GERMAN MINI TOUR REPORT

July 7th HEADBANGERS OPEN AIR warm up show Itzehoe (near Hamburg)

When we were asked to play this I admit I had a few reservations as HOA like Keep it true and the like is mostly only traditional Metal and there really isn't very much which has a hint of Black Metal or for the most part anything modern at all about it. However it seems over the last few years and especially with TGWilderness we have stepped into the realm of the Epic Metal fan so I presume with a few promptings from Rich from Solstice there we were sitting in an old fashioned German pub waiting for the other bands to arrive. HLX had failed to put most of our merch on the plane so this was presenting a massive headache for me as I was calling and leaving numbers left right and centre. In the end it didn't matter, Ill explain later but first a richly deserved FUCK YOU to HLX.

Sadly Ironsword weren't playing and it became obvious from the general air of disappointment around the venue they were the icing on the true metal cake for most people. Thee plague of Gentlemen from Belgium were up first and I had previously thought their brand of Winter-esque doom would not really appeal to your average traditional Metal fan but they acquitted
themselves well and the sound was massive. Avenger from newcastle in the north of England were surely a blast from the past. I remember seeing them on Neat records adds with Venom way back and had a few tracks here and there. My memory had thrown up the idea they were a little like Raven but this was slightly off the target. Traditional NWOBHM with some cool riffs
from what I saw and heard. Definitely this was very different to playing in eastern Germany with Grim-as Black Metal bands and really different to anything we had played before. Denim vests and patches everywhere...fuck I even saw an At War shirt !!!. Ravensthorne were somewhat of a mystery to me really, Id never heard of them before and their odd mix of styles and images
had me thrown. I would imagine Mercyful Fate are their main influence judging from the singers cape and rather ill fated face paint. However I must say that my fears were waylaid completely as HOA and the 230 or so people who showed were very gracious to Primordial and we went down a storm and by fuck did we give it some, this was a real blood sweat and tears show
and at the end of a very very long day with little sleep beforehand we had another few hours of daft and drunken entertainment due at the hands of Andrea and the Metal Supremacy crew, Rich from Solstice and apart from me the usual Primordial suspects and NecroHammer ND from Sol Axis who was selling our shirts.


July 8th THUNDERS OVER MIRIQUIDI - Annaberg

After a solid hour and halfs sleep on the floor I wake like a zombie to immediately start the worrying cycle concerning our lost merchandise. We are now travelling a long way east and south to near the czech border. There's no way HLX will be able to find a marquee at the side of a football pitch which the small festival turns out to be. The drive is long, cramped and way too
much talk about penises and sexual deviation. With Mr. Flynn becoming animated for once !. This show sandwiched in between two polar opposites turns out to be something of a sobering experience. Its cold and rainy and certainly doesn't feel like Summer and although the show is ok it certainly wouldn't rank up there with the best of them and the crowd (about 250) seems oddly subdued no matter who is playing, even the Slayer tribute band called Player (what ?....) on after us get the cold shoulder who after being feted to play only old stuff play loads of new rubbish and look like footballers. Nevermind. We also get to witness one of the worst bands I think I've ever seen called Abyfs or something like that from Spain who confused and
dumbfounded me so much I'm still trying to get over it. The female guitarist bought a Primordial hoodie though so I guess they aren't too bad...
Speaking of shirts, after this little tour I've come to understand that traditional Metal fans like BIG, garish, shirts with huge prints and Black Metal people like white pointy logos with and/or pentagrams, inverted crosses or sun crosses...mental note to self. \m/


July 9th UNDER THE BLACK SUN - near Berlin somewhere north !

So from HOA to UTBS, from day to night so to speak. Again I had reservations about UTBS as HOA, reservations in the way that I simply shrugged my shoulders and said lets get on with it, if people don't like it...fuck them. Which counts as a reservation in my book as its more thought then I usually give the venue or crowd before standing on the stage. UTBS is
not as fearsome as its reputation that's for sure, of course there are proportionally more idiots and would be hardmen then at your average festival but that comes with the territory really, and we meet enough old friends and new friends to not be bothered with the brow furrowing and hand wringing. Although it seems the night before the singer of Kreig threw a beer or bottle or something at the sound desk so there was very nearly no gig at all as a new sound desk had to be rushed to the festival. I had a few chuckles over what would have happened in Ireland had the same thing happened...however the seemingly lenient security, crowd and organisers had not dragged said member of Krieg into a room and battered him but agreed for
them to play again later that day...?.(how Black Metal is it to tell everyone to die and get aids and then come out for an encore ?...I dunno)
Which as it turns out despite my warnings and arguments cuts our set short by about 30 mins and if we hadn't had an argument while onstage would have been less then the 55-60 mins we managed to get out of them. So we agree to simply leather into it and show no mercy with a full on and aggressive performance as usual and if people had a problem with us fuck them...as it turns out we need not have worried as UTBS is a killer show and the crowd are really behind us. The night again creeps into the morning and after again another virtual sleepless night we head to the airport. Still no sign of our box of merch...It turns out HLX never even put it on the plane and I happen to spot it when a girl from another airline shows me around the most luggage department...typical. Every single trip so far Dublin airport has mislaid something, Must be some kind of karmic thing, maybe I shouldn't have peed in the holy water when I was a kid...
ah well...
Black Metal ist Kreig and all that...

thanks - eh up
NecroHammer ND, Rich, Andrea and the HoA crew, Avenger on stottie, Eminenz, Cancer, niklas - Sigrblot, Ragnarok, Jorg Folter, Thunders over crew, and all the Scots fuckin madmen we met at UTBS...aye. and all we forgot

cheers


road listening

ac/dc
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/Nemtheanga