... and within this package tonight in the Elserhalle, the slogan once
again is, that quite a few people are here for the second supportband.
Why? Because Annihilator are an institution in Heavy Metal for the past
20 years and longer surviving all depths and hights within the business.
The headliner Trivium are more popular at the young generation. And it
is their tour most of all. The third act on the bill is Sanctity, who
I've never heard of before, to be honest.
But never mind, there is a first time for everything, and nobody is
knowing everything.
They are named Sanctity
and they are from North Carolina having one album out yet - named 'Road
To Bloodshed'. These guys try really hard, and the aprox. 700 Trivium
and Annihilator fans seem to like them quite a bit, which is shown by
all these arms in the air. And who knows, maybe they are the
shootingstars of tomorrow.
http://www.sanctityweb.com/

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Annihilator, this is most
of all Jeff Waters. Everybody else in the band is replaceable. And there
have been quite a few replacements during the last years. This time it's
David Padden who shares the vocal microphone with Jeff. And yes indeed,
he is a great vocalist, but with very little aura.
A big disadvantage at Annihilators performance are the terrible
lightconditions. Or better described, - there ain't no light at all.
Even the best camera can't take a decent pic without flash. Because the
ammount of light seems like a single candle shine up there. Thanks god,
it is sooo bad, that even the security showed mercy and let us use the
neccessary flash by taking pics. I have to admit, I hardly ever have
seen such a huge reduction of light at a supportact, like in this case.
As we all know,
supportbands don't have that much time,mostly just about 45 minutes to
play whatever they are able to put in their setlist. So Annihilator
present us three songs from the new album 'Metal', and apart from that
their old time classic tunes: ‚Never
Neverland’, Refresh The Demon’, ‚Set The World On Fire’ und last
but not least their biggest
shoot ‚Alice In Hell’. For this very last song Jared the singer of
Sanctity comes on stage to join Annihilator - powerful, energetic with
full sound volume. And again....700 kids show a lot of reaction and
devotion to this lot.
Lucky we, that there is
Europe, where this kinda music is still popular to a certain extend. Not
so in Canada according to Jeff, and he did already think about moving
over here. However, Let's wish the band good luck and hopefully a bit
more popularity, because they are good as I know since 1988.
http://www.annihilatormetal.com/

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The third stroke is
Trivium and they start the set with 'Entrance
Of The Conflagration'. This here is a young enthusiastic rockband, who
is just starting out to conquer the world. They do not own such a name
like Annihilator, but the currently enjoy a higher popularity. Whereby
I'm not sure, whether this is due to the pretty faces of the guys in the
group, most of all the one of Matthew Kiichi Heafy, or rather it's the
music, which ain't anything new or spectacular. One thing is for sure,
the frontrow is filled with young girls admireing obviously the band up
there with sparkling eyes. And Matthew responds with the song: "Dying
In Your Arms". But fortunately there are still enough male fans in
the audiance, who rock to Trivium's 'Ember To
Inferno' and 'Requiem'
http://www.trivium.org/
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You
can see, that this band still needs to practice some stage presence, and
the voice is not in a brilliant condition tonight.
However, the
set also includes tracks like:
'Like Light To The Flies' and 'Detonation'.
In the end Trivium pays tributte to Metallica and Manowar with 'Masters
Of Puppets' and 'Fighting The World' and Rammstein's 'Du Hast'.
Finishing off the gig with
'A Gunshot To The Head Of
Trepipation' and 'Pull
Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr'. No setlists available
unfortunately.
In
the end we longtime HM lovers are sure, that the actual winner of
tonight are certainly Annihilator, or should I better name it Jeff
Waters and band, who have proved, that they still sound good, even after
more than 20 years. So why not moving over here...? Because here in
Germany you are definately at home.
Solong.....
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