YEAR OF THE HURRICANE
– or How to survive a German metal festival with no knowledge of the language and field-mice

The former we will get back to in a short while, but first we shall address the latter issue in three short steps – beer, beer and beer!
See, that’s how easily it can be done! Having one of the most awesome line-ups for our festival summer was merely a (not so) hidden bonus! Trust me, there was more than a handful (yes, that’s apparently as far as we can count around here...) of great acts to look forward to at Rockharz 2012, some old favourites of ours but also many new acquaintances to party with. Just to mention the three headliners, to give you an idea of what we were in for;
Day 1) Hatebreed (which we didn’t get around to seeing)
Day 2) Blind Guardian (last show for 2012-2013!)
Day 3) Amon Amarth (FIRE!!!)
Apart from these three, there were loads of interesting stuff as well though, where Týr, Paradise Lost and Suidakra were some of the highest ranking on my preliminary favourite list. This year, there was really no telling where best act of the festival would end up, so there was nothing for it but to get into the crowd, swing hair and raise hell!

Before doing this though, one actually has to arrive and, unless you are staying in the adjacent town of Ballenstedt, also set up camp.
There had been a wee bit of rain on the way down to the festival (no there hadn’t, it was more like something biblical!) so mud was of course a concern, but as we drove through the gates and onto the field that made up the camping area this turned out not to be any form of problem at all, luckily. Believe it or not, but even more luck was to be had, as we managed to secure a camping position in nearly the exact same spot as last year! Why was this desirable you ask? Well, for one thing, it was almost right outside of the entrance gate to the festival area, and for another, when you stumble home late at night, or early in the morning for that case, it’s nice to have some familiar surroundings to navigate by.
Almost as soon as we got out of the car, we ran into a familiar face, with whom we gladly shared a beer as the rain began pouring down on us again.
Schizophrenic as it was, the rain suddenly stopped though, as quickly as it had appeared in the first place, and not knowing when it would return we quickly began raising our tent.
No sooner had I put the last pin in the ground though, than I heard the voices of my compatriots gasp, and as I turned my head, I saw the giant pavilion of our neighbours (seriously, this thing had poles the size of my arms!) flying through the air, picked up by the sudden hurricane like winds, and heading straight for me and our little camp! With cat-like reflexes (yeah, a house-broken, over-fed and lazy Garfield kind of cat maybe) I managed to avoid the danger, and instead looked on as the whole thing came down on our car and tent.
Thank Cthulhu that the end result was nothing worse than a minor dent on the side of the car!
We helped disassemble the pavilion as best we could, and when it was safely stowed away in their vehicles, the wind saw it fit to die down to a gentle breeze again...

I’m sorry for ranting on so about an incident which was over in only a few minutes, but as you can imagine this wasn’t exactly the kind of welcome we had imagined. Still, in the words of Canadian thrash band Anvil, the episode did include some serious Metal on Metal, which I suppose justifies its inclusion in this review...

Soon enough, it was time for some real metal though, and kick-starting the fest was Germany’s own Drone. Just as last year with Dreamshade, Rockharz really hit the nail on the head with this band, and even though the continuing schizophrenia of the weather made for a late opening of the festival area, and a corresponding shortening of Drone’s set, the band still had the time to kick some ass with those of us who had arrived on time for them. Not too many it turned out, but the reason for this could possibly be found in the pre-party the festival had held the day before in the large tent stage where no less than six bands had prepared the audience for the three days to come. When the festival begun, the tent was only used for after-party DJ’s who kept those who wanted it up all night, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself now...
Musically, this was the day with the least bands we were interested in, but that’s not to say that it didn’t hold any interesting bands – we also got to check out Tanzwut for the first time, and then there was Pain (definitely not the first time!) and finally Sepultura, who had a special guest with them on stage (read the review to find out who). We had actually had some loose plans about the headliner, Hatebreed, and the after headliner show by Rage as well, but the continuing troublesome weather, but even more so the happy reunion with this great festival meant that we opted for just hanging out and enjoying the vibe of the place instead. Not that I believe we missed much though, some electrical problems created an almost half hour or so long blackout during the Hatebreed concert, and even though the band did what they could, the feeling wasn’t completely the same when they finally came back on.
Some hot food was the trick for us though, and even though one of our favourite bartenders from last year was missing this year, we had apparently made ourselves noticed enough last year to be recognised anyway (I wonder how this happened..?), and what can I say? There were good times all around!

The second day certainly saw us picking up the pace in front of the stages though, and this day it was the Rock Stage which had the predominant billing for us, where it had been the Dark Stage the day before (thank god for festivals where bands don’t overlap!), and after a very good start of the day in the company of Engel (we had somehow missed the fact that there was a Danish band, Malrun, playing here before them, otherwise we wouldn’t have minded a bit of home-grown metal as well), and after this there was Black Sun Aeon, a completely new band to me, but as I had been led to believe that Ville Sorvali of Moonsorrow fame was in the band (apparently, he’s only doing guest vocals on two songs on one of the albums), this was something I felt worthy of investing a few minutes of my life upon.
This was a thought which German band Coppelius shared, another new acquaintance for me, but also a very interesting one, which I hope to see again someday.
The crowd was pretty insane by now, but there was still a long way to, as we had such a varied program in front of us including black metal from Primordial, symphonic stuff from Epica, a whole mix of different styles from Paradise Lost, power metal by the bards in Blind Guardian and finally a good dose of classic NWOBHM by one of the men who started it all, Paul Di’Anno.
This day, Deathstars from Sweden had been on our original agenda as well, but had to give way for some much needed R&R in the bar, hanging out with friends both old and new.
Again though, the festival wasn’t all about the music, and we were introduced to the fact that one could get some very cool, engraved lighters at the Camel endorsed relaxation area. Well, you could if you were German that is, but we were quickly dismissed because of the fact that we were foreigners, something which we could only laugh about even as we were leaving the area, but also in itself presented one of the few low-points of this journey. Fairs fair though, this setup was 100% run by the Camel Corporation, and Rockharz was in no way either involved or informed of this, so there really is no blame to put on them. And smoking kills anyway, so why bother?

If the second day had been filled with music, the second night was definitely filled with water, as we were once again treated to a shower of biblical proportions to which there seemed to be no end – even our newly bought tent couldn’t handle the pressure in the end and began dripping in a bit. There was nothing for it but to face another day, bleary eyed and with a healthy stubble on my chin...
Musically, this was another tough day with lots of bands, even though we didn’t reach quite as many acts as we had the day before. It was also another great day though, as it held some of my predicted favourites for the festival; you might remember me mentioning Týr and Suidakra in the beginning? And Amon Amarth headlining? Well, that was certainly not the end of it; we also got around to yet another pair of new acts for us first in Taiwanese band Chthonic (well, not completely new, as I had heard a little bit of them before, but had never seen them) and later in the German death metal classics Morgoth. If you want to find out who the winner was of these two, go check elsewhere on the site...
Everything wasn’t new though, some more tried and experienced acts also lent their name and time to us, like the happy metal party we had with Freedom Call, and last but not least, the (not so) happy (but yet still) metal party before the end of the festival with the pagan Finns of Moonsorrow (there we go with that Ville again!)
Short glimpses were caught of Lacuna Coil and Knorkator, the latter of which actually is one of the bands I regret not seeing fully as they seemed like a heap of fun, much like J.B.O. from last year. There was nothing for it though, pancakes had to be eaten, there were Vintersorg patches to be bought, and of course about 10000 friendly people to hang out with.
When the day reached its end, even as we were tucking into bed for the last time, yes even as we packed up and began travelling home the next day, we both (Lunah Lauridsen and I that is) agreed upon not being nearly filled up by this fantastic experience, and had it been possible, we would have loved to stay for a few days more!

Yes, Rockharz had proven a great place to be in 2011, and with the 2012 edition of the festival, they only solidified this in every way possible.
I have mentioned some crazy weather conditions throughout the review, and this year certainly was pretty harsh, but you know what, I have no reason to complain (some people might, but I don’t), because out of the 20 odd concerts I took part in this year, only a very few of them had something other than blue skies and warm sunshine to offer. I mean, considering how wet the festival was, it was almost ridiculous how lucky we were!
As I believe I have mentioned above at some point, with such a strong line-up as Rockharz offered up this year, it was impossible to say before which concert would be my favourite, and when we then get to the festival and find that a lot of the bands actually exceed my sometimes quite high expectations, well, it doesn’t make the job any easier, now does it? Yes, it would seem that the bands really enjoyed playing at Rockharz, and it was easy to see that the audience enjoyed seeing them. Still, if I have to come up with something (which I don’t, but I feel I ought to), I’d at least like to start out with saying that the happiest show was without a doubt Freedom Call. Man, that was so sweet we almost got diabetes, and I say this of course in the best possible way; there was no way anyone could dislike this show, it was simply to positive!
Best show though, that’s a hard one...
So, I’ll start out by mentioning some of the acts which managed to exceed my expectations – Blind Guardian, Amon Amarth, Moonsorrow, Paradise Lost, Freedom Call, Chthonic... Yeah, I guess you can see my problem here.
Alright, if it has to be done – Týr. The show was too short (in my opinion), and they didn’t exactly exceed my expectations as some of the others did, but this was only because they were as sky-high as they were. The band played a very good concert, the mood was just right, the setlist (even with the lack of too many favourites) was near perfect for the occasion, and I simply love their music.
The real winner of Rockharz though wasn’t any of the bands, but Rockharz itself. The festival is simply such a great place to be, and even after going there twice now, we don’t feel filled up in any way. It was also a good year for the festival in another way, as we were told this was the first time the festival had sold out. 10000 metalheads, the perfect amount of people to make it cosy, all gathered in a perfectly sized area. What more could one ask for? Only to come back next year, I’d say.



(P.S. I forgot to mention the mice... You see, when walking in the festival area, I noticed several little holes in the ground, and my immediate thought was that this was something made by the festival, possibly to make the rain sink faster, but suddenly up came some small, cute field mice and wanted to watch the show as well! Quite surprising, not only to me, but to a lot of people, and the mice soon had a dedicated following of people who wanted to take pictures of them or pet them. I only hope all of our jumping, shouting and music didn’t disturb these residents of the place too much (they seemed pretty relaxed actually), and I would like to extend a thank you for letting us use their rooftop terrace for our party. D.S.)