Sunday May 31

The third and last day of the festival is opened by a very young band named Tracedawn. These Finnish guys are a fresh and happy looking group that plays music somewhere along the lines of last night’s headliner Children of Bodom, but I also hear influences from bands such as Scar Symmetry and Wintersun. Although the vocals are mainly clean and crisp, we also hear the occasional grunt. When they kick off their show these guys look a little nervous and lost, vocalist Antti Lappalainen tells us this is their first show ever abroad! It must be quite an experience for the band to play for such a large crowd here today. Although the amphitheatre is relatively empty to start with, a few minutes into the show people start emerging from all corners to check out the band. Tracedawn is warming up nicely and they manage to give away an entertaining show. Although it is apparent that they need to work on a couple of things here and there, I am quite impressed by their performance. The set consists mainly of songs off their debut album, and I suspect they also played a couple of new tracks. They presented themselves in a relatively professional manner and musically they sounded pretty tight. Well done.

All the way from Greece, it is now time for Firewind. The band consists of five members, each of which with an impressive resume. The most distinguished personality in this band has to be guitarist Gus G, whom we know from Dream Evil and Mystic Prophecy, among others. In 2008, Firewind released a top act album entitled ‘The Premonition’, it was riddled with fast guitar riffs, high-pitched keyboards, pumping bass lines and rhythmical double bass drum work. Right from the start of their performance there’s a large number of fans present in the amphitheatre. Firewind starts off with “Head Up High” followed by “Destination Forever”, “Angels Forgive me”, “Mercenary Man” and “days Of No Trust”. The band is in top shape today, especially singer Apollo Papathanasio who kicks ass with his powerful and melodic vocals. As always, the lead role can be attributed to Gus G who impresses us with many beautiful guitar solos. The set is concluded with “I Am The Anger”, a cover version of the classic Flashdance track “Maniac”(Michael Sembello) and an excellent rendition of “Falling To Pieces”.

Two years ago when the Swedish band Bullet served as the opening act of the Rockhard festival, we missed their performance completely. Today we got to enjoy their relatively simple but catchy music. Last year Bullet released the album ‘Bite The Bullet’ and it’s quite evident that, during the writing process of this album, these guys were more than a little inspired by the works of AC/DC and Accept. Today they start out by playing the catchy tunes “Pay The Price”, “Rock Us Tonight”, “Dusk Till Dawn” and “Bite The Bullet” off their most recent album. The band’s enthusiasm catches on, even festival chief Götz Kühnemund can be seen rocking out and singing along. We are entertained with the songs “Heading For The Top”, “One Deal With The Devil” and “Turn It Up Loud” among others. It feels like we’ve been warped 25 years back in time. The Bullet songs have an authentic sound to them and the band’s presentation and outfits contribute to the Atmosphere. Although Bullet won’t win first prize for originality any time soon, they managed to put on an honest and entertaining show here today. After about 35 minutes their set is ended with an encore in the shape of the songs “Roadking” and “Bang Your Head”.

The guys from D.A.D. have been around for several decades, they once started their carreer with the name Disneyland After Dark… Truthfully, I had never heard of this band before. Shame on me! I am glad to see the men at work today. I soon realize this is going to be a show I won’t forget. These middle-aged guys really stick out due to their ludicrous outfits and I must say that the younger bands out there have nothing on them, musically. The D.A.D. performance is energetic and amusing with lots of funny capers going on. During the set, a number of magnificently ridiculous bass guitars are presented: Bassplayer Stig Pederson handles a different bassguitar for every song, for instance a rocket-shaped bass. Really cool stuff! There’s also quite a bit of pyrotechnics going on on stage. We hear “Riskin It All”, “Beautiful Together”, “Jihad” and “Rim Of Hell”. These guys have us wrapped around their little fingers. They continue their fun-filled show with “Everything Glows”, “Reconstrucdead” and “Bad Crazyness” Everyone present is simply having a party, I think D.A.D. could easily have filled a spot higher up on today’s bill. As a grand finale they play their hitsong “Sleeping My Day Away” off the 1989 album ‘No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims’ and the titletrack of the 2008 D.A.D. album ‘Monster Philosophy’. This was a highly enjoyable, happy-go-lucky performance.

This is a great day for me as many of my favorite bands are scheduled to play. Next up is Heathen and I am looking forward to their show. This band was formed way back and like many bands from the renowned Bay Area in San Francisco right now, they are set to release a new album somewhere in the near future, much to my pleasure. Super friendly vocalist David White and his men kick off with the song “Mercy Is No Virtue”, followed by their classic “Goblin’s Blade”. We get to sample the new album when they play “Dying Season”. From where I’m standing it all sounds great. Guitarist Lee Altus (Exodus) fires one exquisite solo after the next at us. It is evident that Heathen has vowed to pick up right where they left off as they play with great vigor and enthusiasm. They continue their set with songs such as “Hypnotized” and “Opiate Of The Masses”. Real bay area thrash, just the way I like it. It’s down to the last two songs now, when they finish playing “Open The Grave” and “Death By Hanging” it’s all over.
 

We now get ready to watch the legendary UFO. This band experienced its peak in the mid-seventies when no-one less than Michael Schenker took care of the guitar duties in the band. In the past years his role has been taken on by virtuoso Vinnie Moore. Besides Vinnie, the band comprises of vocalist Phil Mogg, drummer Andy Parker and keyboardist Paul Raymond. UFO launches into their set with the hits “Mother Mary” and “Long Gone”. Still I find it kind of hard to stay focused on their typical American hardrock with a large dose of blues, ostentatious guitar playing and frantic keyboards, when they play “Daylight Goes To Town”. It’s not exactly a point of criticism as the band is performing well, but it all just becomes kind of mid-tempo from here and the band slightly starts to lose touch with the crowd. Still, it must be said that Phil Mogg is blessed with a fine set of vocal chords and he is able to use his voice in a variety of manners. Compliments to Vinnie Moore and his mesmerizing guitar playing, especially during “Saving Me” which was played live for the first time today. Halfway through the show we decide to take a stroll around the festival area. As we head off, we still mamage to catch the songs “Ain’t No Baby”, “Too Hot To Handle” and “Cherry”. We get our hands on a cool drink and from a distance we can hear “Only You Can Rock Me” and “Love To Love” among others. The UFO set is ended with a rather long rendition (almost 20 minutes) of the song “Rock Bottom”. To me this seemed quite unnecessary, I would have liked to have heard a couple of classics like “Lights Out” and “Doctor Doctor” instead.

For years I have been a great fan of Sacred Reich’s slightly oddball thrash with socially conscious messages. Just like myself, these gentlemen have been around for a while. Two years ago I was slightly disappointed by their performance at the Wacken festival, but now I’m stoked about their show today! Today’s setting is more intimate and I was told that Sacred Reich is in fine shape. A couple of Forbidden members have joined us to enjoy the show. The band gets started with “One Nation”, it sounds promising and the band is visibly happy to be here. They thrash on with “Independent”. It all sounds pretty good, there’s a lot of energy going on on stage and singer Phil Rind is having a good day vocally. We hear “Administrative Decisions” followed by a number of Sacred Reich hits such as “Love….Hate” and “Sacred Reich”. The band is ripping it up on stage and the crowd goes bananas, with crowd surfers all over the place. Sacred Reich is obviously enjoying every minute and they go on at a fast pace with “Crimes Against Humanity” and all-time Sacred Reich favorite “Who’s To Blame”. I can still sing along to all the lyrics and I do so together with thousands of other metalheads. What a great feeling. We listen to “Ignorance” and “Victom Of Demise”. We have a hunch of what is yet to come and when the Black Sabbath song “War Pigs” is announced, the whole amphitheatre goes crazy. For me and many others, this is THE show of this festival!! It is going to be hard to top this act. When they play “The American Way” and “Death Act”we are heading for the climax of this show. When the band leaves the stage, Forbidden’s Craig says he’s going out there to kick the guys back on stage so they can play “Surf Nicaragua”. Of course this is exactly what Sacred Reich intended to do, and so after a 20 second breather the men step back on stage to blow our minds with their most famous hit ever. This was an excellent, memorable show, I enjoyed it to the fullest and I wonder when ’ll see another band can come even close to what I’ve just experienced. To me, Sacred Reich is the top act of Rockhard 2009.
 

In order to fill the gap until tonight’s headliner is ready to take the stage, a short karaoke show is presented to us. I don’t really know what to make of it. It turns out that the contestants had better not quit their day jobs, resulting in many people sitting it out with their fingers in their ears. The supporting band Rokken is pretty good but apart from that, this just seems an a-melodic waste of time. A bit pointless, really and so we hope that they’ll just decide to give it a miss next year.

Although we’ve seen many great bands this weekend, we’re definitely looking forward to old school rockers Saxon. When we hear the first chords of “Battallions Of Steel” roll from the speakers I rush to find a nice spot at the front of the stage. These veterans know how it’s done and so everywhere I look the place is crammed with people. Many sunburnt and overheated metal heads muster up their last courage to rock out big time for one more hour. Saxon rolls on like a steam train and they play “Heavy Metal Thunder”. Biff is very talkative, there’s a lot of interaction between the band and the crowd. After playing the up-tempo song “Demon Sweeny Todd” it’s time for a number of classics such as the oldie “Strong Arm Of The Law”. Practically everyone here is singing along. We hear “Motorcycle Man”, the band is in excellent shape and I am pleased with the set list. When Saxon starts to play “The Power And The Glory” I see a smile appear on many faces. The Englishmen have obviously won over many hearts here in Germany, even though they play here on a yearly basis the Germans just can’t seem to get enough. The set is continued with “Dallas 1 PM” and “The Letter”. It is now time for something a little more relaxed and they play the beautiful “Valley Of The Kings”. When we’ve all managed to catch our breath , Saxon launches into “20.000 Feet” and sends our spirits souring again. Then there’s that special moment for which the steel eagle is hoisted into the air: “The Eagle Has Landed”. Sublime!! But all good things have to come to an end and so Saxon leaves the stage after playing the magnificent songs “And The Bands Played On” and “Wheels Of Steel”. They re-emerge once to play three encores: “Live To Rock”, “Demin And Leather” and public favorite “Princess Of The Night”, after which they disappear into the night. This was a spectacular show and certainly a worthy headliner for the final day of Rockhard 2009. Just a small point of criticism: We were a bit disappointed about the fact that both “747, Strangers In The Night” and “Cusader” were excluded from this virtual greatest hits set. Oh well, that’s what you get when you have an abundance of great hits to choose from!

With Saxon, the Rockhard organization have once more managed to book an absolute class act, thus ending a phenomenal weekend. Just like every year we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The atmosphere on the festival grounds was fantastic, everyone was just so pleasant and nice. The security was very friendly and helpful and once again extremely professional when it came to handling all the crowd surfers. We were also blessed by the weather gods with ideal warm and sunny conditions. This is exactly how we like it during the festival season! This year’s line up was an extremely interesting one with top acts such as Sacred Reich, Forbidden, Children of Bodom, Heathen, Hail of Bullets, Dragonforce and Opeth. All facilities were taken care of, a big thumbs-up for the organization. Looking back on criticism of years in the past, the problem with the lack of toilets was taken care of and what’s more, they were kept nice and clean. Last of all, the sound was good throughout the whole festival and we know this is one hell of a job.

It has become a tradition for Rockhard main man Götz Kühnemund to thank the many volunteers for all their hard work and when he does so, we know it’s really over. It is obvious that Götz had a great time himself. We sincerely hope that next year there will be another edition of the Rockhard festival. We would like to take this opportunity once more to thank all those who made this fantastic festival possible. Thank you for you hospitality!! At this point there have not been any band-confirmations for a possible 2010 installment of the festival, but we sure hope to see you all again at Rockhard 2010!

(Talitha Martijn, Eugene Straver, Martina Schouten)


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