Opening up tonight were Scottish rockers ATTICA RAGE whose brand of hard rock come traditional metal warmed up the crowd nicely with the likes of ‘36 Insane’, ‘Contradictions’ and ‘Altered Reality’ all impressing, while the definite standout track of the set had to the sublime ‘Dark City’. These guy gave a solid performance of some good quality material that should gather them an ever increasing fan base, and with them playing a slot on the main stage at next months Hammerfest II, they are sure to pick up more if they perform like they did tonight.

After catching their impressive performances at last years Bloodstock Open Air and more recently Hard Rock Hell III, DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER were back once again on UK soil playing a few select shows at intimate venues like tonight for what was to be an evening of fun, laughter and of course, metal. Opening up with the impressive ‘Wir Sind Das Licht’, the party got going with headbanging unity.

It wasn’t long before one of the props got used with a massive flag, which pretty much encompassed the entire crowd, for ‘Revolution’ and with Fuchs also being raised on a jack of sorts towards the ceiling, I thought it wasn’t going to stop in time! The awesome ‘Riders On The Storm’ also featured and besides the obvious mosh and circle pits breaking out, there was plenty of what I can only describe as a sort of ballroom style dancing going on to the more melodic sections of their songs in the crowd tonight, which just showed how much everyone was enjoying the gig.

Let’s get one thing straight, DIE APOKALYTISCHEN REITER are by no means a one trick pony with all their props and antics on stage. They actually have got a lot of very good material and the likes of ‘Adrenalin’, ‘We Will Never Die’ and ‘Licked By The Tongues of Pride’ all went down an absolute storm with the crowd, while a mass drum outbreak appeared on stage also aided this effect.

While Dr Pest didn’t run about on stage like he has done in previous performances I have seen, he did get to ‘punish’ a ‘naughty’ female audience member with his whip and then making them his ‘prisoner’ by taking them to his den of sorts. A cracking rendition of ‘Metal Will Never Die’ closed the main set, before more fun ensued in the encore starting in the form of a crowdsurfing inflatable dinghy containing another female audience member for ‘Seemann’. As the closing tracks of ‘Reitermania’ and ‘Unter Der Asche’ were played, there were no qualms that nobody got value for money tonight as another top notch performance ensured that The Apocalyptic Horsemen rode into the distance firmly as one of the best live bands on the metal circuit!

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Photography By Alexander Shaw (click here)