I promised myself to write a short live report of the two festivals I gave a visit in just one week. Both festivals took place in the notorious German Ruhrpott.
The 1st festival I visited was Heavy Metal Attack that took place at the Don't Panic in Essen on April 30th. The 2nd was Gladbeck Open Air, that took place on May 4th 2024 in Gladbeck. Two festivals in just one week and both in Germany, but It’s always fun. Drinking, eating good traditional German food and meeting friends and watching metallic bands. What else does a headbanger needs in life? The first band in Essen was a young band in the name Reactorblast. The band came from Germany and played a sloppy set of Motorhead / Sodom driven Thrash Metal. Very enjoyable but nothing special either. The 2nd band came also from Germany, but from the far east. The band was called Sintage and they played a great set of classic Heavy Metal with a lot of melodies. Keep an eye on this band, they have absolutely the potential to breakthrough. After some drinks and chats, it was time for the Mexican Speed Metallers in the name of Black Mask. This Is a female fronted Speed Metal band in the style of early Warlock and Acid. I really loved them. The music was fast, the vocals were similar to Doro from Warlock and Kate from Acid and the stage performance topped it off. More beers and chats followed till Acero Letal from Chile kicked of with their exotic Speed Heavy Metal with Spanish lyrics. Very strong band with well talented musicians and great song writing. The fans enjoyed and banged their heads off, so did I. After a merchandise stop and short chat Iron Kobra from Gelsenkirchen, Germany kicked off. Iron Kobra was the only local band tonight and I saw them plenty of times through the years. Iron Kobra do not play that often these days, So I was really happy to see them live again. This because Iron Kobra is always a lot of fun! Catchy, simple but straight in to your face Heavy Metal with great typical Metal anthems like: Valhalla Rock, Speedbiker, Heavy Metal Generation and many more. This to top this heavy metal evening off with a German Punk cover from the band Canal Terror, with the song Staatsfeind, where some local metalpunks joined the stage to sing along with the band. All in all a great night of headbanging madness! Few days to recover to drive back to Germany with my friend Ed. After a nice diner with our Belgian friends Kate and Peter in a restaurant and a good night of sleep it was time to bring the festival a visit. Gladbeck Open Air is a nice small open air festival with a nice line up for old school Metal fans like myself. I missed the first German band HateDotCom through talking and socializing but was front row when the local Thrashers Delirious kicked off with their Bay Area influenced Thrash Metal sound. Delirious is a very good band that started back in the year 1990. The band is tight and their singer has a great variated vocal reach. Good band to open the day for me! Sadly enough I also missed the Canadian Heavy Metal band Thunderor, which were very good it seems. So many familiar faces and old friends! That’s why I also skipped half of the Teutonic Slaughter and Witching Hour sets. I had seen this bands before and besides socializing, I also needed a break for diner. The diner we did at a Turkish restaurant in the area with some Dutch friends. To return back on time to see the German Teutonic Speed Metal legends Warrant. Warrant is a classic band from the 80’s that comes from Dusseldorf. And what to say, this old school Metalband nailed the place with a setlist full of classics. Think about songs like: Ready To Command, Torture in the Tower, The Rack, Nuns Have No Fun, The Enforcer and more. The field wasn’t full, this because the weather wasn’t that good, but me and some headbangers fully enjoyed their setlist. A cold drink and some stress, because of the very bad weather that was coming up. Till our Belgian friends from Kate’s Acid kicked off. Kate’s Acid is Kate from the classic 80’s Metal band Acid together with some well talented musicians. As always I really enjoyed the set list of old school Acid tunes from the eighties, think about Hell on Wheels, Acid, Hooked On Metal, Bottoms Up, Black Car, Max Overload, this all among others. This all together with an energetic live show with still the great remarkable voice of Kate. This night of rainy heavy metal madness couldn’t go wrong. After Kate’s Acid, there was also Angel Witch from England on the bill (which I sadly missed), but the heavy rain and tiredness made us decide to go back to our hotel to take a good rest for our big journey from north to south the next day. Thank you Ed Stegeman and all other friends for the good times. It was a lot of fun!
-Patchman Marco-
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