Saturday – May 22

The first band to play the festival today is the German power metal band Orden Ogan. When we arrive, the band is already halfway through the set. The songs we do hear are: the title track “Easton Hope“, off their most recent album, and “Welcome Liberty“. Then the Running Wild-like song “ We Are Pirates”. The last song has a little extra dimension to it; a lady dances on stage with a pirate flag. We are not overly impressed but it makes for a nice warming for the rest of this band-packed day. (Eugene Straver)

Second up are the English gentlemen from Evile.  This band can be regarded as one of the better thrash bands of the genre’s new generation. After releasing the extremely solid debut album ‘Enter The Grave’ in 2007, which was packed with Bay Area influenced thrash from distinguished bands like Exodus, Slayer and Testament, their next album ’Infected Nations’ (2009) was even more in your face!  The songs on this album sound a lot more mature and the album was received well by both fans and media. Then on October fifth, 2009 Evile bassist Mike Alexander suddenly passed away while then band was on tour in Sweden. It took Evile until December 2009 before they were ready to hit the stage again with newcomer Joel Graham who was burdened with the heavy task of replacing Mike. The band has had to come a long way but here they are today! The band kicks off with the songs “Infected Nation“ and “We Who Are About to Die“ followed by “Nosophoros“ in which countless riffs pass by at high speed. The band goes on with public favourite “Thrasher“ during which we see many crowd surfers flying over the barriers. The band seems to enjoy every minute on stage and the crowd clearly appreciates their music. All this results in a good old moshpit in front of the stage. The band is on a roll and during their 40 minute set, Evile doesn’t allow the audience to rest for a second. We hear songs like “Now Demolition“ and “Time No More“. The show is ended with the song “Enter the Grave“. This band from Huddersfield can look back on a great performance, despite of some technical problems. (Eugene Straver)

After enjoying Evile’s old school thrash, it’s time for the Italians who call themselves Bulldozer to entertain the crowd. This band has been around for a long time, Bulldozer has existed since the eighties. The band split up for a while in 1990, however, in 2008 they reformed and they made their comeback in 2009 with the album ‘Unexpected Fate’.  Musically, this band can be placed alongside Venom and Sodom, so we can expect raw thrash with blackmetal influences. The band puts on an entertaining show which contains a number of new songs from the 2009 album ‘Unexpected Fate’ like “Use Your Brain“, “Micro VIP“, “Bastards” and the album’s title track. They also play a bunch of classics off the first two albums. Their set is ended with the song “Cut-Throat“, from their 1985 cult debut album ‘The Day of Wrath’. Today, there are only two original Bulldozer band members left: singer Alberto Contini and guitarist Andy Panigada. Bassist Dario Carria who was one of the band’s co-founders, committed suicide in 1998. A detail worth mentioning is that the band will donate the entire fee for this show to UNICEF! Respect!! Unfortunately, Bulldozer did not succeed in drawing much of a crowd here today. Their sound was far from perfect and they still don’t seem to have a sizeable fanbase. Even so, they payed a good show and the fans that made it to the amphitheatre definitely got what they came for. (Eugene Straver)

The Danish band Artillery is working on its comeback. The band was founded in the early eighties and their debut album, entitled ‘Fear of Tomorrow’ dates from 1985. This is also the year that I saw this band play live for the first time at the legendary Scum club in Katwijk (The Netherlands). In the following years I didn’t really keep track of the band until they got back together at one point in 2007. They started performing again and played a number of festivals such as Wacken Open Air. Now, 25 years later I get to watch the band once again. These gentlemen have aged a lot and it shows. The band kicks off with “Rise Above It All”, off their most recent album ‘When Death Comes’ (2009). The band continues to play “The Challenge” and “When Death Comes”. I can tell that the band is enjoying the show, they are all smiles and full of energy. Their set also contains more recent material such as “10.000 Devils“, and oldies off their debut album “Into The Universe”. We hear “Upon The Universe I Crawl”, “Khomaniac” and the title track of the second Artillery album “Terror Squad”. Artillery managed to put on a convincing show with a set that was packed with old and new material. (Eugene Straver)

The legendary British rock band Raven was formed in 1975 by the brothers John Gallagher and Mark Gallagher. They recently completed their twelfth studio album which is entitled ‘Walk Through Fire’ and when they hit the stage here today, one thing becomes apparent: They still love to rock and run around like a bunch of young dogs. Nostalgia for many of us! Raven starts off with the classics “Take Control”, taken from the 1983 album ‘All For One’ and “Life At The Inferno” off ‘Wiped Out’ 1983. We hear another classic in the shape of “All For One”, the crowd is having fun and the band goes on with two new songs off the recent album ‘Walk Through Fire’: the title track and the song “Breaking You Down”. The energetic set these old rockers play for us is a pleasure to hear and behold, lots of banter on stage and they know just which buttons to push to drive the crowd crazy. The set is continued with “Speed Of The Reflex” and “Mind Over Metal”. The audience goes nuts and even the younger metalheads among us get pretty excited. We hear “On And On” and the final song “Break The Chain”. With this show, Raven has proved that the band is far from tired. Despite the fact that their glory days were in the eighties, this band still knows how to rock! (Martina Schouten)

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The Americans from Exhorder, have only made two albums: the 1990 ‘Slaughter In The Vatican’ and ‘The Law’ (1992). They say this band has influenced Pantera, who made  groovy thrash their trademark, and became huge because of it. Exhorder has never really made it big, but today many people have come  here especially to see this band play as it has been eighteen years since they performed in Europe. The band kicks off with the title songs of both their albums, and so we hear “Slaughter In The Vatican“ and “The Law”. A killer moshpit in front of the stage comes about almost instantly. The set consists of 50% of the thes songs on both the Exhorder albums. We hear songs such as “Homicide”, “Unforgiven”, “Legions of Death” and anthem “Exhorder“. They also play two medleys which contain the songs “The Tragic Period / Death in Vain / Soul Search Me” and “Incontinence / The Dirge“. Exhorder has one hour to show us what they’re made of and it’s over way to soon, with the song “Desecrator” the show is ended but the majority of the crowd disagrees. Unfortunately, today’s tight time schedule does not allow for an encore.. (Eugene Straver)

The German outfit Accept doesn’t need any introduction, this band started out at the onset of the German heavy metal era and this is not the first time that they perform here in Gelsenkirchen. The big difference with their performance here 2005, is that the band has a new singer and we are very curious to see how this man will do the job. The band opens with the classic song “Metal Heart” and we are quite surprised with the great voice of newcomer Mark Tornillo, who used to sing for the American band TT Quick. This man has a fair set of vocal cords and when the band goes on to play “Living For Tonight”, I’m sure of it: this man is a better vocalist than Udo!! After hearing the songs “Restless And Wild” and “Son Of A Bitch” I, am convinced that Accept sounds better than ever. The joined forces and good vibes make this show awesome.  The band rocks on with “London Leatherboys” and “The Abyss”. The crowd is very satisfied with the new presentation of this German band and the Amphitheatre is completely packed. These gentlemen play with the crowd and their faces are shining with joy. Other songs we hear are “Losers And Winners”, the new track “Teutonic Terror” and the classic “Breaker”. Their new singer has proven himself Accept-worthy today. He sings the like his life is depending on it, but without the pumping vain that Udo always used to have on his forehead. It seems that this man doesn’t even need to make an effort to sing, it comes naturally. After playing “Up To The Limit” and “I Am A Rebel” it is time for the mega classics “Balls To The Wall” and  “Princess Of The Dawn”. The German rockers end their show with public favourite “Fast As A Shark” after which we can only conclude that this was a brilliant performance! (Talitha Martijn)

Today’s headliner is another German band they go by the name Kreator! This is a home game for Mille and his band, so it’s no surprise that the amphitheatre is even more packed than it was during the Accept show. Kreator has been around for a good few years now and they form an extremely professional unit. The German thrash heroes kick off with the “Choir Of The Damned” intro and right from the start with the opener “The Pestilence” we hear a well-oiled machine at work. When they launch into the second song “Hordes Of Chaos” the crowd goes bananas in a large moshpit! The Amphitheatre is shaking on its foundations and the crowd is out of control. This is a superior performance. After the classic “Phobia” Mille and co. continue with “Enemy Of God “ and “Impossible Brutality”. The moshpit is seriously huge and everywhere you look, bodies are flying in the air. The crew are working hard to catch all the crowdsurfers. After “Endless Pain” we get to hear “Pleasure To Kill”. According to today’s schedule we are half way through the set at this point. Thankfully, there’s more to come because even after “Terrible Certainty” and public favourites “Extreme Aggression” and “Coma Of Souls” the metalheads are still screaming for more. The band is taking us on a journey through time, guiding us through the history of the band: The last five songs are the title tracks of the first five Kreator albums. We hear “Amok Run” and “The Patriarch” and the crowd goes wild on “Violent Revolution”. After “Demon Prince” the band disappears off stage only to return for the encore “When The Sun Burns Red”, and oldie “Flag Of Hate”.  The final song is the ripping “Tormentor”. This was a killer show, the sound was superb and the lightshow was impressive. We can conclude that Kreator was the rightful headliner today. This was a perfect ending of another great day. (Talitha Martijn)

The second Rock Hard day was very successful, with great music and even better weather with temperatures around 24 degrees. The bands rocked. Today was the day of the metal veterans with bands like Raven, Exhorder, Accept and Kreator whose performances were all greatly appreciated by the audience.

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