IVORY NIGHT were up first. This band includes the vocalist and bassist from the ROSS THE BOSS BAND, who already graced the K.I.T. festival stage during the past two editions. And just maybe this was the only reason for having this band on today’s line-up, as they were definitely out of league with the other three bands. After all, IVORY NIGHT are a melodic heavy metal outfit, and they were up against three thrash ensembles. They tried to cover things up by turning up the volume way too loud instead. The band has been busy recording a second CD (Machine) and they played plenty of songs from that upcoming release. But also a few from their 7 – Dawn Of The Night debut, such as Mighty Wings, And I Fly and Salvation Is An Honest Man. I wasn’t really impressed, and most of the people were still outside, enjoying the extremely mild April temperatures … Most likely those people were still waiting for this warm-up show to take off for good ...

Some 20’ later it was time for WARRANT. I had seen this thrash trio at the Headbangers Open Air 2005 festival already, and I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed back then. I never really enjoyed this band’s one-dimensional speed metal music, and knowing that all songs date back to their mid 1980’s releases … Actually, I think their setlist today was identical to the one from 2005, thus including the likes of Satan, Ready To Command, Bang That Head, The Rack, Ordeal Of Death, Nuns Have No Fun, The Enforcer, Betrayer, Send Ya' To Hell, Torture In The Tower, Scavenger’s Daughter and Condemned Forever. Obviously most of the chauvinistic homecrowd did enjoy WARRANT’s performance, judging by the moshpit and stagediving attempts, but I’m afraid that they will never be able to convince me.

More German activity was to follow in form of Alcoholic Thrashers TANKARD, who started out with a 20’ delay around 9.45 pm. Just like with WARRANT, I never really got the hang of this band in the 1980’s. They’re just too basic and one-dimensional for me to enjoy them to the fullest. I had seen TANKARD several times before though, but this performance marked an alltime low. Not because of the setlist, as it once again included all of their ‘beer classics’, but because of their performance. Maybe it was a complete off-day, or they had been drinking way too much in advance, I don’t know. Fact is that the band sounded worse than ever before. Not that most of the crowd seemed to notice, let alone mind … As for me, I was just waiting for better things to come!

And it seemed that Cleveland, Ohio’s DESTRUCTOR were very eager to play as well, kicking off around 11.00 pm. A feeling that was shared with most of those in attendance, as the audience was well and truly warmed up by now. DESTRUCTOR’s new CD, Forever In Leather, was supposed to be out this day, but it had to be postponed in the end. But Auburn Records had brought along a new mCD instead, appropriately titled Storm Of Steel, which includes a couple of songs from the upcoming CD, as well as some other previously unreleased material. And available for the bargain price of just € 5.00! Blackest Night marked the beginning of an intense hour of speedy thrash the DESTRUCTOR way. Of course some brandnew songs were included tonight as well, such as Tear Down The Heavens and Skull Splitter. The rest of the set consisted of more familiar songs, culled from both the Maximum Destruction and Sonic Bullet releases, such as Pounding Evil, Iron Curtain and both titletracks. Plus the inevitable Storm Of Steel. Sort of a surprise was Pounding Warriors. Overdose marked the end of DESTRUCTOR’s overall extremely convincing set. Bassist Jamie was so excited that he smashed his guitar to pieces at the end of that song. And threw the remains into the audience ... And although the band were granted another 15’, they didn’t return. No big deal, as hardly anyone will have left the hall with unsatisfied needs. And besides, we would be able to see DESTRUCTOR again the very next day already!