by Herr Nabel

Once again a backyard of a certain farmhouse in Brande-Hörnerkirchen in north west Germany was occupied by metalheads from all around the world for three days. Anybody who has been at a metal festival knows what it is about. Metal, listening to metal, talking metal and beer.

THURSDAY (back at the funny farm)

GRAND MAGUS

Opening act of the HOA 2010 for me was Swedish act Grand Magus. At least they were more powerful on stage than on vinyl but that's about it. Somehow their songs tend to sound like each other (powerful drums+bass, and catchy chorus+basic catchy heard-it-somewhere-else-100-times guitar riff). I'd rather see them once again in a dark club than on a festival stage with the sun shining, beer flowing and talkin metal is much more important than listening to it. And maybe someday I'll find out - are they bird or a fish.

SHOK PARIS

A Real highlight of Thursday was to see Shok Paris and nothing else. They are a brilliant melodic US metal band that had not lost it's magic over the years of downtime. Ok, more than few years and more than few pounds later but Shok Paris still delivered. Almost as magical Eiffel Tower rose up during their set on the field of Brande-Hörnenkirchen with that silver surfer bird flying around. Vic Hix and rest of the Cleveland boys just simply went for the throats. And that really surprised me as they have been to me a kind of "Sunday metal", a melodic metal band band you listen while in hangover. Powerful & majestic US metal in a nutshell.

Marsielles de Sade,

Battle Cry,

Burn It Down,

On Your Feet,

Concrete Killers,

On A Wing And A Prayer,

Tokyo Rose,

Take You Away,

Decharge Electrique,

Steel And Starlight,

Never Say Why,

Hot On Your Heels,

American Dream,

Find A Way Out,

Rocked Outta Love,

Go For The Throat,

Go Down Fighting,

Run But Don´t Hide,

Make This Garden Burn

DESTRUCTION

Honestly there was not much interest in Destrucion after Shok Paris, especially when you heard their somewhat modern drum sound from the stage. They play their thrash as they always do, fast, thrashy and aggressive but something has been missing since "The Antichrist" LP 2001. They did not fail (you can't fail with a songs like Bestial Invasion, Curse The Gods, Mad Butcher etc.) but they surely did not fire up the skies like Shok Paris before.

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