Yup..this time the traditional live review pattern will be broken a bit, all in favor of delivering a more non-conventional edge of an experience and immerse you beyond the stage occurrences.
It’s a cold and cloudy Friday morning in the city of Nuremberg, and shortly I am heading towards the railway station downtown to embark on a train adventure moving northeast. So here I am and after a quick cigar indulgence in half an hour will hop on and kick off the journey. Metal on!
Five hours and three train changes later, here I am in the small and super unknown east Germany town by the name of Annaberg-Buhholtz. Who would have thought that one day the relentless pursuit of metal mania will bring me to this most unusual place for a metalhead experience?! Unwelcoming demolished station, rude bus driver and a kilometer to climb uphill to the center formed the welcome pack, kind of pissing me off and putting me in beer urgency state.
Live Review
Show day! Relaxed morning of walking around and enjoying the scenery. Peace and quiet are everywhere, not a single metalhead in sight so far. The wild discovery came all of a sudden, when spotted a very well-placed big poster for tonight show, just in front of one of the big local supermarkets. Attention is the currency of the age and by far seems the locals should be properly informed about what’s going to happen in their town on Saturday night. It’s getting dark outside and way colder, which is a sign to pump couple of beers and few shots, finally putting on full metal gear and finding my way to The Old Brewery, as the venue is popular around here. What a promising name I say!
A kilometer and something of walking along one of the main streets of the town made the hall an easy find and to no surprise I was the first visitor to appear at the gates. All of a sudden, Daniel from TURBOKILL popped up of nowhere, greeting me with this signature smile of his and complementing it with a cold local beer to make me feel special as ever. Stephan, the band’s frontman joined us shortly after and we had a nice chat about what’s going on lately around their new album release, the mini tour and all the interesting happenings in the heavy metal habitat of the region. To my surprise, the activity around and the fanbase resulted quite abundant and show frequency confirmed my beliefs that Germany is perhaps the best place to be when it comes to trad underground metal.
20:00 PM sharp, as promised on the poster, the doors were widely open for those first comers, that wanted to secure a better frontstage place, including yours truly. Here comes the right time to give some kudos to the venue itself, officially named “Kulturzentrum Alte Brauerei Annaberg”, a spacious and well-arranged place, one of the many “halles” all across the country that make organizing gigs and festivals really an easy job and are a unique asset that supports a vital music since, not limited to rock or metal. Along the main stage area, which hosted the merch corner as well, was a big canteen type of a bar, presenting excellent choice of beers and snacks, all coming in moderate prices to energize the headbangers and quench all those thirsty when things on stage started to heat up. The merch shopping ritual was flawlessly executed (this part of the story had an odd development later that night), people started to flow in by the dozens, rallying around the stage, which objectively looking was remarkably big, without limiting the space around it.
Germans are notorious for their punctuality and respect of time, that translates to live performances and entire festivals as well. Clock strikes 21:00 PM and the lights went dim and some intro tunes started to sound out of PA. MECHANIC TYRANTS are ready to hit the stage and you can feel the air electrifying as the band starts to occupy their positions, under the cheerful shouting of the crowd. For full disclosure let me share the fact that unfortunately the guys had to play a shorter set due having a replacement drummer, because Orlando Mack got sick a couple of days before and the show was hanging by a thread. Big shoutout for Andre of SINTAGE who helped out and learned the set in no time, saving the day for MECHANIC TYRANTS and everyone eager to have an overdose of some genuine trad metal. “Tower 42” was the first kick in the teeth, sound blasting the whole venue and throwing into extasy all of us from the frontline assembly. It took less than a minute for me to realize I was at the right place in the right time, and as I suspected these guys meant business. Being still under the daze of the opener “Murder at the Barricades” and “Speed Metal Guerrilla” shattered us totally, delivered with machine-gun devastation and sniper accuracy. Renowned for being amongst the smash hits of the quartet, one could feel the passion and devotion the guys invest in playing those anthems, which for me will become signature tunes in their repertoire.
“St. Diemen Riots”, the title track of the debut album came as the sledge-hammer for the first part, definitely answering the call of these hundred or so maniacs filling the hall with frantic shouting, relentless headbanging and singalong support. The show was in full swing and there was no way to predict where the metal madness will erupt next. “Sons of Evil” was next, a track I would like to consider an artistic autobiography of these crazy metallers or maybe not, but who cares after all when heads are banding all around? We all felt being “Above the Law” that night, the wonderful feeling of freedom and fulfillment that only our heartfelt interaction with the act on stage could bring. The boys were enjoying themselves to the fullest with that banger, jumping and running around like crazy, squeezing the maximum distortion of those guitars and the loudest, fastest, meanest battering from the rhythm section.
It was time for a final call and this came in the form of formidable couple of closing hymns to seal the deal and confirm MECHANIC TYRANTS’ place as the next big thing to emerge in the fertile soil of teutonic heavy metal. Тhe eponymous song is a natural born earworm to bow to and the chugging intro was just a low point in the rollercoaster before skyrocketing into speed stratosphere. And what better way to end it all, but to pay homage to one of the founding fathers of NWOBHM – ANGEL WITCH with their immortal song of the same name, a cover that is been interpreted by a myriad of bands to these days and many more will follow to carry on the torch to the year to come. It’s done. I am speechless, sweaty and thirsty. The band lived up to my highest expectations leaving no quarter to any posing. Proper moment to pause and actually decided to entirely skip the middle band from the poster and you know the popular saying – when there is nothing positive to tell, better shut up. My sole comment is that this formation felt totally out of place and didn’t belong to that kind setting, where is no tolerance for modernistic, overblown and plastic interpretation of metal music. Hence, perfect occasion to rest, refill answer the call of the nature and patiently wait for TURBOKILL.
SETLIST:
Tower 42
Murder at the Barricades
Speed Metal Guerrilla
St. Diemen Riots
Sons of Evil
Above the Law
Mechanic Tyrants
Angel Witch
And here they are – the power quintet and local heroes (I later realized they really come from this region of Saxony and according the Metal Archives its Annaberg-Buchholz their hometown) appeared with a bang, with their recognizable studs and leather uniforms, storming the stage with a proper opener from the recently released sophomore album “Champion” – “A Million Ways”.The speedy strike was definitely spot on and after this jab, came a proper hook in the form of “War Thunder”, one of my personal favorites at all, provoking emotions escalating to merciless headbanging and thanking my good fortune that met me with these guys for a second time, less than a year from the first encounter. “Time To Wake” and “Champion” followed suit as part of the new material to be presented live, proving beyond doubt why the frontman Stephan Dietrich, is perhaps the most consistent and promising powermetal vocalist these days, a true treasure to be taken beyond the german realm and this is my message to TURBOKILL for this year – just cross borders and break more necks across the continent.
Step back to “Vice World” era, beautiful mix with HELLOWEEN’s “I want out” (man, did I almost shed a tear on that one!) and frontal charge again with both old and new titles going hand in hand, giving bigger edge to the fresh ones, perhaps testing the waters to see where the audience will stick the most and answer with the biggest portion of cheering. “Power Punch” next to “Tear It Down”, sounded like a magnificent combo and as time went by, I was really anxious to understand If my number one smash song will find its way into the setlist!? Well, not my luckiest moment and will tell to the guys in person which that was so they can have it in mind and push it forward in the next tour.
No place for disgrace, as “Turbokill” blew the speakers which its massive riffing and almost thrashy delivery. All thoughts of missing out evaporated in this very instant, while the rest was pure bliss and metal indulgence. Nearing the epilogue of the show, its an usual practice for the gang to put an epic point on their performance and here we have the almost mandatory MANOWAR cover, in the likes of “Hail and Kill” this time! That is what actually TURBOKILL did that night – hailed us all in their world and killed with power metal of mesmerizing proportion. The crowd was happy, content and smiling – the greatest reward an artist could get back in return for the effort. To skip the cliché, before the curtain fall, there was one last song to go as a farewell – “Overcome” the one, that coincidentally or intentionally is ending the “Champion” album as well. Clapping hands, cheers, taking picture and exchanging hugs – that overwhelming feeling of metal camaraderie was what really made the night matter. Till we meet again!
Setlist:
The Nwothm 
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