Let the concert season 2024 begin! My first one was Hellripper, Toxik Holocaust and Abbath in Dortmund and it was pretty impressive to see a totally sold-out JunkYard that rainy Tuesday evening. Though the merch had pretty stiff prices (a shirt for 30€…) the fans were buying as if there was no tomorrow and also the bar was frequented very well. It seems that there isn't such a huge economic crisis in the metal scene.

Hellripper was the first to enter the stage and they did a fantastic job. Combining old songs with newer ones from their fantastic latest album "Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags" they caught the attention of the masses straight from the beginning and were super convincing. Bandleader James McBain interacted very well with the audience and came over super sympathetic this evening. The sound was good and so were the musicians. It was a flawless gig without point of criticism.

Setlist: 'Bastard Of Hades' / 'Demdike (In League With The Devil)' / 'Flesh Ripper' / 'Goat Vomit Nightmare' / 'Headless Angels' / 'Hell's Rock ´N´ Rol'l / 'Nekroslut' / 'Nunfucking Armageddon 666' / 'The Affair Of The Poisons' / 'The Nuckelavee' / 'Vampire's Grave' / 'All Hail The Goat'

I have to say that I was most curious to see Toxic Holocaust and a lot of other people obviously too because I had to watch their show from the back of the hall. Again, it was a fantastic sound and the band acted very well and aggressive on stage. They totally controlled the crowd and the guys in front of the stage went fucking nuts. I guess they didn't play any songs from their latest album which was quite surprising for me. But I may be wrong with that – unfortunately I didn't get a setlist so I just listed the songs from their follow-up gig in Utrecht the other day, sorry!

Setlist: 'Bitch' / 'Silence' / 'In The Name Of Science' / 'I Am Disease' / 'War Is Hell' / 'Wild Dogs' / 'Gravelord' / 'Acid Fuzz' / 'Reaper´s Grave' / 'Death Brings Death' / 'Nuke The Cross' / 'The Lord Of The Wasteland'

The fog rose from the glaciers of Norway emmm from the fog machines on the stage. Fortunately I got a place right in front of the stage; unfortunately it was very foggy so it was hard to see something within the first minutes. But Abbath was, as always, very impressive on stage. Besides him his band companions were almost as some kind of side effect. Forget his allures he had in the past, this was some cool black n' roll show Lemmy would have liked for sure. Apart from his own compositions, some obligatory Immortal / I songs didn't miss, too. Of course you cannot compare this stage acting with what he did back in 1994 when I saw him with Immortal (worst sound I heard at a concert), this was more Manowar-like and less *(insert the most evil black metal band you know here)-like. But it was a great show and fun to see the guys live.

Setlist: 'Hecate' / 'Acid Haze' / 'Dream Cull' / 'Ashes Of The Damned' / 'Dread Reaver' / 'In My Kingdom Cold' (Immortal) / 'Beyond The North Waves' (Immortal) / 'Nebular Ravens Winter' (Immortal) / 'Warriors' (I) / 'The Artifex' / 'One By One' (Immortal) / 'Winterbane' / 'To War!' / 'Prologue'

Obviously this was a very good start into live action 2024, let's hope that the upcoming concerts will be as good as this one. The bar is set high already!