End of Dayz, 12-29 - 12-31-2006, Z7, Pratteln, CH
This line-up and the location were a reason to turn a happy new year into a heavy new year. The Z7 is located closely to the Etap Hotel - now IBIS budget Hotel - so we could sleep nearby and spend the day in Basel for visiting museums, shops and libraries. We knew most of the bands and we were happy about the festival so far. But the Swiss band Eluveitie changed our life up to now.
We met singer Chrigel after the show and explained him for half an hour, why the band and the show were a blast. This was the beginning for a long term and distanced friendship betwenn him and us. We couldn´t estimate the huge impact this band would have on our life. We bought their CDs "Spirit" and "Ven", which we listened to for the whole trip back to Munich. Yes, this unique mix of Death Metal and Celtic Folk came out directly from the majestic Swiss mountains. So we finally had our soundtrack for our trips through the Alps.
Eluveitie & Hellvetica, Sounddock 14, Dietikon, CH, 3-16-2007
Sounddock 14 was an well-known venue in Switzerland between 2005 and 2012. During the week, it served as a warehouse for building materials and during the weekend, the family Küng organised concerts or it was booked as a venue for a lot of Heavy Metal concerts. It was shut down in 2012 and transformed into an apartement block in 2018. Below, there is a timeline of the area and the Heavy Metal concerts between 2008 and 2018.
This is the only existing Eluveitie bag, signed and created by Rafi Kirder and Chrigel Glanzman, still proudly owned by us. This picture was taken the day after the concert in one of the hippest art galleries in Zurich.
Pagan Metal Festival, Gaswerk, Winterthur, CH, 4-14-2007
We arrived at the venue after having travelled and hiked through the Swiss Alps with Eluveitie as our soundtrack. They were already mighty and ready for bigger stages and tours, they were a well greased machine on stage and the it was obvious that you love or hate Eluveitie. Those who love them went completely nuts in their early concerts. At this moment, we didn´t thought about what happened two weeks later in Winterthur.
Pantéon Rococó, Salzhaus, Winterthur, CH, 4-27-2007 & fleemarket, 4-28-2007
We discovered the Mexican band Pantéon Rococó on the Nova Rock Festival in 2006. In 2007, we travelled to several of their concerts. So we did on this friday evening. The concert was an incredible blast and after we went asleep in our camping van. On the following morning, the traditional fleemarket took place in the city centre of Winterthur. We walked in there and suddenly, Chrigel, the singer of Eluveitie passed us by, with a bag on his shoulder. He was on his way to work as a bookseller. So we sat together, had a coffee and a long talk about the band and their future. We motivated and convinced him to sign with Nuclear Blast and to go on tour and get famous. The coolest thing was to gift him a Nuclear Blast business card. I had some of them left in my wallet, because we promoted Nuclear Blast and the first Summernights Open-Air in 2008.
So, Eluveitie signed for Nuclear Blast in November 2007.
Hellraiser Open-Air, 05-25-2007, Mark Schönstädt, Germany
This was our son´s first open-air festival. We had a lot of fun during the festival and we learned to appreciate the difference between metalheads on the Hellraiser Open-Air and the buttheads on the Pfingst Open-Air we visited the day after.
Eternity of Rock, 06-08-2007, Prad am Stilftser Joch, Italy
Some facts about this festival:
1. It took place on the local soccer field.
2. Our van´s exhaust pipe collapsed. We fixed it with two cans, one fruit juice and a Coca-Cola can, which we bought from a nearby farmer´s shop, and gaffer tape.
3. The camp site was a meadow full of dry cow shit.
4. Eluveitie cheered us when they arrived with their van.
5. It rained cats and dogs as the festival started.
6. 50 drunken villagers were banging in front of the stage.
7. The cow shit got wet and stinky and millons of flies appeared.
8. We left the location due to the weather forecast of pouring rain the next day.
9. We missed Volbeat the next day.
2008
Sevan and Rafael Kirder left the band. I mean, both were the incarnation of pagan fighters and looked authentic. And Sevan was - beside Chrigel - one of four frontmen in this group.
2009
Kreator, Caliban, Eluveitie, Backstage, Munich, 03-03-2009
First we promoted the Summer Nights Open-Air, then we were allowed for the first time to see a concert for free. From these days on, we got a part of the Backstage family in Munich.
A kind of strange so called Pagan Festival, with Eluveitie and some other musicians from others bands to play guitar. No matter, we had a good company with Hias from Augsburg, still a friend of us.
Summernights Open-Air, 05-22 - 05-25-2009, Minning/Inn, Austria
Eluveitie had a dry slot during this rainy weekend. A fantastic concert and we received our first signed card from them.
2012
Metalfest Zadar, Croatia, 02-04-06-2012
Their concert was one of the few highlights during this festival. Strange behaviour of the audience (They throw stones on Dave Mustaine on stage) and strange location (a fenced former military base with holes in the fence to go in and bunkers full of rubbish).
Eluveitie & Friends, Frauenfeld, CH, 12-28-2013
This was Meri´s last concert with Eluveitie and three years later, Merlin, Anna and Ivo left the group. So there was only one frontmen left, after the leaving of Sevan, Anna and Meri. Same did Siméon and Päde.
We joined this concert thanks to the invitation of Fuchs, the singer of "Die Apokalyptischen Reiter".
Chapter II: 2013 - 2017, From Eluveitie to Hellfest
The guy with the Eluveitie-shirt is Salva Arteaga from Tenerife. He wore this shirt as we met him in August 2012 on our Plaza de España in Los Llanos de Aridane on La Palma. I couldn´t speak Spanish at this time, so my wife talked to him and we invited him in our house. At this time, Salva was one of the iconic guys on the Canarian Island who organised concerts, festivals (siete islas, a festival with one concert of a Heavy Band on each Canarian Island) and worked for the webzine www.metalegun.com. I joined Metalegun as a freelancer. With this new job I asked the press-section of Hellfest, how to accredidate for the festival. Roger Messier, the chief of the press-section sent me some publicity banners in February 2013 in order to put them on our homepage. I sent these banners to Salva and a few days later, they were visible on www.metalegun.com. So we got VIP-Tickets for the 2013 edition of the Hellfest. I couldn´t speak spanish at this time and neither did the Google Translater. So Metalegun only published our pictures.
2014
I have to admit that the annual work for Metalegun forced me to learn Spanish, so all my reviews and pictures were published on www.metalegun.com.
During our work as journalists we met Eluveitie´s Chrigel at the signing post at the Hellfest 2014.
2015
The same procedure in 2015: We worked for Metalegun, received the publicity banners from Hellfest´s PR-section, sent them to Salva at Metalegun and his chief put it on the website. We wrote in Spanish and we know for sure that the number of Spanish spectators have increased after last year´s edition, because we met a lot of Spainards from all over the country. Yes, now both of us spoke Spanish now, so we could met Gustavo from Gran Canaria
Chapter III: since 2017: www.heavystoned.eu
The nightmare happend in January 2017, as Metalegun´s server with all archives, fotos, reviews etc. crashed and never came to restore. So the Metalegun crew tried their best but their homepage didn´t run in February, the month for the press accredidation for the Hellfest. Hellfest´s chief of press Roger Messier denied us to come to the Hellfest, without the Hellfest publicity banners on the homepage. So that was the trigger for creating my own homepage. I started to restore all of our concert fotos, re-wrote all the reviews in English and launched www.heavstoned.eu in November 2017.
Left: Again we met Gustavo and his friend Adal from Gran Canaria. Right: Alvaro from La Coruña told us that he wanted to visit the Hellfest after having read our reviews on Metalegun.
Carnaval 2018, Los Llanos de Aridane
We love our carneval in Los Llanos/ La Palma. Every year we watch the election of the Queen of the Carneval taking place on the huge stage in the city centre. Usually, the candidates choose some brasilian or some disco music for their presentation. But in 2018, Javier Rodriguez Pedrianes, a Metalhead from Los Llanos, designed "Epona: The Queen of the Horses".