This is 2005, this is that era where there are more festivals than earth inhabitants. And in times like these, you have to book Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Slipknot and Rammstein to have a succesfull festival. Thank the devil for Dynamo Open Air, where Anthrax headlines, Mercenary opens the main stage and Testament enjoy the same respect as Obituary. A daring move to keep it this small in this day in age, and with limited success, about 5.000 metalheads found their way to the 10.000 capacity festival grounds in their new location of Hellendoorn.


The shitty weather and the bad public transit access didn't help out either. And when you get stuck in the mud on the parking lot, waiting for an hour and a half to be towed out by one of the hired tractors, you would easily give Dynamo a bad review. But that would be bullshit, Dynamo had one of the most fun line-ups in years (no soulfly!, lol), a very beautiful location and an exellent atmosphere, as we're used to with Dynamo Open Air. A day of metal that we enjoyed very much, shame on all you metalheads who stayed at home! Metalragers Buzzin Hornet, Napalm Lex and Arcane report!

We arrived a little late (in true metalrage tradition), and therefor we barely heard the last dying sounds of Still Remains. We'll catch up with them during the Roadrage tour in Amsterdam later this year. On to the main stage, where we watched Mercenary play their set.

What an opener for the mainstage! A very good singer that displayed his cool and very impressive array of vocals, including power metal to screams. The music itself can be described as a fine mixture of oldschool heavy metal meets power metal. And what they do, they do very well. Fantastic, let's keep up with this Danish band in the future, a truely promising performance.
[Napalm Lex]


When 3 Inches of Blood entered the (second) stage I first noticed they were using two vocalists. One for the higher levels and one for the screams. The strange thing about this is that the big guy did the high vocals and the slim dude was screaming his lungs out. And if you want to hear original metal you should hear this band. The combine old school metal with many new influences.


During their set they played a lot of songs of their Advance and Vanquish album that got released this year. And actually these guys know what to do to give the audience a nice show and entertain you ain all ways possible. Because they will get you to move but there is something funny in the music as well. Overall a great show and a unique band in the Roadrunner Records catalog.
[Buzzin Hornet]


On the big stage, the openly beloved Masterplan were already playing. But a lot of things were bogus here. First of call, collegue Arcane wittily remarked how there was a second guitar playing on tape on the background, and we all noticed how the vocals had an anoying reverb going on.


The crowd didn't seem that impressed either, and the highly acclaimed band sadly went under as a better alternative than the insane amounts of rain that were pouring onto the festival grounds at this time. A shame. Hopefully this performance was not a good representation of their live show!
[Napalm Lex]


Back on the small stage, the final band of the Roadrage Tour, were playing.
When Trivium entered the stage I still didn’t know what to expect but they would soon change that because Trivium blew everybody in the tent away. With ages from 19 until 23 they are quite young but the quality of their albums and live performance is like a legend. With quality solos, which you don’t hear often with new bands, they were the first band who got the second stage moving around like hell. There even was a small mosh-pit in the small tent.


The songs they played were all of their latest release Ascendancy and they hit every single note that is on that album live. When I read they were using a wider range of vocals I feared they might not hit them live but Lead singer Matt just has a great voice and sings knowing he can do it. And he does not force his voice to reach certain levels. When I look back to the festival this is one of the more quality sets of the day. And I am already looking forward seeing them again in a couple of weeks.
[Buzzin Hornet]


And when Napalm Lex and Buzzin Hornet went to the press area to do an interview with Obituary, we left Arcane with the metal dinosaurs of Laaz Rockit, of whom he was very curious. He was very curious about Laaz Rockit, because he had never heard of this band before. But all he can say about it is: Boring! Why did you leave me alone with this band? They talk more than they play.
[Arcane]


After all this one of the first headliners was finally going to play. Arcane and Napalm Lex were both exited as little school children to see the first big Gorefest gig since 1641.


Gorefest, a big name for the elder metalheads in the Dutch death metal scene, made its comeback at Dynamo for the big audience with the original members. Gorefest started with the comment that they only would play old stuff. That was exactly what the fans wanted to hear. And that was exactly what Gorefest did, playing some good old grooving death metal. Jan Chris still had the great low grunts. The only thing I missed was his long hair, now I had to look at a Red Hot Chilli Pepper like haircut, but hey,  every one gets older. Around me were mainly elder guys, screaming along with Jan Chris.


Obviously I wasn't the only one who enjoyed the performance. The old songs did quite well. My favourite songs Low, Erase, Fear and Confessions of a serial killer were played as well. The smile on my face was growing and growing. I love these heavy groovy riffs. The contact during the show with the audience was good, en the good old "dankjewel" (thanx) was there as well. This would be the best band for me on Dynamo, it wasn't for Testament..
[Arcane]


After the Gorefest gig we all went back to the parking lot to grab a coat and some other stuff, to find that the parking was becoming more and more of a desaster area...

If only this story was to have a happy ending.. Uh Oh..



Obituary are back on Dynamo. Just like many bands today, this is a reunion with the Dynamo festival, and one thing that was most distinctive is how dated the music of Obituary sounds in 2005! But it's perfect match with the rest of the line-up, and the crunchy Death Dudes did their job, serving the mixture of Slowly We Rot, The End Complete and well, basicly the whole catalog. The crowd had a party. It was a clear case of win-win situation, ain't nothing wrong with that!


The anticipation grew once again as another great band was to enter the main stage, yes yes, Testament!


Like Gorefest, Obituary, Laaz Rockit and Anthrax, Testament came in the original line-up. Hell yeah! And just like Gorefest they played old stuff. Great songs like Practice what you preach, Over the wall, Sins Of Omission, The haunting and Into the pit came along and the
audience was pleased. Chuck Billy was awesome and Alex Skolnick and Greg Christian played as like they never left the band.


After some songs Louie Clemente took over from John Tempesta behind the drums. The atmosphere in the tent was great. Old en young metalheads were banging together, and there was a nice pit in front of the stage. Quite a few songs came along and I  was still waiting for my favourite Testament song Alone in the dark, but  unfortunately they didn't play it. Non the less it was a great show, with lots of aggressive thrash songs and even a ballad.
[Arcane]


After that, we were all knackered. Being the muddiest festival in the world, there was no place to sit whatsoever, so after a short walk down the festival market your beloved metalrage.com reporters got themselves some coffee, and landed their asses on the sofa in the press area. Ahhhh. That's better. That's nice... Nice Sofa... Niiiiceee.... Oh shit.. Did we just miss Jon Oliva's Pain? Woops...


Oh well, time for the grande finale of the day, the amazing Anthrax!!


And what a show they had prepared for us. Performing in the classic Among The Living line-up, with the amazing Joey Belladonna on vocals, what could go wrong? Nothing! Even though it was about 4 degrees, it was worth watching. To say the least! Opening with the title track to Among The Living, I was in total shock to see how these oldies are in perfect shape! There was no way to tell this wasn't a video from 1987 we were watching, the vitallity, the energy, the sound, the crowd participation and above al Belladonna's amazing vocals.


Belladonna has to be one of the best metal singers in the world, along with Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson. And boy, did he prove himself today! As for the rest of the band: same story! Jumping, banging and flying all over the stage.


Fantastic! And adding all that stage fun up with metal classics such as Caught In A Mosh, Gung Ho and Deathrider, and you've got the best headlining act you can imagine.
[Napalm Lex]

Just about then and there you begin to understand the beauty of Dynamo Open Air. Who needs fucking Rammstein anyway? Who needs 60.000 paying visitors to have fun? Dynamo Rules! Fuck all the press pussies who felt it necesairy to demonize the Dynamo 2005 edition, with your "help" Dynamo will be going to hell sooner than anything. To me, reading a lot of bullshit reviews about Dynamo the last couple of days was the only real downside and bummer. Fuck em! Bunch of 40-year olds going ballistic over rock n roll, get a life, go buy a fishing rod and listen to Al Jarreau, you fuck. See you next year, with more visitors and a better parking facility hopefully!