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... 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/ 

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/ 

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/

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.....