28 March 2024

09-02-2019 Chrome Division

Supports: Crossplane, Virginia Hill
Location: Headcrash, Hamburg

By: Basak Günel

Hamburg’s rock’n’roll lovers were in for a special ride as Chrome Division was back in town for one last ride! After the release of their last and final album “One Last Ride” on November 2018, the band decided to call it quits and so this tour has been the last chance to see the band live.

The evening started with the Norwegian rockers Virginia Hill. The band’s debut album “Makin’ Our Bones” was released on October 2018 and so it was the perfect timing to celebrate this release! Even though the venue was not fully packed (yet), the band managed to impress the crowd with their dynamic show as well as their sound consisting of a great mix of sleaze and rock’n’roll .

One highlight that got my attention was the band’s never-ending energy; this is normally not common for a warm-up act but this show was an exception. Most of the time, I was in a dilemma between concentrating on the vocals vs. the guitars! Each band-member brought their own aura and style! Definitely a name to keep an eye on for the rock’n’roll/heavy metal lovers!

Crossplane is a name many of the fans within the genre are familiar with. Formed in 2009, this German band has gained a strong fanbase in the country over the years. Surprisingly, my first encounter with the band was when they supported Chrome Division back in 2013 in Düsseldorf, so it was a great and interesting opportunity to see them in Hamburg 5 years later and to experience what has changed…

The band started their set with “Wir sind Crossplane und wir spielen rock’n’roll” (We are Crossplane and we play rock’n’roll”). Right from the start, they delivered the fast rock’n’roll that we all needed, and I could see that the crowd was already familiar with the band as many sang along to the lyrics and headbanged right from the start. Nothing more was needed as the band’s interaction with the audience was more than perfect; especially the frontman Celli kept smiling, cheering and showing his metal horns to the audience and kept smiling.

Having released the latest record “Backyard Frenzy” in 2017, the band’s setlist consisted of some old songs as well as some rather recent ones. The crowd’s highlights seemed to be “Bring The Fire”, “Rollin” and “Take It or Leave It” though. Surely with a great interaction like that, the band managed to play some more songs after encore and left everyone in sweat and smiling with their final words : “Wir sind Crossplane aber ihr seid rock’n’roll”! My impressions after 5 years? The music and the style might have remained the same but one thing is certain: Crossplane kicks even more ass compared to 5 years ago with their rock’n’roll style, confidence and awesome interaction!

Chrome Division at last… With five albums and a career that started as a ‘side project’ of Dimmu Borgir‘s Shagrath in 2004, the band has secured their place as a ‘doomsday rock’n’roll’ act over the years. With this tour being the last of the band, there were surely many highlights… but one big highlight was seeing Eddie Guz  on stage back again with the band! Surely this must have brought a lot of excitement and nostalgia for the die-hard fans in the audience; as a matter of fact, the audience cheered Eddie’s name a few times, making him blush and smile. So even though the band as a whole shined the whole night, it was Eddie who shined a bit more with his awesome talent and stage persona.

Since this was the last tour of the band, they promised to play songs from each album. Some songs like “Trouble with the Law”, “Breathe Easy”, “The Boys from the East”, “Bulldogs Unleashed” and “Serial Killer” got the audience going, sweating and headbanging. However, one big highlight was definitely “Chrome Division”, as, according to Eddie, this had been the song that started this whole project: Back in 2004 when Shagrath formed Chrome Division as a side project, he contacted Eddie to record just one demo with him… Well, one demo became 3 songs and 3 songs became 5 songs, leading to the release of the debut album of the band. This was also appreciated and celebrated by the crowd as everyone sang along to the chorus: “We are the Chrome Division”. Apart from this, some other highlights were the amazing interaction between the band and the audience, the impressive guitar solos played by Mr. Damage in-between and the jokes and stories told by Eddie. Personally, it was maybe a bit sad to see Chrome Division for one last time and I can imagine it to be a bit more tough for the die-hard fans in the audience but this nostalgia combined with the great rock’n’roll mood in general formed a great ‘last ride’ for everyone involved. Personally, I also found it hard to compare this show to their show 5 years ago; surely both shows had their highlights but this show will probably be a highlight and maybe even the best Chrome Division show for us fans.

A bit of nostalgia, lots of sweating, headbanging and smiling… This was the last ride of Chrome Division in Hamburg. Kudos to these guys from the East as well as the support acts for putting out a spectacular show and an unforgettable night!

Links:

Chrome Division Facebook
Crossplane Official
Virginia Hill Facebook