After a late breakfast at the festival entrance, I went to the new shower facilities, which the organizers have newly announced this year. Honestly, I think the old ones are better and maybe I was unlucky with the hot water, but at least I was awake after the cold shower. So all in all it was quite okay. Afterward, I went back across the campground. The weather was extremely nice and especially the Harz mountain region is also known for its beautiful landscape and that was also noticeable here: Festival visitors liked to walk up the “Devil’s Wall”. This is a chain of rocks that is on the top of a hill. From the top, there is a great view of the whole festival. In fact, this is a unique experience that does not exist at every festival. As it seemed, the good weather on Thursday made many people walk on the hill. I decided to go a day later on it. The last time was truly some years ago.
After a bit of time at the campground and a late lunch, I finally went to the festival ground. My day started with Scar Symmetry. I haven’t listened to them for ages, but back then I liked them a lot, so I wanted to see them live at Rockharz. Scar Symmetry were pretty cool and dug up some songs I knew from the past. But unlike the last time I saw them, nothing happened release-wise either. Since 2014 there was no new record released. So the gig was quite good, even if the sound was for unknown reasons not as good as the music style necessary it is, but it also lacked something new.
The next musical appointment was Dark Funeral. After the guys released the three fresh singles “Let the Devil in”, “Nightfall”, and “Leviathan”, finally the album ‘We are the Apocalypse’ came out. This album had to be promoted and that’s what Dark Funeral did except for the track “Nightfall”. In their usual outfits, they didn’t focus on their album only but played a nice mix of their discography. So it was a powerful black metal performance and the crowd liked it. After this performance, I noticed the previously mentioned beer vending machines again. The waiting time at the drink stands was sometimes really long. So if you just want a beer, you just go to one of the beer vending machines and tap it yourself. All in all, it was much faster and less complicated. The concept can stay like this at the festival!
After that, it was the turn of the Gothenburg Death metallers Dark Tranquility. From the first second on the band was powerful and played with a wonderful clear sound, so, nothing stood in the way of a good performance. The audience celebrated every single song and many hairs flew. Mikael Stanne‘s likable way to inspire and drive the people was fully effective and they enjoyed the well-mixed set of the guys on stage. So far Dark Tranquillity was my highlight of the festival. My last planned event was Powerwolf. I am not a huge fan of them and I listen to them at home quite rarely and then only certain songs, but I must say that live it is always a great show that is worth watching. Other visitors seemed to think so too because the festival ground was full like never before. The first and only time I felt that it was full and the festival is sold out. Until then it was actually always quite comfortable on the festival ground. No matter where I was standing, there were people who enjoyed the guys from Powerwolf and shouted lyrics from the songs while the singer Karsten Brill alias Attila Dorn had incited them to do so. It was very fun to see the guys live.
The surprise of the evening was the after-headliner show afterward: The German medieval band Knasterbart (translated something like tobacco beard). They withdraw the last energy out of the bodies of the visitors, a very nice performance, which invited them to the party and to drink.
