I arrived and was very surprised at first. I’ve never experienced such a smooth arrival – the street, festival ground, tent ground, my place, all fast and good. I started to walk over to the festival ground and checked the stands there. I got a black sausage in a black bun with black mustard. What a pure metal meal, haha! So, I went to watch the first band of the day, the German rock band The New Roses. They played some fine old school rock stuff and the people loved it. The sun was shining, the beers were cold, the sun glasses gleamed and the music was appropriate as an opener of the festival.
The next guys on stage were the German Death Metallers Hackneyed. The guys rocked the stage, playing many songs from their newer stuff and I must admit that this wasn’t as good as the old ones. But overall, it was fun to get crazy with these guys. The next Death Metal band followed: The Danish Illdisposed. They had a great set list and ruled the ground with their groovy Death Metal brutality. The crazy frontman talked to the crowd in broken German and the crowd had fun listening to the guy, too.
It was a great combination of powerful music and likable guys. The venue filled with people during the performance, because of the next band: Soilwork. From the beginning, they delighted us in many ways. The set list was awesome, the people went crazy and the frontman and the others interacted with us to motivate us to get crazy and headbang as if it would be our last day on earth. It was fun to see so many people on the ground moving to the awesome mixed sound. The fine mood continued while Gamma Ray played. It was great to be there, because I never saw them live before, but it was worth it.
After them, the headliner of the day Saxon began to perform their show. I admit, it’s not my kind of favorite music, but they convinced me with their show. The sound, riffs and the show itself was very fine and the people in the crowd (more than ever) celebrated the good old heavy metal stuff. For the end of the day, Enslaved came on stage to finish the first day. It was a perfect show in any sense. The sound was awesome and the set list was atmospheric, catchy to headbang to and heavy altogether. Overall this first day was a perfect start for the festival. The bands put up fine performances, the sound was awesome and the lights supported this all very well. My personal highlights were Enslaved, Soilwork, Illdisposed and the crazy black meal.
