Following the successful tenth anniversary BYH DVD in 2005 it was time for another round for one of Europe’s top metal festivals to be documented again for all times. I wish more of these European festivals recorded their bands as often as they could. Once more organizers invited the best classic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal bands from the metal scene to Balingen in Germany.

Sadly, here in America we don’t get the cross section of bands the European fests do nor the amount of upper crust true Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. We get festivals, as far as the larger ones that are marketed to the masses, like Ozzfest and Sounds of the Underground but those are flooded too much with one sound and way too many false trendy bands that wouldn’t know metal if it bit them in the ass.

The two previous Bang Your Head DVDs (one was a Best Of) were extremely received by fans which resulted in another installment.

This ’06 Double-DVD-Package brings back the weekend of June, 22nd and 23rd with at least one song from each band. From the gigs at the warm-up-show to the performances on the big festival stage you can watch bands in action with a look at the behind the scenes activities (sometimes spoke in German). All pro shot live footage.

How’s this for a cross section. You get a dose of classic 80’s metal from Canada’s Anvil, Raven and Armored Saint from the States. Beyond Fear is the new Maiden/Sabbath inspired band from Iced Earth singer Tim Owens, Jon Oliva’s Pain features the Savatage frontman playing a selection very close to his heart. Communic come from the Nevermore school of thought, Death Angel and Flotsam and Jetsam present to you old school 80’s thrash.

From the Hard Rock world; Rik Emmett playing a set of Triumph music, Foreigner (which I thought were a bit of an odd choice but ok), and Y&T. From the melodic Power Metal sound Helloween brought us to 'Future World' and Stratovarius up from the ashes with 'Phoenix'. In Flames and Unleashed coming from more current extreme Death Metal sounds, rounded out by a reformed Leatherwolf and four songs from ex Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin which included the Sabbath classic 'Headless Cross'. Only disappointment is no performances from Whitesnake???

Why can’t there be a Bang Your Head USA with this caliber of bands?