Rotterdam Rocks presents usually means some good old heavy metal. This afternoon the package was especially interesting as all three bands originating from the eighties representing three countries. There was a fourth band opening: Impact, but as my mother needed some emergency attention in the late morning and our national rail decided to repair lines on my route a detour brought me to Baroeg just before Martyr kicked off. It would have been nice if Ajax would have scored the 1-2 in the dying seconds when I enetered Baroeg, just to observe reactions. But football was over when Martyr kicked off and we could concentrate on our daily dose of metal.
Martyr opened the party for me and finally I got to see them on tour in support of Planet Metalhead. This album recently was voted best 2022 metal album in the Benelux at Metalfan and also reached the number one spot at a slighlty biased list by Alex and Theo. Lists mean little, but Martyr showed they are the best surviving heavy metal band from the eighties in Holland indeed. Church of Metal, La Diabla, Raise Your Horns Unite all sounded fast and furious. With their ballad No Time For Goodbyes they even treat Queensryche peak years territory. The live presentation of Martyr is known by now, unless you lived under a hard rock the last decade. Some personal comments to friends in the audience, jägermeister and I am pretty sure that the kid on stage loved to be invited. As the supporting bands had 45 minutes only, time flew by and I can already look forward to a next Martyr show, which won't be in Musicon later this year, as Progpower weekend rules (doesn't it Vinnie?)
It turned out that many known faces and people were walking this Sunday matinee, so breaks were good and then Killer came on. This Belgian metal institute from the eighties was never among my favorites, but they have some fast party metal songs. A few years ago I saw them also in Baroeg (with Helstar?) and they surprised me positively. This time I was slightly less impressed. Songs like Shock Waves, Wall of Sound or Kleptomania all metal on fine, but Killer sounded a bit old fashioned. Their playing and presentation are enthusiastically, but I guess timing was not best for me as I came to see Jag Panzer and just really enjoyed Martyr. Reactions they got plenty from the audience, so probably I was wrong.
After a slightly long break Jag Panzer came on and started their old skool set very old skool indeed with Metal Melts the Ice form their debut EP. Now I got into Jag Panzer really late, when I one day bought Ample Destruction. That album was released in 1984 when I loved bands like Maiden, Dio, Manowar and Virgin Steele, which all at times come back in their heavy power metal. So I now checked my De Nieuwe Aardschok archive to check what happend. In those scholar years on a tight budget, we followed Aardschok for tips probably a bit too much. So in Nr. 16 August 1984 Jag Panzer received an aweful review. In that same issue there are albums I did get/know from Dio, Fastway, Y&T, Cirith Ungol, Mama's Boys, VowWow and Quiet Riot. So my excuse for not getting into them from the start lies in one poor review. In hindsight I don't agree at all, even among the two best songs Generally Hostile is not mentioned and live that one definitely blew us away. Great to shout No Mercy!No Mercy! along there. Further the band went through their catalogue until 20 years ago. The playing was good, the presentation as well and at times we were back in the eighties indeed with the still impressive screams by The Tyrant. Near the end the solo guitar disappeared mysteriously from the mix during two songs, but a great show was had and I rushed satisfied out to make it to my train in time. Having to connect at Rotterdam CS to a metro homebound had the advantage that a warm sate kroket became dinner after a well spend afternoon/early evening at Rotterdam Rocks. Baroeg will be rebuild, but for shows this size, the atmosphere over there is always best, so curious already for the 2.0 version. Thanks for one fine evening where metal did melt the ice indeed as no more slippery walks were needed.
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