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Fields of Rock, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
June 18th 2005
Rammstein, Black Sabbath, Audioslave, Machine Head, Velvet Revolver, After Forever, Slayer, Motörhead, Papa Roach, Alter Bridge

Finally it was time, the first huge metal festival of this summer in the Netherlands. Some 50.000 metal fans gathered on the 18th of June in the Goffertpark (a large park) in Nijmegen. One of the biggest stages in Europe had been set up which was divided in two forming the two main stages. Besides this huge stage there was a smaller stage called the MTV stage and there was a tent stage as well. Fields of Rock was held for the second time. Two years ago was the first edition, so why no festival last year? No big names available. Fields of Rock is guaranteed to deliver a day with only the biggest names in metal. Let’s hope there will be a festival again next year as this year was a huge success.


Alter Bridge

Alter Bridge is formed by three members of the band Creed; Guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Philips and Bass player Brian Marshall whom are now completed by singer Myles Kennedy. Together they have created their own sound and in 2003 they released their debut album ‘One Day Remains’. Today they had the honour of opening the main stage. Mostly the first bands playing don’t have a huge crowd to play for but the festival area was quite full already, perhaps because the doors opened some two hours before they started. Besides that there were also some fans that came especially for Alter Bridge, standing right in front of the stage with a huge pick with the name of the band on it, to support them at this early hour.


Music
When we arrived they were already playing, at the back of the field the music sounded divided as if you could hear one band member at a time but never as a whole. Luckily when closing in on the stage it got better and it started to sound more like a complete band. Still it could have been better for the guitars were tuned in quite soft while the vocals were louder than the instruments. The music doesn’t seem to support the vocals but almost play an inferior role. Even though many have spoken well of Myles Kennedy I found his voice cool most of the time, he wasn’t transferring the emotions of the songs to the audience. When he sung low, his voice disappeared in the low beats of the drums. During some songs he was backed up by Mark and that sounded great, their voices fit great together and these moments stood out and attracted attention. When Myles hit some higher notes he seemed to be able to put more emotions in to it.


Performance

Four band members who had to fill a huge stage, it can be done but to do so you have to move around and these men didn’t seem to have woken up yet, they all had their own spot and stayed there, only moving back forth a bit. Brian was easy on stage, banging his head a bit but that was about it. Mark was enjoying his guitar; even his face followed the music he was playing, showing tension and emotions in his face.  Even though the audience was mild and not very enthusiastic in its reactions towards this band Myles did get them to participate during their last song. He said it didn’t matter whether you were tone deaf or just plain deaf, just sing along, and they did. It was a great song to finish with for most of the audience joined in and the atmosphere was good because of this.
Due to the bright sunlight the lights had hardly any effect; you only saw them when they were shining right into your eyes and irritating. There were just not enough lamps used to have any results.


Rating

Music 6
Performance 6
Sound 5
Light 5
Total  6 (5,7)




Papa Roach

How to mix hip-hop, hardcore and metal? Papa Roach is the band to answer this question for they have mixed these styles together and have been successful while doing so. All the way from Sacramento California they came here to perform at Fields of Rock.


Music

One thing is for sure, Papa Roach makes you want to bounce, which is due to a certain beat in the music, probably one of their hip-hop influences. Jacobi Shaddix (vocals) doesn’t have a very distinctive voice but he has a good sound which can at times be a mix between screams and singing. Sometimes he seems to just spit out his lyrics, almost as if he was in a battle. During the ballads he does let us hear the emotions of the songs through his voice, instead of just through the lyrics. In front of the stage the sound was not that great, it seemed to be blown away and dispersed at times. In front of the other main stage however (which was beside it) it did sound as it was supposed to, all instruments and the vocals were in a good balance.


Performance

From the first song to the last the band members of Papa Roach displaced a great amount of energy. Jacobi had a little platform for him to jump up and jump off, as an alternation for running around the stage. The entire audience was bouncing to the beats immediately they were very enthusiastic, as was the band. Their bass player was kicking high kicks and spinning in circles. There was great interaction between the audience and the band, especially between Jacobi and the audience. He was making contact with the audience from left to right, no part was left out. He asked them to join;”I can’t hear you, put your fucking horns in the air”. When later on he asked for a mosh pit, he got it immediately. Their guitarist was also looking for contact with the audience, in contrary to their Bass player who was more into his own thing. Their drummer did his own tricks behind his drums, throwing his sticks into the air and catching them just in time to keep the beat going. At the end of the performance Jacobi thanked the audience “you have been a great crowd, from the heart”.
The lightshow during the performance was visible, even thought the sun was shining directly on to the stage, the lights were bright enough to be seen. These lights added some extra movement to the stage, making the show even more energetic.


Setlist

01. Dead Cell
02. She Loves Me Not
03. M-80
04. Not Listening
05. Broken Home
06. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer (QOTSA)
07. Coffin Nail
08.Take Me
09. Getting Away With Murder
10. Born With Nuttin'
11. Between Angels and Insects
12. Last Resort


Rating

Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 6
Light 7
Total  7 (6,9)




Motörhead

This band was founded before most of the visitors of this day were even born, in 1975. But they still seem to have many fans, even very young ones. Before the gig started many fans gathered, all ready to start a heavy pit. Men with leather and jeans jackets full of patches gathered around me. On stage there was a backdrop with the band logo and the text: Born to loose, live to win, of which many fans to a picture before the show started. Their recent line up is: Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister (vocals/bass), Phil Campbell (guitar), and Mikkey Dee (drums).


Music

When Lemmy started to sing his raw voice was hardly audible. Later on this seemed to be adjusted. They still sound great, they still rock but do have to get going for even Lemmy’s voices tends to sound better after a few songs. The instruments and vocals were in balance after the vocals had been adjusted.


Performance

A white drum set was already on stage, waiting to be hit harder than ever. Without a sound the band members entered the stage but as soon as they were noticed a loud applause and screams arose from the audience. These rockers have been on stage for so long it sometimes seems as if they are just doing their routine. Phil has his own little dance, after which he puts his foot on a monitor so we can have a good look at his flamed pants. There is hardly any contact between the band members and between them and the audience. There is little movement on stage, Lemmy himself sometimes almost disappears into the black background. Many plectra were thrown in to the audience, which caused an immediate search in the direction where it was thrown. There was a little bit of a light show, but the effect was minimal, because of the sun the lights had little effect and there were too little to out rule the sun.


Setlist

01. Dr Rock
02. Stay Clean
03. Love Like a Reptile
04. Killers
05. Over The Top
06. No Class
07. I Got Mine
08. In the Name of Tragedy
09. Dancing On Your Grave
10. Power
11. Going To Brazil
12. Killed By Death
13. Ace Of Spades
14. Overkill


Rating

Music 6
Performance 5
Sound 7
Light 6
Total  6 (5,9)




Slayer

Then at 16:10 it was finally time for the kings of trash metal to enter the stage. For the third time in four years they were playing at a festival in the Netherlands, to the pleasure of both band and audience. Luckily they are back in their original formation, Dave is back!


Music

Tom sounded great; he has kept his voice in good shape. When he screams through his microphone you can see the agony on his face. Slayer sounded like slayer is supposed to sound, hard, overwhelming, thundering and strong. Some may say it is just a huge amount of noise, but I have never heard such well organised noise. The high notes were tuned in too hard in contrary to low section of the music, which finally didn’t shake us al (as during many performances this day).  After a while this was adjusted and the sound was well balanced, the grunts were well audible over the raging guitars which can be a problem with both low grunts and bass sound.


Performance

It seemed as though the hot weather had even got to slayer, the started out very easy, walking up and down the stage a bit while playing ‘South of Heaven’. When ‘Silent Scream’ set in the crowd had been warmed up and an all over pit was started. On stage the movements remained quite minimal during the entire show. Kerry King (guitar) was walking around while banging his head, which was actually most of the movement on stage during the entire performance. His guitar matches his tattoos which looks great. Before playing ‘Post Mortem’ the audience was asked if they wanted to die and today was a very suicidal audience for they all were very enthusiastically shouting that they did. ‘Mandatory Suicide’ was played especially for all young man who had to serve their country, thus giving their opinion on wars, this coming from a band which has 4 huge flags at the back of their stage which remind me of world war two. There were some lights used during this show but very meagre, they had no use and hardly added to the atmosphere or energy of the music.


Setlist
01. South of Heaven
02. Silent Scream
03. Stain of Mind
04. Disciple
05. War Ensemble
06. Blood Red
07. Dead Skin Mask
08. Seasons in the Abyss
09. Post Mortem
10. Raining Blood
11. Mandatory Suicide
12. Angel of Death


Rating

Music 8
Performance 6
Sound 7
Light 6
Total  7 (6,9)



By this time the festival organisation had decided that the heat would endanger people if they didn’t drink enough so it was advised to all to get free drinking water at the toilets. In front of the stage wet sponges and cups of water were given to the audience as well, to keep the audience from drying out. A wise decision, on this wonderful summer’s day.


After Forever

It was going to be the first gig after André’s (drums) 4 months absence and the band was really looking forward to be playing with him again. After Forever was formed in 1995, their music was mostly death metal orientated with classical influences. When Floor Jansen joined the band (1997), the music got more diverse but always contained metal elements. After making 3 albums and a mini album, After Forever has hit the studios again to record their 4th album, which will be called ‘Remagine’. This album will be released in September this year.


Music

When After Forever was announced by today’s host the audience started to scream André’s name. André showed his face onstage and the public went wild. When trying to start the intro ‘Childhood in Minor’ the hard disk seemed broken, so André started off with ‘Beautiful Emptiness’ followed by ‘Sins of Idealism’. Floor took over the choir parts very well and the band showed a lot of power on stage. The band played their hit singles ‘Monolith of Doubt’ and ‘Digital Deceit’ and left us with ‘Follow in the Cry’, a song which is always loved by the audience.
The sound on stage was okay. According to some people who were standing in the audience during the show the sound was good, but the guitar sound was a little bit to whirly in the beginning. After the second song it became a lot better.


Performance

Despite the fact that the hard disk was broken the band showed a lot of confidence on stage. The audience didn’t even seem to notice the fact that the choirs and violin parts were missing and reacted very well to the band by applauding and screaming. The band played the set as it was determined at the beginning of gig, but left out their intro ‘Childhood in Minor’ and ‘Forlorn Hope’. These songs just couldn’t be played without the hard disk.
During the audience’s all time favourites like ‘Pledge of Allegiance 1’ and  the Iron Maiden cover ‘The Evil That Men Do’ there was a lot of interacting with the public.
Despite that fact that I was standing onstage and couldn’t determine whether the light was good or not I heard a lot of positive reactions from the audience and the photographers, so I assume that it was very good. 

After all, the only thing that seemed to count for the audience was to see their favourite band in full strength on stage again. And that is what they got…


Setlist

01. Beautiful Emptiness
02. Sins of  Idealism
03. Through Square Eyes
04. Pledge 1
05. Monolith of Doubt
06. The Evil That Men Do
07. Digital Deceit
08. Follow in the Cry


Rating

Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 7
Light 7
Total 7



Velvet Revolver

Velvet Revolver was founded in 2002 and they have been quite successful ever since. They weren’t new to performing or to each other for three of them came from the same band and the others also have a resume of which they don’t have to be ashamed at all. Dave Kushner (guitar) has been a member of Dave Navarro and Wasted youth and Scott Weiland (vocals) used to be a Stone Temple Pilot. While their instruments were protected by silver screens to keep them from overheating the band was getting ready to rock Fields of Rock!


Music

Besides the rocking and swinging songs Velvet Revolver showed their softer side while playing the powerful ballad ‘Fall to Pieces’. Scott announced that they can’t say they haven’t had fun being a rock star and after saying this they set in their song ‘Superhuman’ in which drugs and alcohol play a big part. Over all the high and low tones were there but there was an uncovered area in the middle which was missing, especially concerning the drums. In the beginning Scott was hardly audible and during the performance his audibility was never steady. Still they present us with a strong rocking sound.


Performance

A backdrop with two ladies in bikini was already decorating the stage. Then music from the movie ‘Clockwork Orange’ sounded as they were announced: “all the way from Hollywood…. Velvet Revolver!!” Scott is a wonderful performer to look at, he seems to be a mixture between Freddy Mercury and Mick Jagger. He makes all the perfectly wrong moves to make a perfectly wrong rock show. Then add Slash, playing his guitar while almost standing in a split, a drummer who beats his drums with great power and another guitarist performing with lots of energy and enthusiasm and you have got Velvet Revolver. They were all playing the crowd from left to right, especially the guitarists seek out the corners of the stage while Scott was dancing around the stage, even stripping to his bare chest. He knows he looks good. They also make contact with each other on stage playing guitar with their heads leaned in together and Scott also liked to lean in to the guitarists. He announced to us they were happy to play at our small party, his attitude is indeed big enough for Hollywood! They In the back three huge blocks of lamps formed a moving block of colour and made a great light show in spite of the sun.


Setlist
01. Sucker Train Blues
02. Do it For The Kids
03. Headspace
04. Superhuman
05. Fall To Pieces
06. Dirty Little Thing
07. Big Machine
08. It's So Easy
09. Sex Type Thing
10. Set Me Free
11. Mr. Brownstone
12. Slither


Rating

Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 6
Light 7
Total  8 (7,6)




Machine Head

I have seen Machine Head only once 8 years ago in Paradiso, Amsterdam and they really blew my mind. What an energetic great band this is! I was really looking forward to seeing them again on Fields of Rock.
Less than 2 years ago, Machine Head was saying goodbye to the American branch of Roadrunner Records, unsure about their future in their own country. But the band has now come out of that experience stronger than ever, and ‘Through The Ashes Of Empires’ phenomenally successful throughout the rest of the world, now arrives in the U.S. on... Roadrunner Records.


Music
Because of the long walk from the backstage behind main stage to the tent I unfortunately missed the beginning of the gig. They had already started and the audience had already gone wild.
The sound was a little garish at the beginning, but none seemed to be bothered by that. The band played a very assorted set with songs from their latest album ‘Through the ashes of Empires’ which was released April 2004 and off course the all time favourites ‘Old’ and ‘Ten Ton Hammer’.


Performance

When playing my favourite ‘Take my scare’ the audience went crazy and everybody was enjoying themselves very much. Rob Flint (vocals) was impressed by the crowd and kept telling the how wonderful they were. The band had a lot of interaction with the fans and the joy glanced of the member’s faces. The stage was adorned with two beautiful backdrops, each one standing on a different site of the drum riser. Unfortunately the lights weren’t as impressive as the backdrops. With a mix of green and yellow there was not a lot to be seen. But Machine Head didn’t need lights to give such a terrific gig and they blew my mind again!


Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 8
Light 6
Total 8


Audioslave

They are a mix of two great bands, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine. Mixed together they have found a new sound. Maybe a bit more brave than their former bands but they have reached their own audience, a mixture of old and new fans. Today they had even promised to play a few songs from their pasts….


Music

The first two songs were a nice warm up for the audience but when ‘Spoonman’ set in there was a lot of recognition in the audience. They announced the out coming of their new album ‘Out of exile’. Of which the played ‘The worm’, ‘Be Yourself’ and ‘Doesn’t Remind Me’. The latter being a cheerful song which suited this sunny day perfectly. Chris Cornell (vocals) performed a semi acoustic version of ‘Black Hole Sun’ from Soundgarden, he played the guitar himself. It was sung with great sensitivity and was thus well received by the audience. After this they played their own song ‘Shadow on the Sun’ which made a great transition back into the rest of the show. It was a pity that there was a deep bass sound sounding all the time which disturbed the music. But over all the sound was well balanced.


Performance

The back of the stage was filled with a backdrop with a huge flame on it, which was of course recognised by many. During the performance the band seemed to enjoy themselves, this music makes you want to jump up and down and the entire audience did so. The band members move to the music but not around the stage so the stage was quite static. Only Cris was using the entire stage and by that he reached the entire audience. Once the audience was asked to sing along, but only people in the front were keen on doing so. When ‘The Worm’ was announced he told us to ‘ride the bitch worm, like you’re drunk’. This reminded me of the Doors who told us to ‘ride the snake’.
There were only a few rows of moving heads, the light show hardly had any use because of the sun shining directly at the stage.


Setlist

01. Set It Off
02. Show Me How To Live
03. Spoonman
04. Like A Stone
05. The Worm
06. Be Yourself
07. Gasoline
08. Doesn’t Remind Me
09. Bulls On Parade
10. Sleep Now In The Fire
11. Black Hole Sun
12. Shadow On The Sun
13. Killing In The Name Of
14. Cochise


Rating

Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 5
Total  7 (6,7)




Black Sabbath
Since the Osbourne show on MTV Ozzy has become more popular than ever all over the world. Which is probably one of the reasons he could demand not to play on the same stage as Rammstein.  Besides that it might have been impossible anyway for during the entire performance of Black Sabbath the stage of Rammstein was built. The photo pit was empty; later on it became clear why the photo pit would not have been the best place for a camera.


Music

Ozzy has a great set of musicians gathered around him and they still sound fantastic. And this is a good thing for time has done its damage to Ozzy him self. When he talks or shouts, it’s understandable but when he sings his articulation is so bad you can hardly separate one word from the other, most of the time that is. During ‘The Wizard’ Ozzy played the harmonica himself and he has not forgotten how to do so, it sounds good. During the show, especially at the beginning you could feel the bass vibrating through your entire body. The rest of the instruments were tuned in just right although maybe Ozzy would have been more understandable had he been tuned in a bit louder.


Performance

There was tension in the crowd, when will he appear. Then a voice sounded “come on let me hear you”, you could hear the prince of darkness breathing through his microphone. He wanted more response from the audience, which was a constant factor throughout the entire performance. He wanted us to “go fucking crazy” and we were asked many times to wave our hands and sing along. Ozzy seems to be very proud of his teeth for he is showing them all the time, with his eyes wide open. After the first song Ozzy put his head in a bucket of water which he then emptied over the audience and he continued doing this during the entire performance, throwing the empty bucket to the side of the stage where it was carefully caught and the stage was dried again with towels. All band members are taken care of very well, each has an assistant at the side of the stage with a towel and water and for Ozzy fresh tea and coffee were put on stage several times during the performance.
The lights were used well. When sirens sounded in the music these were to be seen in the lights, red lights going on and off. During the last couple of songs the lights started to have more effect because of darkness setting in.


Setlist

00. Intro - Sabbath Medley
01. N.I.B.
02. After Forever,
03 War Pigs
04. Fairies Wear Boots
05. Dirty Women
06. Symptom Of The Universe [instrumental] / Sweet Leaf [instrumental] / Electric Funeral
07. Iron Man
08. Into The Void
09. Black Sabbath
10. The Wizard
11. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath [Intro] / Paranoid Encore
12. Sleeping Village [Intro] /Children Of The Grave


Rating

Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 7
Total  7




Rammstein

Then finally it was time for big bang of the evening, Rammstein. During the performance of Ozzy eyes had been wandering off to the other main stage all the time to see what was happening there. Two men who were moving to the beats of Black Sabbath were holding a huge black curtain hiding most of the stage.


Music

Rammstein performed songs from their latest album ‘Reise Reise’ such as the title song, ‘Mein Teil’, ‘Keine Lust’, ‘Amerika’, ‘Morgenstern’ and ‘Stein um Stein’. Since the album has been released in 2004 many fans could sing along with every word. Luckily they also played some of their greatest hits. The sound was very well adjusted, no loud bass, which was almost a first that day.


Performance

Ten minutes before the actual show time an intro started, causing the crowd to be even more anxious for the curtain to drop and the show to begin. Guards with baseball bats came from behind the curtain and inspected both crowd and stage… then the curtain was dropped and quickly moved off stage.
A huge metal platform covering the stage from left to right was revealed, it was about 2 meters high and in the middle the drums were set up with beneath it two doors. They opened and out came till, as for the other members, they were already on the platform.
After the first song all musicians disappeared and then came on stage again through the doors, marching behind each other like a small army. They were dressed in a mixture of lederhosen and army outfits. Till looked as if he was some kind of circus director, only in Rammstein style. During every song something was set on fire, whether it was the stage or the band members themselves. A huge amount of lamps were used during the entire performance, they were moved into different formations sometimes even forming patterns, for instance during ‘Amerika’ they were in the same colours and patterns as the American flag.
 During this song the keyboard of “Flake” had wheels and seemed to be some kind of skateboard with a pole on which a keyboard could be placed. During ‘Feuer Frei’ Rammstein put on their flame throwing face masks and heated things up some more, even Till’s microphone stand was burning, each time though all was neatly removed and fires were put out with wet towels. Safety comes first. ‘Du Hast’ caused the platform on stage to light up as flames were shooting out of it. Darkness had set in but when ‘Sonne’ was played it almost seemed to be day again for the entire stage was lit with bright yellow light and flames as high as the stage it self were coming from the stage. You could smell them even at the back of the festival area. When Till was counting “eins, hier kommt die sonne’, zwei…” more and more flames appeared from the stage. After ‘Ich Will’ ‘Engel’ set in and both main stages bathed in bright light, but the song never went on, it was used as an outro with just the backing vocals and some light musical support from the hard disk.
 Some have said that Rammstein didn’t have their usual power. It might have been a bit less but if you consider the fact that that afternoon three members had to cancel a meet and great because they were too exhausted and had to stay in their hotel room, they have performed an amazing show.


Setlist
01. Reise, Reise
02. Links 2-3-4
03. Keine Lust
04. Feuer Frei! 
05. Sehnsucht
06. Morgenstern
07. Mein Teil
08. Stein um Stein
09. Stripped
10. Du riechst so gut
11. Du Hast
12. Asche zu Asche
13. Amerika
14. Rammstein
15. Sonne
16. Ich will
 

Rating

Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 8
Light 8
Total  8




 

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