Venue: Messegelände Balingen, Germany      Date: 28th/29th June, 2002

Day One: Rival, Rhapsody, Jag Panzer, Bonfire, Titan Force, Gamma Ray, Fozzy, Nightwish, Saxon.

The Bang Your Head Festival is an annual event which takes place in Balingen, not very far south of Stuttgart in the west of Germany.  It is organised by the publishers of the German Metal Magazine 'Heavy Oder Was?' and primarily features older or more classic style metal bands.  It has a reputation for both an excellent lineup and a friendly atmosphere and so, after promising friends that I would attend for the last three years, I finally went along.

The Messegelände (exhibition site) where the festival took place was unfortunately not some peaceful, verdant meadow, but a functional site that was largely tarmac - and where there wasn't tarmac, there were irritating little stones which made sitting down an uncomfortable affair.  That aside, there were plenty of facilities on site, lots of bars, shops and a good variety of things to eat and all at relatively reasonable prices.

The site was close to the town centre and its hotels, to the campsites and also to various local supermarkets. Security was friendly and certainly not as heavy or as numerous as at UK festivals and it was quite easy to meet the musicians; either at the dedicated "signing sessions" or even just wandering around the Festival site.  Everyone was given a colour-coded strip which was fastened to your wrist - green indicated a two day pass, purple a musician/performer - and once you had your strip, you could go in and out of the site as you pleased...

Having stayed with friends outside Frankfurt the night before the festival, the 100 Km or so drive to Balingen turned out to take much longer than anticipated, and as a result we missed the performances of Rival, Rhapsody and Jag Panzer.  Opinions differed on Rhapsody's performance, but Jag Panzer seemed to have been appreciated by those I spoke to who saw their set.

Bonfire: Daytona Nights, Hot to Rock, Don't Touch The Light, Under Blue Skies, Sweet Obsession, Proud of my Country, drum solo, American Nights, Sweet Home Alabama, Strike Back, Ready for the Action.

On stage when we got inside was the German outfit Bonfire whose brand of 80's style hard rock went down very well with the crowd. With tunes like 'American Nights' and a heavy, speeded up version of 'Sweet Home Alabama', they did a good job of getting the crowd moving.

Titan Force (incomplete): Small Price to Pay, Lord of Desire, Chase Your Dreams, Winner/Loser, Fields of Valor, 2 tracks from their early demo CD, Shadow of a Promise, Master of Disguise, Blaze of Glory.

Announcements to the crowd indicated that Candlemass' kit was stuck at Frankfurt airport, so Titan Force (who were due to play a similar slot the following day) swapped places with them. Having reformed to play this festival, their material was played in an old style (early to mid 80s heavy metal) which is rather out of fashion these days.  A good portion of the crowd appreciated them, but I took the opportunity to explore the fantastic CD stalls on offer during their performance...

Gamma Ray: Rebellion in Dreamland / Dethrone Tyranny, Ride the Sky, Man on a Mission, New World Order, Land of the Free, Fire Below, Valley of the Kings, Eagle, Somewhere Out in Space, Rebellion in Dreamland (reprise).

The next band on the bill was supposed to be Overkill but, as their singer had fallen off stage in New York a few days earlier, the band were unable to attend.  This brought forward the show of Gamma Ray, who rather saved the day by extending their set and raising the crowd's sprits once again.  I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the band, but this is the second time in just over six months that I've caught them live and they are growing on me.  I had the chance to listen to 'No World Order' in the car on the way and I really rather liked it.  Their set was chock full of rockers and the sort of stirring anthems that soon had the crowd singing along and punching the air with their fists ... perfect festival fayre.

Fozzy: Stand Up and Shout (Dio), Eat the Rich (Motörhead), Balls to the Wall (Accept), Wrathchild (Iron Maiden), Crucify Yourself, Stay Hungry (Twisted Sister), Freewheel Burning (Judas Priest), TNT (AC/DC), Live Wire (Motley Crüe)

The following act was described as a "special event", but unfortunately it was anything but.  Fozzy are a cover band formed by the WWF wrestler Chris Jericho and a bunch of musicians with a decent pedigree. It is clearly something that is just fun for Chris Jericho, but unfortunately he is neither a good enough singer nor frontman to carry off an appearance in front of more than 15,000 fans.  It may work in smaller halls in the USA where he has a reputation, but it didn't work for me in this environment, although the majority of the crowd stood and watched.

Nightwish: Bless The Child, End of All Hope, Come Cover Me, Kinslayer, Dead To The World, Sacrament of Wilderness, Slaying The Dreamer, Beauty of The Beast, Wishmaster.
Encores: Sleeping Sun, Over The Hills and Far Away.

Once Fozzy had disappeared from view, the sense of anticipation in the crowd made it very clear that Nightwish was the band that most of the audience was there to see - including a very welcome large young female contingent.  The set was very much based around the new album, 'Century Child' - perhaps too much so, as the excellent opening numbers 'Bless the Child' and 'End of all Hope' received only a lukewarm response.  However, as singer Tarja Turunen introduced 'Come Cover Me' and 'Kinslayer', from the best selling 'Wishmaster' album, the crowd exploded into life.

The band's new bassist, Marco Hietala, introduced the next song 'Dead To the World' which is one in which he duets with Tarja.  The exchange of vocal parts sounded great, but once again there was a marked difference between the response to the new song and that which greeted 'Sacrament of Wilderness', from the 1998 album 'Oceanborn' - clearly a huge favourite with the German audience. Two further new songs followed: 'Slaying The Dreamer' and 'Beauty of the Beast', both introduced by Marco, whose vocals once again figure prominently, before Tarja introduced "the final song" 'Wishmaster' which was greeted by a huge cheer and during which the audience continued to sing and dance gleefully.

As the band were one step down from headlining the festival and they'd been on stage barely fifty minutes or so, an encore or two was inevitable.  They began with the beautiful, slow ballad 'Sleeping Sun' (a big hit in Germany) and then played "a song Gary Moore has done" - namely 'Over the Hills and Far Away' from their more recent EP of the same name.  A good set, but a little shorter than everyone wanted and one that suffered in places from poor sound, so overall I was a little disappointed.

Saxon: Prelude To War (Intro), Killing Ground, 747/Strangers In The Night, Dogs of War, In The Court of the Crimson King, Dallas 1 p.m., Backs To The Wall, Motorcycle Man, The Eagle Has Landed, Forever Free/Power And The Glory, Conquistadors/drum solo/Heavy Metal Thunder/Conquistadors (reprise), Strong Arm Of The Law, Princess Of The Night.
Encores 1): Crusader, Solid Ball Of Rock.  2): Wheels Of Steel.  3): Denim & Leather

Finally, youth gave way to old age and Saxon treated us to a monster set crammed with new songs as well as old classics.  It was a masterly mix of songs all compered with ease by Biff Byford who was one of only a few frontmen at the festival who appeared totally at ease with the huge stage and adoring crowd. Biff was the consummate showman and really worked the crowd, while his cohorts ran around the stage throwing every cliched pose in the book.

All this and the "classic" 'Eagle' stage-set too!  In fact the poor eagle looked like it was having its first run out since last year's Wacken Festival (for which it was brought out of storage) and as the 'Eagle' moved, you did at times feel rather worried for the safety of the guys on stage below it. Needless to say, it was glorious, over the top entertainment and the crowd lapped it up. It is not what I'd want to hear every night, but it was a perfect show for the festival environment. A great end to a good first day of the festival.

Day Two: SA Adams, Mago de Oz, Tankard, Vanden Plas, Shakra, Iron Saviour, Candlemass, Rawhead Rexx, Nevermore, Doro, Halford, Slayer

The second day of the festival also began very early in the morning and having caught the Shadowkeep/Falconer gig during the night; I didn't manage to reach the festival site in time to see the opening band. As I approached the site, the familiar sound of the opening track from Mago de Oz's 'Finisterre' album filled the air and I was able to see more or less all of the band's set.

Despite an on-stage time of 10:20, the Spanish band, featuring the full lineup of seven musicians, all wore huge smiles which were reciprocated by the smallish crowd who were there to see them. Flute, violins, keyboards and an assortment of guitars combine to produce a unique mix of heavy metal and Spanish folk music which always manages to convey a happy, "party" feel. Unfortunately they only had time to play five songs, three of which were from Finisterre, but their joyous performance certainly won some fans amongst the largely German audience.

The atmosphere was then rather decimated by the appearance of the dreadful German "alcoholic/thrash" band Tankard, whose lyrical subject matter pretty much centred on beer and drinking and oh, yeah, more beer. As if this was not bad enough, the singer, who was rather on the "heavy" side, had to be repeatedly assisted by one of the roadies as his track pants kept falling down!  Truly a sight and a sound I never want to hear again in my life!

Vanden Plas: Intro music, Push, Ionic Rain, Cold Wind, Healing Tree, Feed The Fire, Rainmaker.

Anyway, Tankard didn't manage to scare everyone away so there was still a fairly big crowd in attendance when Vanden Plas' intro music started up. One by one they appeared on stage - Andreas Lill on drums, Gunter Werno on keyboards, Stephan Lill on guitar, Torsten  Reichert on bass and finally singer Andy Kuntz. It was quite a surprise, but a welcome one, when they kicked off the set with 'Push'.  I'm personally digging the band's debut album 'Colour Temple' more and more by the day, and I don't recall having ever seen them play this before, so it was extra cool.

The response was warm, as was the crowd reaction to the following tune, 'Ionic Rain'.  It isn't my favourite track from the 'Far Off Grace' album, but it was very heavy and effective in getting the crowd moving.  Then they played a couple of tunes from their latest disk, 'Beyond Daylight', whose mellowness fitted perfectly with the time of day - 'Cold Wind' and 'Healing Tree' ... really excellent!

A further track from 'Beyond Daylight' followed, the energetic 'Free The Fire', which energised the crowd once again and everyone could see that the band members were thoroughly enjoying the occasion.  Stephan Lill wore a huge grin, and I've never seen the bassist Torsten so animated before, moving around all areas of the stage and really enjoying playing this vigorous tune.  However the clock was soon heading towards 12:20 and it was time for the final number, the old classic 'Rainmaker', from 'The God Thing'.

Although the clouds above darkened for a while, we only received a few spots of rain and the band finished their set to very warm applause. Though the crowd wasn't as big as for some of the larger acts, it was still a very respectable number, probably the largest audience that the band has ever played in front of, and they can feel very happy with the way they played. A very encouraging performance indeed.

The stage technicians wasted no time at all in moving in and taking away their equipment. Andreas's drumkit (on a platform with wheels) was withdrawn from stage and, as the technicians prepared to move a new set into place, some lucky (or not so lucky) members of the audience were greeted by the sight of Andreas mooning to the crowd. I guess that indicates that he had a good time!

Shakra (incomplete): PowerRide, Why Don't You Call Me, Watching You, Get It All Out, Don't Try To Call, She's My Pride, Nothing To Lose.

The following band were the Swiss outfit Shakra, who, rather like their countrymen Gotthard, play a very pleasant, melodic heavy rock with more than a touch of the 80s about them.  It was quality hard rock and, rather like Bonfire the day before, perfect for this time of day.

Candlemass: Gothic Stone / Well of Souls, Mirror Mirror, Samarithan, Under the Oak, Black Stone Wielder, At the Gallows End, Solitude, Crystal Ball.

Next up were Swedish, doom metal masters Candlemass. They had retrieved their equipment from customs and finally made it to the show but 2pm in the afternoon, with the sun shining brightly, wasn't really the perfect conditions for a band playing this sort of music.  With legendary vocalist Messiah Marcolin again fronting the band, they certainly drew a lot of old fans to the festival - and wearing what looked like a monk's outfit he had the crowd eating out of his hand.  Unfortunately I have to plead total ignorance of the band's material and as an introduction to them, it wasn't perfect. The music generally had a very slow tempo with massive heavy riffs topped off with Messiah's distinctive vocals. The dedicated fans though, assured me that it was a great performance.

Iron Saviour: Protector, Titans of Our Time, Coming Home, Iron Savior / Watcher in the Sky, Warrior, Mindfeeder, I've Been to Hell, Condition Red, Atlantis Falling.

Formed, like Gamma Ray, by an ex-guitarist of Helloween, Iron Saviour can easily be classified as just another German Helloween clone and frankly on this occasion, that is just how they sounded.  As the band also has an obsession for science fiction type material, I'd half-expected to get some enjoyment from this set, but once again it all began to sound incredibly "samey".

Rawhead Rexx: The Curse/Holy War, Town of Skulls, Don't Turn Me Down, Opposing Force, The Scream, Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath), Rawhead Rexx, On the Edge (Vicious Rumours), Abandoned (Vicious Rumours).

Another German band, and one who share the same label as Rhapsody. Personally I'd have like to have seen them swop places as I'm not too fond of this outfit and their performance did nothing to change my mind. There was the usual 100mph speed metal drumming, lots of posing and, despite the length of their set, they played one or maybe two Black Sabbath covers and then two Vicious Rumours tunes.  The reaction of the crowd only provided confirmation that these guys are indeed very popular in Germany.

Nevermore: The River Dragon has Come, This Sacrament, The Heart Collector, Narcosynthesis, Ophidian / Beyond Within, Engines of Hate, Sound of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel), Enemies of Reality (Testament cover), Dead Heart in a Dead World, Ride the Lightning (Metallica).

The Seattle outfit Nevermore are a band that I've been keen to see again since they played as part of the 'Metal Odyssey' at the Astoria in April 200.  On the festival stage they were rather hampered by a poor sound and singer Warrel Dane's exhortations to the crowd to first of all start a violent mosh-pit, and later on to invade the stage, seemed rather pathetic and out of place at what had been a good natured and friendly festival.

The set list concentrated very much on material from their latest album 'Dead Heart In A Dead World' and their version of 'Sound of Silence' would have had hard-core Simon and Garfunkel fans running for the hills.  They also threw in two aggressive covers of Testament and Metallica, revealing their thrash roots, and finished with thirty or forty members of the audience around them on the stage. A good band, but in this mood, really not my thing.

Doro:  Hellbound, Burning The Witches, I Rule The Ruins, Burn It Up, Metal Tango, Für Immer, Hellraiser, East Meets West, Fight, White Wedding, All We Are. (The order of songs might not be exactly correct)
Encores: Ich will Alles.

Doro was Doro, no more and no less - just perfect for this sort of occasion. The German 'Princess of Metal' spent almost the entire set standing on the ramp in front of the stage, practically surrounded by her fans and it was a case of total adulation. By opening her set with three Warlock tunes, she won the crowd over to her side (those who weren't already eating out of her hand), then glorious anthems like 'Für Immer', 'White Wedding' and a set closer of 'All We Are' just cranked up the crowd even more.  Although she is perhaps best known for her ballads, her set was filled with her harder rocking numbers and that, combined with her stage craft, contributed to one of the best performances of the day.  This was the second occasion that I'd seen her perform and while this is not normally the sort of music I'd listen to, I have to say that I enjoyed both her shows and applaud her as a great entertainer who never gives less than 100%.

Halford: Park Manor / Crucible, Painkiller, Freewheel Burning, Cyberworld, Exciter, Resurrection, Made in Hell, Betrayal, Golgotha, Handing Out Bullets, One Will, Hellion / Electric Eye.

As a huge fan of the classic period of Judas Priest, I was anticipating Halford's set to be one of the highlights of the weekend; but it was anything but. What a contrast between a consummate entertainer like Doro (or Biff Byford, the night before) and this.  The 'Metal God' gave the impression of being angry about something because he cut his set short by ten minutes or so and played just ten or so tunes with no encores or anything.

His band, which I last saw at the Mean Fiddler, in December 2000, were great. The guitar pairing of Mike 'Metal' Chlasciak and Patrick Lachman are one of the finest and heaviest in metal today, and his rhythm section are no slouches either. However the crowd was there to see Halford and they were very animated throughout the set, especially during the Judas Priest numbers like 'Exciter' and 'Painkiller'.

Unfortunately, Halford seemed reluctant to acknowledge the audience and either stood at the microphone to sing or in front of the drum kit with his back to the audience. During the final number he did finally venture on to the walkway into the crowd, but somehow he managed to pass the entire set without speaking a single word to the audience between songs.  A very bizarre and disappointing performance.

Slayer: Darkness of Christ / Disciple, War Ensemble, Stain of Mind, Dittohead, Postmortem, Raining Blood, Hell Awaits, Die By The Sword / Born of Fire, Bloodline, God Sent Death, Spirit in Black, Dead Skin Mask, Seasons in the Abyss, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warfare. Encores: South of Heaven, Angel of Death.

American thrash giants Slayer were the final act of the festival and they got the best that the facilities could offer: a huge crystal-clear sound and a fantastic light show.  They played a greatest hits sort of set and though they are not my sort of metal, I did recognise one or two tunes.  Really not my thing, but the fans loved it and they vindicated their position as headliners. I decided to save my ears from further aural punishment and returned to the hotel before the end of their set and, as a result, I missed a fantastic firework display which brought the festival to a fitting close...

Overall, it was a very good festival with a very relaxed atmosphere. Well recommended for the fan of more traditional heavy metal!

Charlie