Rock Hard Festival 2016 to be streamed and recorded by Rockpalast.de

The open air festival of the paper magazine Rock Hard has become well known in germany and many other countries around the world. It's based at a small location at a historical theater in Gelsenkirchen and features mostly smaller bands. It's said that the bands don't play there to make some cash in but instead play for the fans and thank them this way.

Most of all the Rockpalast crew confirmed on Facebook that there will be a live stream this year. So far Turbonegro has been announced as a band that has agreed to have their show streamed online.

The Rock Hard Festival 2016 will be streamed and recorded by the legendary TV format Rockpalast

Info on the Festival-Livestream

But there's more to come - here is the timetable for

Friday the 13th 2016 (all times are MEST)

Year Of The Goat       16:00 - 16:40 h
Satan                          17:05 - 17:50 h 
Tankard                      18:15 - 19:15 h
Destruction                 19:45 - 21:00 h
Sodom                       21:30 - 23:00 h

Saturday the 14th 2016 (all times are MEST)

Grand Magus       15:35 - 16:20 h
The Exploited       16:45 - 17:45 h
Kadavar               18:15 - 19:15 h
Metal Church       19:45 - 21:00 h 
Turbonegro          21:30 - 23:00 h

Sunday the 15th 2016 (all times are MEST)

Orden Ogan                                15:15 - 16:00 h
Moonspell                                   16:30 - 17:30 h
Riot V                                         18:00 - 19:00 h
Best Of Rock Hard 2015            19:05 - 21:00 h
Blind Guardian                            21:15 - 23:00 h 

You can find the livestream at the homepage of the Rockpalast web presence.

I'll update the schedule on the upcoming days if things should change. You can also connect with Heavy Metal Underdogs via Facebook - I'll post updates on the streaming schedule there as well.

Update 2016/05/24: In case you missed out the livestream of the Rock Hard festival 2016 or want to watch some of the gigs again follow this link. The first batch of live recordings is online now thanks to the hard working people of the Rockpalast crew.

Update 2016/05/14: Rockpalast has uploaded some live footage as well as interview material and pictures of the Rock Hard Festival 2016 on their homepage.

For all those who can't make it to the festival or watch the stream the legendary german TV format Rockpalast will also make recordings of the performances and air them later via the TV station WDR.

 

Info on the TV broadcast

Here is the TV broadcast schedule for the recorded material (all times are MEST please keep that in mind).
There is a livestream of the TV station available from their homepage but I cannot say if you access it from outside of germany.

Update 2016/05/24: Updated the schedule once again. The show on 27th June 2016 is a completly new announcement.

Update 2016/05/20: Updated the TV broadcast with exact starting and ending times and added the bands that will be shown during the shows.

23. May 2016, 23.55 - 03.25 h @ WDR Fernsehen
Bands:
SODOM
KADAVAR
TANKARD
YEAR OF THE GOAT

30. May 2016, 00.05 - 03.35 h @ WDR Fernsehen
Bands:
TURBONEGRO
DESTRUCTION
THE EXPLOITED

6. June 2016, 00.45 - 04.15 h @ WDR Fernsehen
Bands:
BLIND GUARDIAN
RIOT V
MOONSPELL

27. June 2016, 02.15 - 04.15 h @ WDR Fernsehen
METAL CHURCH
SATAN
GRAND MAGUS
ORDEN OGAN

The following band list shows which other band will also play at the Rock Hard Open Air 2016:

BLIND GUARDIAN
TURBONEGRO
SODOM
CANNIBAL CORPSE
METAL CHURCH
DESTRUCTION („Mad Butcher“-Set!)
MOONSPELL
THE EXPLOITED
RIOT V
TANKARD
KADAVAR
GRAND MAGUS
SATAN
ORDEN OGAN
TRIBULATION
BLACK TRIP
NIGHTINGALE
YEAR OF THE GOAT
SULPHUR AEON
SORCERER
ACCU§ER
DISCREATION

More information on the festival itself can be found on official Rock Hard Festival Homepage.

Warfield release old-school thrashing video for "Barrage Fire"

Allright, the weekend has finally arrived for all of us. The perfect time in my eyes to let some pressure burn that has been built up in the recent days. One of the best ways to do so in my eyes is to grab some good old thrash classics and then headbang like there's no tomorrow. :-)

Happily young bands are still around that haven't forgotten all the lessons of the classic past but also maintain the style with adding own trademarks to the typical rough and pushing sound of this metal genre. A good example for that are Warfield from Germany.

(c) by Warfield, used with kind permission

While their sound reminds me on a first listen a lot of old school Bay Area bands and german classics such as Sodom or Destruction it also quickly becomes clear that they've added a straight forward feeling to the sound. It's not that monotone soundwise it goes with more diversity and most of all it's more direct and heavy leaving behind everything that could lead to a feeling of "the band has fiddled around to much with this and that". It's easier to go out of yourselves with the music. Just try it with the video below and have fun.



Lyrically the band set's a focus on political and social mistakes and also keeps a eye on the wars going on these days.

The band has put out a EP in 2014 entitled "Call To War" which you can purchase right here. 

You can see Warfield live during the following shows in Germany:

10.10.15 Zweibrücken
11.12.15 Mainz
16.01.16 Landau
12.02.16 Kaiserslautern

Also make sure to check out their social sites such as Facebook, Youtube or BackstagePRO.

Legendary thrash metal band Kontra from Italy reunites

I love Thrash! Yeah, legendary thrahsers Testament printed this saying once on one of their band T-Shirts. I'm very happy to be able to say there is a active underground scene alive these days that constantly provides us with fresh stuff from the heavier and straighter side of Heavy Metal.

Recently I've received a message that one of the legendary thrash underground acts from Naples, Italy did reunite.

They are called Kontra and did exist from 1999 to 2007. The band influenced both by Bay Area Thrash and by German Thrash Metal now has a new line-up of 3 members which the only original one is the singer/rhythm guitarist and founder of the band Marco Barraco.

(c) by Kontra, used with kind permission

Kontra played live on many stages in Naples and suburbs producing also 2 demos: “Strike Zero” in 2003 limited to only 100 copies,and ‘’Demo 2005’’ never published because the band splitted up. The band has been influeneced by acts like Metallica,Slayer,Kreator,Sodom,Destruction, Venom,Sepultura (the old ones), and Motörhead.

I'm looking forward to see what the band will do next and keep you guys out there updated on the further progress. In the meantime you can also hold an eye on Kontra's Facebook page by hitting the famous like button on their site.

Steamhammer Label Sampler up for free download

Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year! Hope you had a great start into the new year.

Amazon currently gives away a Compilation of Metal songs for free download featuring new songs from Running Wild and Axel Rudi Pell as well as some classic tracks from the past. Enjpy. :-)  Jump over here to see the product page.

The trak list reads as follows:

1 Loner- Eat The Gun
2 Soldiers of Fortune- Running Wild
3 Killing the Fuss- Betzefer
4 Deathwish- Pro-Pain
5 Godzilla- Mad Max
6 World Arena- Vengeance
7 Shadowmaker- Crematory
8 Dropping Like Flies- Spiralarms
9 Agent Orange- Sodom
10 Mad Butcher- Destruction
11 Ace of Spades (live)- Motorhead
12Long Way to Go- Axel Rudi Pell

The big three: new stuff from Megadeth, Black Sabbath and Sodom on the horizon

Currently the more big names in the world of Heavy Metal are going to put out new stuff for us. That's whay I decided to put their stuff up here as well. I think a lot of you guys out there are waiting for their albums to be available as well.

Megadeth have set up a video on youtube with the title track of their upcoming CD "Super Collider" which will be spread through store's and download shops on June 4, 2013. You can also see the cover of the album and listen to a preview of the track "Don't turn your back" while visiting the band's
official website.


Black Sabbath have finsihed recording their next album entitled "13". Obviously the fans can't wait to hear something from the new record. The last time they did put out a preview video they did talk a lot about the new CD, but there wasn't a chance of hearing even a single note. That was the only thing I disliked about the video. Meanwhile they've set up a track for listening and I've included it in this update as well. Risk an ear on 'God Is Dead?' from the album that is up for release on June 7, 2013.
And finally thrashers Sodom have released today their brand new album "Epitome Of Torture". Hear the track 'Stigmatized' right here right now.

Drone / Metal 4 Splash Festival

Now that the year is moving forward with nearly reaching mid-February by now it's time for a lot of people to think which festival they would like to attend this year. Festivals are often a fine happening with a lot of people coming together from different countries but all for the same reason: they do love to listen to Heavy Metal music.

The bigger festivals named Wacken Open Air, Bang your Head or the With full force are well known but as for Wacken, it's already sold out. Additionally most of them aren't that cheap,too.

So here's a alternative: the Metal 4 Splash Festival, located at Rotenburg/Wümme in northern germany. Here are some details:

Date:19.-21.7.2012

Name and place: Metal4Splash Festival in Rotenburg/Wümme, Germany.

Bands confirmed so far: Sodom, Drone, Mob Rules & Criminal. More bands to be confirmed.

Tickets have gone already on sale and are priced 27,50 Euro including parking, camping, entrance fee for the warm-up show and fee for the festival itself. The first 100 orders come with a free "Old-School”-T-Shirt from the Metal4Splash festival or a CD since it's the fifth anniversary of the festival this year.

Find more info on the official festival page (in german only):

Official Metal 4 Splash Festival site (german only)

As I did before in the past I'm introducing one of the confirmed bands now. This time the pick goes on Drone, a brutal newcomer metal band including most of the modern elements of Bands like Bullet for my Valentine mixed with traditional band sounds from band's like Testament, Mastodon, or Pantera. The songs go straight forward and sound like a perfect fit to make a good show at the Metal 4 Splash Festival. Just check the video below and you'll surely know what I mean.

Drone Video - Boneless



The Offical homepage of Drone can be found at:

Official Homepage of Drone