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LKA Longhorn, Stuttgart, Germany
5th March 2007
Stone Sour, Krieger

These days, the name Corey Taylor is above all related to his band SLIPKNOT and himself hiding his face behind a certain mask - at least when you ask many teenagers. SLIPKNOT have become quite famous during the last few years and are some kind of idols for many kids and youths all over the world. But a few years before the extreme metal heads from Des Moines (Iowa, USA) went out to capture the hearts of the angry and misunderstood, Corey Taylor has founded the band STONE SOUR. And this evening in March they had come to the Longhorn Stuttgart with their German support KRIEGER; they are at the moment doing a little tour through Germany, also to promote their newest release ‘Come What(ever) May’ (Roadrunner Records, 2006). These days in spring they are starting on the bigger “Jägermeister Tour” through the US, Australia and Japan together with LACUNA COIL and SHADOWS FALL. As one could expect, the Longhorn was well-filled, if not sold-out, and many people in SLIPKNOT shirts could be spotted. About an hour after the admission, KRIEGER came on stage relatively prompt.


Krieger

I must admit that I had never heard of the band KRIEGER before, learning they would support STONE SOUR on this tour through Germany. Around 2004 the German newcomer band started playing together, and in the meantime they found many fans, while touring with IN EXTREMO or playing the “Rock im Park Festival” 2006. They are currently working on their first album release. KRIEGER are Thomas Baumgaertel (vocals, guitars), Andre Toth (guitars), Rajko Gohlke (bass) and Johannes Baumgaertel (drums). http://www.www.krieger-musik.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/kriegermusik



Music
The four guys from Dresden are doing Rock music. They perform with the ordinary instrumentation with clear, male vocals; singer Thomas additionally plays the guitar together with Andre, who also delivers some keyboard sounds from time to time. Surely bass (Rajko) and drums (Thomas' brother Johannes) aren't missing. What I found a little bit strange were the German lyrics, especially as they were rather striking and pictorial and were performed in a somehow pathetic way. Not bad, but not really good either - KRIEGER couldn't convince me this evening. 



Performance
The performance KRIEGER presented was quite energetic, but rather common and with no real highlights. The light show was nice, plunging the stage into wonderful colors and shades. After a very short set, about half an hour only, KRIEGER seemed to have simply disappeared from the stage - in fact I haven't seen them say goodbye to the visitors. But maybe this wasn't their purpose either, and they had been asked to leave quickly. 

Rating
Music: 4
Performance: 7
Light: 7
Sound: 7
Total: 5.8






Stone Sour

In 1992, about five years before he joined the band SLIPKNOT, Corey Taylor has founded STONE SOUR. One demo and some extensive touring resulted in Corey being fed up with this band in 1997, and so he ended up as a new member of SLIPKNOT, together with James Root (guitars), who was a former band mate. In 2002, Josh Rand (guitars) started the band revival with some new songs he had written, and so STONE SOUR finally published their self-titled debut album ten years after the band foundation via Roadrunner Records. With Shawn Economaki (bass) and Roy Mayorga (Ex-SOULFLY) on drums the band was complete again. Their newest release ‘Come What(ever) May’ was very well received in the music press and brought them a first success. http://www.stonesour.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/stonesour



Music
The band from Des Moines is playing melodic Hard Rock with elements from modern (Alternative) Metal and Post Grunge. They sound somehow down-to-earth and set aside the widespread rockstar posing. This evening, their sound was not the best, Corey's vocals weren't audible properly during most of the songs; indeed, the only exception were the ones he performed alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, which was pretty nice as you could clearly hear what his voice also can be like, calm and special, and more impressive to me than his ordinary vocals. 



Performance
As KRIEGER had left stage, it became clearly audible who the visitors of the LKA Stuttgart were waiting for - "Corey, Corey" shouting was desperately requesting STONE SOUR's front man and his band mates on stage. And finally he appeared under fulminating applause, with his latterly very short hair and half-naked, showing his many tattoos. And for sure the Americans knew how to deliver a fantastic show to their fans: older songs and new ones were performed with a lot of power and delight in playing, and all musicians on stage really seemed to have fun. Corey talked a lot to the audience and seemed very good-humored. More than once he told his fans that they were the best audience he had had on that tour up to then, and actually that he liked the German fans best - which was answered with frenetic shouts and applause.



After performing the sixth song ‘Silly World’, which they had seemingly not played before in Stuttgart, the band disappeared for a little while, and Corey returned alone, taking an acoustic guitar and playing some pieces, ever accompanied by the people in front of him: Chris Isaak's ‘Wicked Game’ at first, which I found quite surprising. Then some fan threw a Santa Claus cap on stage, which Corey immediately put on, and as the audience started singing ‘Jingle Bells’ (for some reason I couldn't really comprehend), he joined them, just to stop after a few tunes and continue with Lynyrd Skynyrd's ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. And then he sang ‘Through Glass’ from the new album, a wonderful, fragile and thoughtful ballad. Not later than now you knew for sure, that this band hasn't much in common with SLIPKNOT, and presents a completely different side of Corey Taylor.



At the end of the song, the other band members joined him again on stage and two more songs plus two extras were played before leaving a weary, but satisfied audience. All in all I found this evening quite amusing and was positively surprised by Corey and his band.   

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Light: 9
Sound: 7
Total: 7.6







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