Rock Otočec Festival (Aerodrom Novo mesto - 04.07.03)
Written by: Aleš Podbrežnik

I found three acts interesting during the entire festival: the Slovenian progressive metal force Prospect, Paul Di'Anno with his Killers and of course the almighty eagles from Germany - Primal Fear.

Prospect started their show with a brand new instrumental (still untitled). Heavy palm muted sharp riffing, cleverly backed with keys, that immediately warmed us up, captured the atmosphere driven in Symphony X fashion. Prospect already faced one replacement in their line up. The group's founding member Simon (vocals) left them. The new shouter Robi may not have such charisma as Simon did, but he can provide powerful, high and violent screams. The enthusiastic Simon's successor with his diverse repertoire of shouting abilities brings even more power into the band. Prospect were - from their very beginning - a band that every Slovenian prog/metal fan can be proud of. This band was always a guarantee for music quality and in the year and a half, since I watched them for the last time, Prospect made giant progress in their evolution. The first important improvement was visible in the chemistry that really works on stage. The band became stronger as a whole and looks even more compact on stage now. Guitar and keyboard solo parts provided some great cross fire on stage while precise finger-flicking work on the bass guitar nicely communicated with diverse drum work. This improvement was more than obvious during the band's performance of the first piece taken from their debut album "NR. 1" (1999) Seven Voices, a song with one of the most impressive and delicately assembled solos that I ever heard from the guitarist - equipped with his "battle armor" 7-stringed Ibanez - the group's chief Roman Files. My overall impression is that Prospect's sound became slightly sharpened and more metallized.

The security barrier began to move while the metalheads went into a certain state of delirium, especially when band decided to slash an impressive medley (a part of their gigs since the beginning) consisting from Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Two Minutes To Midnight (Iron Maiden) and Pull Me Under (Dream Theater). The crowd was still growing with more and more metalheads joining in. It is quite hard to get the over-spoiled Slovenian crowd under your flag and Prospect did it very convincingly. One of the highest peaks was Orient Express. Highly ambiental instrumental piece that is assembled out of Balkan melody arrangements was done in one breath and very compactly. This heavy piece just shredded the air while the mood swallowed the musicians completely. Joined from all sorts of different rhythms and themes that were fluidly changing through the entire piece, it provided a true energizer for every progressive metal soul. Great job! The first encore was a real shock. The band decided to fire up the stage with Ozzy's No More Tears. I mean, it is no problem to tab it out. The main problem is to do it gutsy and convincingly. And Prospect succeeded by bringing huge balls into it. Especially Roman, who impressed me with some great use of flanger and a true Zakk Wylde sound out of his guitar and amp. This five-piece group is beginning to shine brighter than ever before and they are heading out ambitiously forward to shake the prog/metal universe. I still wonder what the hell the record companies are waiting for? Prospect closed their set with a rocking main riff piece of Crossing Over that ended with Robi's incredible final scream that detonated over the stage for a few seconds. I thought for a while that he is going to murder the crowd with his shouting abilities. A very important fact and an advantage for the band is that they are developing distinctly their own musical expression.

Than, a lovely man came up to the stage. Paul Di'Anno with his gang named Killers. We will get a lot of fun, I guess. Simpatico and great charisma opened his set with Prowler. All Maidens' classics were almost rapped out. But Paul is a real beast. He can provide ear blasting high shouts that I could never imagine. Well I'm not a collector of his records or his fan, so I can't judge his post-maiden period, but he kills with his screams. With Maiden he was still a child, but now he really became a great singer that deserves all respect. His high shouts were rare to hear. But every time Paul decided to do it, they sounded convincingly bulletproof. Paul is what he wanted to be. He follows his own heart. Well even Judas Priest is not the same band anymore. Many N.W.O.B.H.M. fans can't accept or realize that, but that's just how it is and you can't do anything about it. Paul loves to slay his songs with singing mainly in lower sequences. The sound was a pure disaster. Di'Anno didn't get a wireless microphone that he required (also, Prospect didn't get one), so here comes a direct minus for the festival organizer. But the band can survive somehow without a wireless microphone. A worse thing was that they had huge problems with main amplification, which wasn't balanced at all. The left guitar was completely dead. All Maiden classics with famous double harmonies became utopia. All bridges sounded as sharp edged cuts and hooks that should have served as a decoration to them remained in silence. It happened too many times, that both guitarists made too much mistakes during riffing. The sound confusion might be the main reason for it. Paul cheered the crowd with his bottle of Jack Daniel's and of course, did apologize for that awful stage sound. He explained that the band unfortunately didn't have enough time for a sound check. So later on both guitarists decided not to take over solos during Phantom Of The Opera. They knew that it would sound disastrous, so they remained on riffs. Here are some other Maiden classics that Di'Anno performed: Wrathchild, Killers, Strange World, Sanctuary and Running Free. Di'Anno joked all the time, I don't remember, but it must be a quite long time ago, since someone gave me such good reasons to laugh as Paul did.

What followed was a gig that I was dying for after Iron Maiden's visit in Slovenia three years ago. Primal Fear were the second German "classic" heavy metal act after Axxis (who supported Black Sabbath on their "Headless Cross" tour in 1989) that came to Slovenia. The band was announced at 00:30, but we got a huge delay. Problems with guitar amplification caused that. After 50 minutes of waiting they hit the stage in vintage Mk II line up (or "Jaws Of Death" line up if you want) with left handed axeman and founding member of the group Tom Naumann (also Sinner) back in the gang. Primal Fear are far away from bein' Paul Di'Anno, and they came here with one clear and straight reason. To burn down entire Rock Otocec. The sound was like someone would change night for day. "Metal eagles flyin' side by side!" shouts the irreplaceable shouter, one of the finest singers that ever kicked heavy metal universe (and still does), Ralf Scheppers. After Black Sun opened their set with outstanding double foot work by drummer Klaus Sperling, the band continued to fire the stage with Chainbreaker, a song that is must for every Primal Fear's live set list. The crowd responded spontaneously! Huge reaction and good vibes from the crowd seemed to impact the band. The band felt that the crowd breathes with them. The stage was huge; they really liked the scene. Therefore the band became really active with all three guys (Mat, Tom, Stefan) with rifles in their hands shooting from all sorts of different positions on stage. Standing side by side they delivered riff after riff like bomb after bomb. After Chainbreaker, the sound technicians succeeded to improve Ralf's monitors, his "on full" performance begins to blister. Any time I put a certain Primal Fear studio recording into my CD player I wonder: "How the hell can he do this?" It is hard to believe until you don't hear and see this live. Ralf's magic tricks. To say that he is talented wouldn't be enough here. He became a sort of teacher now. His on-stage acting, way of communication to the audience and other band's members should be every young talented singer enthusiast's bible!

Primal Fear were forced to exclude a few songs from their set list (because of aforementioned delay). But the crowd was very enduring. At first I thought: "People won't survive this late hour, they already drank to much by now!" But beer seems to have a different effect. I was squeezed into the barrier, looking toward my brother (Peter) who faced the same sad destiny of being in the front row. People were singing, headbaging and reacting on every Ralf's sign to clap their hands together. The band received good vibes and they thankfully returned the energy. Great communication between the band and the audience was built. In one of the pauses, Ralf pulled out a paper from the pocket of his shirt and read in Slovenian language: "Are you feeling all right!" ("Ali se imate dobro?") With that gesture, Primal Fear proved that they came to show all devotion and respect to their Slovenian fans. This spontaneous energy that flowed in both directions was amazing. I was watching Primal Fear for the third time. First two times I went to see them in Vienna. The Austrian audience is different and the climax was colder. The band reacts differently under these circumstances, giving their 100% on stage. But climax is really different and the overall feeling too. This time we were really flyin' high on the metal wings of the iron eagle.

The set list was puzzled together from pure metal attacks. The fourth song was mid tempo Eye Of An Eagle, where Klaus could calm down a bit (and then also in middle part of the gig when Under Your Spell came), but none of us could stand still, cause it was just another stage explosion that swallowed us. During the entire gig, I really wasn't able to take a single restful breath; the atmosphere was hot as hell and the tempo of the band's performance driven in the highest gear.

While he was cheering the crowd with a bottle of Champaign, Eco-Ralf said: "We traveled 10 hours from Stuttgart. We've never been in Slovenia before. We are amazed over beautiful nature you have; I mean mountains and so on. You must be proud of it!" I still wonder how Ralf's singing carrier would be if he joined Helloween on Kai Hansen's proposal in mid-eighties. Would we ever have had an opportunity to enjoy such special goodies as Primal Fear can offer?

Stefan with his beard, long hair and army trousers reminded slightly on Annihilator's Russ Berquist who stole a Flyin' V Gibson from his chief and employer Jeff Waters. Both guitarists approached their job soulfully, carefully decorating their solo parts with gutsy pull offs, diverse licking and nice additions of tremolo appliance. Full blazing power! Both are amazingly tuned in, especially when they're entering into supersonically over picked twin harmonies (Under Your Spell, this time done without Mat's keyboard intro, yet one of highest peaks of the gig, Final Embrace). It is always great to see the unmistakable Mat Sinner, a huge chunk of band's (and metal) history. Eternally rockin' man made of steel, whose soul was born to rock!

The guys spiced up their set list with a brand new song Sea Of Flames. From my first hearing I can conclude that it opens with straight and distinctly Primal Fear's "one, two, three" riff attack (what else would a Primal Fear fan expect). It has a melodic chorus that reminds on Nuclear Fire. Yes, pieces as Nuclear Fire, Fear or Battalions Of Hate were really shaking the Earth and stratosphere. Pulsated crowd radiated again some strong energy here.

It seemed as if the band couldn't part from the audience. After Klaus' drum solo thrashing and Ralf's introduction of band members, the band invited us into Final Embrace (closing song). The amazing fade out just did not want to stop. Of course, they shrunk the set because of time limitations and Final Embrace's fade out meant the intro to Agent in Black as the first encore. Would I dare to think that Primal Fear would leave us without that song? No way. And as you all know about Ralf's addiction to classic Judas Priest stuff, the band decided to strike Metal Gods. It was obvious that Primal Fear wanted to play more, that they are still fresh on stage. This also concerned the audience. The audience was still thirsty, and people just lost their minds when the band did the Judas Priest's classic.

What happened next is something that I just won't ever understand. The organizer wanted to bring to the stage a certain jazz/folk band from Macedonia that was announced to start the festival somewhere at 7:00 p.m., but I don't know, they missed right train or something. So the plan was that this Macedonian group hit the stage after Primal Fear. Well in order to throw Primal Fear of the stage, the organizer switched off the main amplification (and lights too) in the middle of the band's performance of Metal Gods. With the basic stage amplification you cannot do much, I suppose. Anyway the guys reacted with experience, as if nothing had happen or had harmed them at all. The guitar technician ran - with a torch in his hand - to Stefan and lightened the guitar's neck, while the artist jumped into Glenn Tipton's skin for a while during his solo performance. Primal Fear were not guilty for the delay. The organizer was! Also, the band was not guilty if someone didn't succeed to arrive on time. What would be the costs for the organizer if he lent 10 minutes more to help in bringing this long awaited gig to normal and successful end? The Primal Fear gig was in any case phenomenal, their best gig I ever saw. They approached with great care and respect to the audience. And the crowd sincerely felt that. Band and audience really breathed as one. We could feel sincere love that I miss so much in this ordinary way of living.

Prospect set list (festival Rock Otočec, Novo mesto, 04.07.2003):

1. Intro
2. Instrumental song (untitled yet)
3. Seven Voices
4. The Man Who Walks Alone
5. Medley: Paranoid (orig. Black Sabbath)
Two Minutes To Midnight (orig. Iron Maiden)
Pull Me Under (orig. Dream Theater)
6. Iron
7. Running Away
8. Orient Express
9. Beware
---------------------------------------------------------------Encore
10. No More Tears (orig. Ozzy Osbourne)
11. Crossing Over ======================================End

Set list Primal Fear (festival Rock Otočec, Novo mesto, 04.07.2003):

1. Countdown to Insanity (intro)
2. Black Sun
3. Chainbreaker
4. Eye Of An Eagle
5. Battalions Of Hate
06. Fear
07. Nuclear Fire
08. Under Your Spell
09. Silver And Gold
10. Armageddon
11. Sea Of Flames
12. Solo drums (Klaus Sperling)
13. Final Embrace
------------------------------------------ Encore
14. Agent In Black
15. Metal Gods (orig. Judas Priest)
=========================== End