Stadtdeich, Hamburg, Germany19th to 20th August 2016
Elbriot Festival Day 1 with Testament, Steel Panther, Powerwolf and Sabaton
Two weeks after the Wacken Open Air you can hear its mighty echo in Hamburg: the Elbriot. For the first time the festival in the middle of the Hanseatic city was two days long. Today at the first day there were only main acts: TESTAMENT, STEEL PANTHER, POWERWOLF and SABATON.
Testament
If a festival starts with a band like TESTAMENT, witch per definition is a subject for the end, you know, that there will be just high-quality music today. But it also shows that there is no room for newcomers at the Elbriot. TESTAMENT are calling their music “old school Thrash Metal” and they exactly know, what they're playing. Like everything “old school” it's dividing the audience: for many it's too old fashioned, for many it's real and pure. TESTAMENT are thrashing through a little more than 40 minutes of a program very close to the public – with lots of “Yeah!” – lots and lots of “Yeah!”. // http://www.testamentlegions.com
Steel Panther
To celebrate STEEL PANTHER adequately or at least to get through their concert, I recommend a cocktail consisting of alcohol and caffeine. “Tits!” Before the drinks are kicking in, I notice, that round about 0.5 performances of STEEL PANTHER within a year are more than enough, and I wonder, how hard it must be, to stay the course of this over sexualized Glam Metal attitude one concert after another. “Tits!” But my pity dissolves in the effect of the drinks and some kind of moderate enthusiasm emerges – not so much for the music but for their weird all over presence. “Tits!” Nonetheless the never ending repetitions of genitals, drugs, sexual varieties and other not very shocking provocations are getting boring quite quickly. “Tits!” Next please! // http://steelpantherrocks.com
Powerwolf
Now there's a kind of brutal changeover from the over sexualized Glam to the very sacral Power Metal of POWERWOLF. With their “only true Heavy Metal mass” the white-faced musicians are raising the bar for epicness far beyond maximum. If they offered some free beer, they would have an actual army for a new crusade – this time in the name of Metal. The excessive nonverbal singalongs are a bit too much for the northern German audience but in the end the pseudo religious POWERWOLF are getting celebrated duly. I would really like to see them in an actual church for once. “Hallelujah! Amen!” // http://powerwolf.net
Sabaton
SABATON are turning down the pathos to a little bit under “extreme” playing their all too martial military Power Metal into the dusk. The big tank on the stage makes it hard for me to join the prevalent glorifying exaltation, but thousands of other jingled metal heads seem not to care about that and shout “Ooohooohoo!”, “Hey! Hey! Hey!” and “One more beer!” towards the stage. There, between all the flames, no one is taking himself all too serious, what's somehow compensating for the very serious bellicose subjects. SABATON are presenting their new album ‘The Last Stand’ for the first time today, so it's a special day for them too. One big disadvantage of a festival in the city is that the music has to end at 10 o'clock due to noise regulations. So the live music stops very early and the audience has to leave – maybe for the after show party. But altogether this first day of the Elbriot festival was mostly successful and pleasant. // http://www.sabaton.net
All Pictures by Jan Termath (http://www.profound-passion.com/)
Comments powered by CComment