Category: Line-up

At the start, it was quite improbable for Belgium to have an international class heavy metal band. There was Irish Coffee in the 1970s, Cyclone and a few other outsiders in the 1980s, but the lack of means invariably kept coming back as a common denominator.

 

In 1990, at the “expiration date” of our festival, Channel Zero from Brussels got formed in a chaotic musical landscape. With an eponymous album in 1992, ‘Stigmatized For Life’, produced by the late Vinnie Paul of Pantera in 1993 and especially the very heavy ‘Unsafe’ in 1994, Channel Zero gave itself the means of its ambitions and became the number one Belgian heavy metal band. Already having hit rock bottom in 1996, Channel Zero chose 2010 as a redemptive force. On the cards, six sold out concerts at the Ancienne Belgique, the first three in 49 minutes. After memorable gigs at Graspop and Rock Werchter, drummer Phil Baheux died in 2013, the eve of their performance at Alcatraz. That’s when the group reinvented itself with drummer Seven Antonopoulos and American guitarist Mikey Doling, finally fully integrated. Singer Franky Desmet-Van Damme and bassist Tino De Martino remain the pillars of a group that matured terribly well as attested by ‘Exit Humanity’ (2017), a jewel in their crown.

‘The days of big tours from city to city with the tour bus is over. I’ve given enough. It’s the reason why I stopped Twisted Sister,” says Dee Snider, big mouth of American rock who has never seemed more petulant and motivated since the end of the group that made him world famous. “I’m still in great shape and I can still set the stage on fire, but only at times”, explains this eternal bragger always very sure of himself.

 

The four years of Twisted Sister and the farewell tour that followed managed to frustrate the fans in a certain way. The group bowed out at the peak of their fame and this time around, the New Yorkers will be more honest than the majority of the so-called retirees.
Twisted Sister is a varied group whose path was never very easy. At the beginning, they had a tough time, then gained cult status for a category of Americans who fawned over the circus of hard rock glam boom in Los Angeles. However, JJ French was the boss of the group and Dee Snider the songwriter and image of this priceless Twisted Sister that entrenched itself into the American school system.

 

“I became a singer to make the crowds howl,” Dee boasts, one of the most gleaming and baffling frontmen and entertainers in hard rock history. And the guy is trying to put his money where his mouth is with a solo career where he doesn’t owe anything to anyone.
The Dee storm promises to destroy everything in its path on 25 August in Liège. He’s the dream headliner to close our festival, not without having yelled until hoarse ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’, a veritable hymn in Belgium. You can’t stop rock ‘n’ roll, don’t even try !