Graspop Metal Meeting & Hellfest to be streamed this weekend

Two big names in the world of Heavy Metal festivals are broadcasting at least parts of the big festival line-ups - both totally for free!

First to go is the Graspop Metal Meeting which gives you the chance to see some bands on two different channels. You need to have Silverlight installed on your device to be able to watch this.

Underneath of the stream window you can check out the schedule of the bands that will be streamed - check for the green or partly green marked fields in the overview. Those bands will be shown, or at least some tracks from their set.

Keep in mind that the schedule changes over the day - bands may be added to the broadcast list very shortly (just for example: I saw two changes in the few moments of time I took to write this article - so check back often :-)  At the moment I'm typing this these bands are confirmed for today (Saturday 20th June)

Orphaned Land
Morgoth
Danko Jones
Godsmack
Judas Priest

Update 2015/06/22: It's sadly over but there's still a chance to see stuff from the Graspop Metal Meeting at the concert video archive that has been opened up. Go and watch it while it's up!

The next one to check out is the Hellfest from France. There it's a bit more complicated. Leave the guy with the gray face on the top of the page behind and scroll to the six pictures below. Hover over the stream you desire (they are sorted with the date and stage name) to see the bands that are scheduled for the live stream. One more click and you can watch it. Or even better: see the bands you want directly here on my page. Great to see the people from Arte allow embeding streams to other sites. Thanks for that! The streams start at 17:15h today.

Update 2015/06/22: It's sad to see the festival is already over now. :-( But wait, some stuff can be seen again (or for the first time if you missed it out). The Hellfest livestream page is now a archive of some of the festival performances. :-) You can watch shows from Sodom, Children of Bodom, Scorpions, Faith no more and many, many more on the linked page. Enjoy (again)!

This is what is confirmed for the Altar & Temple stage at the moment for this very saturday:

Desultory 17:25
Finntroll 18:15
Coffins 19:10
Ensiferum 20:05
Skinless 21:10
Obituary 23:35
Venom 00:40


This overview shows what will be shown from the main stage:

L7 17:50
Slash 18:40
Killing Joke 19:45
Faith No More 21:45
Scorpions 23:25

Rock Hard Festival 2015 Livestream announced for this weekend

Yes! I've had a eye upon this during the last days and nearly lost the hope but finally the announcement has been made that the german TV station WDR is going to broadcast shows of the Rock Hard Festival 2015 online during a livestream!

So far the schedule for tomorrow, Friday the 22th May 2015 has been confirmed.
You can find the startbutton to the stream itself at the homepage of the Rockpalast. Just hit the button labeled "Live Video". A new window on the PC will open up with the video.

Please not that I include the timetable for the other shows as well but can't say if they are going to be streamed, too. As soon as I've have information on that I'll update the article.

Update 2015/05/28: Some nice stuff has been released after the festival closed it's doors.
You can watch accoustic clips from the BLACK STAR RIDERS, REFUGE, SANCTUARY, AVATARIUM, PENTAGRAM and ARCHITECTS OF CHAOZ that have been recorded in the backstage section right here.

HMTV has put together a nice round-up of the festival. They also included stuff of the bands that were not shown during the stream (SPACE CHASER, DESERTED FEAR, MOTORJESUS, VOIVOD and CHANNEL ZERO). Check it out below:


Update 2015/05/22: It's confirmed! All the bands that are listed here in the timetable will be shown during the livestream. Enjoy! :-)

The links underneath the bandnames will take you to interview video footage that can been seen at the homepage of the TV show that makes the stream possible (it's the legendary Rockpalast show).

Friday the 22th May 2015

21.30 - 23.00 (9.30 pm CEST) Venom
19.45 - 21.00 (7.45 pm CEST) Pentagram
18.15 - 19.15 (6.15 pm CEST) God Dethroned
17.05 - 17.50 (5.05 pm CEST) Flotsam And Jetsam
16.00 - 16.40 (4.00 pm CEST) Architects Of Chaoz

Saturday, 23th May 2015

21.30 - 23.00 Kreator
19.45 - 21.00 Doro (Early Days Metal Show)
18.15 - 19.15 Sanctuary
17.00 - 17.45 Kataklysm
15.50 - 16.35 Avatarium

Sunday, 24th May 2015

21.30 - 23.00 Black Star Riders (mit Thin-Lizzy-Classics)
19.40 - 21.00 Overkill
18.00 - 19.10 Michael Schenker's Temple Of Rock
16.30 - 17.30 Refuge

Impellitteri release second video from the new album "Venom"

How much diversity and technical style can be shown in a duration of only 2:50 minutes? Not much you may say. But having seen the brand new video of the band Impellitteri it seem to be possible to put a lot of finesse and variations in such a limited space of time.

On the first listen the track may come around as one of the typical uptempo metal numbers but listen to it closely and I'm sure you'll find out what I mean. It's also great to hear Rob Rock on vocals, I like his vocals a lot, they fit so perfectly for such a style of music and give so much good vibes when listening to it.

The song "Empire of Lies" is already the second video and track the band put out in support of the brand new studio album "Venom". Make sure to keep track on the further band activities by checking in at Facebook.

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.