Zur deutschen Version gehts hier.
Find the report on Day 1 here!
My dear friends of friendly dance music, let’s continue with my thoughts/experiences/impressions of this year’s Merseburger Rocknacht. On Day 2 Core music was out and style mix was in! It was a true Metal fest, if I do say so myself. It even was a bit emotional, but more on that later.
Huge thanks, once again, to lightinmirror.de for the awesome pictures!
Day 2 was completely different from a musical standpoint, but it was not less energetic. The weather was perfect and the anticipation was huge (at least for me).
In hindsight, I have to admit that I was quite astounded how few people were present at the beginning. I get that some people are buying tickets for events like these in order to see a specific band, but why not use the ticket if you have it anyways and come for the whole day? The big area also caused people to be scattered everywhere, which enhanced the impression of not having a lot of people there in the beginning.
In any case, it was very good that on Saturday, minus a few incidents, everything was more punctual than Friday!
The day was kicked off by MAINPOINT, a Dark Rock band from the Baltic Sea. Even though it wasn’t bad music, I found them to be rather unfitting as an opener. On Friday, STESY animated the people more and brought more power. Dark Rock is not necessarily a genre that’s full of energy and more inert than other genres, such as the Metalcore STESY presented. If we had been in a dark club just before midnight, it would have been perfect.
Compared to that, the set presented by PATH OF DESTINY was a lot better. The band from Thuringia plays (Melodic) Death Metal in which you can also clearly hear some Black Metal influences. I’m an absolute Melodic Death Metal fangirl, which is why I was absolutely thrilled. Their music sounds like a darker version of KATAKLYSM. The guitars were amazing and there was not much need for more melodies! The vocals were delivered very well and really got to me. The scene should really take a closer look at this band!
A harsh cut followed and BORN FROM PAIN from the Netherlands took the stage. This band, founded in 1997, really destroyed the stage with their signature Hardcore Punk style. Without much embellishment, pure aggression was shown on stage, which broke out in a true musical inferno. When they added fire to the show, I was maybe a bit in love! It also became the surprise of the day for me. Before an event I’ll always listen to all the bands in order to decide who I want to interview and to know what to expect. Live performances are always different though from listening to the songs on vinyl/cd/stream. All the thumbs up for BORN FROM PAIN!
My personal highlight of the day however were the undead warriors of WARKINGS! In general, Power Metal is a genre that works almost every time and is (almost) always fun to listen to.
I have been aware of WARKINGS for quite some time, but have never had the opportunity to see them live. The mix of war hymns mixed with catchy melodies really got to me. I especially love the song Fight. Whoever had the idea of mixing the melody of Bella Ciao with this text deserves my gratitude! The performance itself was very entertaining and the band really connected with the crowd. If you think about going to one of their shows, then just do it! The performance on this Saturday was even more special because the band was spontaneously supported by the Transformer mascot provided by MediaLine. The undead warriors literally met Optimus Prime… That was a whole experience in itself! In any case, it was funny and strange!
Next in line were GRAVE DIGGER. They most certainly have their standing in the German Heavy Metal Szene. Their least, recently released album, even made it into the Charts! Even though I don’t listen to their music, I thought the performance was just the thing for those who are into old school Heavy Metal. The audience really enjoyed the performance though!
Before it was time for Saturday’s Headliner to take over, organizer Ingo Baberski and his wife came onto the stage to thank their many supporters and aides. This quite emotional moment showed that an event such as this doesn’t just happen like that but rather needs a lot of work behind the scenes!
The final band of the evening were the Thrash legends of SODOM. Judging by the number of people wearing their merch, SODOM just brought their entire fan club with them! The set contained classics like Agent Orange or Equinox to which the audience just went crazy! I’m not a SODOM fan, but you gotta see this at least once!
Overall, I really enjoyed these two days in Merseburg and I’ll attend next year, if they’ll have me. I want to thank the whole team for taking such good care of us. Everything from admission, to catering to communication before the event was just wonderful!
In the next days you’ll get more interview content, so stay tuned!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 