After emptying my piggy bank and creating a firm stomach with a decent meal for a good night of beerdrinking, I rushed to the O'sheas Irish pub in Vlaardingen to gather up with other raging Rijnmond metal heads to see the Dutch power metal band Schraapstaal perform. Schraapstaal is known for their genuine sound, making power metal as it should be: the ultimate combination of power and, of course, metal.
After seeing the last few songs of Evil's Desire (the opening act for that night), around 11:30 PM it was time for what I came for: Schraapstaal was gearing up and getting ready to rock the place.
Schraapstaal immediately blasted away with Cry Your Name, which is one of their older songs and by now a well known Schraapstaal classic. Though explosive, the sound was very well managed: the balanced volumes of both the instruments and the vocals resulted in a coherent whole in which the, in particular Leon Lohman's and Koen Stam's, virtuoso play could be well distinguished.
Top row, from left to right: Robin Rebers, Pim Hoek and Koen Stam;
bottom row, from left to right: Leon and Antal Lohman.
After this powerful introduction, Schraapstaal played a few songs, which I personally didn't know to well. With titles like "the Battle for Glory", "Up in Flames" and "Celestial Guardians" it becomes clear for the ones who hadn't figured it out already that Schraapstaal's approach to making music is an epic one. Both powered by Leon's lightning fast guitar play and his impressive falsetto screams, and supported by Koen's inspiring keyboard play, Robin Rebers' enthusiastic bass performance, Antal Lohman's rythmic guitar guidance and Pim Hoek's steady 'machine gun' drumming, Schraapstaal managed to get the audience fired up and soon fists were raised into the air and people were shouting and singing along with the band, which is always an awesome sight.
The next song was Forever Free, which would yet be another sing along song for me. Being one of their more 'slow' songs, I think this song is one of their most textual strong ones as well. The following piece of epicness would be "The Storm": a fairly new song which I had managed earlier to get a sneak preview of in Schraapstaal's rehearsing place, that had a great impact on the audience in spite of being one of their younger songs. "Ragnarock" was truly an homage to the Nordic legacy of myths and tales: Antal introduced the audience to the Final Battle which would end it all.
Back to the Schraapstaal classics, and my personal favorite thus far, with Call to Arms. I suppose I wasn't the only one thinking this song is one of the most brilliant Schraapstaal songs, since a lot of people joined me on singing along with it. Schraapstaal closed their set with Lonely Wanderer, followed by a pumped up version of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger", leaving a cheerful crowd, singing and drinking until the pub would close its doors.
Schraapstaal homepage: http://www.schraapstaal.com
