Massacre/Sound Pollution MARIENBAD was a town in former Germany Sudetenland (now the Czech Republic) that was flooded in the sixties. All inhabitants were relocated, all but twelve that refused and preferred to stay and wait for death. Quite a cosy setting for an epic depressed doomy outing like this. Masterminded by EISREGEN personnel M. Roth…
The last day of the festival was nicely thought by the organisers. Only 3 bands on the main stage, with the last show ending at 9 PM so that everyone could get home in decent time and start the working week on Monday somewhat rested. We went there early to watch the performance of the…
Saturday at Tuska had the main stage reserved for more ’mellow’ music – at least if you consider all the thrash and death from the first day. The opener was Epica, Dutch symphonic/progressive metal led by a very charismatic Simone Simons surrounded by long hair tall Dutch men. With a bunch of nice keyboards and…
Helsinki’s ’pain’ festival as I was told the name translates into, goes all the way back to 1998 and has seen a yearly growth in the number of attendees and also the quality of bands that performed on its stages. The 2011 edition (22 – 24 July) was the first one held in a new…
Fastball/Sound Pollution HUMAN ZOO sure stands out. Not many hard rock bands employ a saxophone player these days, or ever before. The band history starts in 2004 and comprises two previous albums, their debut “Precious Time” (2006) and the follow-up “Over the Horizon” (2007). The basic formula is simple but seemingly secure: They go for…
Massacre/Sound Pollution Brian O´Connor (ex. VICIUOS RUMORS) on vocals, Ira Black (ex. VICIOUS RUMORS, LIZZY BORDEN, METAL CHURCH) on guitars, plus Fabian Schwarz and Guenter Auschrat, guitars and bass respectively, from THE NEW BLACK, this looks very interesting! Their collective experience can hardly be measured, and there is so much routine. Heavy power-tech-thrash is their…
Lion Music/Leading Digital Platforms ARACHNES are part of Lion Music´s new digital venture. The band hails from Italy and is based around vocalist Enzo Caruso and his guitar playing brother Frank (STRINGS 24). They list influences from a wide scope, denoting DEEP PUROPLE and QUEEN via YES, ELP, as well as MILES DAVIS and classical…
The second high voltage festival took place on 23rd and 24th July 2011. The line-up was superb – some really top bands on the bill including Judas Priest, Slash, Thin Lizzy, Queensryche, Dream Theatre, Jethro Tull and many more. The location for the festival was once again Victoria Park in London – a large park…
A few years ago, Thin Lizzy weren’t at the top of their game. The new lineup however, with Ricky Warwick as their frontman is back on form and today they make things look easy as they put in an excellent performance packed with classic hits including ”Jailbreak”, ”Whiskey in the jar”, ”The Boys are back…
Thunder were probably one of the most eagerly anticipated bands on the Sunday at High Voltage, and the size of crowd they drew supported that. This was a rare chance to see them live since the band ”quit” two years ago. The intro tape started (ACDC’s Thunderstruck) and the excitement built rapidly till they came…
Like Slash, Michael Schenker has played with several bands and also chooses to play a range of material, including songs from The Scorpions (Rock you like a hurricane & Another piece of meat) and UFO (Rock Bottom & Doctor Doctor). For his set at High Voltage Michael Schenker has brought a few guests with him….
Kicking off with ”Living in the past” I was impressed by the sound – it was the clearest sound I’d heard all weekend. Either the prog stage had better sound than the other two stages all weekend or they’d got it right for Jethro Tull, but either way this was great news. ”Living in the…