This was actually the first installment of Baroeg Open Air I attended. Usually the line-up is not very interesting. And frankly this years lineup constisted of even less metal than before. But headlining was Bolt Thrower was headlining, so that of course means I had to go. I had wanted to see De Raggende Manne as well, but the playing times were so far apart, I skipped them. So I only arrived around 20.00, found the Bolt Thrower merchandise stand, which was extremely crowded already. I guess they must have sold even more this time than at Into the Grave 2 years ago when they sold out already in the afternoon (but then that was an all day metal fest).

Anyway, after the change over, there seemed to be some issues sound (drums were a bit loud and guitars a bit thin, but at least they got the beeping out) but not too bad. Somehow the Battle of Britain intro wouldn’t start playing, so Bolt Thrower dived right into War followed by Remembrance. The crowd went crazy tent become really hot real quickly, but the band seemed a bit stiff at the beginning (probably old age – Karl turned 48 this day 🙂 ). But after a song or two that was resolved and Karl was his enthusiastic self again. The set list consisted of material from nearly most of their albums except the first two and curiously Honour Valour Pride was skipped all together, with mostly the usual songs, such as The IVth Crusade, The Killchain, …For Victory, Mercenary, Powder Burns. Songs like War Master and the ultra heavy This Time It’s War were stand out tracks of the set and I hadn’t heard Forever Fallen in a long time. But why not shift in some other songs some time, they have a back catalogue of over 75 songs – all of them great. It’d be really cool if they’d play a song such as Unleashed, Spearhead, All That Remains, or even K-Machine. Nevertheless they clossed the set with When Cannons Fade and even the outro with the Siren and the artillery fire was played. Due to the curfew, they unfortunately weren’t allowed to play a encore. A pretty damn good show, but I have seen them better.