ARTILLERY

EVIL

FLOTSAM & JETSAM

GIRLSCHOOL

NASTY SAVAGE

TOKYO BLADE

www.keep-it-true.de
Keep It True 11

2008 Wurzburg - Germany

Oh my God, if the spirit of (true) heavy metal didn’t reach me at this year’s Headbanger’s Open Air, then it sure did at Keep It True! This indoor ‘festival’ (actually an all dayer) based a coupla hours from Frankfurt came highly recommended by many fans, and judging by their adorned t shirts, clearly attend both events regularly. Located inside a giant post office warehouse, I followed the stream of headbangers - including those from Japan, Russia and Greece - but inside it was anything but a barn with bars (with cheap beer), food areas and a cheap metal market (t shirts only 13 euros - unreal!) neatly segregated from the stage area. Like HOA, what got me immediately was the friendly but intense attitude of the fans, many of whom may not have even been born at the time but clearly were passionate about keeping the true spirit of 80s metal alive!

Although I missed the early bands including US Christian metallers Faith Factor, I arrived in time for a buncha Danes I had waited almost 30 years to see - Evil! Whatever happened to these guys? It’s like they came, conquered and then were gone without a trace: it took me ages just to get a vinyl copy of their album ‘Evil’s Message’. I gotta admit I still couldn’t recognise whether it was the original band, especially with the bassist looking like Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap - complete with stripey spandex - as noted by the confused security guard: “those leggings...for a man, it’s not natural!...!” God knows when they last played cos it took a while for them to warm up but old rockers never die and soon ‘Outside The Fence’, a cover of Accept’s ‘Balls...’ and their own ‘Taking Good Care Of Your Balls’ had the crowd into them although sadly it all ended too soon.

The Danish theme continued but nothing could prepare us for the barrage of Artillery - it was a shock! I’ve seen these guys a few times before but this had to be their most intense performance ever! With the absolutely shredding guitars of Michael & Morten Stutzer delivering monstrous riff after riff, a thundering rhythm to match and vocalist Soren Adamson stamping around the stage liked a caged lion, Artillery were psyched and literally fell upon the crowd to capture the ‘band of the show’ award. With songs like ‘By Inheritance’, ‘Terror Squad’, ‘The Eternal War’ and ‘When Death Comes’ delivered with precision musicianship and raw unbridled energy, Artillery’s music has become timeless to be experienced both by hardcore fans and a brave new world awaiting their new album!

Next up were Brits Tokyo Blade and again a case of who was in the band from the old days. It was pretty much straight metal (a welcome relief after Artillery!) judging by songs like ‘Monkey’s Blood’, ‘Lightning Strikes’, ‘Death On Main Street’ and ‘Night Of The Blade’ with fast and energetic bits at times, sorta like a precursor to Skid Row (at their heaviest). A cover of ‘Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll’ got the crowd behind them but they seemed to play a shortened set as they left 15 minutes before their scheduled time.

No such doubts with the next lot - Girlschool. Three quarters the original mob plus old hand Jackie Chambers who’s stepped up to the challenge of filling in the late Kelly Johnson’s shoes and judging by her lead work on ‘Emergency’ is clearly up to the mark speaking of which I’ll say it - bassist Enid Williams is a fox - I never remember her looking like this back in the 80s! And how heavy did drummer Denise Dufort hit those drums - this little lady (who is swallowed up by an airplane seat cos she’s so small) arguably hit the hardest tonite: check out those muscles guys, and drumming’s in her family (brother Dave drummed for Angelwitch & Tytan)! The onstage banter between the girls is still there in between songs like ‘C’Mon Lets Go’, ‘Screaming Blue Murder’, ‘Hit And Run’, ‘Take It’ and my personal fave ‘Demolition Boys’ which still have bite and kick male ass! “I’ve been doing this 30 years - 30 bloody years!” exclaimed Kim McAuliffe as we got on the plane back to London: taking no shit onstage these gals were a laugh to say the least off it - even getting HM customs to take a foto of us (the sniffer dog declined to pose) whilst the rest of Heathrow airport looked on bemused!

Who’s in the house? Uh oh, it was ‘Nasty’ Ronnie Galeotti of Nasty Savage! Clearly a treat for the rabid Dutch headbangers - many of whom had some just for them - who remembered the days of NS playing the early Dynamo festivals that were in a similar vein to KIT, Nasty Ronnie was a physical presence to say the least, kind’ve a cross between a psychotic John Belushi and a wrestler! Judging by songs like ‘Burning Anger’, ‘Savage Desire’ and ‘No Sympathy’ NS play 80s US metal but it’s almost a side show to Ron’s intensity - he’s clearly a man with lot’ve pent up anger inside him as he murmurs a whole lot about the church and being disturbed which I guess is not far off the truth when he works himself into a frenzy screaming “..psycho, psycho!!..”. There’s a large TV set on the drum riser and throughout the show Ron seems preoccupied with trying to switch it on (was it even plugged in?!) so the crowd doesn’t know whether he’s gonna watch his favourite program or destroy it. Finally, during ‘In The Morgue’, resplendent in his technicolour (dream?)coat he chucks it into the air and let’s it smash on top of his head, causing it to bleed before he trashes it into pieces and dishes it out to the crowd. Straight off the funny farm and a little too wacked out for most people, who admittedly thanks to the cheap beer, were pretty zonked out too.

And so to the grand finale: Flotsam & Jetsam. This was supposed to be a special 80s show but given that the last time I saw them was during the 80s (when they supported Megadeth) I couldn’t really tell the speciality. Frontman Eric AK is still as energetic as ever but Micheal (Gilbert) is no longer as little as I remember thanks to age although he still headbangs pretty ferociously! And why not? When you’ve got mega songs like ‘Doomsday...’, ‘Hammerhead’, ‘I Live You Die!’ and the awesome ‘Iron Tears’ there’s little you can do to resist! I didn’t really care for the band’s other material like the weird ‘Swatting At Flies’ or their lame cover of ‘Saturday’s Nights All Right (for fighting)’ but the old songs did the trick and from that point of view it was special to hear these songs again live.

Overall, an excellent day that I would heartily recommend to any headbanger at heart as it’s dedicated to some true metal heros who paved the way for today’s bands and who continue to keep the true essence of heavy metal alive in its purest form!

-Shan Siva