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Spontaneously we decided to go to Hannover to see Seattle power metal legend Metal Church and Hannover's hard rockers Victory. Opening act Gorilla Monsoon we missed, coz we first needed food and so just been back in time for the Hannover quintet. Well, we missed the first song. As it's Victory's hometown a lot of people came out at a Wednesday night to see guitarist Tommy Newton and his pales. Their current album Fuel To The Flame is a kind of best-of-album, but they re-recorded the old tunes with their new singer Jioti Parcharidis (Human Fortress). And so the set was a best-of, too. I saw Victory the first time 20 years ago when they promoted Don't Get Mad Get Even live. That were the days of Charlie Huhn - a great entertainer and singer. After Huhn left to join Humble Pie, Fargopedda and Tommy Newton found a new singer in Fernando Garcia. The band broke up and when they reunited they returned with Charlie Huhn, but on the long run it didn't worked. They needed a new singer and found him in Hannover in person of Jioti. During their set the band presented old classics like On The Loose, Don't Tell No Lies and Temple Of Gold. Some songs sound harder these days, one reason for this impression is the voice. Jioti is more a power metal singer then based in hard rock, so he's too aggressive sometimes and screams too much in my opinion. Perhaps it's just that I have the old songs in mind and stick too much to the originals... Anyway, I heard a few people saying that they don't like the vocal performance. The band sounded very tight and it was just like in the old days - if you ignore the vocals. Sorry, but I think he's not the best replacement. Perhaps the impression will change completely when he's singing new songs which are written for him... Let's wait and see!
After the short break Metal Church entered the stage and kicked off the set with Badlands! What a start! Last year they toured to promote Weight Of The World and now the Seattle boys are back with A Light In The Dark. Even if the album release won't be before mid-June the band of guitarist and mastermind Kurdt Vanderhoof decided to play a few new tunes - like the title track and Mirror Of Lies. The rest of the set was a travel through Metal Church's history incl. songs like Date With Poverty, Ton Of Bricks, Dark, Gods Of Wrath and Watch The Children Pray. Some songs they played last year, others just made it into the set list. As they re-recorded Watch The Children Pray for the new album, it was a must play. But still the songs sounded a bit different, coz they have a new drummer. Kirk Arington had to take leave caused by health problems and so Vanderhoof asked Savatage drummer Jeff Plate to join them. Vanderhoof toured in 1997 with his solo band supporting Savatage and so he knew Plate for a few years. And last year Jeff Plate was on tour with Chris Caffery supporting Metal Church - so he was an obvious choice. As I saw Metal Church with David Wayne and Mike Howe I can compare them, too, with Ronny Munroe. But opposite to Victory the Americans found in Ronny Munroe a man who can sing the old classics! He made the songs sound like they were written for him and at the same time keeps close to the original. A great show which ended with Highway Star by Deep Purple - a song they covered already on their debut album. Well, here Mr. Munroe couldn't keep up with Ian Gillan at his high time, but still better than many others. And the song surely sounded heavier then the original. Too soon the show was over and I'm glad that I'll have the chance to see them again at Masters Of Rock in Czech Republic where they replace Annihilator.
A night of hard rock and power metal ended. Even if I was a little disappointed about Victory, Metal Church were worth the drive!
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