At the same times as the gates opened at Rockharz 2012, an obscure country song (with English lyrics, but sounding very much like it came from Germany due to the broad accent) filled the air. This was the first thing we heard of what was going to become a Drone show in a few seconds…

As soon as the band entered the stage, we could see that they were full of energy this morning, and they were ready to do whatever they could to fire up the crowd which was waiting for them, just as I had hoped and half expected.
I don’t, however, believe that the four men who make up Drone had expected that the awaiting crowd would consist only of two persons, myself included…

This, however, is oftentimes the deal you get when playing as the opening act at a festival. I suppose waiting for a few minutes or so to let people through the gates would have made for a bigger crowd, but due to some extreme weather conditions the whole thing was already delayed quite a bit, and Rockharz is pretty punctual about when bands are to leave the stage, so with that in mind I could understand that they were anxious to get this show on the road as quickly as possible.
Lack of numbers does not equal lack of enthusiasm however, and nodding quickly turned into headbanging as the bands will to kill infected us, a will which was especially seen in bassist Fabian Harms and guitarist Marcelo Vasquez Rocha, who were both constantly moving, throwing poses and smiling, and throughout the show they had a good deal of eye-contact with us on the ground. Vocalist Moritz ‘Mutz’ Hempel and drummer Felix Hoffmeyer were cool as well, but for natural circumstances they were more locked in their positions, making it harder for them to play around as much as the other two.

As more people got through the entrance gate, more and more people were flocking around in front of the stage as well, something which only intensified the applause and the shouts between songs. Heck, Hempel even got a small mosh started at one point, and when he, after taking a healthy (you sure you wanna call it that?) sip of Jack Daniels, and the band played the intro for Eye Of The Tiger before starting one of their own songs, the response was loud and clear – Drone was a popular early bird special!
Because of the delay though, and the strictness in the time-schedule, it didn’t take long for Drone to finish their set, so it was no wonder that the gathered people were enthusiastically shouting for more when they had to leave. For a second though, and only for a second, it seemed like our prayers had been answered, as we saw Hempel and Rocha re-entered the stage, but it turned out that they only came back to get the rest of their Jack Daniels and beer... Hempel was nice enough to share though, and after another large sip of the Jack, he threw the bottle out to the fans.

Even with the shortness of the set, and the rain that once again blasted us (yes, it was that heavy), yes even with all the comments being in German, I must say that Rockharz had once again hit a home-run when it came to choosing which band they wanted to have opening the festival.
I may not have been the biggest show on Earth or anything, but it was a perfect party opener, full of energy and metal.