Burning Rage Festival - Celle / Germany, Nov. 25, 2005

Somehow there must have been a time difference between the festival-start-time noted on the homepage and the real beginning. Because the first band is already performing as I reach the concert place.
But I am able to see Drone from Celle for half an hour. That´s more than enough for me, because I am not the biggest fan of that kind of music. But that should not reduce the performance. Some people like it very much as they show it in dancing and headbanging. 

The musicians are also very lively. They move their bodies uninterrupted. Marcelo (guitars) and Martin (bass) are banging their hair as hell and vocalist/ guitar player Moritz loves jumping off the drum pedestal like David Lee Roth. Shouted vocal passages change with clean vocals. This reminds me of the band Machine Head because the clean vocals are sometimes not perfect either.

The musicians introduced also a new song but I did not understand the title because it was mumbled into  the microphone. They also did some publicity for themselves and their new CD until they threw the fast last song into the ears of the audience.

You are not able to make decision of what kind the music will be like as the musicians of Soleil Noir enter stage to check their instruments. So it is time to wait a little until they start to perform. The gig starts off with a promising intro and the musicians enter stage again followed by the vocalist who comes out of the fog.

It is hard to put the music into a category. The first songs which are played in a row sound like Doom Rock. Dragging sound walls created by heavy guitars and slow rhythms. The music is crowned by the vocals. The singer is a very outgoing person who put lots of emotion into his voice. It seems that a film is running in his face. You can see rage in one moment and total passion in the next one. Finally he throws himself on the stage floor and finishes the song laying there.

In the end I fall back to thinking in categories: the music reminds me of the band Tool with its complicated structures and the vocalist sounds slightly like Jonathan Davis of Korn.

Setlist: Intro – Intruder – Twentythree – Resistance – Intro – Offal – Epitaph – Life on a thread – Nucleus – Interlude – Nurutrus – Dust

The next band is called Treibhaus. The musicians enter stage while an intro which consists of industrial sounds is played. They perform some kind of Electro Metal which reminds you a little too much of the bands Rammstein and Pain, but that is okay for the audience. Most people are dancing and jumping in the rhythm which drafts into EBM-like passages. The only little negative thing is that the female vocals are not performed by a woman.

Setliste: Intro – Traumwelt – Erlösung – Erzengel – Licht – Treibhaus – Bekenntnis – Herz – Wahnsinn – Jetzt – Maschinen – Wer weiß

The two musicians of Occulture differ in optical and musical ways from the other bands. The band located in Frankfurt plays some kind of Dark Electro. Daniel Roos takes the melodies and sounds out of his keyboards and synthesizers which create a sterile atmosphere. But vocalist Lena is able to compensate this situation because she uses the entire place on stage for dancing and jumping. Her voice is very impressive, too while it has a huge variety. In the first moment she sounds sensitive and fragile but in the next she hisses like a wild cat. But you can also hear nuances you know from Soul. 

The music reminds of the old Electro pionieers of The Eternal Afflict. Spherical sounds are mixed with sounds of machines. Aggression meets melody, which is realized brilliant in the song “Face of death”.

It´s a pity that it seems that the audience just like handmade rock music. The hall gets much emptier after a few minutes. The behaviour of some boys is very impertinent who turn their backside to the musicians and talk shit about the music. But Occulture are very professional and don´t care about that idiots.

Setlist: Intro/Und das Wort ist Klang geworden – Killing fields – Violation – Scars – Wasting time – Face of death – Haunted – Mare tranquillitas – Xenophobia

Riefenstahl are the organizers of this festival, too. After the Intro they start rocking heavily. You listen to lashing guitars, a pulsating base and the drummer pushes the other musicians without any mercy. Vocalist Jens runs over the stage like the devil himself taking ugly faces. Luckily he doesn´t forget to sing. And he is able to sing great! Clean passages interrupt aggressive shouts, so it won´t get boring.

Different influences are mixed in the music. There can be found parts you are able to dance at next to sounds of Dark Metal. From time to time there are parallels to the German Electro Metal band “Oomph”. But the music of Riefenstahl stays for its own.

There is a break in the middle of the set and the representative of “Kronos e.V.” is asked to come on stage, because the benefit of this festival is for this group which takes care for children who bacame victims of sexual violation but also initiates preventive campaigns. He thanks the people and explains the work of Kronos e.V. in a few words until Riefenstahl continues.

The ballad „Ich halt dich fest“ creates an incredible atmosphere and the singer´s girlfriend gets a declaration of love from himself. The following “Mit brennender Wut” is a cool rock song with intelligent lyrics. After that confusion lies between the musicians because Jens introduces a wrong song and the DAT-player for the samples is not ready yet. The little mistake is bridged with a joke and the band continues regularly.  Because the band doesn´t want to get the people bored the audience is requested to sing the chorus of “Was wäre wenn” whis is not very hard to do. But the reactions of the croud show the opposite of tediousness anyway.
Finally I have to say that Riefenstahl is a rocking band with great live qualities. Thumbs up!

Setlist: Intro – Es ist vorbei – Ist es? – Fremdes Land – 1001 Nacht – Ich halt dich fest – Mit brennender Wut – Dunkle Zeit – Lass mich nicht… - Dein Weg – Kalter Traum – Was wäre wenn – Venusschrei 

The break for changing the instruments and stuff between Riefenstahl and Korpiklaani takes a long time. Something with the microphone is not okay and the roadie has discussions with the sound engineer. The Finnish words he speaks into the microphone during the sound check don´t seem to be very friendly because Hittavainen who checks his violin at the same time turns his eyes up in an upset way. But I can tell that the concert, which is to last almost two hours, will be brilliant.
The lively Intro played by a violin makes you want to dance and jump around. Now the musicians enter the stage supported by much applause. Only vocalist/ guitar player Jonne doesn´t walk – he runs like a hurricane! From the very  beginning he is in a great mood. He smiles a lot and flirts with the people. He also makes jokes with the audience while the other musicians seem a little reserved.

They start off with “Journey Man” which is a lively song with a fast melody of a violin and strong vocals. In front of the stage arises a pit made of dancing and jumping people. It seems most people have come only to see Korpiklaani, as they know the lyrics very well.  A new song is introduced next. “Happy little boozer” consists of all typical Korpiklaani trademarks and gets a very positive resonance. “Before the morning sun” is a straight rock song and Jonne shows that he would fit very well into AC/DC because he can walk the special style of Angus Young. ;-) The song “Korpiklaani” turns out the melancholy side of the band until you can get enchanted by the wonderful melody of “Pellonpekko”. 

Without any announcement Jonne starts to sing the traditional yoik and lots of people start yelling. Every die-hard Korpiklaani fan knows that “Spirit of the forest” will be the next song. The slow and dragging verses keep you swinging in the rhythm while you have to rock during the faster parts of this song. And finally you start to sweat at “Cottages and Saunas”.

In the middle of the set the other musicians “wake up” and start to run over the stage as well. I think this is very hard to do so for the player of the accordion. Just bass player Jarkko does not move that much and is like a rock in the ocean.  It is hard to hear the voice of accordion player Juho who sings the lead vocals in one song because of the bad sound. But this is the only slightly bad thing because the sound is okay most of the time, even though there were problems during the sound check.

Korpiklaani give their best while playing calm songs next to rocking ones to keep the audience in a brilliant mood. So nobody is wondering about the people wanting more after the wild romps during the last song “Beer beer”. There is long and wild applause and shouts for encores, so the boys come back onto stage and play two more songs. It is a fact that everything has to come to an end and so the lights get on after the final tones.

Setlist Korpiklaani:
- Journey Man
- Happy Little Boozer
- Before The Morning Sun
- Korpiklaani
- Pellonpekko
- Spirit Of The Forest
- Cottages And Saunas
- Springdance
- Wooden Pints
- Tulikokko
- Fields In Flames
- Juokse Sinä Humma
- Hunting Song
- Beer Beer
- Pine Woods
- Il Lea Voibimi

Report and photos by Wiebke

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