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The last time I was at the Matrix in Bochum was with Annihilator, tonight it was time to see Virgin Steele again. The New Yorkers released early this year Books Of Burning and Hymns To Victory, their way to present old tunes and a few new ones (see CD review). Now Mr. DeFeis and his partners in crime came over to Europe to play at Sweden Rock Festival and so they added this show as well as the one in London as a kind of warm-up gig. The show in London's Underworld was very successful, but tonight unfortunately not that much fans showed up.
Anyway, tonight's opening act was the Hanseatic quintet Paragon. It was the first time that the guys played this area after the tour with Iron Savior in spring 2001. Meanwhile the band of guitarist Martin Christian released their 2nd album on Remedy Records which is called Law Of The Blade. Opening their set with 2 old songs to heat up the fans they afterwards concentrated on the new album. Songs like Palace Of Sin, Armies Of The Tyrant, Law Of The Blade and Across The Wastelands were played in the same order than on the album, perhaps to keep them in the conceptual context. The Hamburg-based band played a lot live and the stage acting got better. Singer Andreas 'Buschi' Babuschkin could easily keep the contact with the fans and made some new fans tonight. The true / power metal of the quintet was heavier than what should follow, but it was a good decision to concentrate on the new material which is stronger than the songs from the predecessors, even if Steelbound had some good ones as well. Perhaps some missed the Saxon cover... And perhaps they should have finished with To Hell And Back Again... A decent set and I hope they will come back later this year.
After the break mastermind David DeFeis and his mates entered the stage to present a more then 2 hrs. long set which incl. songs from this years releases The Book Of Burning and Hymns Of Victory. As usual David DeFeis partly played keyboards, but not as much as he did in the past and so he could focus more on entertaining the fans. With the second song of tonight's set list the NY quartet returned to the days of The House Of Atreus Pt. 1 and played The Fire God. After A Token Of My Hatred, Gods Of Sorrows and Defiance the New Yorkers to new stuff with the opener from Books Of Burning the track Conjuration Of The Watcher. Then the spotlight was on guitarist Ed Pursino who showed his abilities during a decent guitar solo. Again they started to travel back in time and after Great Sword Of Flame from 1999 release The House Of Atreus Pt. 1 they went on and presented a medley of Life Among The Ruins and The Redeemer in the new released version. Back to their new material with Don't Say Good-Bye (Tonight) before it was time to remember The House Of Atreus Pt. 2 which was represented by The Wine Of Violence. Another medley followed with In Triumph Or Tragedy and Return Of The King from the 1999 release. Before they played more tracks from The House Of Atreus albums the traveled back to their early days and played A Cry In The Night, but a different version. Some more tracks from The House Of Atreus albums and than it was over! Not the 3 hrs. they wanted to play, but that was someone else's decision. The band played a decent set, but in the beginning their sound engineer had major problems. It took about 15 min. to get it solved, but the fans stayed, probably because this 200 people who showed up are die-hard fans... Anyway, it was value for money, even if they focused on The House Of Atreus albums. I guess the fans would have loved to hear more old tunes which haven't been played for years... Perhaps Mr. DeFeis will play one of the old gems next time, whenever that will be... Make sure that you don't miss them!
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