guys didn’t make it in the 80s but maybe there were just too many of those bands? Anyway, people kept singing along so with a little bit of luck we might see these guys again on stage. I’ve got to try to get a hold of one of their vinyls in the meantime. The next band to make people run back to the tents or fetch another beer was yet another Italian combo called THE BLACK. Their music was quite okay for my taste (loads of BLACK SABBATH) but the squeaking singer royally got on my nerves and it seemed as if the band took half of their set’s time for tuning the guitar. Public rehearsal or what? Bay Area thrashers TAUNTED therefore had no problem of raising the spirits again. Complex, fast and pretty brutal for their style. Time for breaking your goddamn neck! Terribly congenial guys and fans just like you and me. A second guitar might improve their live sound but this was already impressive. ‘The Red Death’ kept stuck in my ears for quite a few days. It’s a shame I never heard of these guys before but I’m a moron anyway, right? There had been rumours that AVENGER wouldn’t be allowed to play any old songs because their thrown out guitarist owns those. Luckily, this wasn’t true or they didn’t care very much as many of the old farts among the crowd sang along quite a bit. Ian Swift proved my theory once again that British singers definitely rock when he jumped off the stage in order to join the fans which bestowed the band some of the most positive reactions that day. Clothed in spikes, chains and leather the Swedes BULLET drew nearly everybody to the festival site. 80s posing and a sound which reminds me a lot of AC/DC or KROKUS seemed to be the right thing for a perfect Metal party. It’s quite hard not to spill your beer when shaking your fist and banging your head but miraculously most people managed. Up next was a band I had been looking forward to see as Bill Peters’ Auburn Records from Cleveland always comes up with extremely high quality: WRETCH. Front beast Colin Watson is broader than tall but has an almost frightening stage presence and one of the best Power Metal voices if you ask me: rough but melodic and passionate. Simply draws all the attention towards him. Of course my favourites ‘Reborn’ and ‘Eyes Of Fate’ were played as well as a new song called ‘Make This Garden Burn’ exclusively written for the ‘biggest Metal barbecue’ in the world, namely the HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR. Of course organisers Thomas and Jürgen were summoned upon the stage for this one. Nice idea. Consequently, they sold loads of merchandise which Bill Peters sold for an extremely fair price. But that’s him (always keeping up METAL). Some people claim the HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR is going down the drain booking bands like MOONSORROW. I don’t give a fiddler’s fart even though I’m pretty much a drawer kind of guy. I might like ‘em at a festival like the PARTY.SAN but among all those classic bands I don’t. Well, the fans loved them and I took a well-earned break to be ready for mighty CANDLEMASS. I had expected a lot because I’m a big SOLITDE AETURNUS fan as well so I was looking forward to seeing Texan Robert Lowe performing with the Swedish masters. The band seemed extremely enthusiastic and played their set with all their heart and soul and Mr Lowe’s voice fitted very well indeed. His stage acting is completely different from Messiah Marcolin’s, though (who would have expected him to change and become a copycat anyway?). His slow, majestic gestures and his rolling eyes perfectly fitted the slower tracks but for the fast parts I missed the black whirlwind a little (esp. ‘Mirror Mirror’). Still, this is probably the best solution for both the bands as well as for the fans. The set list finally drove all the disciples of doom over the edge (see below). This caused fanatic shoutings for encores, of course. The time passed by as if in just a moment before RAGE took care of the stage. Of course there had been rumours they would play old songs, some people were even joking they’d play AVENGER songs because of the British AVENGER performing a couple of hours earlier. Those who ever went to a RAGE show know that Peavy confuses old with tracks from the late 90s, though. I like his voice and songs like ‘Black In Mind’ but this always leaves a certain aftertaste. Okay for me, cool for countless younger fans but I was there for “cult” bands like HALLOWEEN or CANDLEMASS and for the festival’s unique atmosphere every oldschool lunatic should experience if there is the chance to. See you there next year! (Already confirmed for 2008: ABANDONED, ANCESTRAL, SEASONS OF THE WOLF (yess!) and SUPREMACY)

www.headbangers-open-air.de

Ramon Claassen

Back