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Drove to Toronto Friday night to see these guys, as I have been a big Helloween and Jag Panzer fan for many, many years. Beyond the Embrace opened for both of these big hitters, but failed to impress me much. The music was OK, but the vocals sucked so bad that it ruined it for me.
Jag Panzer, on the other hand, ruled. Harry "Tyrant" Conklin just about blew the top of my head clean off with his supersonic range, and the band played spot on for about 45 minutes. The setlist consisted of a good mix of old and newer stuff, including Battle Zones, Black, Iron Eagle, Warfare, and others. Chris Broderick destroyed the place as usual with his six string mastery of blistering solos - goddamn, he just plain rules everytime I see them play!
Helloween came on and I managed to get in the front row on the corner of the barrier. They opened with "Starlight" and the place went nuts. Michael Weikath was a mere six feet from me, and looked so cool with that creme Les Paul custom! He also played a black LP Custom, as did second guitarist Sascha Gerstner. They ripped through 2 full hours of CLASSIC sh!t like "Keeper of the 7 Keys", "How Many Tears", "Power", "Future World" and a bunch of stuff from Better than Raw and the new one, Rabbit Don't Come Easy. Weikath just plain ripped through the most difficult of songs and solos with ease, a Marlboro dangling from his lips most of the time. Markus Grosskopf was a madman, thrashing all over the place and laying down that classic Helloween thunder. Stefan Schwarzmann (ACCEPT's drummer) was blasting the kit like a freaking machine! Man, what an amazing performance....it was definitely worth the 20 year wait I had to endure to see these heavy metal legends!
I would highly recommend the new CD of theirs to anyone who still enjoy authentic heavy metal the way it is supposed to be played. Damn, we need more tours like this one to come across this ebonically plagued, true metal-starved country! HAIL!
Jag Panzer, on the other hand, ruled. Harry "Tyrant" Conklin just about blew the top of my head clean off with his supersonic range, and the band played spot on for about 45 minutes. The setlist consisted of a good mix of old and newer stuff, including Battle Zones, Black, Iron Eagle, Warfare, and others. Chris Broderick destroyed the place as usual with his six string mastery of blistering solos - goddamn, he just plain rules everytime I see them play!
Helloween came on and I managed to get in the front row on the corner of the barrier. They opened with "Starlight" and the place went nuts. Michael Weikath was a mere six feet from me, and looked so cool with that creme Les Paul custom! He also played a black LP Custom, as did second guitarist Sascha Gerstner. They ripped through 2 full hours of CLASSIC sh!t like "Keeper of the 7 Keys", "How Many Tears", "Power", "Future World" and a bunch of stuff from Better than Raw and the new one, Rabbit Don't Come Easy. Weikath just plain ripped through the most difficult of songs and solos with ease, a Marlboro dangling from his lips most of the time. Markus Grosskopf was a madman, thrashing all over the place and laying down that classic Helloween thunder. Stefan Schwarzmann (ACCEPT's drummer) was blasting the kit like a freaking machine! Man, what an amazing performance....it was definitely worth the 20 year wait I had to endure to see these heavy metal legends!
I would highly recommend the new CD of theirs to anyone who still enjoy authentic heavy metal the way it is supposed to be played. Damn, we need more tours like this one to come across this ebonically plagued, true metal-starved country! HAIL!
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