The Black Crusade Tour is a five band tour and all of them are quite famous! Headliners are the mighty Machine Head, one of the biggest influence in modern thrash metal in the last ten years. Co-headliners are Trivium, a Metalcore/thrash metal band that has become amlost as famous as Machine head in the last three years. The opening act are Shadows Fall, a metalcore band of which I know they are famous in the united states but pretty unknown in europe. The second opening act were Arch Enemy from Sweden, a Melodic-Death-Metal band with a female vocalist. The third opener were the beloved/hated Dragonforce, a Powermetal band from England.
First of all I have to apologize that I can't remember the exact setlist of every band because i was drinking and going crazy in the moshpit...
The gig was totaly sold out, 3000+ metal fans came to see this great touring package. Unluckily it was not
happy day for everyone, there was a sign at the entrance that Phil Demmel of Machine Head would not be playing this day because of a family related issue and that he will be replaced by some of the guitarist from the other bands.Unfortunatley I spent too much time drinkin beer outside the hall so got in too late and missed the first two songs of Shadows Fall...
Shadows Fall
I heard the band playing while standing in the row at the entrance and entered the hall during their song ''The light that blinds''. They played 2 songs before that one and 2 more after it. The crowd was not moving much which I relate to the fact that they're not very well known arround here (including me). The sound was loud and clear, maybe a little too much hights. They played their songs without mistakes and their shouter sounded exactley like he does on the record. On stage performance was a bit static; exept for their shouter: Have you ever seen a man with 5 feet long rastafarian haircut doing rotor-headbanging. They finished after five songs and I didn't manage to get close enough to the stage to make a good video.
Arch Enemy
The melodic death metal band with their female gutural singer Angela Gossow and the reunited Guitar Duo Michael and Christian Ammot played like there was no tomorrow! Perfect sound, great growls and beautiful guitar melodies. Christian Ammot (now with a beard) had fun playing live again, he even improvised with his brother after the last song. Angela kept the crowd moving and talked in german (she is born in germany) with a suprisingly high speaking voice.
Setlist
-Blood on your Hands - a good opener from the new album
-Ravenous - an Arch Enemy classic, first serious moshpit of the evening
-My apocalypse - great song with a groove
-Nemesis - Uptempo track with melodic parts
-We will rise - The Arch Enemy Anthem as last track of their set
links to youtube
sorry for the low quality, it's just a handy-cam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aD5veBRp7M
Dragonforce
You either love or hate this band. I think they get pretty annoying after a couple of songs but their life show was the best I've ever seen in my life! They started with a classical intro that was interrpted after a few seconds. A voice told the crowd(in german) that the band figured out that intros like (mozart piece was played for a sec) or (wagner piece played for a sec) or even worse intros like (ecstasy of gold, metallicas intro track, is played for a sec) are just ''schwul'' and not metal
''Dragonforce proudly presents you a METAL intro: The Donkey Kong Theme! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUyN_Wq11Jw...feature=relatedDuring the ''METAL'' intro Herman Li and Sam Totman jumped on stage and started the first solo. The show had an incredible sound, you could hear every instrument and singer ZP Theart was singing like a young god. While they're technically perfect performance they joked arround on stage, drank beer while playing highspeed licks, duelling each other or changing the lyrics into a rated version( I wont give an example... ok imagine what they made out of '' now we stand here with our ***** in our hands
). For the last track Sam Totman and bassist Frédéric Leclercq switched instruments and even the bassist was shredding those solos!!!
Tracklist
-Fury on the Storm
-Operation Ground and Pound
-My Spirit will go on
-Starfire
-Through the fire and the Flames
-Valley of the Damned
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV8E9_F5k_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INzVEqEQDOQ
Trivium
One of my favourite band was tonights co-headliner:Trivium. They had a good sound and played mostly harder stuff. No 'like light to flies', no 'dying in your arms' but the heavy song 'beoming the dragon' was played for the first time on a tour in germany! The drummer Travis Smith was a bit off some times but the rest was flawless. I really miss Matthew's old screaming voice though most of the screaming parts are now done by Corey Beaulieu. During the song 'Rain' Bassist Paolo Gregoletto (with a new mustash) played an incredibly amazing bass solo with wahwah and tapping. For the first time of the evening the pit became really heavy (my head still hurts) and for the final 'Pull harder on the strings of your Martyr' the first circle pit of the evening was set off.
Tracklist
-To the Rats
-Ember to Inferno
-Entrance to Conflagration
-Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation
-Anthem (we are the fire)
-Rain
-Becoming the Dragon
-Pull harder on the strings of your martyr
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwgdd0kuhSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnjJTXEswfE
Machine Head
The headliner of this tour had a sad message for everyone in the crowd: The father of lead guitarist Phil Demmel had passed away the day before and he went off the tour and back to the united states. He was replaced by Corey and Matthew from Trivium, Chrsitian from Arch Enemy and Frédéric from Dragonforce. All those players had 1 day to learn 2 to 3 songs (lead guitar!) from another band to perform them the other night! And they all did a hell of a job, there were only two mistakes in the whole set!
Rob Flynn had the crowd in his hands and squeezed every last bit of powerwe had left out of us. The pit was the heaviest I've ever been in (ouch!), nearly every song had a circle pit and for the final davidian Rob started a wall of death all the way to the back. Everyone who is into Metal music has to visit a Machine Head gig, it's unbelieveable how heavy and thight all instruments are played (a guy next tom me named the sound :''face-crushin'')
Robert Flynn is easily one of the best shouters out there but he is not a good singer. He was off in every clean passage he sung. His on-stage presence is unbelievable. Unluckily I didn't stayed to the end because was about to puke at the end of the set
(beer+bad air+mosh-pit+temperature+more beer)
Setlist
-Clenching the Fist of Dissent (Corey Beaulieu) <<Played right after his own gig!
-Old (Corey Beaulieu)
-Imperium (Frédéric Leclercq) <<again the Dragonforce Bassist on lead guitar!
-Ten Ton Hammer (Frédéric Leclercq)
-Halo (Matthew Heafy)
-Asthetics of Hate (Matthew Heafy) <<< song was dedicated to Dimebag Darrel
-Blood Sweat Tears (Matthew Heafy)
-Decend the shades of night (Christian Ammot) <<< song was dedicated to phil demmel's Father
-Davidian (Christian Ammot)
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bllR0oRUVG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7i8KoJkzJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ1hzvQrEtE
...It was one of the best concerts in my life. Even the other band members watched the Machine Head gig from the side of the stage
Behind the Black wall you can see Herman Li and Travis Smith watching Machine head play
