Primal Fear, Rage (Vienna - Planet Music - 15.09.02)
Written by: Aleš Podbrežnik

Roadies just began to carry all the equipment and build up the stage, when we arrived at 1:20 p.m. When they faced us eye to eye, they were staring at us as we landed down from Mars. Weather was changing as the colour of the chameleon's skin. 5 minutes of heavy raining was followed with sun piercing through dark and heavy clouds, followed again by raining... Heh, we were sitting inside Planet Music, waiting for any of the band members to show up for autographs and photos of course. Well it happened very quickly. Henny Wolter (Primal Fear, guitars) was our first victim. He was honored, because he really wasn't expecting four lunatics from Slovenia in Vienna that would be waiting seven hours before the show started to get in touch with the band. He was the first who went around for some fresh air and to buy some chocolates and drinks.

But someone went out of tour bus even earlier. It was Mike Terrana (Rage, drums), who just finished his everyday jogging. We discussed a bit about the situation in the ex-Yugoslavian region. He was explaining that he has friends in Croatia and will go there and probably have there his drum clinic. Time was quickly passing by; the only one that we were waiting for was Klaus Sperling (Primal Fear, drums). At five o'clock p.m. he entered the Planet Music's door. He looked very tired, just went out of his bed still marked with pillow prints on his face. He was hurrying for the band's "tune in" rehearsals, but promised us to be back. I was starved to death. So after we successfully got Klaus' (final) autograph, we went to get the sandwiches, which were in our car, followed by good cup of strong Austrian coffee in Planet Music. Meanwhile, we had great fun.

'Till 7:30 p.m. only a few people entered Planet Music. Even when Stefan Leibing (Primal Fear, guitars) passed by a small crowd with his ESP guitar in his hands, nobody cheered him. Only the four of us were jumping in the air again.

Is this coldness the real nature of the Austrians? Or we have to deal with a simple fact that Austrians are not dying for Primal Fear. I guess both is the truth.

O.k. Lets go to the point. We got to the front row. It was easy. It was time for the gig to start. The hall was almost empty. But after that I realized, that I got a wrong impression. I even hadn't got enough time to realize when the hall filled up. Rage begun with a taped intro. I was very afraid, because I was expecting another car from Slovenia still to come, where also my brother was traveling with some other colleagues. And at the end of that intro, they luckily showed up. I feared that they had a car accident or something, but they were driving in a long queue just 30km away from Vienna, because five vehicles crashed in a "chain" car accident.

Blazing "All I Want". From the first moment...aaaaaaaaa!!!! Three madmen on the stage. International line up. Belo Russian Victor Smolski on guitar gave one of the finest guitar lessons I anticipated in my life. Technically he is some kind of Steve Vai, except that he has it's own musical perception. His right hand was more or less all the time on the guitar's neck, he also didn't use pick very often. So he represented complete jamming, with extremely fast driving arpeggios that were rolled all over the guitar neck. Rage played mainly recent material from their latest release. Victor begun the intro of Lunatic that was followed by a guitar solo. Here I've heard also the fastest version of the "Sting Of The Bumblebee" in my life. Extremely fast and clean as an eye. That is Victor's soft guitar gripping. The highest peak of the band's gig was "Unity" for sure.

Peavy is a real leader of the band. He really knows how to achieve the high atmosphere that fluctuated from the stage to the audience. The audience was breathing with the band from every single minute to the end of their gig. Peavy was in good mood and his vocals were done very well.

"Unity" faded directly into Mike's drum solo. And this was also one of the best drum performances I've seen in my life. This maniac was punching also from standing position, striking with full body power movement and I just silently stared at him with my mouth wide open. In the middle of his solo, Mike stood up, took a quick look at the audience and said: "It is time to destroy this fuckin' kit!!!" And I really got that feeling that his cymbals are falling to pieces.

Well, not only the solo. Mike's work during songs is perfectly double footed and rhythms perforated with cosmic drum breaks. This chemistry in the band simply works as hell. The show ended with "Higher Than The Sky" (from "End Of All Days" record). In all older Rage songs Victor did completely different guitar solos and Mike's precise drum jamming offered us a different approach to the older Rage stuff that was brilliantly renewed. From older stuff we anticipated an encore piece "Don't Fear The Winter" (from "Perfect Man" release, 1988).

What Rage is doing right now is the limit of what only three men as a trio can do on stage. I would like to see Rage someday as a headliner band. It is pity that they didn't include in their set list something from "Black In Mind" album. But what we anticipated was almost to good to be true. I mean, I can't find a weak point in their gig.

Rage was for many from the audience the first band they wanted to hear (and see, of course) and many of the present people changed their positions in front rows after Rage ended.

If they had only understood what was yet to follow. The purest heavy metal made in Germany. With top of the tops voice, Ralf Scheppers, accompanied side by side with Mat Sinner, a legend and very important key in German heavy metal scene. They began with an intro, which was played live (Rage used taped samples, not only for intro, but also during the songs, for example "Dies Irae"). But I expected that Primal Fear intro would be followed by "Black Sun". Wrong. They bursted out with "Chainbreaker". And there was no doubt that I was facing one of the finest metal singers on the planet Earth.

Ralf let his hair grow. It grew up but it's still far away from what we call long hair. So he decided to put some "grease" on it. Primal Fear could be renamed into "Lucky Luciano Quintet".

Set list was supreme. Primal Fear was cracking down the audience by mixing recent things with older stuff ("Church Of Blood", "Running In The Dust", "Silver And Gold", "Under Your Spell"). Where the hell are Nuclear Fire songs? The crowd felt that. And when the band stroke with "The Eye Of An Eagle", the crowd awoke. This song was followed by "Nuclear Fire" and this was the highlight, I mean the whole feeling during the show. The crowd went mad. They weren't headbanging in such numbers as they did during the Rage show. Only the first row showed all loyalty to the band constantly.

"All guns blazing" lasted for an hour and a half. Well, the band had some problems with guitar monitors. So the sound wasn't perfectly tuned in and I could hear that during solos or both guitar break harmonies. What wasn't so bright was the fact, that Stefan controlled himself too much and couldn't or didn't want to collide with the audience. During the gig he was almost in the same position all the time, making just a few steps here and there. On the other hand Henny and Mat headbanged as hell. Ralf did his work as it was expected. I was once again astonished by Ralf's vocal abilities. Screams were piercing through my ears. I've got what I wanted.

The band played everything "live". Mat did all keyboard parts (intros "Under Your Spell", "Church Of Blood", "Tears Of Rage"). No "fake" sounds were used. So as I mentioned, the crowd was more alive in the second half of the concert. Primal Fear embraced the Planet Music hall step-by-step and conquered Austrian coldness. "Tears Of Rage" was also a real bliss.

"Nuclear Fire" was followed by first class striker "Fear" with more rhythm a melody changes in the first part of the song, which really brings the shake when you hear it live. Then "Armageddon", where Ralf was kneeling when shouting. Great acting. After that he explained to the audience that Primal Fear would play their last song. "Final Embrace" raised hell to the boiling point once again and its fade out was fantastic. It was the beginning of "Agent In Black". So Ralf fooled us a little bit.

Encore began with a surprise. "Living For Metal" was never done live 'till the Black Sun tour. And what great continuing. They've done a medley - first, Gamma Ray's "One With The World" that was in chorus rolled with great break on drums by Klaus. This rolling served as a bridge that faded into "Satisfied" that fluidly went further into "Born To Rock" (Sinner). And finally the medley ended with a whole-done piece "Metal Gods" (Judas Priest). And I thought for a while that R. Halford (in his best days) is shouting on the stage again indeed.

If this is Armageddon, then who the hell are you? I am Primal Fear addict. Overall I've got an impression that Rage and Primal Fear are a great combination for touring together. Rage got also enough time for their gigs (one hour and fifteen minutes) and this is a direct proof that Primal Fear are treating Rage seriously, with honor and respect. Eternal friendship. Iron eagle took us under its spell, it's wings obscured the sun and turned it into black. Metal eagles, flyin' side by side! The complete darkness swallowed us. But after that the hall was caught in complete nuclear fire. Please guys, reload the weapons as soon as possible! We are living for metal!!!