I wanted to begin with: “When All Heads Rise entered the stage…”, but thinking back about that night: ‘stage’ is the wrong word to use. They played on a platform that was connected to the floor, on which the audience was standing, by a short stairs of approximately three steps. Above this stairs they made a short kind of catwalk, which the singer of All Heads Rise used to show us his fighting skills. The band produced a decent kind of hardcore, but the singer was more focused on his moves than on stirring up the audience. All in all they were a fine act as opener of the evening, but they didn’t make an unforgettable impression at all.

 

Next up were the British guys from Devil Sold His Soul. Judging from their music and their home country they were the misfits of the night, but they managed to give away a hell of a performance anyway. As the only foreign band and the only ones who played post-hardcore, they had some difficulties with convincing the viewers, but eventually they succeeded. With solid songs, brutal breakdowns, a nice energetic performance and a singer with a great voice they were the surprise of the night for me personally.

 

My City Burning had a greater audience participation than Devil Sold His Soul, but they weren’t that much better. They just delivered some catchy hardcore anthems, which were perfect to smash the person next to you. Furthermore there isn’t really much to say about these guys, they just did what they were supposed to do and they did it great. According to themselves they are “more hardcore than Jenna Jameson”, so if this sounds interesting to you: check out their debut release White Lies, Black Eyes.

 

No Turning Back then finished this party properly. Their intense hardcore resulted in the best crowd participation of the night and they definitely proved why it was justified that they were chosen to be the opening act for Biohazard, three days after this show. With songs from both their older releases as well as their latest one, Stronger, they proved that hardcore lives. It was not crowded enough for stagedives or crowdsurfing, but that didn’t seem to bother them that much. They used everything they had in their power to use tonight and the crowd loved it.