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Dirkschneider Moravsky Krumlov Castle, Moravsky Krumlov, Czech Republic
19th to 21st August 2021
Rock Castle Festival 2021 Day 3 with Brainstorm, Freedom Call and Dirkschneider

Mixed feeling accompanied me to the festival ground today. The organizers of the festival had announced that alle the guided tours of the Alfons Mucha exhibition were fully booked, so it seemed that the generous offer was very welcomed by art interested Rock and Metalheads. Last night had been a blast and all these positive memories were still on my mind when I entered the media pit to take pictures of German Metal band BRAINSTORM.


Brainstorm

The pit already filled while the set was being built up and BRAINSTORM entered the stage on time. They immediately started with an energetic show and during the third song vocalist Andy climbed down the stage to rock together with the fans. But this was not the only highlight of the show. BRAINSTORM had brought their new single and the first live performance would be today at Rock Castle festival. Andy told us that the band had discussed if they should perform the song at the festival or not several weeks before the festival and finally had agreed to make the fans this special gift. Of course, we were asked if we liked the single ‘Escape The Silence’ and the crowd of course gave an encouraging response to this song that comes with excellent riffing and blasting drums. The new album will be released on September 17th via AFM records. The band announced several tour dates in Europe, check their Social Media for updates. It seemed that the positive response of the fans gave the band an extra kick for we saw and heard even more excellent solo parts. If I hadn’t known that they had not been live on stage for over 20 months, I would have thought they had played a tour together recently for they delivered a perfect show. I had heard many bands speaking to their fans this weekend, but in my books, Andy found the most remarkable words “Thank you for keeping the faith and staying alive!”. I believe these words will be on people’s minds for a very long time, because that’s what’s the most important thing in these special times, where nothing can be taken as for granted.

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Freedom Call

The next band were FREEDOM CALL who are a frequent and very welcome guest at festivals in the Czech Republic. The band had jumped in for SEPTICFLESH and worked a miracle, bringing their equipment, band members and crew to the venue within short time of notice. FREEDOM CALL would start the finale furioso for tonight. People rushed to the Infield to secure the best spot and the Power Metal band started the show with full force and their song ‘Union Of The Strong’. FREEDOM CALL usually put on shows that requires lots of activity from the crowd and so it was tonight. There was waving, jumping, singing and raising your fists and as after WALATAR’s show the previous night, many had to take a seat and get a beer to be back in shape for DIRKSCHNEIDER later.  The workout was accompanied by fantastic songs such as ‘M.E.T.A.L’, ‘Freedom Call’ or ‘Metal Is For Everyone’ and the fans eagerly sang along. Vocalist Chris Bay frequently addressed the crowd and told them that he had dreamed of performing live in front of a real crowd quite recently and admitted that he was feeling quite wasted from the mass of Pivo that was available the whole weekend. When the band left the stage, there was still a big party in the pit during the outro, so FREEDOM CALL did a perfect job. The band is playing several gigs this autumn, so check their website or Social Media for updates.

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Dirkschneider

During the break, the stage was made ready for DIRKSCHNEIDER, legendary U.D.O founder Udo Dirkschneider and his band has announced, that they would play an exclusive set of old ACCEPT material tonight and the photographers were informed, that fire and other effects were to be expected during the opening of the show. The pit was filled to the maximum and even those who had rested on their blankets in the slope in the afternoon, now got to their feet to see DIRKSCHNEIDER. The show opened with fire and ‘Starlight’ followed by ‘Living for Tonight’.Udo Dirkschneider knows how to steer a crowd and so he did tonight at Moravsky Krumlov. He served the crowd with one hit after another such as ‘Princess of the Dawn’, ‘Metal Heart’, ‘Screaming for a Love Bite’, ‘Fast as a Shark’ and many more. The bands performance of ‘Up to the Limit’ and ‘I’m a Rebel’ really drove the crowd even wilder than before. Soon after they left the stage but soon the musicians came back and we hear fantastic guitar solo parts and the crowd took part in the rhythm section.

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This fantastic show celebrating ACCEPT, their legacy and the bands 35th anniversary ended with ‘Balls to The Wall’ and fire show that lasted at least 40 seconds. The dinosaur of Metal had shown to everybody that he’s not gonna slow down an inch. With a heavy heart I decided to leave the premises, though AXXIS would play the final set for tonight. I attended their show at Metalfest and their headliner gig at ZECHE Bochum back in 2019 and I was sure they would play a dedicated show, for AXXIS always give 110% for the fans, but I faced a long way home the other day, through construction sites and in heavy vacation traffic and all good things must come to an end.

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If you’d ask me, if it was worth the long trip to Rock Castle Festival, I’d answer, that it definitely was. Pragokoncert had organized a perfect festival and I mean it. Big thanks to Martina at Pragokoncerts for all the support and Vojtech for he never tires of answering the festival visitors’ questions in the Social Media groups, no matter the hour. The last sentences of this review I’d like to dedicate to all the bands who had come to play at the festival. Some might not know that the bands had agreed to playing for a reduced fee, because of the reduced capacity of the festival. Still, they have bills to pay for equipment, crews, rehearsal spaces and many more things not listed here. The bands all proved that they do not only play to make money, but that they are willing to compromise to play live for their fans and meet them at the signing sessions or on the festival grounds, all of you truly rock!

All pictures by Munich Vampire

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