A bit late but better late than never... here are our (OK, mostly mine - Jowita) impressions about the bands that played at the KEEP IT TRUE Festival last weekend... Friday, April 25th: - STALLION, a German newcomer, opened the fest to quite a packed hall. Even though their music has some glam flavour that we dont like, live they were quite enjoyable and full of energy, as expected. - RANGER from Finland were next and served some killer rabid speed/thrash - not a perfect show (they werent so tight), but very cool nevertheless, I really love their songs - they remind me a lot of Razor and a bit of Blessed Death. - DEEP MACHINE, a NWOBHM act, was not our cup of tea, so we didnt pay much attention to them. - KARION from USA reunited for the festival (and probably will fade into oblivion right after, like many others that were re-animated) and played really nice US power from their 2 demos from the 80s. - BATTLEAXE was another NWOBHM band but, in our opinion, much better than of most the other bands of this style. Their pretty straightforward songs worked really fine live and the band was super tight! - HEXX... unfortunately I missed their show (I was outside, wanted to come back for the last 3 songs but, to my dismay, the show was over about a quarter before the scheduled time). Well, some people I talked to liked them, but most were underwhelmed by their performance (they werent well rehearsed, the vocalist didnt sound so good either and the overall sound was rather thin), so I guess no big loss. - SINNER... Hmm, Ive never been into this band. We like some of their songs (that they also played now) but for the most part they were too commercial for our taste (unfortunately they played quite a lot of the more radio-friendly songs from their early days). - WARRIOR were one of the best bands at this edition. Even though unfortunately the great Perry McCarty (their first vocalist) was not there, Sean Peck of CAGE did a very good job. Most of all however the bands songs are all killer in our opinion, so hearing them live was quite a treat. Top-notch US power/heavy metal. - FLOTSAM AND JETSAM quite frankly blew us away! We didnt expect such an killer show. Awesome songs played with lots of energy and conviction, cant ask for anything more. My head was banging almost all the time throughout their show! - JAG PANZER - we lost the count how many times we saw them, but it doesnt matter. Every time its great fun to see these US metal legends and this time the show was really special: they played the whole Ample Destruction with Joe Tafolla on lead guitar. More headbanging and singing along to end the night. Saturday, April 26th: - IRON KINGDOM, a young traditional heavy metal band from Canada, opened the second day. While their style is quite to our liking, I found the vocalist rather annoying. Usually I like strange vocals, but in this case it didnt work for me. - NIGHT DEMON, a newcomer from USA, were one of the early highlights of the fest for us too. Amazing how they sound as if they were straight from the NWOBHM time and place... Really catchy songs, but with the necessary heaviness (contrary to some original bands from that period). They really sound like Diamond Head! - IRON CURTAIN - a cool young band from Spain playing speed metal in the vein of Motorhead, and obviously having a lot of fun doing so! A bit sloppy, but it doesnt bother us much in this style. - DECEASED was a band we were really looking forward to. Fronted by the madman (and my long-time friend) King Fowley, who last year played on this stage with OCTOBER 31, the band gave a lesson in old school death/thrash. Quite an assembly of characters on the stage, it was definitely a different show from most at KIT and much needed for the variety of styles. - PERSIAN RISK - definitely a very professional band, with a talented vocalist, but again, too light/melodic for our (most of all: mine) taste. - VARDIS - another NWOBHM band that wasnt our cup of tea. - ATLANTEAN KODEX - the young (hmm, not so young anymore!) gods of epic metal from Germany. They gave a wonderful show, truly compelling music and performance! One of the highlights of this KIT for sure. Weve seen them already in the beginning of April in Vienna at Springdoom Depression, but it was on a very small stage, so the experience was quite different. - LETHAL - just AMAZING! So glad they decided to give it a shot after the tragic death of their guitarist Eric Cook. The performance was just spotless, and especially the vocals of Tom Mallicoat were unbelievable. US prog/power at its very best! - TOXIK - another band wed been really looking forward to, and they definitely didnt disappoint! Top-notch performance, just as expected from those tech speed/thrash veterans, who have re-united last year. Not really the music to go into headbanging frenzy though (but my neck needs some rest from time to time too ;) ). - METAL CHURCH - weve already seen those US power/thrash legends at HOA fest, so we knew we could expect a damn solid show! They delivered 100% this time too, giving my neck muscles a good work-out again. Definitely a headliner worthy of KIT, and one of the highlights of this great fest edition. Overall, another wonderful weekend at the best REAL Metal festival in existence, full of kick-ass music, meeting friends from all over the world (old and new), even though interrupted for a couple of hours by an incident (losing of the wedding ring by Simone), which however miraculously ended well (it was found! Thanks to our friend Bruder Cle and Kostas from Arkeyn Steel).
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 18:49:45 +0000
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