It’s that time of year again. The Impericon Never Say Die tour is under way and we came out to the Backstage in Munich to cover the show for you.
This year’s lineup was
Great American Ghost
Alpha Wolf
Our Hollow Our Home
Polar
King 810
In Hearst Wake
Crystal Lake
The show started at 5.30 pm. The first five bands played approx. 30 minutes. Between sets there was a 15 minutes brake to set the stage new. The last three bands played around 45 minutes. The schedule was pretty tight. Kudos to the stage crews for working hard to keep that schedule.
Boston based hardcore quartet Great American Ghost kicked off the show. A few days ago, the band released a new track ‘Prison Of Hate’ from their upcoming record ‘Power Through Terror’, which will be out February 14th, 2020. Seven years in the business, they never made it to Germany so far. With this show they made an impact though, which hopefully will reside in a comeback anytime soon. They played a six-song set, with tracks taken from their latest record ‘Hatred Stems From The Seed’ and also new tracks their upcoming record ‘Power Through Terror’. Though not as well known to the people as some of the other bands that night, they had no problem to connect with the crowd and get them all tuned up for the rest of the night.
Second on stage were Alpha Wolf from Australia. They had a busy touring year, headliner tour in Asia, a sold-out headliner tour in Australia and supporting August Burns Red and In Hearts Wake in Australia. In April 2019 they hit Europe for the first time, opening for Emmure. They have been back a while later at several Impericon Festival dates and now the Impericon Never Say Die tour. Looking at audience reactions, they already had their share of fans among the crowd. They played a dynamic set and picked up the good vibes that Great American Ghost had already built up.
Third band to hit the stage were Our Hollow Our Home. The melodic hardcore band is from Southampton, UK. Our Hollow Our Home have also been touring a lot this year. Mostly in the EU and the UK as headliner and support for Wage War. They played songs from their last two records ‘Hartsick’ and ‘In Moment/In Memory’ and also their previously released new track ‘Burn It/Bury It’. The band gathered lots of new fans over the last months. The videos they released a few months ago have about 55k views, the video of ‘Burn It/Bury It’ already has 80k views in about one week. It seems like this tour pushed their success. That night crowd reactions were great. The band played a solid set and you could see more and more people moshing, raising their fists and singing along. Our Hollow Our Home have already been announced to play next year’s Impericon Festival Anniversary dates.
Polar were the fourth band to play that evening. They released their fourth record ‘Nova’ this April. With this record the band changed their style. It’s not a complete 180. The new songs have experimental parts as well as big choruses. Their lyrics changed also from political messages to more personal stuff. In many ways the band has grown up. With ‘Nova’ they lost nothing of their heaviness though. Seven out of the eight songs performed that night have been from that record. A fact that shows how much Polar identify with the new songs. Though they have less followers on facebook than f.e. OHOH, they were more popular among the crowd that night. The later the hour the more mosh pits formed and the more visible connections happened between band and audience.
On to number five – King 810 from Flint, MI. For me the most interesting performance of that night. In 2018 the band had major line-up changes. The only remaining members have been David Gunn (vocals) and Eugene Gill (bass), who btw. were the only ones on stage without masks. One thing is for sure, they do have a powerful performance. Vocalist Gunn moving around in squats on the floor a lot. Their music is a mix of metal and industrial spiced with bits an pieces of hip hop. They did have their audience that night. Also, many of the other band’s members wore King 810 shirts. Generally, it was a nice thing to see that the bands wore each other’s merch.
On to In Hearts Wake. The Australia based band has been around Germany with every record touring cycle. They usually played smaller places that have been packed every time they came over. The Impericon Never Say Die tour stopped at a venue with about 1300 people capacity, that was almost sold out. In Hearts Wake easily connected with the fans. With OHOH they were the only band with additional clear vocals. That doesn’t make them any softer than the rest though. It is amongst my favorite moments, when singers come downstage to the front barrier and interact with the crowd. People usually rush towards the front and scream along the lyrics. No exceptions here. They played a variety of songs of their last four records ‘Ark’, ‘Earthwalker’, ‘Skydancer’ and ‘Divination’.
The last band to play were Crystal Lake from Japan. They were the heaviest band that night. Lots of shredding and heavy screaming. Their highly praised record ‘Helix’ has been released early this year. They mostly played songs from that record, but also tracks from ‘The Sign’ and ‘True North’.
Overall, all of the bands had fans at that show. At many regular shows, people choose to only support the band they went there for. My impression was that everyone was open, also to the bands they were not that familiar with. All the bands were very dedicated to their performance and there was an obvious camaraderie in between the bands and the crew. The choice of bands was a good balance of heavy and melodic. Time flew and though there were seven bands, there never was a dull moment. Oftentimes there’s that one performance that makes you want to check your clock every five minutes, not so that night. Once again, a great success for the Impericon Never Say Die tour.
If you want to know more about the bands, check in on their social media:
Crystal Lake
https://www.facebook.com/crystallake777/
In Hearts Wake
https://www.facebook.com/inheartswake/
King 810
https://www.facebook.com/KING810FLINT/
Polar
https://www.facebook.com/polaruk/
Our Hollow, Our Home
https://www.facebook.com/ourhollowourhome/
http://www.ourhollowourhome.com/
Alpha Wolf
https://www.facebook.com/alphawolfcvlt/
https://www.alphawolfcvlt.com/
Great American Ghost
https://www.facebook.com/GreatAmericanGhost/
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