It’s said that all good things must come to an end, and sadly for us, we’ve made it to the last day of this year’s Reload Festival. Apparently, the world was sad with us, since the day started off with rain. After being trampled for two full days, the festival grounds got muddy pretty fast. The organisation quickly went into action and put wooden shavings in front of the stage, so security could safely catch all the crowd surfers without slipping. Luckily festival goers can handle some rain and found a way to have fun with it, with people going belly sliding in the mud.
On the third day, the line-up finally had more women on it. Ankor opened up the Impericon Stage and were followed by the all-female band The Gems. Knorkator and Dragonforce also had a woman in their bands. The Heist Plaza Stage also got graced with the feminine touch, with Future Palace and As Everything Unfolds on the schedule.
Despite the Impericon Stage having an impressive height to it, the lead vocalist from Neaera, Benjamin Hilleke, immediately jumped down as soon as he walked out on stage. He climbed up onto the barricade and started crowd-surfing around. As he came back, he realised the height of the stage and needed the help of security to get back up on stage. After a minute he decided it was way more fun within the crowd, so back down he went. This time he jumped face-first down in the mud and joined the crowd in their mosh pit. One man came up to him and lifted the now muddy singer onto his neck, running him around the pit. Hilleke wanted as many crowd surfers as possible and instructed the photographers in the photo pit to put their cameras away and help security with catching them all.
Either there was something in the air, or the organisation decided to go out with a bang on the last day. After Neaera already had an insanely energetic singer, Knorkator stepped up their game. All band members wore some sort of costume and one could stare at their backdrop for ages and still not see all the details of it. On top of their backdrop, it stated “Deutschlandse meiste Band der Welt”, which translates to “Germany’s most band in the world”, since “best band of the world” has already been claimed by Die Ärzte. They combine metal music with comedic elements, making sure everyone in the crowd is having fun. Vocalist Stumpen was running around the stage, showing off his best dance moves. While starting with a pretty normal outfit on, he quickly took off his shirt and made keyboardist Alf Ator take off his pants, revealing red shorts. Stumpen also invited all photographers to come on stage for a song, suddenly having about 15 more people with him on stage.
DragonForce was up next, and their impressive staging stood ready for their performance. The Impericon stage might be big, but somehow this band found a way to completely fill every metre of it. At both sides of the stage, a giant arcade machine was set up, making a platform for the band members to climb up on. At the back of each side stood a giant inflatable dragon. During the first song, confetti was already shot off into the crowd. Their song ‘Power of the Triforce’ is inspired by The Legend of Zelda, and for this song a stuffed chicken plushy was thrown in the crowd and completely ripped apart. Afterwards, the field was covered in confetti and the filling of the chicken. Covers are a pretty good choice for a festival setlist since there is a bigger chance of people knowing the words and singing along. DragonForce did not just put one, but two covers on their setlist: ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Céline Dion and ‘Wildest Dreams’ by Taylor Swift.
With Impericon being one of the sponsors this year, their signing sessions could of course not be missed. On Thursday Fiddler’s Green, Emmure and Whitechapel sat down to meet fans and sign their stuff. On Friday it was thrown, Heaven Shall Burn, Paleface Swiss and Zeal & Ardor who took place in the signing sessions tent. Last but not least, on Saturday Motionless in White, Neaera, Blind Guardian and Lionheart were on the schedule.
Coming from across the pond, As Everything Unfolds graced the Heist Plaza Stage. Vocalist Charlie Rolfe had a few issues with her in-ears not working properly, but if she hadn’t said anything, it would have gone unnoticed by the crowd. Even with these issues, they put on an amazing set.
While their name suggests some females on stage, The Butcher Sisters were definitely not sisters. However, their show was not any less fun. This is the kind of band that you either love or hate, since they really love to make a party of their set and have a lot of fun as a band themselves. You could compare them to Electric Callboy, who have been blowing up in the last year, except that TBS only has German songs in their discography. When the band introduced themselves, singer Stroppo pointed to his bandmate Alex Bechtel so he could introduce himself. Bechtel then took a note out of his bag, which had his introduction written down so he could read it out loud. For the song ‘Bauchtasche’ (eng. Fanny pack), they made everyone take off their fanny pack and swing it around in the air. Their set radiated fun and it was impossible to not dance along with them.
There was a noticeable shift in the crowd of the festival on this day, as a lot of people could be seen rocking Motionless In White merchandise. There was also quite a line for their signing earlier in the day, showing that many people showed up just for them. This meant that the barricade was filled with true fans when Motionless In White took to the stage. After the moody start of the day, the sun was now glaring brightly, to which Chris Motionless responded “Thank you for coming out to see five goth guys in the sun”. During their set, the field kept filling up more and more until it was filled to the brim. The set included both heavy bangers like ‘Slaughterhouse’ and more melodic songs like ‘Masterpiece’. The crowd sang along happily and opened up the mosh pits where needed.
The last few bands of this festival weekend were definitely more geared towards the older generation, with all of them going for over 30 years in the music industry. While Phill Campbell and the Bastard Sons only formed in 2015, most people probably know them from Phil Campbell himself, who was the guitarist in Motörhead before they disbanded in 2015.
As a white curtain was hung in front of the Impericon Stage, this mystery made everyone just a bit more excited for the next band to take the stage. After a little intro, the curtain fell down and Behemoth and their impressive staging were ready to give the crowd the show of their lives. Of course, pyro can not be missed out on while at a Behemoth show, so they made sure to give us plenty.
Day three seemed to be the day for the pyro, with Amon Amarth spewing even more fire into everyone’s faces. Giving so much fire in one go, I almost thought my face was going to melt off from standing at the front. If you did not know them before, Amon Amarth is all about the Vikings, which can be seen in the details in their outfits and their whole stage set-up. Ragnarok was also mentioned quite a few times during their set.
After Amon Amarth left the stage, a firework show started above the Impericon Stage in true Reload fashion, to mark that we have come to the end of the festival.
Closing off this year’s edition was Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, who we previously mentioned briefly. While the band name might give it away, Phil Campbell is actually in this band with his three sons: Todd, Dane and Tyler (Tyla). Joined by singer Neil Star, they mostly play covers of Motörhead songs. At Reload Festival they also played a cover of ‘God Save The Queen’ originally by Sex Pistols. Check out all the photos of day three here!
