With MANOWAR headlining this new and quickly organized festival, I was motivated to check it out.  Plus, it was my birthday on July 6 so I figured what the heck, I'll give myself a birthday present!

I flew to Frankfurt, rented a nice VW Cabrio and drove (at the slow and boring pace of 80 – 120 km/hr) to Bad Arolsen.  Traffic and construction were horrendous.  Nonetheless, the place was easy to find and I had reserved an excellent little "Land Hotel" called Gasthof Teuteberg, about 6 km from the event.  (As a side note, if this event repeats in 2008 I will most definitely stay at the same place!)  I arrived, showered, slept for awhile and headed over to the festival.  Although this was originally planned to be only one day, they added a sort of warm up show the night before.

The Festival grounds were not what I expected.  I had to park in a field and then walk about 15 minutes along a path that led me to a kind of deserted industrial/commercial complex.  There was a single road with abandoned warehouses and storage containers on either side.  Gates had been set out around the entire perimeter.  The road went about 1 km and then opened to a large paved area fronting a sizeable grass field where a large stage had been built up.  I arrived early, it was raining a bit, and there were very few people there.  It had a Ghost town/Mad Max feel to it.  I felt I had the place to myself but recognized that it was the warm up day and it was 16:00.

As I entered the stage and vendor area, DAVIDE SHANKLE GROUP had just finished a set in front of maybe 300 people. 

Up next was MESSIAH'S KISS.  I have their 2002 CD called "Prayer for the Dying" and thought it was a solid effort.  I was not quite sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised by a tight and solid metal set.  By this time the crowd had swelled to maybe 1,000 people.  Mike Tirelli (also the current vocalist for RIOT) has a very strong voice and the band had a heavy and traditional sound, except perhaps for some of the weak chorus lines.

Next up was MAJESTY.  But first I have to comment that the stage transition times were excellent.  Not a lot of time wasted with sound checks and other things.  In every case (except the last MANOWAR set) they got it done in 15 minutes, I was quite impressed.  By now I have seen MAJESTY 4 times and I have always enjoyed their performances.  MAJESTY is an excellent true Metal band and very well suited to play a festival with MANOWAR.  Tarek & Company covered a good mixture of material from all of their albums.  I’m not good at remembering set lists but some of the songs they played were: Keep it True, We will Ride, Metal Law, Reign in Glory, Into the Stadiums, Sword & Sorcery, Fields of War, Hellforces, and Metal to the Metalheads.  The only drawback to MAJESTY was the sound problems they had on this first day.

Next up was HOLYHELL.  Of all the bands at this festival, this was the least appropriate.  Man, this was boring.  It’s a female fronted atmospheric thing.  Next time this band plays they should provide recliners so that the fans can lay back and relax.

MANOWAR started on time, with their never varying opener "Manowar".  I have seen MANOWAR about 8 times and I must say that this performance was right up there with the best I have seen of them.  By this time on Friday evening, the crowd had grown to about 7,000 people. 

MANOWAR kicked serious ass with great sound, song selection, and minimal stage gimmicks.  Sure they had the fan guitar player, and the chicks from the crowd (a poor selection by the way…they would have done better to grab some cows from the local farmers fields), etc.  But this was all rather fun and did not last long.  They went right back to their set which had a distinct focus on pre-Kings of Metal material, I was extremely impressed. 

As mentioned before, I am bad at recalling track lists but between this night, and the next night, I remember them playing: Brothers of Metal, The Gods Made Heavy Metal, Thor, Mountains, Metal Warriors, Kings of Metal, Manowar, Kill with Power, Blood of My Enemies, Hail & Kill, Fighting the World, Black Wind Fire & Steel, Army of Immortals, Sting of the Bumble Bee, Heart of Steel (German), Holy War, Secret of Steel, Gloves of Metal, Gates of Valhalla, March for Revenge, Call to Arms, etc. 

Unfortunately, I had a few beers on the second night and don't have a clear memory of what happened about half way through…  Overall, this was a fantastic set!

The second day there were far more people!  When I arrived I again saw a small piece of DAVID SHANKLE GROUP. 

Then I saw most of the LIONS SHARE set.  This was actually a pretty good hard rock styled set that was well received. 

I again saw MESSIAH'S KISS who actually played better than the day before.

For HOLYHELL, I literally found a semi-comfortable place on the pavement and slept through their boring 45 minute set.

STORMWARRIOR was next.  By this time there were probably 8,000 people there and STORMWARRIOR were well received.  Personally I never thought much of this band.  Not that they are bad, I just find their style to be unremarkable and very average.  This was a good time to eat.  Speaking of eating, the entire vendor situation was marginal.  Food wasn’t bad, though expensive!  Garlic Bread and Hot Dogs were €4 & Beer was €2.80.  Normally I wouldn’t care, but the Beer they had was "Licher" and of all the German Beers I’ve had, this was by far the worst!

Next was up MAJESTY'S second set which was similar to the previous day but did not have any sound problems.  Crowd size at about 10,000 by now.

GAMMA RAY was next.  The band transition times remained excellent, like clockwork.  To be honest I do not like GAMMA RAY.  But after seeing them, I understand their appeal.  They play an up-tempo Hard Rock based "Deutsch-Schlager" style "Tra-la-la" music.  Very accessible to just about anyone and they were very well received by the now swelling crowd.

MANOWAR now took 1 hour to set up. It is annoying, but with MANOWAR this is something I have come to tolerate.  In fact when they went on at exactly the right time the night before, it was a shock! 

Again, MANOWAR had spectacular song selections, leaning heavily on older material.  Sound quality was superb, stage pyrotechnics were excellent, and 25,000 MANOWAR fans in one place was a singular experience. 

The food vendors were vacant during this set.  All 25,000 people were focused on the stage and there was no disappointment.  Well, I did have a few too many beers about 1 hour in to the set so my memory weakens dramatically at that point, but I had a great time!

This festival far exceeded my expectations.  It was quickly assembled, minimally advertised and had only a single headliner.  However, this event gets a big "A" from me because:

1. It was well organized
2. All the bands (even those I did not enjoy) played metal or hard-rock.   There were no offensive bands present.  In particular, there was NO Industrial, Metal-Core, Gothenburg Hip Hop (you know…In Flames, etc.) , Gothic, Modern Thrash, Hardcore, etc.
3. The fans were a good bunch.  Sure there were assholes but the percentage of assholes was far lower than I have seen at the other large festivals.
4. Band transition periods were short.
5. MANOWAR (over both days) were absolutely STELLAR.
6. Good sanitary facilities.
7. Good organization support such as security, fire, and first aid.

I actually have fairly few suggestions for improvement for 2008.  But they would be:

• HOLD TICKET SALES TO 25,000!!!!  Bigger is not better.
• Add some additional middle level true metal bands.  Some to think about would be PRIMAL FEAR, PARAGON, SACRED STEEL, CAGE, HAMMERFALL, GRAVE DIGGER, ICED EARTH (but only with Matt Barlow!)
• Improve vendor quality, especially the Beer

Anyway, that's it!  A GREAT event!  I am glad I went and I will go again next year!


- Evil Rocker

---

One more item as a post script.  Comparisons with other festivals will inevitably be made.  In particular, there will be comparisons with Wacken Open Air.  Let's face it; this is going to directly compete with Wacken.
 
Being as objective as possible, the ADVANTAGES of Magic Circle Festival (compared to Wacken Open Air):

• Wacken has a lot of non-metal bands.  [Although 2007 looks like a great line-up at Wacken.]
• Wacken allows too many people.  The crowd at MCF was big but never overwhelming.  I never felt crushed or unable to move.
• Four stages at Wacken can be a pain in the ass.
• Wacken has never solved the piss river problem.  I will NEVER understand this disgusting characteristic of that event.
• Wacken never has MANOWAR. 
  

The ADVANTAGES of WACKEN:

• The overall food and drink vendor quality at Wacken far exceeds MCF
• Metal Market at Wacken is far superior to MCF
• The Beer at Wacken is very good and less expensive than MCF.
• Wacken has a nice backstage area.  MCF has no such backstage or VIP area.
• The venue at Wacken (a farmers field) is better than MCF's "industrial" setting
• Access to the festival grounds is better at Wacken.

Title: Magic Circle Festival 2007, 6-7th July, Bad Arolsen, Germany
Category: Metal
Sub-Category: Metal Concert
Author: E. Rocker
Added: July 11th 2007
Viewed: 2635 Times
Score:
Options:  
  

[ Back to Reviews Index | Back to Metal Index ]