This summer our team returned to Wacken Open Air for the fourth time in a row. There's a special thing or theme for every Wacken edition; this one however was marked by some unfortunate events. Europe's weather had been poor to say the least in the last couple of weeks with non-stop showers and storms, leaving the camping ground affected, and some areas completely inaccessible due to the amount of water. A squad of tractors was put in place to drag each car, one by one, into the designated camping ground. As the weather continued to worsen for the entirety of Monday & Tuesday, the organisers were left with the extreme decision of blocking people arriving in Wacken as there were no guaranteed spots to camp anymore.
We can report back about our “fun” night spent in the car queuing & sleeping (a little) until 6.30 am to finally secure space for our tent and enjoy a warm breakfast. Understandably, people felt the discomfort of the entire situation, complaining of the lack of communication and the little clarity as we also did experience the Wacken crew doing what they could and working extra hours to be sure people were safe and sound. It is no news that at Wacken can rain or shine, right? The mighty gods have chosen rain for this year.
Talking business now: we want to remind you all that this year was technically the first time Wacken took place over 4 days, seeing as until last year Metalheads had to pay an additional fee to see bands on a Wednesday, so for the first time we had an extra day to cover which unfortunately didn’t go as planned.
Words: Sabrina Schiavinato
Photos: Peterson Marti
Day 1: Wednesday
Not only were Monday & Tuesday tragic, to say the least, but on Wednesday, we experienced more than 3 hours of delay for the infield caused by the poor weather conditions and other technical issues which we weren’t sure about. Again, most likely the organisation wanted to keep it quite broad but we think the bad weather didn’t help the crew finishing to set up the big stages.
From the initial 1-hour delay, we waited till 6pm to be granted access to the bigger stages, meaning band delays and reschedules. With very little information about the rescheduled bands we, like many, struggled to keep up with the running order and eventually missed some bands playing. At this point, we will add a note for the organiser to provide a better application service as, different from previous years, the updates were inconsistent, meaning we had to investigate asking around when bands will play.
This was probably the least of their problems considering the amount of complaining they had to deal with in the last couple of days, and the announcements at 5pm on that day of the full refund for any ticket holders that didn’t make it to the festival and were advised to stay home.
Before we dive into the live report, we wanted to take a moment to remember why this festival edition was so important and why history was made: Lemmy's ashes were enshrined in the Wacken soil. After a parade which started at the festival site and passed through Wacken's town to Lemmy’s Bar, we saw Phil Campbell and Mikkey place Lemmy’s ashes in a specially-prepared display next to personal items including his hat, boots, bass guitar and Marshall stack. An explanation is not required on why this was a memorable and emotional moment for many and it will give chance to anyone to pay tribute to the mighty Lemmy. Long live Lemmy’s memory and legacy!
The first band for us on this year's edition is Nervosa. As you are all probably aware, Nervosa's history has been a little troubled with frequent changes of their band members, and it seems like this year we are going to see Prika, taking over the microphone for the very first time accompanied by 3 new members. We also caught them briefly as they were interviewed to present the new single, "Seed of Death "launched on August 2nd. With a new album coming out on August 4th, Skindread hit the stage with delays too. The Welsh band, who were not new to the Wacken stages, had their 8th studio album hitting the UK chart after 25 years of their formation. After a star wars intro, with the latest releases the band opened their show, with “Set Fazer” “L.O.V.E” and “Gimme that Boom”.
Finntroll shook the Wacken atmosphere and brought some happy tunes to the infield after the amount of delays and weather condition. Their sound has changed over the years, and as we heard tracks from all 7 releases, it's pretty impressive to notice their musical evolution. Despite that, the Finnish folk element is still there and distinguishes them from any other bands. We were happy to hear “Nedgång” “Solsagan” “Trollhammaren” “Under bergets rot”.
You’ll hear us talking about many anniversaries planned in this festival edition, hopefully, that means cakes (for us), so the first and most important to celebrate is our metal queen Doro, who celebrates a 40-year career. To capture the decades of Doro's legacy, she will be releasing in October a 19-song album titled "Conqueress – Forever Strong And Proud" through Nuclear Blas, along with the announcement of the album, the first released was “Time For Justice,” a first single that immediately thrills with its powerful, wild vibes. As the show started, special guests accompany Doro on the stage for this birthday show, we saw Hansi Kursch, Joe Belladonna, Phill Campbell and Mikkey Dee singing along to the biggest hits and some covers like “Love Me Forever”, “Antisocial“ & “Ace of Spades”.
Another birthday in the house, Pentagram closed the first day of Wacken, celebrating 50th years of history. The band, which formed in 1971, has a pretty particular history with many changes of members but a reputation of being one of the pioneers of heavy metal: we must say we are extremely surprised to see a Bobby Liebling in top form, he definitely kept in secret those hips move for this special show, and definitely he wins the prize for best Wacken outfit, sorry metal queens! What a great performance, despite the mud stopping our mobility, we enjoyed “Death Row” “All your sins” “Review your choices” and “the ghoul”.
Day 2: Thursday
After a pretty rainy morning, we were blessed with a warm sun for the entire afternoon, and as we catch the gates opening, we managed to get a nice spot to see Vixen. After several reunions and a 2022 band reformation, the American band is the second in line to perform on the second day on the Faster stage. Sadly the band lost their guitarist, Jan Kuehnemund, in 2013 who was fighting a battle with cancer, and It was in the same year that the band released a new album, the first time without Jan. Those ladies rock like it was yesterday and for those who are not familiar with their hits, we’ll definitely recommend checking them out! The energy, the moves, and the complicity on stage are just perfect... Lorraine's stage and crowd presence keeps everyone entertained, and not only cause she looks amazing!
In the meantime, in the big stages, we have the pleasure to catch an interesting non-metal band whose reputation preceded themselves, Pennywise. The band don’t need an introduction really, as we watch them getting into the stage and still wearing their teenage clothes, which takes us back to 15 years ago, we experience different festival vibes. It’s common for Wacken to open up the doors to non-metal bands, but in the past few years has been more frequent, which we personally think is a great touch. The band brings some of their classics on stage, “Same Old Story” “Society” “Alien” and “Fuck Authority” and some covers like “Do what you want” and “Fight for your right” Pennywise has been pivotal for the punk scene, so what we experienced in the stage is just a tip of the Californian background and energy.
Before we move to the big stages, we stopped to catch a breath and fully immerse ourselves in a mystical atmosphere, where drums hit the rhythm of a ritual and astonishing vocals accompany all to a magical place. Eivør, who many know has been collaborating for the soundtracks for ”The Last Kingdom”, has her roots in the strong heritage of the Faroe Islands, on the forces of nature and many songs about the Faroese legends. The way her voice merges into the combination of electronic and organic sounds creates a magical experience and recharges us all with energy and hope for the evening to come (hopefully with no rain). What an explosion! Kreator once again hit the Holy Grounds after the last appearance in 2017 opening their act with “Hate Über Alles” and “People of the Lies”. It doesn’t even give us time to take a breath before their energy hit us straight with “Enemy of God”, at this point the pit was on fire for as many people could mosh in the deep mud, obviously. We couldn’t miss the ending with our favs “Violent Revolution” “Flag of Hate” & “Pleasure to Kill”. The band's play in-house transported us to pure energy that come straights from hell, and this is not because of the monster statues the band had on stage.
Moving on to our evening and to a different stage, we patiently waited for Carpathian Forest who set the evening for a black metal meeting. A pretty controversial show was about to happen, where we see frontman Nattefrost playing with a crucifix on the stage: this is no news for those who are used to seeing black metal shows, but we found the band in top performance, delivering a great show. We got hit straight away with a most energetic version of “I will follow” and “The Beast in Man: The Origin of Sin”, not to mention the great covers of “Forest” and “All my friends are dead” that never miss their shows. Hold on one second…Do we see pumpkins?! The Faster stage was getting ready to host another legendary band and a celebration of their amazing long-lasting career: Helloween, who had finally reunited with all three of their original vocalists, Michael Kiske, Andi Deris, and Kai Hansen, for a memorable 2-hour show. We got very emotional right at the start with “Skyfall” as the first song of this incredible show that is about to happen: we saw such a great synergy on stage from all the members, whilst the graphics effect bring up a fantasy atmosphere, the effects of the lights hit the crowd like thunders, in classic Helloween style. From guitar solos to guitar and vocal duet, the blasting drums briought us back to reality and we wished the show will never end but we couldn’t be happier to say goodbye (for tonight) to this iconic band singing along to “Keeper of the seven keys” watching the laser projectors drawing the pumpkin in the sky (a great addition for this year festival), with the grand finale accompanied by “I want out” whilst watching a slideshow with band pictures on the background.
Our night is not finished yet, so to finish this second festival night, how could we miss our lord, Abbath, making his majestic appearance on the WET stage at 11pm with “To war!” “Hecate” “The Artifex” and some of the Immortal songs too “The Rise of Darkness” give all of us the goodnight sleep.
Day 3: Friday
Our first band for this hot Friday was the Bavarian trash metal band Dust Bolt, who took over the Wet stage. The band, who will be releasing their fourth album in February of next year, bring to the thirsty Wacken audience an energetic metal full of acid riffs and pounding drums -no need to mention the huge support this band get given their playing in-house.
As we try to find some cover from the sun, we bumped into Trivium, who is accompanied on stage by John Baines from Malevolence, as Paolo Gregoletto is recovering from a surgery. We cannot but notice the choices of colour that invade the stage as Matt shows his eccentric taste in clothing, which match the background of the stage graphics. From their recent album we hear “In the Court of the Dragon”, and move to their big hits such as “The Heart From Your Hate” “The Sin and the Sentence” and “Becoming the Dragon” which was last performed in 2018.
Skalmold is back on the Wackinger stage after their last appearance in 2017. The Icelandic band known for their Viking songs match perfectly this year's theme of the festival. Even the Icelandic president came out to support this great band, that for one more time play an incredible show. The entire crowd ato hear that the band will soon release of their new album of which they performed a couple of songs. In the end, we couldn’t but join everyone and raise our fits to the sky to the sound of "Kvaðning".
Another anniversary in Wacken this year for the 30th birthday of “Legion” for Deicide: one hell of the most influential, prolific, and inspirational Death Metal albums, which transported us back in the 90s.
We heard about a secret show announcement coming up, and on this day it was announced Marty Friedman, as guest joining Megadeth on stage once again reunited with his old band members to play “Trust“, “Tornado of Souls“ & “Symphony of Destruction”.
Friday was the day with the biggest acts, but It was definitely interesting to see what audience would have assisted the 11pm performance of Wardruna. We cannot deny how much we were excited about this performance, not only because it was the first time seeing them live, but Einar and company have been so influential throughout the years, involving collaborations with many big names such as Gaahls Wyrd and Ivar Bjørnson, and also being included as tracks in TV Series and video games. The rudimental essence of their simplistic performance, the dimmed light and the echo of voices from the different band members took us to a totally different dimension where nature is the true source of life. This was the very first time for the band to perform live in Wacken, so we see a very emotional Einar leaving a goodbye speech before introducing their last song “Helvegen”.
The last act of the night for us was Nick Holmes’s Bloodbath: for the short time we watch their performance, given the late hour and the tiredness, the band performed a strong set list with some singles from their latest album - Survival of the sickest, “Zombie Inferno” “Carved” opening their act with “So You Die” “Brave New Hell” but unfortunately we were too tired to catch the final songs “Cry My Name” & “Eaten”.
Day 4: Saturday
On this very last day of the 2023 edition, we start the day watching Masterplan on their 20th-anniversary show at 11:30am: as the first band on this last day, unfortunately not many were out there welcoming their performance, as we believe everyone was sleeping at that time after a long night of the party. The ex-Helloween drummer side project brings to this very last day their power metal tunes combined with a melodic keyboard.
t’s time for Marty Friedman, to leave Japan to come to Germany to perform his solo career set, where he has been experimenting with music collaborations worldwide, including Kiko Loureiro. The ex-Megadeth guitarist, who made his guest appearance on Friday with his former bandmates, performs a set of instrumental songs that span from avant-garde to pure classic heavy metal.
Another band that is indeed perfect for the Viking theme of this year's festival, Ensiferum, started their show with some of their famous hits “Rum, women, Victory” “In my Sword I Trust” to the most famous “One man army” “Lai lai Hei”. We welcome the presence of their new band member Pekka Montin, who joined Ensiferum in 2018, after a long search for the perfect replacement: we cannot show our full support and Pekka's clean and powerful vocals contrast perfectly with Petri’s aggressive tones.
We definitely couldn’t miss Biohazard: early in July this year we heard of the tragic death of the former drummer Anthony Meo who passed away after a battle with cancer. Meo drummed for Biohazard between 1987 and 1988 and played on the band's first-ever demo. The recently reunited band with original vocalist and bassist Evan Seinfeld, bringing them back to their classic-era lineup. Seems like they are planning on writing and recording their first new album since 2012 (and first with Seinfeld since 2005). The pure HC energy invade the Louder stage in this last afternoon on the German soil: “Urban discipline”, and “What makes us tick” and got ready to jump to the notes of “Black and white and red all over” “Shades of grey” the pit was on fire.
Why not bring some fun on this last day of this Wacken edition? Let’s party with Alestorm! Opening up with their Hard-Techno intros thanking all the vips girls to exist and drinks: Don’t think we need to explain what these guys talk about.
Let’s get serious for a minute though, as Killswitch Engage took over the Faster stage, opening their setlist with “My Curse” and taking us back to the 2006 album “As Daylight Dies”, making us very emotional in the process. This got us thinking of the era this album came out and how significantly influenced a lot of emerging bands at the time. Moving on to some of the recent stuff, we need to remember that they haven’t published a new album since 2019, of which we hear “Unleashed”. The show finished with the most famous “The End of Heartache” & “My Last Serenade”.
Our last but not least band for this year is, Possessed. The crowd was impatient to see this act on the Louder stage: the band released their last album in 2019 and from that, we hear “No more room in hell” and “Damned”. Jeff Becerra's sarcasm and energy are influential, love how he introduces each song with a bit of sarcasm towards the church. Couldn’t miss some of the oldies “Tribulation” “Beyond the Gates” and “The Exorcist”.
Before we hit the road, we managed to catch the promoter's farewell speech with a big thanks to all the people that supported us from home, all the people that spend all the time waiting to get allocated and the ones who unfortunately didn’t make it, but a big thanks to all the local authorities and the crew members that supported and made this edition happening.
Let the show begin! So is with these words that the promoters leave the stage and the next year's theme is announced: Warlock and witches. Fighting for power over darkness the first bands are announced: Scorpions, Amon Amarth, Blind Guardian, Mayhem, Watain, Pain, Beast In Black, Bury Tomorrow, Blues Pills, Knorkator, Sonata Arctica, Motionless In White, Unleash The Archers, Sick Of It All, The Warning, Red Fang, The Black Dahlia Murder, Ankor, Primordial, Flotsam & Jetsam, Xandria, Soil, Emil Bulls, Vio-Lence, Wolf, Exumer, Vreid, Brutus, Ignea, John Coffey, Asagraum and many more to be confirmed.
Another year has come to an end, despite the bad weather, the mud and some delays, the Wacken team had again proven that nothing stop them from providing the best metal experience to millions of fans.
We will see you again next year Wacken, Rain or Shine!
0 σχόλια :
Post a Comment