Live Review: Megaherz - Bochum 2012

Written by Daniela Vorndran Friday, 20 January 2012 13:37

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Matrix, Bochum, Germany
19th January 2012
Megaherz, Exilia

In 2008, one of the most important representatives of hard German Rock continued to follow their very own agenda with a new singer and a new album 'Heuchler', an album that led them straight away from the Teutonic metal roots of earlier days into a new era and to celebrate 15 years of band history. Subsequently, the band has been touring a lot on i.e. various festivals with tremendous success from their respective audiences. Now, they are back with a new album, presenting it in several German clubs.

Exilia

Exilia formed in 1993 in Milan, Italy, when Masha met guitarist Elio Alien. Their debut album ‘Rightside Up’ was released in the year 2000 but it took them a few more years and a second album, ‘Unleashed’ (2004), before they made their breakthrough in the international Metal and Alternative Rock scene. Especially the single ‘Stop Playing God’ helped a lot to increase EXILIA’s popularity. Constant touring, including gigs at many European festivals and supporting such diverse bands as RAMMSTEIN, DOG EAT DOG IN EXTREMO, OOMPH!, IL NINO or DIE ÄRZTE bestowed the Italian band a good following, although they are still waiting for the major breakthrough in the charts. A next album followed in 2009, namely ‘My Own Army’, followed by ‘Naked’ in 2010. Now, they are back with the new album ‘Decode’ out soon, presenting it already in Germany as support of MEGAHERZ. After some line-up changes, EXILIA today is Masha Mysmane (vocals), Aimer (guitar), Privacy (bass) and Rob Iaculli (drums). http://www.exiliaweb.com/ / https://www.facebook.com/pages/Exilia/21539686281 / http://www.myspace.com/exilia



Music & Performance
With their mix of Crossover and Nu Metal, EXILIA were the right choice to warm up the audience. Lots of heavy aggressive guitar riffs are blended with Masha’s powerful voice, going form soft to raw and roaring. She even screams out her lyrics while she constantly jumps across the stage hardly taking time to take a breath. Masha really convinced. That she is multitalented and also able for the softer tones was proved when the grabbed a guitar in the middle of the set to present a softer ballad. The rest of the show though was just pure power. And this energy spread immediately though the club. ‘Kill me’, a song about Guantanamo, was opening the set, followed by ‘Hunter’ and ‘Satellite’ which will be, according to the band, the opener of the new album. One extremely powerful song followed the next. With ‘Emily’, another new song from ‘Decode’ was presented starting a bit calmer and more melodic until it hit you full force. EXILIA ended the little support show with their probably biggest hits ‘Stop Playing God’ and ‘Coincidence’.

Setlist
01. Kill me
02. Hunter
03. Satellite (new)
04. Wflight (?)
05. Far From The Dark
06. Emily (new)
07. No Colours
08. Stop Playing God
09. Coincidence

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.3 / 10




Megaherz

The history of the band started back in 1993 in Munich when singer Alexx Wesselsky formed MEGAHERZ together with some other guys. A first demo ‘Herzwerk’ was released in 1995; one year later, the CD ‘Wer bist du’ hit the stores. Several years have passed since then, numerous CDs have been released and the line-up has changed several times. Founder Alexx Wesselsky finally left the band together with Noel Pix in autumn 2002 and founded the band EISBRECHER who is celebrating big success right now. The rest of the band had to find a new singer… Mathias 'Jablonski' Elsholz did the job only a short time… and finally Alexander 'Lex' Wohnhaas joined the band as new singer. After about four years of silence, the band came back with the spectacular chart entry of the album ‘Heuchler’ (2008) to celebrate 15 years of band history. 2009 saw the release of the best-of compilation ‘Totgesagte leben länger’ followed by the 2010 remix album ‘Loblieder’. The band will release its newest album ‘Götterdämmerung’ on 20th January 2012. One day earlier they started their tour in Bochum. MEGAHERZ is Alexander `Lex´ Wohnhaas (vocals), Christian `X-ti´ Bystron (guitar), Werner `Wenz´ Weninger (bass), Jürgen `Bam´ Wiehler (drums) and Christoph Klinke (2nd guitar). http://www.megaherz.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/megaherz / http://www.megaherz.com/ / https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMegaherz



Music & Performance
It was back in 2008 when the last regular studio album ‘Heuchler’ was released. Finally MEGAHERZ is back with a new album and to be out a day after the concert, and the band presented a lot of songs out off it. To be exact, all in all eight of the eleven album songs were presented. Only ‘Keine Zeit’, ‘Feindbild’ and ‘Kopf Oder Zahl’ were excluded. As Lex said quite at the beginning, the band was inviting to a little event, to celebrate the new album. And it is unused to the band to play songs no one knows the lyrics to. But before MEGAHERZ were up for new songs, the audience were delivered some classics, like ‘Beiss mich’, ‘5. März’ or one of the band’s most successful songs, ‘Kopfschuss’ when the audience screamed “Bang, bang, Kopfschuss”, just like you are used to. After this song it was finally time for something new. “I hope I won’t mess this song, but if I do, it doesn’t matter, you don’t know the lyrics anyway” said Lex and ‘Jagdzeit’ started. Well, not only the title reminded a lot of RAMMSTEIN, also the song itself sounded a lot like their ‘Laichzeit’. For this song, Lex was vocally supported by the band’s merch lady, being an eye catcher for the male attendees especially.



Slightly overshadowed by some technical problems with Christoph’s guitar cable, the second new song followed with ‘Prellbock’. As this wasn’t enough yet, third new song in sequence was ‘Mann im Mond’, a “fairytale about a serious topic”, as Lex said. Well, to sum up the new songs so far: MEGAHERZ are following the same path as in the past, not following innovative new ways. The songs sound as if you had already heard them before. I had wished for some more courage trying at least little something new. From new songs back to older ones with ‘Fauler Zauber’. ‘Rabenvater’, another new one, was based on a true story once a fan wrote to singer Lex. It deals with violence in the family and child abuse. When old men need a break, they usually play a ballad and so did also MEGAHERZ with presenting ‘Freiflug’. ‘Herz aus Gold’ from ‘Götterdämmerung’ and ‘Gott sein’ ended the main set. But people, who were really excited about the show, wanted more. So, the band retuned twice. First encore had two more new songs in stock, namely ‘Licht am Ende der Welt’ (Light at the end of the world) and ‘Abendstern’. Third song of this encore bloc was the hit out of the previous album wit the same name, ‘Heuchler’.



Second addition presented with ‘Heute Nacht’ another song from ‘Götterdämmerung’. Of course, one special song cannot be missed in a MEGAHERZ set. ‘Miststück’ was bidding farewell to anyone in the hall.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Glas & Tränen
03. Beiss mich
04. 5. März
05. Kopfschuß
06. Jagdzeit (new)
07. Prellbock (new)
08. Mann im Mond (new)
09. Fauler Zauber
10. Rabenvater (new)
11. Dein Herz schlägt
12. Freiflug
13. Herz aus Gold (new)
14. Gott sein
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15. Licht am Ende der Welt (new)
16. Abendstern (new)
17. Heuchler
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18. Heute Nacht (new)
19. Miststück

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10



All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)