Rock Hard Festival 2010
May 21-23, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
By: Ingrid &Tabitha

Day one

Being the third year already that metal-exposure went to Rock Hard, we decided to go to the festival on thursday this year. As a result, we managed to see the opening band of the Rock Hard Festival for the first time. This great honour went to German band Ketzer. We usually don’t expect much from a first band, but Ketzer was actually pretty nice. Being the first band, they were the first to dedicate one of their songs to DIO, and were certainly not the last ones doing this. This German thrash metal band was definitely good band to get the party started
Second band was a bit of a weird band compared to what we are used to of Rock Hard festival, although we had already noticed that this year, the line up of the festival was much more varied than the last two years. We’ve gotten to know Rock Hard as a festival mostly consisting of the more old school hard rock and heavy metal. But this year, Rock Hard varied in their choice of metalgenres; very good development according to us!
So back to the second band, Necros Christos. The black metal band we wouldn’t have expected on Rock Hard, was nevertheless not less worthy. Unfortunately, although their sound was actually pretty good and we really liked it, the band itself looked a little bit dead on stage and was very introvert. It seemed that the Rock Hard audience themselves needed to get used to this as well, because their response was a bit weak. All in all: great music, awful performance.
Next up was Katatonia, a Swedish doom/progressive metal band. As the crowd in front of the stage grew larger, Katanonia treated us to their dark and sweeping music. There are two kinds of responses to this music, either boredom or entrancement. People who didn’t know the band mostly experienced the former, but for the fans, it was an absolutely captivating performance. Also, the guitar- and bassplayer were fascinatingly hot.
Then there was the power metal band Sabaton from Sweden. Of course their show was all about the new album ‘Coat of Arms’, and the title track of this album had to be played. It was a great performance. The bandmembers obviously were enjoying themselves on stage, and this energy lasted for the entire hour that they played. The audience obviously enjoyed the show.
If we hadn’t agreed to go to Rock Hard again on the trip back from the 2009 edition, Bloodbath would have gotten us here anyway. Because of their almost legendary show on Wacken, the expectations of this death metal band (again, from Sweden) Bloodbath were high. We had seen most of the members already in Katatonia, but they didn’t perform any less now. On this fourth Bloodbath show ever, frontman Michael Akerfeldt amused us with some witty remarks between (introducing himself as ‘Lars’), and awesome vocals during the songs. Bloodbath played a variety of songs from their albums, ending of course with the hit song Eaten. It was a great performance with lots of energy, but our expectations weren’t entirely met. The show was too short, and they should have been headliner.

Finishing band of the first day was the Dutch band The Devils Blood. We’ve seen this band a couple of times before but we never liked it. But this show was actually the first one of this band that at least could appreciated. The stage was decorated with lots of candles, and they brought a 3 man (women) choir with them. And though most of the audience left after Bloodbath, there were still some fans going as crazy as you can go to this music. And though they will never become one of our favourite bands, we have to confess that they gave a real strong, although way too long, performance.

Day two

First hangovers, first couples, second day. The band to start this day off was Orden Ogam. This local power metal band made swimming out of your tent worthwhile. With their energetic performance and catchy songs they entertained the hung-over audience. Some fireworks made it complete. Nice start!
Second band for us to see was Evile. At least, we tried. The weather was getting pretty hot at this point of the day so we collapsed at one of the steps of the Amphitheater and sat back doing absolutely nothing else but watching and sit still. Listening to some really nice and convincing thrash from the guys of Evile, we were wondering where the people running around in the circle pit with their plastic swords got the energy from.
Following on Evile was Bulldozer. This band has a real nice concept for their live shows since their singer was standing behind a pulpit, dressed up as a preacher. Unfortunately during the show he forgot his role a bit and grew apart from it, but the idea of it was really cool. After playing some song there was a small change in the line up and a song from the band Death Mechanism was played. Nice idea, but it didn’t really fit in. After some promotion for Unicef, the show was already finished.
Next band was Artillery. Not my kind of music, but the enthusiasm of the singer made it nice to watch. This lately reunited old school thrash metal band still knows how to rock the stage, especially the singer!
Another golden oldie played after Artillery. Now it was time for Accept to rock the stage. And though I’m not so familiar with their music I enjoyed their show a lot. With all their years of experiences about how to rock the stage they knew how to attract the audience. This showed in the fact that they had by far the most people watching up to this point of the festival. When they were finished the crowd didn’t stop screaming “Zugabe” until the band came back and gave us a little ‘encore’.
Last band for the day: Kreator. The Amphitheatre almost burst with the throngs of people who were watching Kreator. And rightfully so, because the show was awesome! They played classics like Pleasure to Kill and Flag of Hate, there were respectable moshpits and a decent amount of headbanging going on, and therefore the audience wouldn’t be content with less than three encores. After this, the crowd flocked to the party tent for some serious fun-having.

Third day

Third and last day of Rock Hard already. And though the mornings were a bit cloudy, which we are thankful for because we were able to catch some sleep this day, the days were becoming hotter!
First band we watched was Keep of Kalessin. We were standing right at the front, because this was the only spot where we could find some shadow. (but also because the bandmembers are so nice up close) Keep of Kalessin played a good show. After competing in the Norwegian songfestival we were afraid that the might have become a bit soft, but they still play the rough stuff on stage. Also the song Dragontower, the song from the songfestival, sounded a a lot better live. Though it’s catchy, it’s a good song. Probably because of the heat there weren’t much people watching the bands yet. Too bad, since it was a good show!
Next band was something completely different. Crashdiët is a glam-metal band from Sweden. Not the typical band for a festival like this, and that’s probably why this was their first show at a German festival ever. Nevertheless they had a good amount of fans waiting for them. The first couple of songs were nice to watch. I was observing their glammy outfits and looks. But after a while it became a bit boring. There wasn’t much energy in this band and lots of people dropped off after a while.
Another one of our great expectations for Rock Hard: Orphaned Land. These Israelis make wonderful and catchy music and would probably create a great party live. Their entrance was a bit sloppy though, and there were some technical difficulties, which caused long periods of awkward silence, although the audience was waiting patiently. This was probably because the singer (dressed up as Jesus, but definitely not him as the singer admits) made great contact with the audience. Their presentation was very nice, all of them being dressed up as a religious person that you can find in the Middle East. The drummer was fun to watch, obviously enjoying playing, and the guitarist Yossi had a really contagious grin on his face the entire time. They started of with Birth of The Three from their album Mabool, and after that two songs from the new album The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR. After a song from Mabool, finally my favourite Sapari started, but it wasn’t nearly as great as I imagined it would be. There was a bellydancer on stage, which was nice, but it would have been nicer if there had been a female vocalist. The songs were okay, Norra El Norra was really fun. All in all it was a nice show and the atmosphere was great, but the sound could have been better. Next time, ditch the belly dancer and bring a female singer or keyboardplayer.
Time for a band in the style of metal that is so well known to rock Hard, Virgin Steele. This band from the USA plays some nice heavy metal. First thing to notice for us was the singer seemed to be obsessed by touching his nipples. Putting this together with the fact that he wore tight leather pants we didn’t even have to wonder anymore how the hell he managed to sing all the high notes. All in all it was a nice show and more and more people showed up during it.
Looking cool with his sunglasses, the singer of the next band, Nevermore entered the stage. But after one headbang right at the start he lost them and the show started. For some reason he looked a bit uncomfortable at some moments. He even mixed up his own songs which made it a bit messy. But a bit messy or not, they gave us a great show and I think they had the most crowd of the entire festival!
Fore last band already; it was time for Sonata Arctica to play. It looked like some kind of an energy bomb had exploded on stage because this band has power! Tony ran from left to right and back again and even entertained us with some yodelling!! Back to normal singing he had some troubles with reaching the highest notes during the songs. Unfortunately they played mostly the newer songs and not much of their classics. The only one passing by was Full Moon. Absolutely great show!
Mambo Kurt got us through the long time it took to make the stage ready for the last performance. This was a combination of the German heavy metal band Rage, and a large orchestra called the Lingua Mortis Orchestra. This combination worked absolutely great, and the Amphitheatre was filled with people. We also did some crowd surfing during this show (respect for the security, who were nice but firm as always, and made sure we landed safely). The orchestra sounded great although you couldn’t always hear it very well. It kind off stole the attention from the band, but maybe that’s just because we don’t really like that kind of music. The drummer Andé Hilgers was very good and caught a lot of attention with his massive drum kit.
There, last band. Of course that didn’t mean that the party was over, because we went to the party tent (please, what’s the hell is up with those strippers?!) to enjoy our last way too expensive coctails and listen to power and heavy metal. It would be nice to have some more different styles of music in the party tent!
So, third time Rock Hard for us. The security was very good, as were the Johanniter who took care of the drunk and burned. The beer was drinkable, the facilities really good, as was the food, although somewhat overpriced. The atmosphere was priceless, as always it was ‘gemütlich’ to the extreme and we had a loads of fun.
Next year, whatever happens, Metal-Exposure will be there again to report to you about one of the nicest festivals in Germany.

1234...789►