A pleasant Wednesday evening at the Turock in Essen starts with the French Manigance. First of all, there is a lot of female power with their singer Carine Pinto. The band, which has been active since 1995 and has released seven albums since then, all in French, is an energetic opener with their straight power metal and is able to get many fans in the audience on their side this evening. Carine Pinto especially is the center of the show, as she appears very charismatic and also involves the audience in the song again and again.

The second band of the evening, Nightmare, also based in France, also features a woman singer. Nightmare plays power metal, but a bit harder than Manigance. In parts there are even slight thrash elements and front-woman Barbara Mogore, who has only been with the band since last year, is a real ramp show. She sings, shouts and grunts and gives everything. Thumbs up for the band, which is also very convincing.

Setlist: Dead Sun / Divine Nemesis / Ikarus / Downfall Of A Tyrant / Crystal Lake / Infected / Eternal Winter / Aeternam / Stary Skies Go Black

After that it's the turn of the long-awaited Rhapsody Of Fire. With their new album "Glory For Salvation" (okay, it's already two years old, but due to corona nothing worked for a long time) they have a lot of new songs in their luggage. But also the old classics of the band will not be missed out on this Wednesday evening. Singer Giacomo Voli heats up the audience again and again and the audience gets completely involved in the show, chanting the songs and headbanging during the whole gig. Especially the fan with the inflated rubber sword has taken a fancy to the singer and gets involved in a little sword fight with him. If you love symphonic powermetal, you can't get past Rhapsody Of Fire, which the band proved once again impressively this evening.

Setlist: One Day I'll Be Your Hero / Chains Of Destiny / The Legend Goes On / Unholy Warcry / March Against The Tyrant / A New Saga Begins / Son Of Vengeance / Fuego Valyrio / Master Of Peace / Rain Of Fury / Un Ode Per L'Eroe / Dawn Of Victory / Reign Of Terror / Wisdom Of The Kings / Emerald Sword