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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
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SAXON - DREAM EVIL - METALIUM
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Hugenottenhalle - Neu-Isenburg (D)
September 29th 2004
http://www.saxon747.com
http://www.dreamevil.se
http://www.metalium.de
METALIUM jumped in the line for the band Chinchilla, who actually should have been the opening act. They had to start some time before 8 pm, and of course the hall wasn't filled at all. But nevertheless, the band did all they could to convince the few fans and to be a good support act, and they did a good job! Bass player Lars Ratz banged his head as crazy, and vocalist Henning Basse had a good day indeed. Well done, guys!
After a short break, the swedish band DREAM EVIL entered the stage to promote their third album "The Book Of Heavy Metal". And they had a new face with them: Mark U Black, the new lead guitar player, who replaced Gus G. Well, who had seen Dream Evil on stage before knows what the crowd saw: the band had strange make-up in their faces, weird futuristic clothes, and partly they seemed kind of arrogant. These guys didn't look like heavy metal, but they do celebrate it! You don't have to like the outfit, but these guys really carry metal within their hearts! Songs like "M.O.M." or the excellently performed "Chasing The Dragon", "Children Of The Night" or "The Book Of Heavy Metal" made the crowd go crazy. Very good concert indeed but in my opinion the band sets a too great store by their outfit ...
After a quite long break, where the stage was "built", SAXON entered the stage and they shouldn't disappoint the fans! After the intro "The Return", the titlesong of the new studio album was played: "Lionheart", whose cover was painted on the huge backdrop. Almost all of the songs from the current record were played, even "Jack Tars" of which I thought it was not possible to play live. But of course, the evergreens were played too. One milestone of the NWOBHM-history followed after another. Newer songs ("Killing Ground", "Dragon's Lair" and "Dogs Of War") and the mentioned "great old ones" ("20.000 Feet", "Heavy Metal Thunder", the frequently requested "Crusader" and "Broken Heroes" or "Motorcycle Man" during which the crowd went crazy), the band was giving everything all the time, as usual! And the guys were in a great mood, just as the crowd was; Nibbs Carter (bass guitar) only stopped headbanging when the songs were over or when he had to sing the backings; Paul Quinn (guitar) with his typical head scarf played one excellent solo after another, just as the guy with the curly hair, Doug Scarratt. And I'm sure I don't have to mention Biff Byford, the living legend. Also the putative new drummer Jörg Michael was in great shape and very well involved into the band and he was showing great joy in playing and was tight as usual. At the end they played the essential songs "Princess Of The Night", "Wheels Of Steel" and the NWOBHM-hymn "Denim & Leather" and the mainly happy crowd could go home after having seen the main band for slightly more than two hours.
If you see that the band has been playing for about two and a half decades around the world and they are still standing on stage for more than two hours – some bands (I have heard of some rumours about W.A.S.P. or FEAR FACTORY) could do better ... ?!?
The only drop of bitterness concerning the Saxon concert was the sound. In the first couple of rows, the ears were almost blown away, way too loud and overmodulated (the high tunes mainly), and also beside the mixer unit it wasn't any better. Apart from that, some songs were missed, such as "Dallas 1PM" or "The Eagle Has Landed", but the "old men" can't play all the songs... I suppose that most of the band had to visit the oxygen tent after that gig ;-)
submitted by Paddy 16.10.2004
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