RockHard 2018, feat. Saxon, Overkill, Sodom
It’s been quite a while since I last did something more than just some one-day-fest with Stip and/or Daan. With Stip it was Bloodstock & Scotland in 2011, with Daan we had Graspop, some years ago. At my birthday I suggested I’d love to go on a road trip with Stip once more, as he’d been travelling with Daan on several occasions. Not that I wanted to see Manowar together
but still. I had been feeding them information about RockHard, as it’s one of my favorite festival grounds for quite some time. I know for sure it’s not only the line up they’re gonna love, it’s Gelsenkirchen as well, Veltins, the atmosphere, the cheery mood that usually surrounds this fest and… yeah what more do you need? The first bands were a bit of a letdown, but I kept positive: I have never seen Cirith Ungol and the return of Night Demon to the Amphitheater would wind me up. Forget about Diamond Head’s Sean Harris’ whine about Mecrappica, I just think. Oh, he’s no longer in the band? Ah, fine. End of October the second batch was announced, but also a fourth visitor: Saxon, Marduk, Tiamat, Uli Jon Roth doing Scorpions tribute, the return of Attic to the dome and… Wanda. She’d been fishing for a way to a foreign festival for a while, this suits her, I think. I wonder if my former colleague Sander and his lovely travelling companions would show up too. Third batch of bands brought Sodom, first show in the new line up, Armored Saint and a very special set by Overkill!! Would the tradition being broken [first band cool German, second band shit] for once? Time table said: YES! First band Dawn of Disease, second Attic!
We travel early and we tend to travel light. Uhm no, as I have so many denims now, I can choose so I choose 4: newie, Dutch, Neckwreckers and my ‘normal’one. I won’t bring in any beer as Stip is still totally off alcohol and to be honest, only good non-alcoholic beers are hardly sold in tin! At first I thought I wouldn’t even have space to bring in any beer at all, 4 people, four tents, four sleeping bags in a VW Golf Mk II diesel... But, as so often it didn’t turn out as planned: Daan had to work on Friday and Stip had an exam first!! By the time I got to know about this, there wasn’t any time left to get beer in cans anymore, but as Wanda hardly drinks alcohol, I wouldn’t need as much beer as that. I had brought my brother Theo’s old tent but it wasn’t so clear how to put it up, we got help (and beers) in seconds from our German neighbors Stef and Martin. Thanks a lot!! More help came, as I wandered to the metal bar and was pushed a plate of maccheroni and ham into my hands by Richard of Riff’s Merchandising! Whaoh, thanks, appreciated and needed! We got in time to see the metal bar being opened, but no metal karaoke this time, just a metal DJ. Wanda got me a RockHard shirt and I got her another one. Goddess of Desire claimed they had out-of-print-vintage shirts in big sizes, but I couldn’t find anything in 3XL as thank you to Martin for his help and beers… Soon I found the Brabo’s Tim, Eric and Maarten so no one needed to bring any fridges anymore
During the days it was pretty warm and dry, but as the festival is along a river and the open sky evaporates heat fast, it was pretty cold in the morning. We got excellent bread and coffee at the parking lot of the festival and we were nicely on time for the first band: Dawn of Disease. The sound is insanely good and the band has a sharp mix. The music is of course fast, vile old school death metal, so we enjoyed it greatly. Knife vs. Flesh early in the set, let the carnage begin. Not much of a pit going on, but hey, that’s Germany, if German deathheads don’t wanna pit, they don’t pit. A mass of headbangers is what the band got and that suited. I felt my knees prickle and got back to the tent for a sec to get sun tan lotion, so I missed the first Attic song. I should have known better, but only one song missed is small price for not getting sunburnt. The falsetto is awesome and the band has fun on stage, interaction between band members and fans, no matter in what combination, is cool to watch. I had not written anything yet, but of course Funeral in the Woods and The Headless Rider were played last. Add to that I met Nina and Michael again and I wouldn’t want to break the lovely conversation we had, so you’ll have to do with only two song titles of this great set. Of anything else but great was Dool today. The band clearly hasn’t the support they had in Munich (?) and the band sounds dull. I didn’t even make pictures, it was over before I really realized it WAS Dool. We roamed the venues again, hunting for patches, noting a very poor quality cod in disputable sauce… this is the first time in my five RockHards I’ve had bad food! Back to the Amphitheater for Diamond Head. The band was announced as in ‘Ulrich and Mustaine sure knew what they supported when they wore their shirts’ or some bull like that. At least their nowadays singer Rasmus Dom Anderson sound OK to me, but I don’t really like it. Never understood this band, I guess, we leave after two songs. Turned out, we also missed Tiamat do their special Clouds – Wildhoney set. Uhm, I am no lover of Tiamat whatsoever… we wanted to be near the front for MY band of the day: Sodom. Wanda had seen pictures of me in my Westwoudse AC/DC Fans shirt so she wanted an AC/DC shirt to this gig. I mailed her a picture of three random AC/DC shirts I own, but of course, she chose the one not on the picture: Highway to Hell. Haha, she wore the shirt the entire weekend
Seeing Angelripper do a sound check is fun. It seems he’s nervous, even though he’s played with Blackfire for quite some time before and he knows Tormentor is a great drummer. The band starts off with a wobbly version of My Atonement/Conqueror, but that feeling of wobbliness is gone after that. Here’s the entire set:
- My Atonement/Conqueror
- Sodomy and Lust
- Nuclear Winter (Angelripper: ‘hallo Heimat, Hallo Freunde, Hallo RockHard!’
)
- Outbreak of Evil (Blackfire already handing out guitar picks haha)
- Christ Passion (hey, there’s Stip, finally)
- The Saw is the Law (… and that’s Stip’s favorite Wodos song
)
- City of God
- Blasphemer
- One Step over the Line
- Agent Orange (OK, herrieman joins the pit and stays there *cool* )
- Strange Lost World
- Tired and Red
- Lifeline (a… cover… of… OK, I later read it was Sacrilege)
- Remember the Fallen (remember the documentary Lords of Depravity? So cool to see Blackfire freak out once more \m/ )
- Silence is Consent (indeed, this is a song of an album Sodom hasn’t played in years!)
- Ausgebombt / Bombenhagel
So, the Westfriesians unite under a clear sky, with huge grins, during Stip’s favorite thrash song (or something), band in blazing form, sound awesome, friends around (hey Marcel III-IV-V
) all expectations made true. The show was announced as the first gig of the 2018-and-beyond line up and the band did a great job. This is quite an opposite set list than, for instance, Eindhoven Metal Meeting or Into the Grave or that tour they did with Kreator and it proves the band does improve with a second guitarist. Not a hint of blame to anyone playing guitar in this band before, but this was one of the best Sodom shows I’ve seen over the years (minus the one lying drunk in the grass on D.O.A >< ) and we head out for a nightcap in the Biergarten. I changed between beer and water quite often; as I knew it would be a long weekend if I didn’t, so the last beer tasted just as good as the first. When I brought Wanda home on Monday, Bryan said of this show he’d enjoyed the livestream a lot. I hinted ‘see them yourself’ but he didn’t take the bait yet
He then said he might join me to PartySan, so who knows which band members we meet
Saturday started with a few ice cold HJs from Maarten, as he thought he’d brought too much beer for his own good. A breakfast with coffee after a few HJs is still a good idea, as it would take until half past noon to see the first band. We also walked to the car, a. to see if it still was there (not the normal parking spot, this area is secluded with a swinging pole. Uhm, place it near the industrial area / church area / garden with a tiny sign ‘to be towed away’ >< ) , b. to get rid of things I wouldn’t use again (one denim down, three to go
) and c. to keep walking to show the village, the grocery, the bank, the pizzeria and whatnot. Traitor opened the Saturday and I was eager for it. I had seen the logo and instantly thought ‘thrash!’ and that turned out true. The band clearly likes the adagio ‘hakkuh en saagguh’ or ‘from thick woods excellent planking’ (word joke of course
) and are energetic to begin with, a great drummer and a nice guitar split. A lot of headbanging, fistbanging and running on stage AND still be tight! That’s what I like about thrash: GO FOR IT! Mental note to self: Get the album Knee Deep in the Dead! With the annunciation of a guest a spontaneous 6 man pit starts, but I’m not sure who the guest was. Fun fact: there was an actual crowd surfer, as he literaaly surfed on a man planking! Most crowd surfers just want to be thrown over the little fence, but these men really added a new sight to a metal show.
Nocturnal Rites was also a band that I had not seen before. I must have misspelled something, as this band sounded completely different to the stuff I had heard on YT… way worse in a way. With a stand-still-performance, forgettable songs and a shallow sound I call this the most boring band in the world. Wanda, Stip and me chose to do the pizzeria a favor and got into the village. I wasn’t sure which band called The New Roses this would be, but as I was suddenly surrounded by tisted-up hairs, Aerosmith-like handkerchiefs and eyeliner I didn’t want to try it. I fucking hate glamrock, so the pizza was four times the better choice: in the shade, great coffee, good pizza and some Science of Stupid-like video on the huge TV screens next to us. Accidents on highways and kids with animals, strange combination but it worked for us. On the way home I spotted my beloved XG-30-Nocturnal Rites (coincidence, I just saw that
) and knew: she’s safe there. German industry is brought to a standstill in the Easter and Pinse weekends, no one will tow my beloved VW Golf Mk II away this time. Of Leatherwolf I have no idea and haven’t checked it before, so be it. We wanted to see Cirith Ungol, as Bryan totally freaks out on their old material and even wanted some stuff signed by the band. Wanda ‘just forgot’ to bring the vinyls to Gelsenkirchen, they would have molten instantly… But I can’t get it and so doesn’t Wanda nor Stip… the mix of the band is terrible, one guitar too loud and one too low and a singer that does his one trick forced like an atom bomb through a sphincter… ouch. Even though the band is hailed on RockHard as ‘inspiring to so many bands’ and ‘anyone seen this on Keep it True?’ we just didn’t like it. At all. We chose to get in line for the Overkill signing session, but when we finally got to the booth the signing session was over?? I had bought a copy of Live in Overhausen but Bobby Blitz was the only one that was still present. And there were some 100 Skullcrushers still waiting! Including Torty and Sandra, some Scottish Overkill freak called Marvin and more… I had met a few Skullcrushers the day before and asked ‘what to do for some Skullcrusher patches, to be sent all over the world to my friends that adore Overkill’ but got vague answers like ‘ask the president of the fan club’ and ‘not every hobo is worthy of being a Skullcrusher’. I said ‘what about Neckwrecker patches sets that Skullcrushers refuse to use?’ and nearly got into a fight as ‘you only wear your Dutch thingie’. Pfff, get lost dude; some of those club people need to stop being such motocycle gang pussies with their way too serious patches, stupid rules and tunnel visions. I know of at least one set of Neckwreckers patches set that someone REFUSES to use, much to dismay and anger to Stach, so get over your own huge shadow and do what you should have done at first. Thorsten later said he would inform if those Neckwreckers patches are still unused and get them to me.
During the wait for the Overkill signing session Marduk was setting stage. No need to think again, as they start off with Panzer Division Marduk and make the Amphitheater tremble on its hinges. Marduk is on the hunt, new Marduk live classic Werwolf early in the set, full power ahead, all guns well oiled and in for the kill. I haven’t seen the entire set, as I wasn’t in for Axel Rudi Pell much and wanted to bring my new CD to the tent. OK, it carries only one Overkill signature, but that can be solved the next Overkill show. I did see about a song and a half of said Axel Rudi Pell, but apart from one picture I have no recollection. People aren’t ‘only’ divided into Pell-lovers and Pell-haters
. I could be found in the Biergarten with the Dutchies, shopping with Wanda or drinking with any of the many friends I have in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands present.
Overkill was headliner of the Saturday. The band got a 90 minute set to play Horroscope and Feel the Fire set integrally. The Amphitheater was shivering with excitement; every one of the 8,000 present wore at least one Overkill patch, patch set, shirt or whatnot and could hardly wait. I had totally forgotten which parts I’d know best, but I was helped instantly: some gorgeous chick magically pulled out a copy of Feel the Fire from somewhere warm and dark and I think I know all songs by now
Daan and Stip called the chanting of Rotten to the Core ‘Blubber in je kop’ but the overall feel was that of, cliché of course, an overkill. The band bashed in, even Derek was spotted with a grin on his face, Bobby running around, DD firing people up (some songs with a double neck bass
). Everybody around me seemed to have a different Overkill tune to freak out to, as Wanda totally lost it during Hammerhead and I lost it to Elimination… pity Derek’s guitar freaked out just in the first verse of Fuck You, otherwise this could have been a totally perfect show. The band got a huge pit in front of them, I think there were at least 250 to 300 people going nuts to each other and on the stairs everybody that didn’t take a zip banged their head. Zip, bang, zip, bang heh heh. Repeat with fist, zip, shout, zip, fist und so weiter
After Overkill finished, the Amphitheater and the Biergarten soon got empty, so we all headed towards the tents. Stip and Daan had still not put theirs on, so they suggested we’d kip in my tent as Stip and Daan got hers? Uhm, for an unexperienced camper that doesn’t sound stressless, better not. So we didn’t swap. The boys went to Stip’s Panda and we’d meet again in the morning. Pity some asshole vandals wanted to awake the entire camping by flipping over a full Dixi… in the toilets near the festival area there were some huge posters of shows/tours to come. Which hung in the men’s department: a huge Vixen one, all female present. I wrote on it ‘Don’t stare @ my dick’ much to the likings of my fellows excrementers
Breakfast was needed in double portions and a long day was awaiting us: Thundermother at noon, Memoriam, Night Demon, Coroner, Backyard Babies, Armored Saint and an extra-long Saxon set to be seen. But Wanda had checked out some bands so at least Thundermother (she hates the sound of high female vocals) and Backyard Babies (too Crüe for her) were scraped off that list. Walking to the stage I met Jonathan and Vincent of Carnation, they’re doing fine but wanted to have seen the entire festival
and of course: Memoriam! The band had an overwhelming sound, clear as Barbie in her collector box and soldier Ken is slaughtered for king and country. I soon found Iris and Bernd on their way to the first row
so here’s her set list:
- War Rages On
- Dronestrike V3
- Soulless Parasite
- Bleed the Same
- Resistance (K.I.L.L.L.L.L.L.E.D!!)
- No Known Grave
- Nothing Remains (dedicated to Karl’s mom but the set list said ‘ If Time????’)
- Flatline
This is clearly a band that’s got their eyes set on the future. They play their own material and no one complains about Bolt Thrower nor Benediction anymore. Good. OK, it is fun to hear for instance The IVth Crusade or I Bow to None, but we all still have Karl’s grin, Frank’s immortal bass lines, Scott’s razor riffs and Andrew’s poundhammer… I love all three bands mentioned but Memoriam seems to have the brightest future.
I got hailed by Claudia and Ursula, clearly on their way to the front of the stage for Night Demon. I like this band a lot on CD, have seen them twice, was happy with the shade near the stage and my company, but I had no real desire for the band live. OK that may sound double crossed, it’s true. I like their artwork and their CD but now I simply wasn’t ready for heavy metal. Could be the death metal of Memoriam of course
Night Demon played one new song, then Curse of the Damned and during the intro to Stranger in the Room I thought ‘oh no, the band is pissing off non-Night Demon fans already?’ as Jarvey called people not into heavy metal ‘Strangers in this room’ uhmm, OK, get out of here. Somehow the band let me down AND I thought it was OK this way. Weird. We went on merch hunt again, Wanda bought a new black denim but the sales man moaned about our Dutch cards? Do we really have to pay the € 20 Mastercard charges for use of their equipment? Per day? I thought ‘with € 45 for a denim the price is right’ and nearly left. He tried to correct himself seeing me hesitate, but as Wanda smiled and said ‘I might come back today’ his strange commercial hint was flamed out. Back to the tent to dump this denim. Of Uli Jon Roth I don’t say much. I am not familiar with his Scorpions-era music and I don’t like all the (too-) high vocals his band gives. Which metalhead is still waiting for a Hendrix cover, All Along the Watchtower is soooo overdone and Uli even plays a second Hendrix cover… time to eat. No need for cod, but pork or beef
When can you choose between a good conversation (Iris, Thorsten, Wanda) or Coroner? I never was a fan of this band and after my second encounter I still won’t support. Thus, I did a little bit of both. I kept talking to Iris and Thorsten and signaled them to the bar near the stage for a beer and two Coroner songs. Uhm, when such an experienced band sounds like medium-era Sodom and shitty-era Metallica in one song I definitely go. We went to the tent again, sprayed some sun tan lotion and relaxed… music coming from four sides but Armored Saint sounded best from those four. Even from this distance you can clearly hear the musicianship, the great mix and above all, John Bush’excellent voice and stamina. But indeed, it’s funny to hear Delirious Nomad combined with ancient U2, human interaction and Fear Factory from the other sides
Wanda surprised me again, as she bought me a special RockHard 2018 Saxon shirt (Thunderbolt cover)! What we didn’t know is that we bought each other 7 patches, most of them were similar.
I got her the special RockHard 2018 Overkill shirt (with the Horrorscope cover on it). We were in time to hear the last bit of the Saxon sound check, loud, pretty shrill but also full of longing. Saxon played RockHard at least three times and band and audience are in for a nearly two hour example of the ferocity AND the calmness of the band. And as the band uses AC/DC for an intro, I’m all over it as well. Here’s what I wrote:
- Dogs of War
- Thunderbolt
- Sacrifice (whoah, Biff sounds like in his best days, so clear and powerfull)
- The Secret of Flight (mhwhhmm, only one guitar good audible)
- Motorcycle Man (Biff gets the entire Amphitheater jumping \m/ ) )
- Strong Arm of the Law
- Battering Ram (with Biff calling his friend Klaus Meine for his birthday
)
- The Power and the Glory
- new song resembling Killed by Death a lot??)
- Denim and Leather (a denim is thrown onto stage, Biff checks it, turns it on and finishes the show with this denim. Probably some fan is hyper or pissed off now. I don’t know if he returned it
)
- Never Surrender
- Predator
- They Played Rock’n’Roll (Saxon’s ode to Motörhead)
- And the Band Played on (hinting towards their country- and genre-mates Judas Priest)
- 747 (Strangers in the Night)
- Crusader
- Princess of the Night (encore)
- Wheels of Steel
With a set list like this, I consider Saxon still a valid and powerful member of the heavy metal family. The band plays with feel, fire and has an excellent status amongst fans and other visitors. To me it’s like my feelings for Motörhead, I am not a huge fan, but I do own some material and my respect for what they’ve achieved is evident. The band also has quite a fuller Amphitheater in front of them than, say, Opeth last year… and must say it: much more fanatic audience than Opeth has had in years. It concurred to me that my previous editions of RockHard the Saturday still is fullest, but this year’s Sunday was by far the best attended RockHard Sunday in many years. I heard loads of people seeing this. Of course Saxon is no Opeth, Down, W.A.S.P (…), King Diamond or Bolt Thrower, but their headlining status is just. Would they have played Saturday and Overkill on Sunday, it would still have been fuller than during the 2011, 2013 and 2017 editions.
When the encore was near, we left to keep our easy pace going. Wanda had been suffering from some big blisters and walked most of the festival on beach slippers. Knowing the stony part of the camping, we moved out silently. Stip and Daan went home during Saxon, no tent seen
. We had fun. Not much fun was some noise deeper in the night, as there was no more RockHard security personnel left… turning over Dixis, Kliko’s and a few tables full of empty bottles was pure vandalism to us. Add the fact that the night cooled off so hard, we had our tents packed in before 6:30 AM, had a coffee and one bread and were in my VW Golf Mk II around 7:15. Bryan was highly surprised we were at his doorstep around 11, got more coffee and exchanged all stories. Bryan had seen the Tiamat- and Sodom-live streams and was all over it. He was surprised and not surprised we had nothing much with Cirith Ungol. But you can’t have it all, right? What we do know is that the three of us head out to Germany for PartySan. We might head back to RockHard. More live metal. More Westfriesians. But mostly more metal.
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