Metal Force Attack V (Darkness Surrounding, Future Phobia, Schizophrenia, Space Chaser) - JKC Kamen: 04.30.2022

I was quite surprised to see that Schizophrenia and Space Chaser are going to play in my neighborhood so naturally I took the chance to see them on this Saturday evening. The concert started with Darkness Surrounding, a local German band from Wuppertal who plays some melodic death metal stuff. The band was quite interesting since they do have a male and a female vocalist. I would say that they remind me of a mixture of old Paradise Lost and some Gothenburg melodic death metal paired with Theatre Of Tragedy-like vocals back in the mid-90s.

The second band was a local band called Future Phobia. They had some kind of home match because they originated from this area and got a lot of support through the audience. And this was deserved because they performed a very vivid show, acting very much with the fans and playing very entertaining thrash metal from their demo and their first EP Highway To The Ruhrzone. To describe their style, it's much like old Metallica or Kreator combined with some more cross-over elements like Municipal Waste. The closer was a very casual Kreator cover of 'Love Us Or Hate Us' and this was a very fine final track for this cool gig!

The guys from Schizophrenia just have released their first full-length album Recollections Of The Insane and so it was pretty awesome to see them performing the tracks live. They were a little bit troubled with the sound but it became better from song to song and I guess almost nobody really noticed it (or at least nobody cared about it). The show was an absolute wrecking ball and they did a really fantastic stage acting (although the stage wasn't a real stage and much too small to move around). Starting with 'Souls Of Retribution' they played a mixture of their new, more death metal orientated songs and some more thrashy stuff from their 2020 EP Voices. Singer Ricky Mandozzi and both guitar players interacted with the crowd very often and appeared to be a very fan-friendly band. 'Schizophrenia' was the track when the crowd was finally completely roused so that they started to party. A very good Morbid Angel cover of "Maze Of Torment" showed the technical skills they have and came quite surprising because it wasn't on the setlist. They left the stage with 'Structure Of Death' – I guess, one cannot leave the hall better. The evening was an absolute success for the Belgians and if they continue performing this way and without any allures, they are going to have a bright, ehm… sorry dark future in the extreme metal scene.

Setlist: 'Souls Of Retribution', 'Sea Of Sorrow', 'Schizophrenia', 'Divine Immolation', 'Onwards To Fire', 'Maze Of Torment', 'Cranial', 'Structure Of Death'.

Space Chaser from Berlin are one of the best German new wave of thrash metal bands these days. Having released their third full-length album Give Us Life last year they have a very cool back catalogue of thrash songs to perform. On this evening they played a fine cross-section from all the albums and underlined why they are so popular. Vocalist Siegfrieds interaction with the audience was quite funny and he made a lot of jokes. Both guitarists were running around and did a lot of posing with their guitars and drummer Matthias was a very tight and precise machine behind his drumkit. They all were in a very good mood and had a lot of joy of playing. No wonder about that because it was their first show in 2022. After a short intro they started with 'Virus' from the 2018 split album with Distillator and pretty much from the start the fans were doing slam-dance and headbanging. The next tracks were from the latest album which is pretty more thrash orientated and has lesser cross-over elements than its predecessors. But also, all-time faves like 'Skate Metal Punks' or as final track 'Metro Massacre' didn't miss. It was a very entertaining evening with really cool bands and a concert feeling like before the pandemic. Let's hope that it keeps this way.

Setlist: 'Intro/ Virus', 'Cryoshock', 'Juggernaut', 'Remants Of Technology', 'The Immortals', 'Waves', 'Burn Them All', 'Give Us Life', 'Antidote To Order', 'Skate Metal Punks', 'Decapitron', 'Tied Down', 'Metro Massacre'

I was pretty surprised to see that the Dutch girls from Cobra Spell didn't had their male vocalist Alexx Panza anymore but Kristina Vega from Born In Exile in their line-up. However, this didn't matter anyway because the five girls rocked the Turock right from the beginning. Playing old school traditional heavy metal in the vein of the 80s (and wearing clothes that would have been cool back then, too) they knew how to kick ass and played some songs from their two EPs and a cover version of W.A.S.P. ("Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)"). I guess that nobody got disappointed with this retro gig – concerning both, ears and eyes. I hope that they are going to release a full-length album soon, this would be pretty fine!

Setlist: 'Poison Bite' / 'Addicted To The Night' / 'The Midnight Hour' / 'Shake Me' / 'Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)' / 'Accelerate'

The biggest surprise to me (and the photographer from the Deaf Forever) that evening were the guys from Ambush. I have to confess that I knew them only by name (and the album cover) but I was completely blown away by them right from the beginning. Playing straight away heavy metal like old Judas Priest combined with Iron Maiden and Accept they were really celebrated by the audience. Crowdsurfing and some really wild mosh pits took place in front of the stage and the Swedes really enjoyed the good mood. The stage acting was quite cool and reminded me of some old Priest concerts and you could see that the guys really had fun to be on the road again.

Setlist: 'Infidel' / 'Possessed By Evil' / 'Barabbas' / 'Master Of The Seas' / 'Firestorm' / 'Hellbiter' / 'Desecrator' / 'Natural Born Killers' / 'Don't Shoot (Let 'Em Burn)'

After Ambsuh the reason why I originally came to Essen for this evening entered the stage: the speed metal guys Evil Invaders from Belgium. Though I have to say that I love the first two albums much more than the last one, Shattering Reflection, because there are too many mid-tempo tracks on it. However it was great to have the opportunity to see them live but I was pretty disappointed, especially in the first 20 minutes because the sound was pretty bad and you couldn't get the songs too clear. I have to say that I had to take a look at the set list to guess which tracks they played, only 'Mental Penitentiary' I could recognize. But after these 20 minutes the sound slowly got better and all was fine. Nevertheless the audience didn't care about the bad sound and celebrated Evil Invaders massively. Of course it wasn't really their fault and they did all their best to do a cool performance and I have to admit that their show was very impressive. It started with the microphone stands up to the stage acting – all that was very professional and I would like to see them again with a better sound.

Setlist: 'Intro + Hissing In Crescendo' / ''Metal Penitentiary' / 'As Life Slowly Fades' / 'Pulses Of Pleasure' / 'In Deepest Black' / 'Sledgehammer Justice' / 'Tortured By The Beast' / 'Broken Dreams In Isolation' / 'Feed Me Violence' / 'Die For Me' / 'Realm Of Shadows' / 'Eternal Darkness' / 'Living Hell'

And now the band most of the guys in the crowd were waiting for had it's turn, Swedish Enforcer. Starting their performance with 'Undying Evil' the guys are optically quite similar to the guys from Ambush and of course they also performed some heavy metal tunes back from the 80s. The whole club was boiling and I guess that they might have even played some poser stuff from the 80s and the audience would have loved it. Everybody was almost eating out of Enforcers hand, really crazy. So it's no wonder that they had quite fun performing and posing on the stage and just like Ambush, they had a home match. The audience was celebrating each song they played, sung along with them and a lot of people were stage diving and crowd surfing. After the concert you could meet all the guys at their merchandise to have a chat with them, I guess that is not always a matter of course for some bands. So I guess that was a very amazing evening for everybody – and really unforgettable. Especially for me having a ghost driver on the highway on my way back home.

Setlist: 'Undying Evil' / 'From Beyond' / 'Die For The Devil' / 'Live For The Night' / 'Zenith' / 'Kiss Of Death' / 'Below The Slumber' / 'Mesmerized By Fire' / 'Running In Menace' / 'Take Me Out Of This Nightmare' / 'Katana' / 'Midnight Vice'