On stage: Agent Steel

 
- Riot, Anvil & Domine
 
- Jan. 2000
 
- Essen (D) -


 
- W.O.A. 1999
 
- Aug. 1999
 
- Wacken (D) -


 
- No Mercy 2003
 
- Oct. 2003
 
- Eindhoven (NL) -


 
- Agent Steel & After All
 
- Apr. 2005
 
- Geleen (NL) -


 
- Vicious Rumors, Agent Steel & After All
 
-  Sept. 2007
 
- Dortmund (D) -

Agent Steel & After All

- April, 1st 2005 - Geleen (NL), Ed & Rocco's -





 
 

 

I saw Agent Steel when they first toured in Europe in May 1986 with Overkill and Anthrax. And afterwards a few times, but this time they were out to play their classics! Even if John Cyriis isn't back, with Bruce Hall they have a great singer.

On tour with Agent Steel were the Belgium band After All who already toured with Anthrax and Overkill - beside others. They come to present The Vermin Breed live. in comparison with Mercury Rising the songs are more speed metal. With Reasonable Doubt, Maze Of Being and The Insufferable singer Piet Focroul showed that he worked hard on this voice and so even the songs from Mercury Rising - Rectify and The Shadow Wall - sounded better. The band gave 150% and left a good impression. As they play a lot in Belgium and Holland many of the Agent Steel fans knew them. Others saw them the first time the night before and after a great show of both bands decided to come to Geleen for another ration of thrash metal. A small club, actually a bar and so was the stage tiny, no room for a stage show! Well done, guys!

Even if After All had some fans at Ed & Rocco's the majority came to see Agent Steel with this special set. Bruce Hall is more then just a replacement for John Cyriis, even if some fans seems to live in the past and still ask for Cyriis.

They started with Unstoppable Force and nothing could stop them now! The fans went nuts! Rager and Illuminati Is Machine were just the beginning... Teasers, so to speak. When the band of guitarist Juan Garcia - guitarist Bernie Versailles stayed home, coz his wife was giving birth to their child and was replaced by Steel Prophet guitarist Tim Thomas - started to play the entire Skeptics Apocalypse album the place was on fire! Wow, what a show! Juan Garcia brought back the vibe of the 80's with his killer riffs. Second guitarist Tim Thomas sounded like he was an original Agent Steel. Bruce Hall got support from almost every headbanger in the room - singing along loudly. The old magic was back! After Skeptics Apocalypse it was time for some more recent stuff. Songs from their last releases are as strong as the classics and in a few years people will regard them as classics, too. The Americans finished with Mad Locust Rising and everybody headed to the counter to get some drinks. It was a hot night... At least at Ed & Rocco's where band and fans enjoyed the show and some drinks. Hopefully they will return soon. Wouldn't it be great to revive the Metal Hammer Roadshow from 1986 with Agent Steel, Overkill and Anthrax? That would bring a ton of thrash back on stage. Bigger venues and a classic tour would demand a DVD recording... Well, sometimes dreams come true... But with this Agent Steel tour already a dream came true!
Unstoppable Force

Rager

Illuminati Is Machine

Agents Of Steel

Taken By Force

Evil Eye/Evil Minds

Bleed For The Gods

Children Of The Sun

144,000 Gone

Guilty As Charged

Back To Reign

Avenger

Ten Fist Of Nations

E.U.L.
Dead Eyes

Human Bullet/Forever Black

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Nothin' Left

Know Your Master

Mad Locust Rising
 
 






Claudia Ehrhardt

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Agent Steel, Riot, Anvil & Domine

- Jan., 24th 2000 - Essen (D), Zeche Carl -



 
 

 

The first highlight on the road this year is Agent Steel, Riot, Anvil and Domine. Actually there is a 5th band on the billing... Magic Kingdom. I missed them, coz I made an interview with Riot's Mike DiMeo. A few hundred metal heads showed up at Essen's Zeche Carl to see the package.



The first band I saw that Monday night was the Italian band Domine. Like Rhapsody and Labyrinth the quintet is part of the Italian epic metal scene. Guitarist Enrico Paoli and his mates are on the road to present their 2nd release Dragonlord live. In my opinion the Italians don't fit in the package pretty good. Most of the fans seems to wait for the harder stuff, but Domine's music caught the interest of a few fans.

Next Lips and his Anvil guys entered the stage. Pure metal! They opened with Speed Of Sound and Smoke The Green. Between the songs Lips talked to the people and made a few jokes. He's a real entertainer. Okay, the band didn't changed much through all the years, but they present their music the best way! They live their music, their dream. Not much to talk about...... My personal highlight of the package were Riot and they offered a great show. Unfortunately the band had to cut down the set, coz they hadn't enough time to rehearse with drummer Pat McGrath. (More about they line-up change Mike told me during the interview.) The band started with Angel Eyes. The melodic power metal soon made the fans sing-along. Mike Reale and his mates played a mixture of new songs and old classical Riot tunes like Thundersteel. It was obvious that the band had a lot of fun on stage and during the set Ingo Joa, friend and tour manager of Riot, came on stage with a birthday cake, coz it was Mike Flyntz birthday! The quintet just played about 60 minutes and I hope next time the band has the chance to come back and play a longer set.

The last act that night were the speed metallers from Agent Steel. After all those years the band came back... A reunion, but just 2 original members are still in the band. Guitarists Juan Garcia and Bernie Versailles are the dynamic duo of the band. Singer Bruce Hall is a good vocalist, but not to compare with John Cyriis! When the band talked about the reunion they looked for John, but couldn't find him! The speedsters are back with Omega Conspiracy which they presented live. Beside that the band played some old tunes, only Know Your Masters they couldn't play (curfew!). Even if many metal heads left after Riot, a few die-hard speed metal fans stayed until the end. Some of these fans came from Holland and followed the band after a fantastic show in Tilburg at the O13 to the show in Essen!
 
 




Claudia Ehrhardt

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