Masters of Rock Day 4

Sunday 14th July

Review and photos by Smudge Smith

Yep, first bus out and I caught the quite superb Blax, from Italy, who rocked us with their dark gothic glam rock whilst Adrian went back to get his phone. Along with their own excellent compositions Blax rocked a fine version of Talking Heads ‘Psycho Killer’. Next were Symfobia who impressed with their operatic symphonic metal before one of the surprises of the weekend – Tri State Corner have been going for about 20 years and they went through a thoroughly entertaining set of eastern European heavy folk rock. With an electric Bazouki player and a drummer who smashed the living shit out of his kit, they brought a real energy that got everybody going. Oh, and by the way, the singer is Rage drummer Lucky Maniatopoulos. For some reason we missed Eliene – must have been lunchtime. I wasn’t that keen on seeing Annisokay, all that shouty techno metal does nothing for me although I did quite enjoy ‘Ultra Violet’ and the crushing ‘Human’. It was back to the more traditional metal with the excellent Delain who chugged out their melodic symphonic metal with ‘We Are The Others’ being a particular highlight.

Now I’ve seen Rage a few times but only as a metal power trio. To see them with a full orchestra was a sight to see. And the orchestra, from the local town of Zlin, were exceptional, loving every minute of playing to a crowd of rabid metal maniacs. They added power and beautiful melodies over the power riffage, which was joyful. Peavey is an underrated singer and songwriter but by crikey it was powerful to hear and powerful to feel. I often get ridiculed for loving metal music but it’s just people’s ignorance and their false perception of what metal music is. This was metal, this was heavy, and I stood in awe at the majestic beauty of the music they played.

Now for a double helping of Priest, this time KK’s Priest ripped it up good and proper. Kicking off with the triple threat of ‘Hellfire Thunderbolt’, ‘One More Shot At Glory’ ‘Strike Of The Viper’. ‘The Ripper’ was immense before ‘Reap The Whirlwind’ brought us back to current days. ‘Night Crawler’ and ‘Sermons Of The Sinner’ got us to the best Priest Ripper era song ‘Burn In Hell’ which was super heavy. OMG, we got ‘Beyond The Realms Of Death’ then ‘Hell Patrol’ and ‘Green Manalishi’ before we went batshit mental on ‘Breaking The Law’ at least the lady at the front near us was. The 50 year old ‘Victim Of Changes’ ended the set on a high. Ripper Owens has some set of pipes, and he made all this look soooo easy. As for the rest of them KK Downing has assembled a shit hot crew who know how to deliver (the goods?-sorry). Amaranthe took the stage and from what I saw they were excellent – with three singers all offering something different but unfortunately, we had a conflict – England were playing Spain in the Euro’s final, so we hot footed it to the distillery bar where we were told that they had run out of beer! Apparently, according to Monika the bar manager, we had drunk it all the day before.

So, it was Slivovitz spritzers – how very sophisticated (a word not usually associated with me!). Frustration got the better of me, so I sloped off at half time to catch Accept and boy was I glad I did. Accept just gave us a masterclass in metal and I had forgotten that the one and only Joel Hoekstra was slinging a ‘Flying V’ with them. Not really known for his metal boy can he go toe to toe with Wolf Hoffman on the riffage stakes. Opening with ‘The Reckoning’ there was no stopping them, they were obviously well up for it as were the crowd. The title track of their new album ‘Humanoid’ just pummelled before the classics ‘Restless And Wild’ and ‘London Leather Boys’ then we got a bit of AC/DC style metal on ‘Straight Up Jack’ where singer Marc Tornillo showed beyond doubt why he’s the perfect singer for Accept. ‘The Abyss’ and ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ were rattled out before the medley of ‘Demons Night’/’Starlight’/’Losers And Winners’/’Flash Rockin’ Man’ brought us to ‘Shadow Soldiers’. It was with an exhausted and heavy heart that we had to leave because the time of our shuttle back to the hotel had been brought forward, plus we had to be up at 5am for the ride to the airport.

This was my second year at Masters Of Rock and I will reiterate that everyone should try this festival. I’ve checked it out – even with flights, hotels (if you book early enough) then its more affordable than some other festivals especially those in the UK! What you really want to know is how much is the beer? Well, those that we bought equated to about £2 a pint!

Masters Of Rock here’s to another 20 fabulous years – Thanks to the boss George who is the most gracious, generous and kindest man I have ever met. His team follow his passion and given that most of them are family nothing was any trouble. The crews were ultra professional – stage sets were erected and struck down within 30 minutes each and not one band suffered a poor stage sound, everything was mixed perfectly. The security lumps were the most amenable and had the most common sense. So, a massive thanks to all of them.

Thanks also to our German, Austrian and French colleagues – I honestly don’t know how you put up with two daft Brits who refuse to learn your languages, but you’ve taken us in as your family so much love to Hartl, Sabine, Manfred, Manu, Stefan, Deborah, Judit, Sepp, Patrik, Mia, Maria and Siegfried. A big thanks to those who took time to talk to us idiots too. I know Adrian was made up chatting to his hero – Geoff Tate for an hour! To Geoff’s lovely wife I apologise for knocking your wine out your hand and Mr Ronnie Atkins you are legend thanks for listening to me for an hour plus. Brittney Sayles from Unleash The Archers thanks for singing the Judas Priest set with me plus those other crazy Canucks from Osyron who know fuck all about football – yes Kristof – Man Utd my arse! Finally, my partner in crime, my cohort, my brother from another mother and my ‘tog guru – Adrian we did it again and came out relatively unscathed. Until next year. Be safe