Germany’s MESSENGER started out, a couple of minutes behind schedule already, with a bombastic yet hardly innovative intro. Not surprisingly I was only familiar with this outfit by name … Of course they went down rather well with the native part of the audience in special, but they didn’t really manage to convince me. Not because of bad musicianship, but simply because this quintet is nowhere near original. “Kill The DJ … Heavy Metal is the law” … That’s how clichéd their lyrics are at times. During Make It Right the vocalist and one of the guitarists ventured off into the audience. Cool … but it’s all been done a million times before already ... And the guitar duel that preceeded said song was a bit superfluous as well … Not a lot of positive things I can say, unfortunately. If only they were able to get rid of the clichés and thus add plenty more originality, there might be a brighter future for MESSENGER …

A band I was expecting a lot more from was up next : New Jersey’s ARCTIC FLAME . They had released their debut full-length CD Primeval Aggressor earlier in the year (through Battle Cry Records) and I was totally impressed by it. Excellent pure U.S. metal all the way! It was quite a surprise to find out that ARCTIC FLAME appeared as a quartet on this occasion, as guitarist Rod Mariani was nowhere to be spotted. Due to problems getting out of the country, I believe. Furthermore the line-up included a new bassist; a very young one, by the looks of it … The band kicked off with five tunes off their debut : Steel Angels, Misery’s Mystery, Spark Of Ire, The Levellers Wish and Green Lady (Of The Hill). The new bassist soon turned out to be both excellent and energetic, and the entire band convinced as far as musical skills are concerned. Although I must add that the presence of a second guitarist would undoubtedly have made the band’s performance even more complete and powerful. Relentless was the only new song performed today, before ARCTIC FLAME’s 40’ set came to and end with Battle Of Heaven And Hell. Thus concluding an overall convincing European debut performance. And I know for sure that this band can do even better. As such I’m already looking forward to their performance at next year’s Swordbrothers 5 festival. Hopefully the band will perform as a quintet on that occasion …

WARHAMMER was the second German band on the bill today. Once again I was totally unfamiliar with their musical legacy, but I can’t say I had high hopes of liking them. In all honesty, from my point of view, the intro was the best part of their 42’ set. Old school thrash metal with deathlike vocals simply aren’t what I’m looking for … And, although I’m hardly the one to judge, I guess these guys are hardly original either. Of course they had some loyal followers, but in my opinion this kind of band doesn’t fit on any Keep It True bill. Definitely the lowest point of this edition. At least from my point of view ...

Another personal highlight was to grace the stage next though : Sweden’s WOLF. I admit : I’ve been a fan of WOLF ever since their selftitled 2000 debut. Three more albums followed ever since : Black Wings (2002), Evil Star (2004) and the recent The Black Flame. And although the band has lost some of their speed on both of their most recent releases, in general, they never let me down. As a result they even managed to get rid of their ‘IRON MAIDEN clone’ tag to a certain extent … Actually WOLF was already scheduled to perform at the K.I.T. 5 (I believe) warm-up show, but had to cancel their appearance in the end. And despite being fourth on the line-up today, they only had 45’ at their disposal. I guess they would’ve been better off playing that (longer) show last year, but it certainly didn’t seem to bother the bandmembers. They started with the fastest song off The Black Flame : Steelwinged Savage Reaper. A good way to set the tone on any given day! More recent stuff followed in form of The Bite, I Will Kill Again, The Black Flame, plus Black Wing Rider and Evil Star. Older stuff included Electric Raga and Genocide. The band turned out to be very energetic and really delivered the goods. Their compact songs went down really well, resulting in ‘howling wolfcries’ from the audience in between songs. Too bad it was all over after some 47’ already … But hopefully there will be plenty more opportunities to witness this quality quartet live in the future to come!

England’s ONSLAUGHT is a band that I’ve seen at least once in the late 1980’s : it’s a shame that I don’t remember much from their performance(s) in those days … And no, I never was a fan of them either, for I always found their music to be too one-dimensional and not too original overall. Although I am quite familiar with all of their releases. In late 2004, early 2005 ONSLAUGHT reunited with two original members (guitarist Nige Rockett & drummer Steve Grice), two ex members from later incarnations (vocalist Sy Keeler & bassist Jason Hinder) plus new guitarist Alan Jordan. Quite surprisingly today’s set turned out to be a mixture of songs culled from all three of their 1980’s releases, plus even a couple of new ones. Surprisingly, as I didn’t expect to hear anything off In Search Of Sanity … The likes of Angels Of Death, Metal Force, Shellshock, Demoniac and Onslaught (Power From Hell) all went down extremely well. Resulting in a small but to the point moshpit most of the time. I sure wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome … Destroyer Of Worlds, Burn and Killing Peace were the new songs on display tonight, and they should all end up on the band’s forthcoming comeback release. And by the sound of it, it will be another effort full of uncompromising pure fucking thrash. Unfortunately that means that the band hasn’t progressed. On the other hand they didn’t sell out either. To put it short : those who always liked ONSLAUGHT will still like them, and vice versa. ONSLAUGHT’s 53’ set sure was energetic, but personally I enjoyed the likes of ARCTIC FLAME and WOLF more. Just a matter of opinion, I’m afraid …

Which leads us to ROSS THE BOSS. I’m sure everyone remembers that he was already part of the K.I.T. 6 line-up as well, earlier in the year. This time around he was called in to replace FLOTSAM & JETSAM, who had to cancel their performance for reasons well-known that needn’t be repeated here. Anyway, it was announced that ROSS THE BOSS’ setlist was to be completely new, compared to last April. Being the sceptical person that I am, I wasn’t convinced of that announcement at all. And unfortunately I was proven right! Death Tone, Shell Shock, Army Of The Immortals and Bridge Of Death were not performed tonight, and replaced by the likes of Metal Daze (including technical guitar difficulties), Fasttaker, Kings Of Metal, Blood Of My Enemies, March For Revenge and Blood Of The Kings. The rest was all a rehashment of last time : opener Manowar, Gloves Of Metal, Secret Of Steel (with SACRED STEEL’s Gerrit on vocals), Thor (The Power Head), Mountains, Kill With Power, Hail To England, Hail And Kill (with MAJESTY’s Tarek on vocals) and finally Battle Hymn. Not really what I had in mind concerning a totally new set … The band’s performance left hardly anything to be desired once again, but of course it’s not the real MANOWAR. Besides, I often wonder why German audiences are so receptive of ROSS THE BOSS, knowing that the ‘real thing’ is still around and touring frequently? It’s a mystery to me …

HEIR APPARENT is one of those American cult outfits that one doesn’t get to see too often in Europe. Their last visit dates back to 2000, when they played at the Wacken Open Air festival. I was there then, but I wasn’t utterly convinced. Besides, their timeslot wasn’t long enough in my opinion. This was definitely to be different today, as their 90’ set was said to include stuff from all three of their CD releases. Of course nobody could predict how HEIR APPARENT of today would sound like, as guitarist Terry Gorle is the only remaining original member these days. And I have no idea who the new recruits are at all … Doesn’t really matter anyway, as the new guys turned out to be excellent! Quite a few people may have left after ONSLAUGHT and ROSS THE BOSS had finished their sets, but those still standing surely seemed to enjoy HEIR APPARENT’s brand of classic, melodic U.S. metal. With a 30’ delay the band started out around 15 minutes to midnight with The Servant. Six more songs off the band’s landmark debut release would follow later on : Hands Of Destiny, Tear Down The Walls, the instrumental R.I.P., Another Candle, Dragon’s Lair and Keeper Of The Reign. 1989’s One Small Voice was represented by an equal amount of songs : Just Imagine, Crossing The Border, The Sound Of Silence, Young Forever, One Small Voice, Decorated and the killer closer The Fifth Season! Three songs from the Triad release were elected to be part of this killer selection as well : Questions, Cry For Rome and The Haunting. For once I won’t even start mentioning songs that they could or should have included as well, as the setlist was just about perfect as it was. Most of these tunes have stood the test of time easily, and the band’s performance was excellent too. Definitely my personal highlight of this edition, followed by WOLF and ARCTIC FLAME. From what Terry told us, HEIR APPARENT are willing to play live again when any opportunities arise, so let’s hope we haven’t seen the end of this high-class act yet!

Now that this first ‘mini’ edition is over, allow me to post some personal comments. 1) The fact that there was no warm-up show, in my opinion, was a positive thing, for reasons explained earlier on already. 2) Then again, I’d rather see no more ‘mini’ editions in the future : just add three more bands and switch back to the Tauberfrankenhalle instead. And thus make more than just 500 people happy! No-one will blame the organisers if there would be no warm-up show then. 3) Concerning this 7th edition : it definitely wasn’t the best, from my point of view anyhow, but I sure did enjoy the likes of ARCTIC FLAME, HEIR APPARENT & WOLF! 4) And regarding ROSS THE BOSS playing twice in a row : I’d say this was totally against the politics of the organisers, who don’t usually book the same band twice (apart from MAJESTY). Besides, there were still some 5 or 6 weeks left when FLOTSAM & JETSAM cancelled; plenty of time to find a suitable replacement, I’d say. Hundreds of bands would jump at a chance to play at the K.I.T. festival, even when called in at short notice. In my opinion adding ROSS THE BOSS again was just the easy (cheap) way out ... 5) Luckily the next edition will be a full-fledged one again, and the line-up looks quite spectacular : ARTILLERY, BULLET, CAULDRON, DEFENDER, DIAMOND HEAD, LAAZ ROCKIT, LETHAL, PILEDRIVER, SABBAT & TWISTED TOWER DIRE. Also, the Storm Of Steel warm-up show is set to include DESTRUCTOR, IVORY NIGHT, TANKARD & WARRANT. We’ll be there!