Indeed Heybourne's vocals have become rougher, but he still has that special recognizable voice!
So, for the rest. First a little about what HOA is; it's in fact just a big Metal party in someone's garden. It's not that big really but over the years alot of famous 80's bands have played here. It's a bit like KIT but in open air and a bit smaller (although the bands playing here are just as good).
So from start on;
Thursday;
Lick the Blade : started just as we arived and heard them from a distance, nothin' special
Bullet; missed them becouse we went to check in at the hotel
Q5; first interesting band, very good live and offcourse the "Missing in Action" classic was the first song the fans shouted along;
Next up were Tank...Withouth the original singer it isn't really Tank. This guy sounded way to clean for Tank, but still overall it was a good gig !
Vicious Rumors closed on Thursday and they did a fantastic show. Als ex-vocalist StPierre did alot of old songs. Best band on Thursday for sure !!
The current vocalist Ronnie Stixx is awesome btw !!
On Friday Lonewolf opened. Again just heard a few songs from far becouse , nothin' special I think.
Memory Garden started of with a doom song, quit liked that, but for the rest they suddenly changed to a more progmetal band. Not bad !!
Next up were Piledriver. Saw them at KIT and they really sucked monkey balls there. Same story here, don't understand why they got them here, they must have seen the KIT gig ???
Next up were Enforcer and Jacobs Dream... Missed them becouse we went to eat some Schnitzel at a local restaurant...
Exxplorer, we saw them at KIT earlier this year and again they showed why they are one of the most underrated bands ever. Great musicians, crushing US metal !!! Strange they never get more than a 100 people to watch them at shows in the US :-/
Neil Turbin's "Deathriders" ... Mixed feelings about them; the old Anthrax songs sounded awesome but the Deathriders songs sounded bad. I think Neil Turbin needs a bunch of better musicians !
Helstar killed, slayed, ruled... Saw them several times the past years and they never let down...As most know or not know Rivera sung with Vicious Rumors a while. Rivera left VR in a fight but the guys made up and even played some songs together !!! Awesome !!
Pretty Maids hadthe hard job playing after Helstar...PM are a very good band, but their 90's music is so flat commercial at times. The good old (read "hard") stuff though is really good. Great musicians and vocalist !
Manilla Road closed on Friday....Mmmmm, I'm not a big fan, and so isn't my mate, so we left after a few songs. They played a 2 hour gig untill 2.30 AM or so. I think Manilla Road has more a cult reputation than actually being a great band, although fans will kill me for saying that
Saturday was opened by Zed Yago, a German band. Quit good in the 80's but the new (female) vocalist wasn't very good.
Portrait were next. Saw them at KIT and didn't like them. Back than they sounded like a very bad Mercyful Fate clone. The new vocalist is somewhat better though, but now the guitar player completely messed up with some solos I would do better after 6 months of practice. This band is widely overrated !!
Next up came the NWOBHM attack. First Cloven Hoof. Not my top favorit NWOBHM band but a very good gig anyway !! A few songs they were accompanied by the guitar player of Roxxcalibur, nice !!
Tysondog, another band that was on my "want-to-see" list for a long time. The original vocalist unfortunately isn't in the band anymore but the replacement vocalist (from Avenger) did a good job, funny guy !!Very clean and "heavy" guitarsound !! On of the suprises of the festival !
We missed Paradox and the french Killers for another batch of Wiener Schnitzels and returned for Tankard. You know, the funny German beer 'n' thrash band. The by now dead drunk Germans seemed to like it alot
Nightshade we only listened from the car as it was raining. Sounded like a good concert though, but we just didn't feel to stand out there in the rain....
For my taste the best 2 gigs followed being Angel Witch (see above) and The Rods. I expected for some reason a good gig from the Rods, but their hard rock/metal mix really sounded heavenly !! It was a very welcome change in style compared to the more traditional metal we mostly get at these festivals! The played a not so long gig, so they blend some songs together. But it was just the right time and place for this concert. Straight went to the goodies shop and bought the special edition Rods shirt for HOA !! Little guys with a big sound
Closer for the festival were Razor from Canada. They performed a skull crushing thrash/crossover show. No rest , just 1.5 houre of straight forward power. I guess the guys standing in front really took out their last pieces of strenght to mosh, thrash and bang... Although miles away from the Rods style, I quit liked the raw power of Razor !
That's all I guess... Left to say I will be there for sure next year, as announced bands already are Culprit, Raven, Jag Panzer, Roxxcalibur, Rock Goddes, Virgin Steel, Battleaxe and a bunch more !!!!!
. Like I said before the kindest musician I´ve ever met (and I write for a webzine and talk usually with a lot of musicians). Last time I saw him was a month ago at Metalway Festival in Saragossa (Spain) ready to rock with his wife and son longing for seeing Manowar and Barón Rojo.
