Hail to all ye Brethren of the Hammer,

Well the Hammer Of Doom festival is behind us now. But not the thundering in my ears that is the ringing still going on from all the great metal I heard at the show. I had a bloody blast at this festival. Congratulations to Oliver for putting on such an event.

For me it was almost like a family reunion. To be sharing the stage with my friends in Doomsword and BattleroaR again. It was glorious for me and my mates in the band. First of all I have to express my thanks to Josh for all the time he has put in with me rehearsing for this show. He just stormed right on through all the songs live like he had been playing them for years. Great Job. Hellroadie as always came through in the pinch. He got sick almost right away when we got to Germany but he battled on like a trooper and did a great job singing at the show. And then comes something near remarkable. Neudi had 3 days of rehearsing with us to get ready for this show. 3 days to figure out 25 songs with most of them being real buggers that were originally played by Randy Thrasher Foxe. No small feat that we have asked of this man. But Neudi came on like an exploding volcano and erupted into a great demonstration of what metal drumming is all about. Man he did a great job. We did 25 songs that lasted slightly over 2.5 hours. It was brutal but the audience kept us going. And that brings me to the audience. By the beard of Zeus they were amazing. This was a true magikal moment for me at this show. I felt so much appreciation and love from the audience that I would sometimes just find myself spinning around in a swirl of music and then I would realize that I was supposed to be at my mic and I’m still 10 feet away…hahah. I felt like I played pretty good and we all had a few mistakes here and there but for the most part they were very minimal and covered up really well. I cannot express enough my emotions about the crowd that was before us and the respect that they gave us. It was a monster moment in my career as a touring musician. And it felt really good to crank out so many of the old songs from Open The Gates, The Deluge and Mystification. If you did not make it to the show then you missed out on one bloody hell of a good gig. If you were there then I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a great time. We are currently working on putting together our tour schedule for 2012 so just keep watch here at manillaroad.net and we will announce everything as it unfolds.

Up The Hammers & Down The Nails

Shark