The third festival day had already begun in the tent with Vowws, whose performance felt more like modern art than a concert. Afterwards, Last Train managed to impress far more — their energetic performance left no one untouched. Back in the Metal Dome, it was unusually crowded around midday. The reason was the Swedish band Self Deception. Their very pop‑leaning core metal went over well, and their stage show featured plenty of pyro effects, but overall they didn’t fully win me over.
The second day was heavily dominated by metalcore. Things kicked off at noon with newcomers Static Dress, who managed to impress under the blazing sun on the Jupiler Stage. Afterwards, the atmosphere continued inside the tent with As Everything Unfolds, before the Spanish band Bloodhunter delivered the first thrash‑tinged sounds of the day. Employed To Serve then shifted things back toward core territory, before the Brits from Green Lung slowed the pace. Their slightly psychedelic stoner metal made for a very relaxed afternoon—at least until The Ghost Inside brought the festival back to metalcore, though their set didn’t quite grab me as much.
One thing is still missing from last year’s concert season, and that’s the Graspop Metal Meeting, which took place in June in Dessel, Belgium. I’ve finished the first festival day, which ranged from well‑crafted thrash metal by Municipal Waste to dreamy sounds from Charlotte Wessels, all the way to the heavier tones of Motionless in White, who really impressed me. I also don’t want to forget Warkings with their heroic performance, and Landmvrks, who were quite minimalistic but still left a lasting impression.
At the end of September, it was a premiere for me, because for the first time I wasn’t at the Rudolf-Weber-Arena to watch ice hockey, but for a concert. Quite astonishing, considering that this was more than 20 years after my last ice hockey game. As part of their „Greatest Of All Tours“ Tour, Volbeat stopped there with their entourage.
At the beginning of the year, after posting pictures and reviews of the last Blackfield Festival at the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen in 2015, the focus now shifts to two concert nights from 2016. The first evening kicked off with Nothing But Thieves, who opened the night at Cologne’s Lanxess Arena in April.
Let’s start with the most recent article: a look back at last summer’s vacation in Italy. The tour through the northern part of the country took us from Lake Maggiore through Rapallo and Pisa to Florence. From there, we continued via Lake Garda with a detour to Verona, and then on to South Tyrol.
The third festival day was destined to be a sad one. But before that, it was time for one last round of good vibes, whether with calmer tones like The Beauty Of Gemina or livelier sounds like the atmospheric Letzte Instanz. Everything was offered one last time.
The second day of the Blackfield Festival was also packed with big names from the dark scene. Unfortunately, this day was also marked by initial downpours, which is why I arrived at the festival grounds later. But then I was greeted by an exciting start with .com/kill, the side project of the Diary Of Dreams members. From Sono and Solar Fake, it continued with the rockers from Unzucht, who provided the first highlight of the day.
Today, for the start of the year, I have something very classic that I finally managed to finish. The photos of the Blackfield Festival at the Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen have been slumbering in my archive since 2015. It was my first and, unfortunately, only time there because it was the last edition. Due to rising costs, the organizers were unfortunately no longer able to continue the festival with the usual quality, so they decided to discontinue it.
As it should be on Sunday just as warm and sunny as on Saturday, the second day started a little bit later for me. So, I was only around 14:00 in front of the Main Stage to watch an excellent gig of the band dArtagnan which could also have been one of the headliners. Afterwards, there was with Das Ich one of the old hands of the dark alternative scene on the Club Stage, before I went back to the main stage. There it continued medieval with Schandmaul. I was really happy to see front man Thomas Lindner after his cancerous disease back on stage. Unfortunately the chemotherapy had affected his voice so that he is not yet able to sing again. But ex-Russkaja front man Georgij Makazaria was perfectly able to replace him.