The first really good band of the day then took the stage. I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of TARANTULA from Portugal. Tarantula has been around for something like 20 years and they are presenting their 6th album titled "Dream Maker" (for those who don't know, their 2nd album, "Kingdom Of Lusitania", recorded in the 80's was a perfect German-metal album, recorded ages before all this recent German metal fever). They hit the stage running, and never stopped entertaining the crowd with their power attack, playing many great songs: "Face The Mirror", "Dream Maker", "Changes Coming", "Never Surrender"... Jorge Marques is an excellent vocalist and the guitar attack of Paulo Barros is something to watch. Their performance was well received by everyone there. Well worth seeing if you get the chance. GRASS from Spain was the next band. This is another band that I probably just don’t get. They only played for 40 minutes, so I was able to survive. Next was LACUNA COIL from Italy. Not my cup of tea, I guess, but they were a band that obviously had a lot of followers in the crowd. PYRAMID was next.

   

They come from Barcelona, Spain, and play a style of metal with many progressive touches. They have a good guitar player, but their show was boring, I almost fell asleep. KREATOR from Germany was the next band. Kreator is one of the most influential underground Metal bands of all time and they were one of the most powerful acts of the whole festival. I have to admit they are pretty good. They have a lot of energy on stage and good playing. Killer songs were featured on their set: "Tormentor", "Extreme Aggression", "Flag Of Hate" (cool!), "Servant In Heaven, King In Hell" (from their new CD titled "Violent Revolution", available in September), "Pleasure To Kill"... By the end of their show, Schmier (singer & bassist for DESTRUCTION) appeared on stage to sing the last song -"Tormentor"- together with Mille Petrozza and announced their upcoming tour (Sodom + Destruction + Kreator). Killer show!! I really liked them. Iron Savior was supposed to be next, but there were some "instrumental problems" and the orde r of appearance was changed. So after relaxing a few minutes SYMPHONY X from New Jersey took the stage. These guys were amazing, one of the best live bands that I've seen in months and I’m glad I saw them playing. They were all excellent musicians and had tons of stage presence. They played some excellent tracks from "V", "The Divine Wings Of Tragedy" and some from "Twilight In Olympus" like "Evolution", "Church Of The Machine", "Smoke And Mirrors", "The Eyes Of Medusa", "Of Sins And Shadows", "Candelight Fantasia"... The whole band was in great form. Drummer Jason Rullo played incredibly and especially Russel Allen impressed, he was headbanging, communicating with the fans and dancing silly on stage. Michael Romeo also did some impressive solos. The short instrumental parts were just beautiful. When Symphony X was done, the German onslaught continued with IRON SAVIOR. All I can say is Hell, Yeah!!

           

This show had a historical character as it was the last show Kai "God" Hansen played with the band. This was the third time that I saw them live. First time I saw them was when they supported Grave Digger and it blew me away. Same here. The band was really good, they were all very energetic. The only thing that sucked was the sound. Singer/guitarist Piet Sielck sounded fine on vocals and guitar. And the new guitar players -"Piesel" and ex-Grave Digger guitarist Uwe Lulis- did a good job (Yes, there were 4 guitars!!!) The set was a good mixture taken from their three albums: "I've Been To Hell", "Iron Savior", "Solar Wings" (with Kai doing the vocals), "Watcher In The Sky", "Riding On Fire", "Made Of Metal"... They didn't play a single weak song. Before Rhapsody, we were also in for a few surprises. Lars Ratz and Matthias Lange from METALIUM appeared on stage, announced their forthcoming video (it'll be released in October) and presented the next band to perform. So, to close this hot day, it was time for RHAPSODY. Their show was euphorically received by the fans. It was the third time that I saw them live, the sound was good as well as the keyboards and guitars but I have to admit Fabio's voice was VERY weak. This time I was a little bit disappointed with their show. The set list was consisting of lots of fast numbers ("Dawn Of Victory", "The Last Winged Unicorn", "Eternal Glory", "Warrior Of Ice" (only one song from "Legendary Tales", can you believe it?), "Riding The Winds Of Eternity", "Emerald Sword", "Symphony Of Enchanted Lands", "Holy Thunderforce"), a few midtempo songs ("Village Of Dwarves") and there was also a short drum solo by Alex Holzwart. Oh! and half of the things we heard were samplings... Well, maybe next time guys... So Friday ended up being a pretty good day. Kreator and Symphony X both dominated the stage and a number of good bands (Tarantula, Iron Savior...) also made it a very entertaining evening. The show ended after 3:40 AM and I immediately fell asleep.

       

FRIDAY - JULY 27TH

The first band I saw was DRAGON LORD from Navarra, Spain. I bought their first CD two years ago and I was very amazed the first time I heard it. They play a very German-inspired kind of metal influenced by 80's Metal. Their music is very good on a festival, because it is very easy to sing along with. Too bad their sound was very shitty and Samuel's voice wasn't in top form but I think their songs improved as the set went on, which I suppose is a good thing. This is another band to watch out for. Another band from Spain was next: ONASSIS’ DAY. I don't like them, as their music is much more in the "nu-metal" style. Fortunately, they didn't play long enough to bore me to death.

           

German Heavy Rockers AXXIS came next (thanks Gods :-) They had tons of stage presence. The singer is very good. Also the guitar player is great. The band puts on an excellent show, and are definitely worth seeing. This was one of the bands the crowd wanted to come back for an encore. It didn’t happen... Next up were the almighty KAMELOT, which recently released their fantastic new album "Karma" and was one of the most expected shows of the whole festival. Having never seen the band live I was very interested to see if they sound as good live as their CD's. I think it was too early (18:20) and a part of the audience was clearly not into the show yet. Anyway, what I saw on stage was some of the best playing that I witnessed all weekend. They graced us with great songs: "Forever", "The Shadow Of Uther", "The Spell", "Call Of The Sea", "Wings Of Despair", "The Fourth Legacy"... "Nights Of Arabia" was the last song. They brought out a female vocalist at this point, who did some vocals on this song.

           

There were some technical problems with Thom's guitar, but the rest of the band kept playing until it was fixed. Roy Khan was in top form. His voice was perfect (one of the best voices of the weekend) and the band was tight as hell. Yeah, I could have listened to them all day :-) and these guys were also fun to talk to. BLAZE was one of the most energetic bands of the weekend, running around the stage like maniacs. I saw Blaze recently as support act for Helloween, and the set-list was exactly the same: "Ghost In The Machine", "Identity", "Silicon Messiah", "Futureal", "Man On The Edge"... Blaze Bayley is a great showman and is all over the stage and always pointing at people in the crowd. Blaze has certainly learned a lot from his stint as Iron Maiden frontman. He kept spanking his ass throughout the whole show and he was jumping on the speakers. He was crazy, but everyone was loving it. He knows how to whip up a crowd no matter how big or small.

   

GRAVE DIGGER featured a strong metal attack. Great sound, great show and excellent mix of new and old classics: "Scotland United", "The Reaper", "The Dark Of The Sun", "Excalibur", "Circle Of Witches", "Symphony Of Death", "Lionheart", "Morgane Le Fay", "Knights Of The Cross", "Rebellion" and they ended the set with "Heavy Metal Breakdown". They were energetic and seemed to be having a great time. In my opinion, one of the best perfomances, along with Gamma Ray. What a great show it was! IN FLAMES from the cold Sweden was next with their Melodic Death Metal. Not exactly my kind of metal, but still pretty solid, played with a powerful vocalist. In fact, this guy was so powerful, you probably could have heard him without the microphone :-)

           

After In Flames, it was time for the German blond guitar-hero AXEL RUDI PELL This was his first perfomance in Spain and unfortunately he was dogged with technical difficulties throughout the set and this meant that there were a few gaps between some of the songs. However, the fans enjoyed every minute of the set, althought they only played a few songs: "Tear Down The Walls", "Carousel", "The Masquerade Ball", "Casbah", "Warrior"... among others. There was a fantastic keyboard and guitar duel and amazing guitar solos. Of course, Mike Terrana did an amazing drum solo as well. This man is God on drums! What an all-star band this is!!! And then, the band that the majority of people, including me, came here to see, namely GAMMA RAY. Everybody waited, while roadies set up the stage and hoisted Gamma Ray's "Powerplant" backdrop behind the drums. Finally, the gods took the stage. Unbelievable is the only word that I have on my mind. The Gamma-boys were even better than when I saw them back in 96'. Graced by a crystal clear sound, they opened with "Rebellion In Dreamland" and also threw in great anthems like "Land Of The Free", "Heaven Can Wait", "Man On A Mission", "Beyond The Black Hole", "Somewhere Out In Space", "Dream Healer", "Short As Hell"... I was having a lot of fun just like everybody else around me. There was a little trip back in time and when the first chords for "I Want Out"-"Future World" (medley) and "Ride The Sky" were heard the fans went completely nuts screaming and headbanging like they just ran away from some mental home :) They played a really good set, I do not know the exact length, but it was damn good! They didn't play any song from "Insanity And Genius" but they played one song from their upcoming album "No World Order" for the first time live, "Eagle", which sounded more awesome than words can possibly describe.