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Heart of Steel: Concert
Reviews
Brave Words and Bloody
Knuckles
Six-Pack Weekend II
June 4th and 5th , 2004
Review By: Night of the
Realm
Photos by: Night of the Realm & Maureen McQueeney
Friday, June 4th, 2004
The past 30 days have been a flurry of activity for me,
having spent a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, seeing the
Classic Metalfest 4 in Chicago, In Flames/Killswitch Engage/As I
Lay Dying in Toronto, and finally culminating with a trip to the
Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles Six-Pack Weekend II in
Cleveland. Unfortunately, now I am a poor bastard, so any
charity that you wish to send me in exchange for stories of my
metal adventures is welcome and appreciated.
Unfortunately, due to my rough work/school schedule at the
hospital, I was unable to leave for Cleveland until late Friday
afternoon. Thankfully, the only band that I recall wanting to
see on Thursday was Destructor. Sorry I missed them. With barely
a minute to spare, I hauled my ass home from downtown, made a
quick change and pack, then went to pick up my friend Dick Ward
(keyboardist – Cursed Eternity
www.cursedeternity.com). The drive from Detroit to Cleveland
was not bad, but by the time we left Detroit, we were already
guaranteed to miss Shadowkeep and Seven Witches, much to my
disappointment, I did not make a big effort to speed down there,
planning to make it just in time to see Doro’s set. Thanks to
some asshole teenager who rear-ended me while I was stopped
completely at a light in Oregon, Ohio (rot in hell, bitch!) as
we were going to McDonald’s for dinner, and thank you Mapquest
for the awful directions that put us on the wrong side of the
river, down by the project housing, in front of a concrete plant
(apparently, from what I read online, we were not the only
people who had Mapquest issues), we wound up getting there about
halfway through Doro’s set.
Upon entering the club, Doro was already well into her set.
The first lady of metal was in fine form, as expected. The Odeon
was fairly packed with metalheads, and Doro really generated a
large crowd response. I suppose coming into her set late had
some advantages, as the last songs she played were old Warlock
tunes: “Metal Tango,” “East Meets West, ” and the obligatory
anthem, “All We Are.”
Following Doro’s set, there was a small birthday celebration
to mark her 40th birthday that night, complete with birthday
cake (where’s my piece, dammit?!) and the crowd singing “Happy
Birthday.”
After Doro came the REAL reason why I attended the festival:
the first US performance of the almighty German Power Metallers
– GRAVE DIGGER!
When the lights went down and the intro to RHEINGOLD started
playing, one could feel the energy that had built up in the
crowd to slowly start to leak out. When the lights came back on
and Grave Digger came out playing “Rheingold,” the place just
exploded. Really, I could not be happier with the way things
turned out (well, maybe if Grave Digger played for another whole
hour). Grave Digger’s sound was excellent, and their stage
presence full of energy. It was obvious that the band was loving
every minute of the performance almost as much as I was. They
played a solid setlist, full of new and old material, although I
would have liked to hear more songs off RHEINGOLD (“Twilight of
the Gods,” anyone?) and KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS (“Baphomet”). Dick
became an instant Grave Digger fan once he learned that anyone
can sing along with a Grave Digger song as long as one can
repeat the title of the song four times at each chorus.
Here’s their setlist, which I believe is complete and in
order ‘cause I was writing it down:
Grave Digger’s Setlist:
Rheingold
Dark of the Sun
Son of Evil
Valhalla
The Reaper
Circle of Witches
Scotland United
Lionheart
Witchhunter
Excalibur
The Grave Digger
Morgane Lefay
Knights of the Cross
Rebellion (The Clans are Marching)
Heavy Metal Breakdown
During Grave Digger’s performance, I noticed Heart of Steel
from the
Metalgospel.org BB standing behind me, but could not find
him after the set to say hi. Unfortunately, I did not find
Imaginessa or any other MR Boarders over the weekend.
If I did not find Katatonia almost as boring onstage as I do
on album, I would almost have felt sorry for them having to
follow Grave Digger’s amazing performance. As it was, the place
practically cleared out after Grave Digger exited. While a death
metal band may have seemed out of place on a festival with so
many power/classic bands, Dismember certainly shattered that
misconception, as you will soon read.
We ended up leaving after only a couple songs, as my neck was
sore from headbanging through Grave Digger’s set, and that we
lacked a place to spend the night. As we exited the venue, we
ran into Brad Youngblood and Lynette DeBow of the Metal Music
Foundation and mastermind behind the excellent Classic Metalfest
(www.metal-music-foundation.com).
While I admit that Brad is a hella-cool guy, he gave us some bad
directions (or perhaps we just misheard him) to find a hotel,
and we wound up on the seedy side of Lorain street. (Hahaha…just
kidding, Brad). Thanks to further poor directions from a rather
large woman at the liquor store, as well as confusing downtown
Cleveland roads, we ended up right back where we started
downtown. Tired and pissed, we wound up driving ten miles
outside town to the Super 8 motel, and some late night Denny’s
before resting up for the next big day.
Saturday, June 5th, 2004
Rested up after a night of Grave Digger, getting lost, and
lots of beers, Dick and I turned ourselves loose on an
unsuspecting Downtown Cleveland for several hours worth of
sightseeing. I had no idea that Cleveland could be such a boring
city. Foregoing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which would
probably be quite interesting, were I not already in the throes
of a metal weekend), we decided to get a tour of the city via
our own two feet. Really the only two exciting events prior to
the show was a good lunch at the New Yorker (excellent club
sandwich and root beer – hell yeah!), and locking my keys in the
car as soon as we returned to downtown, losing an hour of my
time and $60 to the locksmith. (Special thanks to the nice
Indian girl at the Marriott Hotel for helping us to find a
locksmith downtown, even though I believe that she mistook us
for patrons of her hotel. “Did you ask your valet for help?” Me:
“Uhhh…yeah, we tried that already.”).
Heading back to the venue, Dick and I ran into Necromodeus
(Chas) and Xaphan (Sean) of Summon, as well as Remorseless
Wargrinder of Nocturnal Fear, representing the Lansing and
Detroit scenes along with us. We arrived back at the Odeon just
in time to catch Ion Vein kicking off the evening’s
performance. They were fairly decent, from what little I recall
of their set, somewhat prog-trad-power. I deferred much of Ion
Vein’s set in favor of hitting up the vendor’s tables to blow
the last of my cash.
Brainstorm was up next, their set being moved up a
half-hour or so because of Dreams of Damnation’s little breakup
the night before. If an award was given to the band who had the
most fun onstage and most convincing performance, it would be
these guys. It was obvious throughout their set that they loved
every minute they were up there. Vocalist Andy Franck got into
it most of all, interacting with the crowd, working them up, and
feeding on their energy. I can’t remember a single song they
played, but they were awesome!
Flotsam and Jetsam were up next, and they made a solid
performance. The crowd was already fired up from Brainstorm, but
Flotsam and Jetsam really kicked the fans into high gear with
another energetic performance. I only stuck around for perhaps
half of their set, first because I was never a huge F&J fan, and
second, because I was getting hungry and wanted to be ready for
Dismember, Primal Fear, and Metal Church. Next up was a pit-stop
to Buffalo Wild Wings next door. I must say that this was a most
convenient setup, having a good restaurant right next to the
club. Kudos to whomever thought that up!
I knew I should have stuck around to have another beer, but
unfortunately, we returned from dinner a little too soon and
caught the last half of Shok Paris’ set. Now, I had thought
Katatonia boring the previous night, but I would have greatly
preferred to have them back because Shok Paris could not have
sucked any more if they tried. Washed-up, tired, and pathetic,
this band had no place on the bill.
With that unpleasantness out of the way, Dismember
roared onto the stage, and damn if I was not blown away by the
power of their set.
Dismember did not relent at all through their entire
set, blazing through one song after another. It’s obvious why
these guys are at the top of the death metal scene. The setlist,
from what I recall, was a good mix of old songs as well as
plenty of offerings from their latest, WHERE IRON CROSSES GROW.
“Me-God,” “Let the Napalm Rain,” “Where Angels Fear to Tread,”
and my favorite from the new album, “Tragedy of the Faithful”
all appeared during the all-too-short performance.
After Dismember, it was time for Primal Fear. We
waited what seemed like an inordinate amount of time as
everything was set up for Primal Fear; you could feel the
tension building up in the crowd. When the lights came back up
and the opening lines for “Angel in Black” reached our ears, the
place went nuts! While Grave Digger had aroused a most
impressive response from the crowd the night before, it must
have been twice as loud and crazy for Primal Fear. I had seen
the band previously with the Metal Gods festival last year, and
they were in even better shape than last time.
The whole performance was tight, and Ralf’s voice was dead-on
for every song. The setlist, too, was very good, including most
of the old favorites, as well as a couple tracks from the new
album, DEVIL’S GROUND (the titles of which, I cannot recall).
Basically, here’s what they had (not in order), with a couple
others that I cannot remember:
Primal Fear’s Setlist:
Angel in Black
Chainbreaker
Battalions of Hate
Nuclear Fire
Silver and Gold
Fight the Fire
Running in the Dust
Living for Metal
Metal is Forever
Cheesy as it may be, I think various frontman antics and
other non-sensical behavior make the live setting complete, such
as Ralf leading the audience in an “I can scream higher, louder,
and longer than you all” during “Metal is Forever.” C’mon
people, it’s a metal show; you’re supposed to go over the top.
Unfortunately, Primal Fear’s performance was not without flaw
because their set was cut short by BW&BK about 30 seconds into
their encore, supposedly to ensure time for Metal Church’s full
set. While I agree with wanting as much Metal Church as
possible, what difference does five minutes make? I thought that
move was utter bullshit, and many people were seriously pissed
about the whole incident.
 Speaking
of Metal Church, the clock was beginning to tick down as
the most anticipated band of the fest, (for me as well as many
others) took the stage. I was not certain what to expect since
Vanderhoof and Arrington had essentially created an all-new
lineup with vocalist Ronnie Munroe, guitarist Jay Reynolds, and
bassist Steve Unger joining the camp. Opening up with the
all-time Metal Church classic, “Ton of Bricks,” any
trepidations, however small, were quickly dispelled. Standing
there, front row and nearly dead-center, headbanging like a
maniac, I was absorbing every minute of it. The band rolled
through the classics with ease, playing “Watch the Children
Pray,” “Start the Fire,” “Battalions,” and “The Dark.” I got
sort of a “Damond Jiniya impression” from vocalist Ronny Munroe:
this guy comes into the band having never recorded with Metal
Church before, belts out songs from all eras of the band with
surprising power and confidence, and carries a commanding stage
presence fit for any true metal frontman.
 In
addition to the classics, the band also played several songs of
the new album, THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD, including “Wings of
Tomorrow” with a main galloping riff that really stood out among
an already stacked setlist. Hearing the new songs live certainly
whetted my appetite for the new album. My only complaint,
however, was that there were no songs to be found from my
favorite Metal Church album, BLESSING IN DISGUISE!! They didn’t
even play “Fake Healer”! Seriously, how the hell can a band play
a show of this magnitude at a festival, play 3 new songs, and
completely neglect one of their finest albums? Other than that
small flaw, I really cannot complain with what was otherwise an
amazing performance.
 Metal
Church’s setlist (not in order):
Ton of Bricks
Start the Fire
Watch the Children Pray
The Dark
Wings of Tomorrow
Madman’s Overture
Date with Poverty
Battalions
Gods of Wrath
(Encore)
Beyond the Black
Metal Church
We cleared out of the Odeon sometime after 2am, tired and
sore after some vicious headbanging up front, yet still high
with the exhilaration of seeing Dismember, Primal Fear, and
Metal Church right in a row. Ahead of us lay more than 3 hours
of open road back home, and less than 8 hours before having to
work on Sunday, but after having a great time, seeing some
excellent bands, meeting all kinds of kickass metalheads down in
Cleveland, and having a gigantic bag full of new tunes to crank,
I couldn’t be happier.
Special thanks to Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles for
organizing the festival and making it happen, the Cleveland
Odeon for hosting the event, Buffalo Wild Wings for some great
food and several cold Killian’s, all the bands (Except Shok
Paris) for kicking so much ass, and to all you crazy metalheads
that attended. Support metal! Support the Underground!
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