Metal Invasion Köln

Volume 2 of the funniest and least expected weekend of the year so far.

I can't say I was not prepared. We are talking about a Metal Invasion with Freedom Call headlining for god's sake! It is a show I'm prepared for anytime. Let's not talk about the 3 hours sleep and 3 hours of bus ride before the festival, because that does not matter when Freedom Call plays.
My hostel was in a perfect location, at least in the matter of transportation, the venue was not that close. Let's just mention, that it was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees and sweet cottages. Had some doubts right at my arrival, how I'm gonna get back at night, but that comes later, the whole evening is in front of me at that point :)

So it was a small festival - one day with german heavy metal bands. Was eyeing with the festival for some time, but decided to give in to the lure around one week before. Who could say no for a Freedom Call show? Oh, I said that already :D I was curious about the other bands too, especially Dragonsfire and Sinbreed. (Un)fortuantely I succeeded to see 2 out of 3, and as I arrived a bit late, I've seen the very end of Wolfen's show, and some part of Layment.

The venue was sweet. The organization was fine, small little chips for the drinks, purple for the glass and pink for the drinks, even the prices were reasonable (even for little mid-east european girl). I missed only one thing, which was the cloakroom, but oh well, you can't have it all (or actually you can, but not this time). I was looking around if I can see some familiar faces (as it always happens on an FC show), and I was even cheating, as I checked the RSVPs on the Facebook event, and saw some people I recognized 'spamming' the fanpage of FC. No girls, I'm not talking about you, no no :P But how I met them was funny, at least for me.

Now back to the music, that's why we here, right? I was just roaming around and listening to Layment, and thought I still have time to take the first line, as the people just started to gather around, not a big crowd yet. I still got caught in the music, even tho the preps were in german, I did understand a lot. The band is fine, I recommend them to listen.

Then I've decided that it's time to move closer for Dragonsfire. What a show. Serious blast there. They seemed to enjoy the show so much, I started to be warmed up right away. I really did like how they smiled through the whole show, ran up and down the stage and lived with the already gathering fans. I didn't have time to listen to them too much before, but I still could sing some songs with them. Not that loud and enthusiastic as I do usually, but still did my part. As this was the first show for me, was really surprised when they brought out a jar full of cider. Knew the song, but a jar of cider? Listen to it: Cider victims.

And then as I felt my place secured (ye, still not that many people), I went out for some refreshment, and I finally saw who I knew to be there. I must have looked extremely stupid going to 2 girls talking in english with each other. Pick up line: "I know you". You should've seen their faces. Like a girl in the middle of a festival talking english claiming to know you. Probably a quite weird impression I could've made... but Sabine and Djoeke are just too much fun to take it as an offense, and obviously came the question - what the hell, from where do you know us. Well, girls, you are spamming FC Official :P and I read and listen. A lot. 

I got to the conclusion again and again - fans of the Happy Metal are cool, like supercool. Meanwhile in an other galaxy - as in on the stage Sinbreed started to play - but I had such a good time outside, that I had no intention at all to go inside. Somewhere then Chris just came and I got a greeting and a hug. And honestly, I start not to be surprised on that, nothing has changed, he just saw me enough times to recognize me :D 

What I didn't know, that the girls were not alone. They had the whole dutch commando with them. To find crazier and more fun group would be a hard thing to do. I've met a lot of FC fans, I did. All of them fun and crazy, but these guys put the bar so high, I had my stomach hurting for 2 days of laughter. Monique, Bas, Duck, Pieter and Maarten. Wow, guys. With Mr. Conductor Pieter we sang Warriors and Power and Glory word by word around the table. At that point I knew pretty well, that this show will be one of the happiest happy metal show I've ever been to. And it actually was.

Can't recall who made the pic, Sabine or Bas but kudos for you!

We went to the stage. Middle - first lines obviously. And the show started. We knew beforehand that Lars won't play as he was still doing his producing stuff in California (and nobody was jealous). I was very curious about the guy who was playing instead of him this evening. Joshi did an amazing job. I have to admit, that we did help a lot in the singing part :D Perfect setlist, lovely songs, and the music and fun we all got used to. You just can't feel bad on their show. See, see:

And the best part of the evening was still ahead of us. As exhausted and voiceless we were, smiling the way out to the gardens, and the fun just continued there. Gathered all our chips left and exchanged for beers, and guys were singing some dutch songs. So in the weekend I kept expanding my foreign folk/children/drunkard song knowledge. And then the band came out, as they almost always do. The small pack of us who left there could talk with them. The most interesting part was how they listen to you and getting interested, and being open for anything you have to say. I completely honour them, and appreciate them for what they are, what they do for me through the music they create, the conversations we have and the people they bring into my life.

Thank You all for this extremely fun day and night, and we'll see each other in Duisburg!

Playlist for the whole festival - at least all I've found on Spotify: Metal Invasion Köln

xoxo \m/

Szi

Powerwolf - Battle Beast - Serenity

Hello!

Took me a long time to be able to write this post. It was not a conventional Friday.
The weekend in the beginning of April was not planned, it just came to my way. Friday 1st of April. Could've been a joke, but I've decided to go to a show which I've seen already earlier this year. I've decided to go to meet a friend and to see Frankfurt for myself for some personal reasons. Besides, I've never been at that part of Germany, so many opportunities to catch and bring the best out of this weekend.
So I booked my bus ticket like a week before, faced 12 hours of bus ride to accomplish all the above. I prepared as usual, after work picked my backpack and headed to the bus station. Fell asleep fast, and woke up in the crack of dawn for some snow in the middle of Germany. The bus got stuck in the traffic, was clearly visible we'll be late. A lot. And we were. Almost 5 hours late. That was stolen away from me from the sightseeing, oh well, I'll just have to come back.
I just checked in my hostel, did a short sightseeing in my surroundings (my hostel was in the red-light district), which was not that bad daylight as I thought. Unfortunately I can't say Frankfurt crept beneath my skin. Got my lunch and it was already time to get ready for the show.

I can't deny that I was excited to see again Daniel and Toni, you might remember them. Deep core fans of Powerwolf, following them on almost all steps of the tour. I've decided to get there way earlier than usual, even before the official door opening just to catch up with them. I thought I might be able to see them putting on the make-up. I was extremely curious how men do makeup like that, After 110+ shows it must be easy-cheesy routine work. Prepped myself and took the metro. The signs said that the metro is not going till the end of the line - which was my destination. So I took an alternative, which made me walk like 20 mins. The weather was perfect, sun and breeze all the way to Batschkapp. Fortunately I bumped directly into the guys doing makeup on their car. I have to admit, it was funny to see. But it gave us the opportunity to talk a bit (not only the latenight chat after the last show). As soon as they were ready, we stood in the queue, which already reached almost the gates of the venue, around 100-150 meters far from the entrance. There were some misunderstanding about the opening times, but I've decided earlier anyway, that I didn't want to fight for the first line. My goal this time was to listen the show from the crowd so hearing everything in a way better quality given that I'll not see that much.
In the line I was able to hold Insanus a bit. He is the head of the Powerwolf fan club. Cute fluffy wolf. Gave him back fast to his dad, as you know I'm not a huge fan of cute fluffy things... They've even mentioned that it's rare for a girl/woman to get rid of him so fast. Oh well... Anyway the time passed fast in good company, and finally we were in, could get my beer and was searching for the masks in the crowd. Was not that hard to find them, so I re-joined them for the rest of the night, enjoyed the show around them.

The first band on the stage was Serenity. I had not much time to listen to them previously, but I knew they will have a great show. I wasn't disappointed. They had an awesome appearance on the stage. What I've noticed, that they did miss a woman's voice. Later I got told, that I was right, Nevertheless, they took the audience and there were some serious hadbanging even in the mid-end of the hall, which proves they do have a place and a great future in the metal-scene. Follow me says all.
In between the bands I met 2 friends of Daniel from Sweden, Sara and Michelle. I can say the boring phrase - it was a beginning of a beautiful friendship. Seems we found the same voice right away. We'll see how it goes in a future, I truly hope this was not the last time for us :)

We've spend the time before Battle Beast talking and laughing, and waiting for them to finally come out to the stage. And they did! The energy didn't float from the stage, it has blown up the whole hall. If I had any spiritual sense, I'd say it was even visible. Their set was the same as in February, still a fantastic one. Unfortunately I don't have access to their album 'Steel' on Spotify, so here is the 2 songs they played, but can't put in the playlist: Iron hand and Enter the Metal World (I've chosen to link a live record here with Noora).

The sound from the middle was clearly better than from the first line, I had such a good time there just for looking at the girls having a lot of fun for the Touch in the night. I laughed a lot! :) "I'm a victim of my own desire" - could be the motto of my whole weekend if I would let it be, but I didn't.
Their show was a perfect performance. I loved how they interacted with the fans and the crowd, made us clap or hey or shout or sing with them. I loved again their joke with the beer what Eero poured down on Janne's throat while he was playing. I laughed at it again and again!
The show was again over too fast, and with Sara we went for some refreshment before Powerwolf.

And by the time we got back to our place, the band almost started. Matthew couldn't play this leg of their tour for doctors' advice, he was replaced for this short time with Markus from Mystic Prophecy. He did an extremely great job on the stage. I'm glad that we also sent a 'get-well' message for Matthew - the guys filmed it from the stage.

Again nothing new came from the stage in a matter of setlist, but it is a soooo well put together one, that they don't even need to alter it even a bit. The difference was for me, that Roel was actually behind the drums. But somehow Powerwolf seems to be a band which I need to wait to see with all full crew. Hopefully this summer sometime.
But stop dreaming about the future, the show is on the stage and I'm in sort of ecstasy. Can't really explain, but I believe it is about the whole atmosphere: from the stage installation through the people around me till the band and the lights and everything. They do make a unique appearance which perfectly replicates the music they play.

Credit for Jay Jay's Art

Credit for Jay Jay's Art

I have to say, that I always like to go to the city/country of a band to see them live. It seems way different. To use their own language, the fans themselves are different. They do appreciate the band like nowhere else. Seems when you play for your own kin, the world falls into its place. Even tho as an 'outsider' I felt home in the crowd. I felt people surrounding me are my friends and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I appreciated a lot being close to Daniel and Toni. They were even recognized from the stage. It was their 112th Powerwolf show - such a number, right? Anyway they knew how to enjoy a show, was easy to follow them shouting, was easier than from everywhere else in the audience. We've jumped and shouted and shouted and jumped, and knelt down for Lupus Dei and OoOoOo'd for Armata Strigoi.

Credit for Jay Jay's Art

Then the fire and the last song left me out of myself, breathless and exhausted.

The last very not conventional part for me was the end of the show. I did not go anywhere to make photos or chat with the bands. This concert was not about that really.

Was hoping to be able to chat with Daniel a bit more, but c'mon it was his hometown and he seemed to know everyone. Which is fine, I'd probably have the same here. We left the venue and they departed to the next stage of the tour. BUT we had some fun time with Sara and Michelle, and Madlen joined later on - I was extremely happy to meet them. Young fun and full of energy. Also I was more than lucky that they headed to the centre after the show, so Madlen dropped me out very close to my hostel, for what I'll be always thankful.
I also expanded my knowledge about swedish child songs, which the girls sang so funny, for some we even got the dance moves. :D
As I said before I'm pretty sure we'll meet somewhere again this year.

Here you can find the night's playlist: Powerwolf - Battle Beast - Serenity


xoxo  \m/
Szi