the Jueves 14 Julio 2011, Masters of Rock - Rudolf Jelin

Amorphis

There was no doubt that the Finnish band will make an outstanding show and as usually they didn’t fail. The show containing twelve songs from their newest album as well as the good old classics had a great success not only among the band’s fans. The image and perfect sound is usually something that attracts many metalheads like the lamp attracts the moths so people could enjoy the setlist featuring for example Silver Bride, The Smoke or House of Sleep.

Moonspell

After the headliner of the day, Hammerfall, which after numerous visits in the CR has divided their listeners strictly to lovers and haters, the southern dark metal messengers have arrived on stage. The show was quite concentrated on band’s older releases which could only please the faithful fans and the whole mystic atmosphere was enhanced by very effective performance. On the other hand, for more cheerful ones Opium, one of the most popular Moonspell songs, was played.

Twisted Sister

The very first show of the legendary band Twisted Sister in the central Europe was awaited with a great anticipation. Those who could see the signing session or press conference knew in advance, that the reputation of the band was indeed deserved and the charisma of the singer Dee Snider overwhelming. As the intro was chosen the AC/DC song It's a Long Way to the Top which heated the audience to the maximum, but the best was yet to come. The classics like We’re Not Gonna Take It, Burn in Hell, I Wanna Rock or You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll were interlaced with the singer’s thankful and excited orations (“In American Idol, the singers thank their fans for sticking up with them for fifteen weeks. When they stick up with them for f*ckin’ 35 years as you did, THEN they should thank!”) and cheering their Czech fans for the first time in this country. And this case was one of few cases when telling “come on, the first time won’t hurt, will be with someone you love and you will remember it forever” was only true.

Watain

The most extreme band of the festival was not only musical experience, but for most of people it was rather visual and olfactory. The whole performance was without any doubts orgasmic for the band’s fans, but I am quite sure that the light engineer is going to be found murdered by a photographer one day. Yes, “evil” music deserves “evil” lights, so smoke, fire and red lighting all over the stage was quite logic, but what was the most unpleasant for the people in the photopit and first rows was the carcass smell. The band has made an amazing work when it came to stage decorations, butthe thing was that half of year ago, when they began their previous tour, they had freshly cut pig heads. Very authentic, very exciting. But even though it seems unbelievable, using the same heads six months later doesn’t smell that good. Actually it can make a big tough guy faint in the fourth row and that’s exactly what happened. But still I must admit that visually this was one the most amazing shows of all.

Audrey Horne (NOR)

It is some kind of tradition that the young promising band comes back to the festival after two years (as Bloodbound or The Sorrow did in the previous years) and this was one of them. For me Audrey Horne was the band closest to my heart so despite their “early” beginning show (11.40am is early when you party all night long) this was a must see. Most of the songs in their setlist came from their latest release but they also managed to squeeze the songs that brought them their first success into the fifty minutes that were given to them. And about the strongest side of the performance – kudos to the singer and his acrobatic showing off and jumping to interact with the fans from face to face, not only being on stage two meters above ground.
More amazing bands were playing that day but compared to most of the previous and following ones they performance wasn’t that outstanding and it would be anything but interesting to write/read about every single one of that day.

Arkona (RUS)

If it was as cold as the previous days it would be nothing weird if you saw a girl in fur running round, but when the temperature reached the normal summer heights, it was exactly the time when Russian pagan legend Arkona came on stage. The band propagating Slavic unity has very big fanbase in the CR and Slovakia so the crowd was very big for a band playing in the hottest moments of the afternoon. And if one thinks that a growling lady with no make-up in traditional Slavic clothes can’t be sexy, then he is terribly wrong. There is something terribly sexy about talent and everyone in this band has more than enough of it. So the show, which had no special effects and only slightly for metal music untraditional instruments and clothes, was more than attractive to watch.

Delain

Very attractive band which was supposed to come last year but couldn’t because of injury of one of the members finally made it to this festival. Delain was a great contrast to the previous band since their very attractive singer made her image of being an unusually pretty and girly person (but very talented as well). Those shows really make me think what they have in water in the Netherlands because there are suspiciously many female fronted metal bands where the lead singer is both skilled and charming. Whatever it is, it worked for Charlotte and the show was worth waiting one year for sure.

Oomph

German controversial band Oomph! Performed for the second time at this festival, this time surprisingly in the early evening unlike last time, when they were playing in the main time of the night. Maybe it was because back in those days the band had a great success with their song Gott ist ein Popstar and since then they just kept pleasing their fans without surprising the public that much. But what stayed the same is the fact, that the singer is still something what in films would be called a charming asshole.

Helloween

The only band that was probably even more popular than the official headliner rocked the stage with an amazing energy. Personally I’m not their biggest fan but still have to admit that the band created an amazing atmosphere. On the other hand many people are more and more disappointed by the performance of the band’s lead singer (“who isn’t bad but compared to the original one just sucks”) and even the biggest fans were kind of unsatisfied. Why? Simply because the band broke the record in performing as little songs in 90 minutes as possible. The guitar and drum solo took more time than a song would and even though it is interesting to see the musicians’ skills, it would be much better if the band gave more space to the original, classic songs of them.

But what was even bigger disappointment after all, was the organizers’ choice of the enclosing band of the whole festival. T?i Sestry (Three Sisters) is a very popular band in the CR but after bands like Lordi or Sepultura finishing the whole festival this idea seemed to be kind of out of the mind.

Anyway, at the end I must say that the festival was really worth seeing. The atmosphere, the experiences, the people, great range of music, everything put together makes an amazing combination and creates unforgettable four days.