The Massive Stage

Conorach

Dawn of Destiny

Meat & Metal!

Cell 29

Ivory Night

Roadkill

Freedom Call

Roadgrill Open Air

Holland

Sat 18th July

Based in Rotterdam (Holland), this is a new open air festival that only started a coupla years ago and is already growing fast with this year adding international bands like Freedom Call and true defender of metal himself, Ross The Boss. Roadgrill is an amalgamation of the words ‘Roadkill’ - the Dutch band who started the festival - and ‘grill’ given that included in the price of the 15 Euro ticket is an all you can eat DIY barbecue!! With cheap beer added, the seasoned promoters were doing the right thing by keeping the costs down locating the festival in an industrial car park and without the frills of the bigger festivals. Given there’s little going on metalwise in this part - dare I say it anywhere - in Holland these days, unsurprisingly it attracted a big crowd for small local affair with minimal promotion.

I couldn’t tell if openers CONORACH were still soundchecking as they rolled straight into their first song after their ‘test’ song! These guys set the pace for the whole attitude of Roadgrill, quite a change to the bigger festivals where it’s all structured with rules and regulations. This was back to basics, with an easy going laid back attitude adopted by everyone from fans to bands that brought back that famous Dutch spirit of ‘anything goes’ that I’ve not seen since the early days of the Dynamo! Anyway, these guys were a sorta Celtic rock metal band with melodic soulful vocals who occasionally digressed into power metal a la Rhapsody with rapid fire vocals on ‘Patriot Song’ and pure HM on ‘Seasons Of The Warrior’. They did well as openers (never an easy task) to break the ice by moving about well although on occasions their gargantuan bassist was in danger of crowding out his bandmates offa the small truck stage!

DAWN OF DESTINY were also a hefty bunch with none of these Germans including the chick vocalist being under 200Ib’s! Hilariously the promoter, when announcing the band, also decided to inform the crowd that the barbecue was now open, and the crowd rushed away much to the band’s shock - another Roadgrill moment no doubt! A band of contrasts between pure melody and thrash out parts to their songs, maybe they should’ve to stuck to one style rather than struggle with both even if they play them equally well. After the aptly named (given that by now it was raining) symphonic chick rock of ‘Heaven’s Falling Down’, I got the impression that they’d made the best of it but would’ve been more comfortable at some nice German indoor festival rather than trying to rock it out at the rough n ready Roadgrill!

With enough smoke to burn another hole in the ozone, there was no need for a dry ice machine given the barbecue was in full swing: it sure was an interesting experience cooking your own steaks while watching bands slaver at the tantalising meat on offer and in the case of CELL 29 I was truly grateful I couldn’t seen ‘em. With 2 guitarists and no bass player, a ‘Right Said Fred’ vocalist and a proto Celtic warrior look, they actually sounded like Alice In Chains with a southern groove! Even more bizarrely they turned out to be a cover band from Aha’s ‘Take On Me’ to Ozzy’s ‘Crazy Train’ to Travolta’s ‘You’re The Want That I Want’ - later I bumped into the vocalist at the ice cream truck and asked him where was the bass player. He said “..did you miss him?...”. Hmmm, not really. ..”Well, we didn’t either!...”. Roadgrill indeed.

By now the beer was flowing and there was ‘erb everywhere (they call ‘em ‘paffys’ here) and everyone was smiling, including the funky little vocalist from IVORY NIGHT who was trying to give Kai Hansen a serious run for his beer with his high end vocals and the mid tempo melodic metal of ‘Neo Nation’. Halfway thru the set his guitarmates - in matching sweat stained tops - went for a crowd walkabout whilst he asked ‘...do you hate Germany?..’ to which the crowd hollered ‘..YES!!..’ and he responded with ‘..scheisse!..’ before closing with the weird reggae n metal ‘Panic Road’.

Yes, it was panic time indeed cos by now the beer had run out! Not really a surprise given that the festival was offering 8 full size cans of German premium lager for 10 Euros!! Thankfully, the wailing siren of Roadgrill’s own tour bus came to the rescue with the back loaded with more beer just in time for ROADKILL themselves to take the stage. These guys are clearly the local heroes and afterall, it’s their party - complete with flamejets! With more beer and paffys the crowd was equally zonked out and they strided the stage with brazen confidence to pure heavy metal barnstormers like ‘Mayday’, ‘Pyramid’ and ‘Shadows’. Vocalist MacBlade is clearly the star with his killer rock vocal although the rest of the band are a very tight outfit indeed, impressing me with little pretence but maximum rock out attitude.

With Roadgrill having paved the way for the main acts, FREEDOM CALL brought on their epic power metal and frontman Chris Bay is still as enthusiastic as I remember him, getting the crowd jumping up and down and clapping to classics like ‘Pharao’, ‘Freedom Call’ and ‘Land Of Light’. I really wish these guys would tour more cos they are easily one of the best power metal bands ever and their songs are masterpieces even if their more recent material like ‘Babylon’ is more AOR or the Helloween sounding ‘Hello Mr Evil’. Either way, it’s all enjoyable and they close to a huge response from the entire crowd.

ROSS THE BOSS! ROSS THE BOSS!! ROSS THE BOSS!!! It’s almost like a tribal chant as the backdrop for RTB (who’d already got the crowd chanting when he briefly watched Freedom Call from the wings) goes up as we await the veteran guitarist of Manowar, Shaking Street and NYC proto punks The Dictators. He is a legend and we are at a legendary event: throughout the whole day everyone has been talking about this guy, although having met him in person backstage, I can say that he’s a very humble bloke, almost shy at the crowd’s up front respect and affection for him. Not so when he’s onstage. Ross The Boss (and his more than capable band) hits the stage so hard that they almost jump into the crowd and the battle begins! ‘Fast Taker’, ‘Kill With Power’. ‘Gloves Of Metal’, ‘We Will Kill’ - the numbers just drive into you as Ross piles riff after riff out’ve his custom black Les Paul. No effects, no bullshit, just pure rock n roll crusin outta that baby bro! Bring on the flamejets to ‘Hail And Kill’, ‘Thor’, ‘I have The Right’, ‘Immortal Saint’ and finally ‘May The Gods Be With You’ to smote the crowd asunder and plant another victory flag to mark yet another Ross The Boss conquest and capping off this years Roadgrill with real passion and style.

-Shan Siva

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ROSS THE BOSS