![Heaven Shall Burn Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2023_08_15_Heaven_Shall_Burn/Preview/2023_08_15_Heaven_Shall_Burn_Intro.jpg)
At 20:45 it finally was the time and Heaven Shall Burn entered the stage to the sounds of the intro “Awoken” from the 2008 released album “Iconoclast (Part I: The Final Resistance)”. When they were over it seamlessly went into “Endzeit” and with the first words sung the crowd in front of the stage directly started moving. Already during the winter they toured through the bigger venues together with Trivium and now they continued this during the Summer Battles Tour 2023 also in smaller locations. Due to that there was no big show on stage with fire and the usual hoo-ha but that was also not needed at all. The band on its own already put across so much energy that there was no limits in the audience and in such small locations where you are really close to what is going on the concert experience is anyhow much more intense.
![Trivium Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2023_08_15_Trivium/Preview/2023_08_15_Trivium_Intro.jpg)
The sun was still shining brightly from the sky and so did the jacket of Matt Heafy. After the intro “X” of the album “In The Court Of The Dragon” faded out the identically named title song directly boomed from the stage. The backdrops and covers were just as colourful as the front man and he made straight clear that he was really bent on playing this evening. The tongue was again and again sticked out and permanently he swirled from one end of the stage to the other.
![Bleed From Within Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2023_08_15_Bleed_From_Within/Preview/2023_08_15_Bleed_From_Within_Intro.jpg)
After it had been quite changeable across the day it was getting sunny towards the evening and so the guys of the Scottish band Bleed From Within could enter the stage at best weather. The Junkyard provided a worthy setting for the upcoming hours due to its unusual setup of the location (everything outside was built from old containers and scrap). Because also Trivium and Heaven Shall Burn were on the agenda it unfortunately had to start very early at 18:15 in order to satisfy the noise protection requirements for the open-air concert.
![Red Hot Chili Pipers Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2022_10_22_Red_Hot_Chilli_Pipers_Coesfeld/Preview/2022_10_22_Red_Hot_Chilli_Pipers_Intro.jpg)
On this evening it should get again a little bit more special. On two Wacken Open Air festivals I had already seen this Scottish combo whose name often led to irritations. This due to the fact that it is not the Californian rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers what many erroneously read but about a Scottish Rock N’ Pipes band.
Because of corona their gig at the Fabrik at Coesfeld was rescheduled and many seemed to avoid the risk of joining crowds as the gig was unfortunately not visited very well. Nevertheless, around 20:00 good mood passed its way when the seven men and one woman entered the stage and brought to peoples minds that they really were bent on their show.
![Metallica Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2022_09_24_Saltatio_Mortis_Gelsenkirchen/Preview/2022_09_24_Saltatio_Mortis_Preview.jpg)
It has been nearly exact three years since my last visit at the Metallica concert on the Maimarktgelände at Mannheim. It seemed like ages ago that corona has brought to all of us and I really missed being in the middle of a crowd in front of a stage. Also Saltatio Mortis have imagined it differently when they announced in 2019 their anniversary concert to their 20-years existence that should take place in 2020. To that time it should happen at Cologne at the Palladium on two evenings, then it was postponed to 2021 and then once more to 2022. To be even more ensured that it really can take place it was additionally moved to Gelsenkirchen into the Amphitheater where it could take place open-air in order to minimize the risks of infections even more. A positive side effect of that was that it now only needed one evening and additionally due to the larger capacity of the venue even more people could join.
![John Diva And The Rockets Of Love Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2019_11_30_John_Diva_And_The_Rockets_Of_Love_Essen/Preview/2019_11_30_John_Diva_Intro.jpg)
A nice evening in November 2019 and lots of people in front of the Turock at Essen. A sold out venue to the tour of their first album of John Diva And The Rockets Of Love “Mama Said Rock Is Dead” with Rosy Vista as support act.
It was 2014 when I first got to know the lively company on the Wacken Open Air. To that time without much expectations, they exceeded them significantly. And so I insisted on going to watch them another time. After the mood was already excellent after Rosy Vista, John Diva really managed to gather speed even more.
![Rosy Vista Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2019_11_30_Rosy_Vista_Essen/Preview/2019_11_30_Rosy_Vista_Intro.jpg)
The evening was opened by Rosy Vista. To me, the four ladies that entered the stage were really strangers whereas they can already look back onto a long and changeful history. Beginning of the 80s it was founded as Germanys first pure female hard rock band and were playing very successfully as support act for big ones like Mötley Crüe, Jon Bon Jovi, Joe Cocker and others. But as fast as they appeared, they disappeared again from the stage and already 1990 they dissipated.
![Metallica Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2019_08_25_Metallica_Mannheim/Preview/2019_08_25_Metallica_Intro.jpg)
The sun was slowly going down and it was getting darker in front of the stage. Originally Metallica should start at 20:30 but they took their time until it was dark enough to best bring off the huge LED wall. At 20:40 the redeeming sounds of Ennio Morricones “The Ecstacy Of Gold” could be heard accompanied by the associated pictures of the film until it went over into the intro of “Hardwired”.
![Ghost Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2019_08_25_Ghost_Mannheim/Preview/2019_08_25_Ghost_Intro.jpg)
After Bokassa it was up to the Swedish metal project Ghost to enthuse the crowd even more. Singer Tobias Forge who is on stage currently as cardinal Coppia brought his nameless ghouls with him to celebrate his Mass within the scope of their “A Pale Tour Named Death” tour.
![Bokassa Intro](/images/phocagallery/konzerte/2019_08_25_Bokassa_Mannheim/Preview/2019_08_25_Bokassa_Intro.jpg)
Temperatures were above 30°C and the sun was burning from the sky when I went towards the stage in the afternoon right after the opening of the Mannheim Maimarktgelände. Everybody tried to stay as long as possible at the rare places of shadow until everything started at 17:45 with Bokassa.