At first: sorry for the long post, but I just kept on writing
(And sorry if there are any major mistakes)
And I also don't have any pics, since camera's weren't allowed and my phone doesn't have one in it.
But I hope you like the review
Being very excited, me and a friend of mine were in the car, on our way to Hof Ter Lo, a hall, famous for it's metal concerts. For us, the only thing that mattered was to see Iced Earth. Sure it's nice there were two bands as a support act, but we didn't really knew them, only by name. Entering the building, we were sure it was there. People in black bandshirts were all over the place: behind the bar, in front of it, at the merchandising stand, ... We decided to already go to the concert hall and we waited 'till the show began. After a little while all lights went out and some spots focused on the stage.
Then the guys (and gal) from
Turisas ran up the stage. They were dressed in some kind of battle uniform and their faces and arms were painted black and red. This looked kinda weird at first, but when they took their instruments (the guitar was a Dean Razorback V) and started playing their first song, it all made sense. Turisas is a folk-metalband, somewhat in the genre of Korpiklaani. A violin and an accordeon took care of the melody and some solo's, and they all were pretty damn good. At the place we werre standing, we had an excellent view and sound. Apparently, this was their last show on tour with Annihilator and Iced Earth. They enjoyed that tour, and their last show of it, a lot and they showed so on stage. The audience was very enthusiastic too, which could especially be seen in two songs: a drinking song “One More” and their last one “Battle Metal” (the titelsong from their debut). The entire crowd was singing along. Unfortunately these are the only two songtitles I can recall. But maybe I'll recognize some other songs they played, when I check out the two CD's from this Finnish band.
Next up was
Annihilator, but we didn't see Annihilator come up the stage! Instead, some weird disco song started to play and guitartechs and the members from Turisas danced around the stage like fools. We (and probably some other people too) were wondering what ws going on. But then the music stopped, everybody went off stage and the four musicians from Annihilator showed up and began to play an awesome riff. I think it was called “King Of The Kill”. We just discovered another kick-ass band! And apparently they were very famous! They too were tremendously excited and performed great. And again, the crowd went nuts. We changed our positions to the other side of the hall to be in front of one of the guitarists (he had a Ran Guitars Flying V, and he wore a shirt from the company. The other guitarist had a Gibson Explorer) and at that position too, the sound was very good. This Canadian thrash-/heavymetalband sure is skilled. They played songs like Phantasmagoria, Alison Hell, ... Those are very catchy songs. The next day I still played them in my head. Annihilator played their last song, thanked everybody for being this enthusiastic and got off the stage.
(Funny fact: the guitarist in front of us had two guitars, and everytime he switched guitars, his tech took a towel to remove all the sweat. The guitar was as wet as if someone held it under a shower!)
Then it was time for the highlight of the evening:
Iced Earth!Techs came on stage and tested the gear. A huge poster of Framing Armageddon was hung up behind the drums. Hell yeah, this was it! We finally got to see Iced Earth! The techs disappeared, and we waited... Nothing happened... Some smoke-making-machine was giving everything he got. Still nothing happened and the crowd got impatient (and exited at the same time for it has been 5 years since Iced Earth played their last show in Belgium). Everybody started calling for Iced Earth. The smokemaker made some more smoke. Nothing happened. But then, suddenly Iced Earth came up the stage, went to where they should be and stood still. The intro of Framing Armageddon began to play. And then they bursted out in heavy riffing! It was “Something Wicked (Part 1)”, followed by the next three songs of that album. A shiver went through my spine. Damn, this was nice! We were in front of Jon Schaffer, the rhythm guitarist and since the sound was very good, but not perfect, we couldn't hear the solo's from the lead guitarist, who was on the other side of the stage, that good. Tim Owens is a master at keeping contact with the audience. Sometimes when he looked at where we stood, it was as if he was looking at us. And his singing skills are certainly not to be forgotten! That man has an incredible voice. Everything you hear, he can do on stage, even more! At the end of this one song, Tim ended with a long vibrato or something like that (somewhat like in the beginning of Ten Thousand Strong) and every other band member had already stopped playing, but time was singing and singing, ‘till he had almost no breath left. Even Jon Schaffer was surprised he could do something like that! Then they playied some older songs like Melancholy, Dracula and two songs from Gettysburg. I can’t think of some more at the moment. Iced Earth also played two encores, I think. (It already has been a while L) And Jon Schaffer has a lot of Les Pauls! He played at least 6 different ones! The lead guitarist had a red guitar, but I couldn’t see what brand it was.
I wish I could see them again, because it was one of the best shows I’d ever seen! (Except for the quality of the sound a some times). But if you ever have the chance to go and see Iced Earth, Annihilator or Turisas, do NOT hesitate and buy those tickets! It's worth every penny!
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Just my rant of the day. 
Gear: Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, Gibson '67 RI Flying V, Mesa Boogie F-30 112 combo, crazy pedals.
