Amphitheater, Gelsenkirchen, Germany20th to 22nd June 2013
Blackfield Festival Day 3: Rroye, Formalin, Legend, Tyske Ludder, Heldmaschine, Haujobb, Megaherz, Anne Clark feat. HerrB, Fields of Nephilim, ASP
Time was passing too fast and already the last festival day had come. On this day, too, one band couldn’t make it and thus instead of HERZFEIND, RROYCE was willing and able to fill in. Instead of FORMALIN now RROYCE was opener of the day.
Rroyce
Inspired by the sound of the eighties the German trio from Dortmund creates Synth-Pop music that sounds fresh and new but keeps the spirit of the eighties alive. Founded in 2008 the band won in 2013 the UnBaCo (Underground Band Contest), performed at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and was supporting act for the CRUXSHADOWS in the Matrix Bochum. Furthermore they won in November the price as “Best Gothic-Wave band” and got the second place as “Best Electro-Pop band”. In the same month they supported SUICIDE COMMANDO and CORVUS CORAX. Their first album ‘Dreams& Doubts& Fears’ was released at the beginning of the year. To be opening act on the third and last day of a festival is definitive a tough job. After a lot of partying most of the festival visitors feel slightly wasted and usually crawl later out of their tents or arrive from home.
And thus not many people showed up in the venue when RROYCE presented us some nice Synth-Pop songs. At one song the singer joined the people in front of the stage and walked as well to the seat in order to greet the people while still singing. // http://www.rroyce.de / https://www.facebook.com/RROYCE.official // Setlist: 1. Over and over / 2. Bohemian life / 3. Hide behind / 4. …but you lied / 5. Malacoda / 6. Thank you, I’m scared // Rating: 6 / 10
Formalin
Songs about sex, dirt, destruction, decay, fashion, art and the search for extremes are the topics of the songs of this Berlin based Electro/ Industrial duo. Founded in 2009 they have released two albums up to now. We had already last year the opportunity to see the band perform at the Blackfield. Still it was too early to animate many people to dance to their EBM/ Future Pop sound. Last year they didn’t thrill me, this year was not even better. I still find them boring. http://www.formalin-music.com / https://www.facebook.com/formalin.music // Rating: 5 / 10
Legend
Name some musicians/ bands coming from Iceland! Erm, BJÖRK and …oh yes, BJÖRK… and SIGUR ROS. Iceland is definitely not known for an island where the music is coming from. Krummi Björgvinsson and Halldór A Björnsson were both well-known musicians in the Scandinavian music scene before they decided to form a common project in 2011. Their debut album, launched in April 2012, was critically acclaimed. For live shows they have Frosti Jón Runólfsson as drummer on stage. LEGEND presented us quite interesting sounding Synth-Rock music. And though they didn’t interact much with the audience, even more people joined the people in front of the stage in order to listen to the band. // https://www.facebook.com/Legendband // Rating: 7 / 10
Tyske Ludder
The German EBM band was founded in 1990. The lyrics are about the dominance of technology, the Yugoslavian war (in their early years) and the way how the US enforce their interests with the help of their military. Conférencier Jens Domgörgen told the audience that the band threatened to beat him if he doesn’t tell something nice about the band. Thus he presented the sugar Goths form Friesland. Now the right music was played to wake the people up and with the powerful and driving beats due to a real drum set and an electric drum set the audience was animated to dance. Every now and then the drummer came in front of the stage in order to make some action and to animate the audience to party with them. To the song ‘Panzer’ the singer was wearing a mask showing the face of Putin. // http://www.tyske-ludder.com / https://www.facebook.com/tyskeludder // Rating: 7.5 / 10
Heldmaschine
Originally the band was formed as a RAMMSTEIN tribute band under the name VÖLKERBALL. And they are really successful as tribute band. The guys are also delivering own songs under the moniker HELDMASCHINE. Until now they have released two albums and five singles. The new album is called ‘Propaganda’ and sounds way rougher, tougher and even more manic-Germanic than the ‘‚Weichen + Zunder’ debut. There are some RAMMSTEIN tribute bands that are doing a nice job and then there are bands of the genre Neue Deutsche Härte who made it to find their own style without being too much RAMMSTEIN-like. But here we have the umpteenth RAMMSTEIN cover band where the singer tries to copy the singing style as well as the appearance of the singer Till Lindemann. Boring and superfluous. I’d prefer the band presents more own style then just being a RAMMSTEIN cover with “own” songs. // http://www.heldmaschine.com / https://www.facebook.com/Heldmaschine // Rating: 4 / 10
Haujobb
Starting in 1993 as a trio the German band was reduced to a duo in 1995, consisting of Dejan Samardzic (arrangements, production) and Daniel Myer (arrangements, production, vocals). Today, the band is expanded by Manuel G. Richter (synths, noises, drums). Their sound repertoire ranges from Industrial / Electro / Electronica / Alternative to Techno / IDM. From the first tunes on the band animated the people to dance to their music. Daniel, who played the electric drums as well as the keyboards performed with much passion. And after the band before it was a benefaction to hear music of high quality that is not a copycat of another band. // http://haujobb-music.com / https://www.facebook.com/haujobbmusic // Rating: 8 / 10
Megaherz
Founded in 1993 by Alexander “Alexx“ Wesselsky (vocals), Marc Bredtmann (guitar), Josef Kalleder (bass), Tobias Trinkl (drums) und Christian Scharinger (keyboard), nowadays none of the founding members is in the band anymore. The line-up now consists of: Alexander “Lex“ Wohnhaas (vocals), Christian “X-ti“ Bystron (guitar), Werner “Wenz“ Weninger (bass), Christoph “Chris“ Klinke (guitar) and Jürgen “Bam Bam“ Wiehler (drums). They have released seven studio albums and eight singles. The guys appeared with painted faces in white with black and red. Surely they could animate quite a lot of people to dance to their sound of Neue Deutsche Härte but the band is definitely not so successful in interacting with the audience like EISBRECHER is. The singer announced that soon their new album will be launched and then their tour will start in October. // http://www.megaherz.de / https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMegaherz // Setlist: 1. Intro / 2. Jagdzeit / 3. Beiss mich / 4. Heute Nacht / 5. Mann im Mond / 6. Herz aus Stein / 7. Hurra wir leben noch / 8. Heuchler / 9. Gegen den Wind / 10. 5. März / 11. Miststück / 12. Licht am Ende (Bonus) // Rating: 6 / 10
Anne Clark feat. Herr B.
The British singer- songwriter is definitely an icon of the New-Wave/ Dark-Wave / Post Punk era of the eighties. In a poetic way she describes feelings of loneliness, fear, melancholy and Weltschmerz and these emotions are stressed with the Electronic sound. Seeing ANNE CLARK live again was surely my personal highlight of the day. Of course her performance is not everybody’s cup of tea, especially for those who are too young for the music of the eighties. Her shows are definitely not very exciting with her standing at the microphone performing her sprechgesang and Herr B at the keyboard. It is all about the lyrics, the intensity of the presentation underlined by the Synth Pop sound with the hammering beats. Nevertheless there were some people dancing to her music while others preferred to listen attentively. Unfortunately her set was quite short. // http://www.anneclarkofficial.com / https://www.facebook.com/anne.clark.music // Rating: 8 / 10
Fields of the Nephilim
This British Goth- Rock band was founded in 1983 by Carl McCoy. The band disbanded in 1991 but was formed again in 2005. Because of their style of outfits they were declared by the press to be copycats of THE SISTERS OF MERCY, which was not untrue but musically they had their own style. They combine elements of the spaghetti western and post nuclear apocalyptic scenario with mythical elements. When these old stagers of the Goth-Rock genre entered the stage the venue was almost filled. Usually you don’t see much of the singer, sometimes only his hat due to the heavy use of fog which is a kind of brand of the band. But at open- air shows even the extensive use of fog doesn’t help so much if there is only a tiny bit of wind. And thus we had the chance to see more of the mastermind and his band mates. We were presented a nice mix of their songs which was enjoyed very much of the crowds. // http://www.fields-of-the-nephilim.com / https://www.facebook.com/FieldsOfTheNephilim // Rating: 8.5 / 10
ASP
The band was founded in 1999 by Alexander “Asp“ Spreng und Matthias “Matze“ Ambré. The band’s name is eponym and nickname of the singer at the same time. They were renowned for their cycle about the black butterfly which applied on the first five albums and thus became a kind of musical Gothic novel. ASP is not only a band of the Dark-/ Electro Rock genre but accentuate their lyrics that have more of tales and poetry than typical songs, with their music. This is why the band prefers to describe their arts as ‘Gothic Novel Rock’. Throughout the years they made it to achieve a wide recognition without making advances to the mainstream audience. With firework and a loud bang the band started their show. The audience greeted the band loudly. Right from the beginning the singer invited the crowd to interact with the band and the people reacted willingly with singing along and clapping their hands or waving their arms. Nevertheless the ice was broken from the third song on where the people partied to the music and apparently enjoyed the show.
As it was getting darker the audience could also enjoy the wonderful light show where we didn’t have to miss the image of the (black) butterfly of course. We learned that this was the first concert of the year for the band. This was probably the reason why the band seems to enjoy deeply performing again. // http://www.aspswelten.de / https://www.facebook.com/AspsWelten // Setlist: 1. Medley 2014: Raserei, Sanctus, Wer sonst, Intro Medley / 2. Wechselbalg / 3. Kokon / 4. Krabat / 5. Das Märchen / 6. Ich bin ein wahrer Satan / 7. Eisige Wirklichkeit / 8. Und wir tanzten (ungeschickte Liebesbriefe) / 9. Weichen(t)stel / 10. Werben / 11. Schwarzes Blut / 12. Rücken an Rücken / 13. Ich will brennen // Rating: 8.5 / 10
This year’s Blackfield Festival was great again with a good mixture of bands and musicians of different genres. And the weather was surprisingly nice for an open- air festival on this weekend. A we learned from our conférencier Jens there will be another Blackfield Festival next year and it will take part from Friday 12th to Sunday 14th 2015.
All Pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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