Phungo meets Metal up your Life 2022 – 12.08.2022

The Phungo meets Metal Up Your Life is now an integral part of the Phungo Festival, just like the resulting ALL WILL KNOW performance. And that’s exactly how the afternoon started, like the last few years family-friendly with an acoustic set. Always cool to hear the songs actually written as Melodic Death Metal acoustically. And with Tobi as an announcer, who cracks a joke at the expense of his colleagues from time to time. A hilarious and entertaining performance that serves well to break the ice.

Setlist:

Still Cold and Lost
Age of Paranoia
Beyond the Fears
Deeper into Time
Behind Your Mask
The Weakest Spot

Then Postmodern Fantasy came on stage with their symphonic pop metal. I myself discovered them by accident not too long ago and was really looking forward to see them perform. In line with the latest video, everyone except singer Franzi came on stage with their rabbit masks to play the said song. Immediately after the song they were put aside so that they could finally see something, since the view under the mask was very limited. What followed was a cool show with lots of interaction between the musicians and between the musicians and the audience. A performance which, musically and in terms of the degree of heaviness, was a very nice transition to the next band and makes you want to go to a Postmodern Fantasy concert again. Which, due to the region of origin in the Rhine-Main area, will definitely be within the realms of my possibility.

Next up was Groove Metal from Frankfurt, with Mein Kopf ist ein Bruter Ort. Brutal music, yes, but very nice musicians on stage, unfortunately with one of the last performances by shouter Patrick Schuch. I was allowed to see them in 2018, back then at the Steinbruch Theater, and remembered them very positively. I wasn’t disappointed this time either, great show, always very well-timed shouter changes and sweeping guitars with the necessary heaviness and the right groove to rock and bang along. There was even a guest appearance by Christian Schmidt‘s brother, a rapper, who did a cool song with the band. It will be interesting to see what Patrick‘s successor will be like, but also here a band that makes you want more and is underestimated in my opinion.

Then it kind of went back to the beginning, now that it was ALL WILL KNOW‘s turn – with their normal set. As usual solid, humorous, full of energy and exciting. In addition, surprising for the band, there was a parallel performance by two fire artists, which gave the whole thing an extra kick. They can do that more often. As always, it was great fun. The performance also fitted perfectly into the increasing degree of heaviness that one was able to experience that evening, starting with their acoustic set.

Although the degree of heaviness of the music went down again, the cult status blew up with the appearance of the Godfather of German Metal, namely Rage. And what a show they put on… A lot of fun, joy, energy and Peter Wagner showed that he is far from finished with the subject of live shows, which will please everyone who can relate to Rage. Of course, the most well-known song in Germany could not be missing from the set list, Straight to Hell. It was received with appropriate enthusiasm. Of course, there were also the usual “Repeat after me” games with the audience, which all worked out wonderfully. After 75 minutes and an encore of two songs, the end of a great festival day was unfortunately already reached at quarter past 11. After that you could have a chat with the musicians which did put away their stuff, which showed that despite the level of popularity, there is no distance to the fans.

Setlist: