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Artists: Blind Guardian, Epica, Freak Kitchen, Powerwolf, Mystic Prophecy, Stormwarrior, Power Quest, Manigance, Lonewolf, Beyond The Labyrinth, Stonegoats, Nereids Venue: Lotto Mons Expo, Mons, Bergen, Belgium Date:
8 April 2012
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Well
it's back on the Metal warpath once more as Day 3 of PPM Fest 2012 gets
underway. Sadly, due to a rather late night and not getting back
to our hotel until the wee small hours, we needed time to recuperate
after the great day yesterday, so we had to miss the first band of the
day France’s Nereids. Although from what I heard
at the bar, they gave left a lasting impression on those early birds who
managed to get out of bed on Easter Sunday and catch these Symphonic
Metallers in action. So
our day got underway with Belgium’s Stonegoats, who despite the
name, (not the Death Metal band we expected with that name), played
Heavy Metal much in the vain of The Black Label Society, with big chunky
riffs laid down on a heavy bass and drum foundation. The band led
by the larger than life Oli on vocals, the twin guitars of Julien and
Gael and that monster rhythm section I mentioned of Lio on bass and Rony
on drums, delivered a groove filled metal set that really set a great
foundation for the rest of the day. Like all the early bands of
the festival, short sets but very impressive and Stonegoats definitely
left you wanting more.
Another
band to impress were Beyond The Labyrinth, another band
hailing from Belgium. These guys delivered Classic / Melodic Hard
Rock that I just loved, as did those who gathered at the Alpha stage. The
band opened up with ‘The Girl With The X-Ray Eyes’, a great hard
rock opener, but it wasn't until when the band really got going with
‘Tomorrow Is Gone’, that the crowd really warmed to them.
There were more than a few heads starting banging along, which proved
even this early in the day, it was clear the Mons crowd were up for
anything. Frontman
PG Haggerty showed his vocal prowess on the excellent ‘The Peter
Principle’ while guitarist Geert Fieuw showed he has some guitar moves
on this one. The hard rocking continued with the moody rocker
‘In Flanders Fields’, before picking the tempo back up in a big way
with ‘Fear’s The Killer’. This great set was capped off
perfectly with ‘Beyond The Labyrinth’ and like all the Belgium bands
on over the three days, these guys showed that Belgium really is a hot
bed of Rock talent and is just as diverse as it is rich.
Another
band waving the flag for French Metal were Lonewolf who opened up
their account on the Omega stage with a towering assault on the senses
with titanic metal anthems like ‘Hell Bent For Metal’, ‘Made In
Hell’ and the rampaging ‘Viktoria’. All no holds barred
metal that showed these wolves were baying for blood this day and they
were taking no prisoners. It
was back to the Alpha stage for another slice of French Metal, this time
it was Manigance who would deliver a more Symphonic Metal sound
than the Heavy Metal of fellow countrymen Lonewolf and unlike Lonewolf,
Manigance sang all their lyrics in their native French, which had this
reviewer a little confused, because being unfamiliar with the band and
not knowing any of their material, I couldn’t put together a set list
or tell you which songs they performed. However, this also meant I
could just stand back and listen to the them and enjoy what Didier
Desaux, Bruno Ramos, Jean Lahargue, Francois Merle and Marc Duffau did
on stage with no pressure, and despite the language barrier, I really
got what the band were all about, well musically at least.
To
say I was waiting with baited breath for the next band to hit the stage
would have been a understatement. As a long time fan of Power
Quest, I know that the band deserve to be playing these type of
events. This business throws up more curve balls than most for
this band, but over
recent years Steve Williams has kept "The Quest" going,
knocking every
ball out of the park and showing that Power Quest are a band to be
reckoned with. More
recently the band have seen new frontman Colin Callanan join the fold and
today would be his baptism of fire with his very first taste of
performing at a big festival. However, like the true Celtic
warrior he is, he grasped the challenge with both hands and proved he
was more than capable of delivering the goods and more. Today the
band hit the stage running,
opening up, what turned out to be the best show the band have done in
years, with the instrumental ‘Battlestations’, before Callanan
exploded onto the stage and the band broke into ‘Rising Anew’, taken
from the bands latest album ‘Blood Alliance’. The crowd
instantly warmed to the guys, we even had a few crowd surfers appear
early on in the set, which has to be a Power Quest first. Callanan
really got into his stride whipping up the crowd and getting them to
clap along as the band went into their back catalogue for the storming
‘Cemetery Gates’, with the twin guitars of Andy Midgley and Gav Owen
bouncing off each other each, sharing the licks and this double axe
attack really adding that extra dimension to the older material. The
classic Power Quest material continued with the towering symphony that
is ‘Edge Of Time’, with Callanan showcasing what a terrific vocal
force he is and what a great stage presence he has, as he covered nearly
every inch of the stage, whipping the crowd to almost fever pitch.
The Quests fans were out in force and there were more then a few had
traveled great distance to be here today. Callanan cottoned on to
this early and even managed to get a few of their die hard fans down the
front to sing along with him. Rolling
back the years to the very start, the band continued with ‘Powerquest’,
which really got the Mons crowd behind these guys even more. The
crowd surfers were hanging five big time, as the band took things to
whole new level with ‘Temple Of Fire’, before rounding up a
fantastic performance with ‘Neverworld’. The band took time
out to pose for a quick photo with the crowd behind them, while the
chants of ... “Power Quest! Power Quest!” ... filled the
room. As
a fan and friend of the band, I’ve never felt prouder. The band
have gone through so much over recent years that at times things looked
doubtful for the future of the band, but I like to think of Power Quest
as six jigsaw puzzles that have been mixed in the same box, it just
taken a bit of time for all the pieces to come together and Callanan is
the final piece of that puzzle. Now they can go forward and become
the band I know they can and are destined to be. The Quest goes on!
After
the triumphant set of Power Quest it was time to return to the more
traditional Heavy Metal with German / Danish Metallers Stormwarrior.
Who after their intro, set about delivering a monstrous set that got
underway in emphatic style with ‘Heathen Warrior’. This was
followed instantly by the massive ‘Fyre & Ice’. The band
may hail from Germany and Denmark, but they're actually heavily
influenced by Nordic legends, and Lars Ramcke and the rest of the band
bring these influences with them in to today’s set, with ‘Odinn’s
Warriors’ and fast and furious ‘Ragnarok’, taken from the band's
third studio album ‘Heading Northe’. Keeping
with 'Heading Northe', the band really brought forth the big licks on
the fantastic ‘Metal Legacy’ and the storming title track ‘Heading
Northe. The pace was kept going with ‘Heavy Metal Fire’,
before going back to 'Heading Northe' for towering epic and guitar
frenzy that is ‘Iron Gods’. A great end to a massive riff
laden set. The
German connection continued on the Omega stage with Mystic Prophecy
led by R.D Liapakis, who along with Markus Pohl, Constantine, Connie
Andreszka and Tyronne Silva, kept the day going with another fine set of
power driven metal, with the highlight for me being ‘Eyes Of The
Devil’ and ‘Sacred Souls’. With
the majority of the crowd already gathered around the Alpha stage for
Romania’s Powerwolf, it was clear this band had an army of fans
ready to welcome their heroes to the stage. Even before the lights
went down you could feel the air expectancy all around. And
when the lights did go down and Attila Dorn, Matthew Greywolf, Charles
Greywolf, Falk Maria Schlel and Roel ven Hexden hit the stage, all the
waiting had been well worth while, as the band opened up one of the sets
of the day with 'Sanctified With Dynamite', with Dorn blessing the crowd
with incense before showing off his vocal might. The twin guitars
of the Greywolf’s simply enthused energy and might. Even Schlel
stepped away from the keyboards to incite the crowd into a metal frenzy. The
Metal Mass continued with ‘Prayer in the Dark’, before raising a
salute to metal with the excellent ‘We Drink Your Blood’, before
picking up the tempo with ‘All We Need Is Blood’. Despite the
titles you couldn’t help admire the bands theatrics and their ability
to give the crowd what they wanted, all with a little tongue in cheek
repartee. The
highly melodic metal continued with the fantastic ‘Dead Boys Don’t
Cry’ and ‘Werewolves of Armenia’, before the epic ‘Raise Your
First Evangelist’. The
blood theme continued with the anthemic ‘In Blood We Trust’, before
this fantastic set came to its conclusion with ‘Lupus Dei', with Dorn
giving a final blessing to the Fest. Definitely a band that is
worth checking out and definitely one of the bands of the festival for
me. I like to be entertained by a band and Powerwolf sure did
that.
Such
was the diversity of this years PPM Festival that next up were
Gothenburg’s finest Freak Kitchen, who both musically and
visually couldn’t even be bracketed anywhere near Powerwolf, but were
just as entertaining. This power trio of Mattias Eklundh, Christer Ortefors and Bjorn Fryklund style could only be described as Improv Hard Rock, with Orterfors dressed in full military uniform, looking like he was just back from maneuvers, complete with helmet and goggles. But
their spin on Hard Rock touched with humour was a joy to watch and
listen to, as they opened their set with ‘God Bless The Spleen’, a
great opener that really put the fun in funky. Eklundh
really got the crowd behind the band by bringing a little phraseology
into the mix, by getting the band to yell ... ”GOODIE GOODIE” ... if
they liked what they were hearing and liked it we did. As
the band kept the fun time grooves going with ‘Porno Daddy’ and the
fantastic ‘Speak When Spoken Too’, a quick ... “GOODIE GOODIE”
... and to check all was well, then a quick change of pace and tempo
with a little funky/jazz infusion in ‘Tear Gas Jazz’, before the
melodic 80’s rock of ‘My Favourite Haircut’. By this time
even festival organizer Tony was down the front joining in on the fun and really
getting his groove on, with what Eklundh described as "Pop from
Hell" with ‘Vaseline Business’. Next
it was time for a big bass thumper with ‘Hateful Little People’,
before Ortefors took up the mike duties for ‘Razor Fudge’, as the
band brought the crowd into the mix for a little sing-a-long. Then
it was back to the funko-metal with Propaganda Pie’,
before the set was closed off as it started, with two great melodic
rockers in 'Nobody’s Laughing’ and 'Murder Groupie’, the first of
these dedicated to Natalie. It
was a quick ... "GOODIE GOODIE" ... and the crowd replied in
kind in joyous
approval of what had gone before. These three crazy guys from Gothenburg sure
made a lot of new fans today, myself included.
Another
band I was really looking forward to seeing from today’s line-up were Epica,
but they turned out to be the only let down of the whole three days for me,
mainly due to the poor sound. It was a case of everything louder than
everything else and the set really suffered because of this. At
times Simone Simons vocals were totally drowned out by the bass, but despite
all this, the vast crowd really seemed to like what they were watching,
even it we couldn’t make out most of the vocals.
The epic metal continued with ‘Welcome to Dying’ from their 1990 'Tales From The Twilight World’, which was the band at their very best and the crowd showed the appreciation in equal parts by cheering and raising their metal horns. It was only song three of the set and the band were about to turn up the heat with the excellent ‘Nightfall’, before bringing in the more folkish elements with the stunning tales of the Wicker Witches on ‘Turn The Page’, with Kursch delivering those now legendary power vocals that we’ve come accustomed to. It was back to ' At The Edge of Time' for ‘A Voice in the Dark’, bringing the tempo and atmosphere to almost fever pitch once more. Then we journeyed back again to ' Tales From The Twilight World’ for the stunning ‘Lost in the Twilight Hall’, before bringing the classic heavier sound of Blind Guardian with the triumphant ‘Valhalla’, with the Mons Choir joining the band on the chorus. Next it was on with the truly epic salute to 'Sauon The Dark Lord’ with what else but ‘Lord Of The Rings’.
This way my first taste of PPM and hopefully it won't be my last. This weekend has to be one of the best organised festivals I’ve been to in my entire life (and I've been to quite a few!). I would like to thank Tony for putting it together; the army of volunteers behind and in front of the scenes; all the staff in the press section for arranging interviews with bands; the every cheerful bar staff who always had a glass of beer ready when you went and the lovely ladies who acted as "guardians of the toilets" inside the main hall. You know who you are! But most of all, I'd like to thank the people of Mons for making us feel so welcome. We may have been strangers in a strange land, but with Metal in our hearts we stood side by side, brothers and sisters in arms. |
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