Gods Of Metal Festival @ BOLOGNA - ARENA PARCO NORD , 27,28 and 29 June2008

Gods Of Metal is one of the most important rock festivals in Italy: this edition was more concentrated on thrash and black metal bands. Unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to see all the concerts, but I can say that those three days were really amazing.
The first day, I reached the concerts area few minutes before the beginning of the show of Rose Tattoo. Despite the band is not very well known in our country, they had a very warm welcoming by the people. One of the best moments of the show was Gary 'Angry'Anderson launching his michrophone to an excited crowd who started singing the refrain of the song.

After Rose Tattoo, it was time for Avenged Sevenfold, who didn't have the same success of the previous band: most of the people was still there to get good places to see Iron Maiden (me too) and only few persons were really interested in the young band. Few minutes after the beginning of the shows, many choruses against Avenged Sevenfold started, until the band decided to leave the stage with the cover of 'Walk' by Pantera, stopping it in the middle and saying 'That's all you deserve'. No-one was so desperate because of their abandonement of the stage.

Finally, one hour after, or even less, Iron Maiden came on the stage: unfortunately, a too much excited crowd didn't allow many people to follow the first part of the show in peace, moving and pulling each other 'till it was difficult even to breath. I had to leave my good place near the stage (not after seeing Steve Harris' face singing Aces High') to survive, so I followed the whole show from the centre of the arena, where there wasn't a big movement of the crowd and where we had more space. The show was really great: beautiful sceneries, an energic Bruce Dickinson, and great playing, despite someone said that the distortion of the guitars wasn't the better one. Unfortunately, because of the hot weather, they couldn't use all the fire effects they had, but we could enjoy, anyway, the view of a giant Eddie from Somewhere In Time. I was very glad to listen to the Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, fully played, despite the song is very long, and to classic songs as The Trooper and Fear Of The Dark, even if the program of the tour shouldn't contain these two songs. Anyway, I think it was a great experience for people like me, who saw the Maiden for the first time, to listen to some of the most famous classics of the band.

The second day was strongly dedicated to thrash metal bands: this time there were less fan than the first day, but the welcoming they gave to bands like Carcass and Testament was warm as usual. Both of them entertained the crowd with great shows. In the evening, it was time for Slayer to get the attention of the people: there was less movement than with Iron Maiden and the crowd was absolutely satisfied. Can't say so much about the songs they played, since I'm not a fan of Slayer, but I appreciated a good part of the songs as well.

Third and last day: once again, the first concerts were dedicated to thrash and death metal bands. We had the chance to listen to Morbid Angel with their new songs (I didn't appreciate them so much, but there were hundreds of fans just for them), then I followed the final part of Iced Earth show: the powerful voice of the singer and the rythms of the songs made me repent because I didn't follow the whole concert.

Finally, it was time for Judas Priest: entering the scene dressed up with a silver cloak and a rod, Rob Halford started singing the new song 'Nostradamus' (it sounded very different from the studio track and, in my opinion, even better). Unfortunately, for some weird reasons, the crowd this time looked less active to the powerful sound of Judas Priest, which after so many years are still able to give such great emotions. Surely, the show was absolutely stunning. Rob did also a wonferful performance during Painkiller (even if there were some michrophone echo effects that I didn't like so much) and, in memory of the past times, he also came out on the scene, during the middle of the concert, on a giant Harley Davidson. I can definitely say that it was the perfect conclusion for three days of strong and beautiful emotions.