WACKEN:OPEN:AIR

w/ Iron Maiden, Slayer, Immortal, WASP, Arch Enemy, Edguy, Rotting Christ, Solstafir and many many more!

Wacken, Germany – 4th-7th August, 2010

THURSDAY

The Metalheads mecca, the be all and end all, heavy metal heaven. Call it what you want, there is this farm in the north western corner of Germany that when August comes along, you want to be there. Wacken Open Air is its name, as you already know having read the article title, and this year its 21^st edition hosted a unbelievable 80,000 long haired bangers congregated for 5 days of drunken camping and 3 days of drunken thrashing, all of it beginning with ‘A Night To Remember’.

A short introduction and welcome to the festival by organizers was followed by all-star band Skyline, featuring the likes of Doro Pesch and Udo Dirkschneider, who revved up a sizeable 4pm crowd with the ‘Wacken Hymn’ before continuing with cover versions of classic tracks by AC/DC, Judas Priest, Accept and the legendary Dio.

Adding some early variety, Danish Folk metal band Svartsot opened proceedings on the tiny Wackinger Stage to a packed out front of stage area. With the added bonus of a ‘longboat turned bar’ serving mead less than 20 metres from the stage, the 5 piece showed how the Danes best have fun with a short but sweet folky set in support of their latest release.

Death, as always, was the order of the day for Alice Cooper, who in an attempt to turn into a cat, made it to 4 funerals in a 90-minute set full of most of his classic material despite a poor vocal mix, before Motley Crue graced the Black Stage with a cityline backdrop and many a female in the crowd. And as the stage props exploded in fire, so did all the female hearts in the crowd as front man Vince Neil, drummer Tommy Lee and the rest of the leather clad band entered the stage. Offering a predictable setlist, the highlight went to Shout at the Devil, a song that when a sea of screaming fans sing at the top of their lungs becomes almost irresistible!

Iron Maiden, one of the biggest names in metal, playing in front of sixty thousand metal fans at the biggest metal festival in the world… it’s what dreams are made of. And from the outset the English quintet made sure it felt special. From his first fly kick across the stage, Bruce Dickinson showed that he is better than ever. He was like a child high on red cordial, forever running back and forth across the stage and never missing a note from his perfectly crafted vocal chords. As usual with bands of ‘a certain age’, we were not disappointed to see a bit stage gimmickry, this time in the form of Eddie walking across stage and attacking bassist Steve Harris, before playing some bass himself. Ending the show with a quick fire best of including Fear of the Dark, The Number of the Beast and Hallowed be thy Name, it really was a night to remember.

FRIDAY

Having somehow escaped my radar since metal first graced my ears, the band Dew Scented was recommended to me just prior to the festival. “They are a great German metal band, you must go see them live” said the fan, so there I was, standing in the 3.5m² of shade under the light tower while the sun killed off the minimal grass and the band induced some hard to find early morning pit action (see next paragraph). While vocalist Leif Jensen may be the weak link in the band, the power and moshabillity displayed certainly kicked the day off on a top note.
11:45 is not a bad time to be playing at a metal festival if it’s in the p.m., but getting a crowd going in the morning is a whole lot more difficult. Amorphis had the honour of opening the True Metal stage after the night to remember, and performed well without really getting the crowd going. As a recent convert to the band, Amorphis were one of the main bands I was looking forward to seeing, and it was great to see some of their brilliant material performed live. The sound was good, in particular singer Tomi Joutsen, with the voice of an angel and the hair of a god, but the magic of the band was somewhat lost in the morning light.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter drew a huge crowd of fellow Germans to the main stage for their eclectic mix of extreme thrash, death, folk and any other type of metal you can think of. DAR are fairly unknown outside of the German speaking countries, mainly due to the fact they sing in German, but they are definitely worth checking out either live or on CD. Lead singer Fuchs is a brilliant front man, pulling off both aggressive death metal vocals and sublimely beautiful clean vocals which came across perfectly live here. Live distractions include the keyboardist playing on a swing and a slide, before riding the crowd on a blow-up boat.

Folk continued the theme, with ‘Middle-ages’ rock band Schelmisch getting the mead once again flowing on the Wackinger stage. This set was notable for containing probably to best cover version of the festival, with the band pulling Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire out from the record player and into the metal environment.

Everyone’s favourite American/Norwegian power metal band Kamelot were up next on the True Metal Stage. Their middle eastern inspired metal came across wonderfully o the main stage, and closing song March of Mephisto had the otherwise somewhat static crowd chanting with arms raised in the air. However the highlight of the set came in the form of a clever piece of marketing from a supermarket chain flying an air balloon low over the crowd, who began chanted ‘Edeka! Edeka!’, the name of their new god. Drunken Germans are a lot of fun.

Arch Enemy have grown in importance since their 2006 Wacken performance, which was reflected in their move up the running order into the prime time. Having only seen them at the same festival four years earlier, I thought then that they were more suited to the club show. But I’m happy to admit that I was wrong, and they proved this to me with one of the highlight performances of the festival. Angela Gossow owned the crowd from start to finish, singing with both aggression and precision, the crowd returning their energy in kind by moshing, circle pitting, and yes, crowd surfing. Playing a best of, there was something for everyone, and I don’t think anyone was left disappointed.

Back to the Wackinger stage and by this point in the festival, the constant foot traffic had created a dust bowl for German folk sensations Equilibrium to deliver as intense as set as had been experienced thus far in the festival. If you can’t enjoy a set like this at Wacken, you probably should have been kicked out by the band themselves as they powered through an hour set including songs the likes of ‘Wingthors Hammer’, ‘Unter De Eiche’, ‘Blut im Auge’ and the timeless ‘Met’.

The only area that Wacken let itself down was in the occasional poor staging decision made by the organiser, especially when it came to the tiny Wackinger stage. Nowhere near big enough to fit in everybody for Equilibrium’s stellar set mentioned above, being in the crowd when the band finished with everyone trying to make their way over to Slayer was like trying to eat a bratwurst whole: slow, painful, and likely to lead to indigestion.

Lucky then that Slayer were worth the wait. The crowd size rivaled that of Iron Maidens the night before, but in terms of intensity there was no comparison. From the front to the back, left to right, half the crowd stood stunned whilst the rest just lost it as slayer played a precise set from start to finish. Crowd interaction is minimal with these guys, as pauses between songs just seem more evil than normal when they are sandwiched between Slayer songs. Highlights of the set were the same as the highlights of Slayer’s career in general: Seasons in the Abyss, Raining Blood, and the best way to finish a set and ensure 70,000 cases of Slayer neck for the morning after, Angel of Death. And then everyone left for bed/pass out in a ditch.

Having to get up in the freezing cold to take a leak at 2.30am, I couldn’t resist sneaking back to the main stages for a glimpse of Corvus Corvax, a six piece medieval band, who become Cantus Buranus at festivals with the addition of an orchestra. For those not in the know, Cantus Buranus are a sort of folk opera. No, more like a movie soundtrack with costumes… Well, they’re kind of hard to describe. Made up of a small orchestra plus a choir section, it’s all deep trumpets, gongs, bass drums, Gregorian chanting – just imagine someone trying to make the most epic music possible, and Corvus Corvax is what you get. Led by the ridiculously dressed choir out front – think evil religious characters in a late eighties sci-fi movie – Corvus Corvax are a sight not to be missed, unlike anything else seen at the festival, playing amazing music with some of the best use of fireworks at the festival, it was well worth the late night detour.

SATURDAY

At my last foray into the fields of Wacken, I was blissfully unaware of Hungarian groovers Ektomorf, finding out about them on the subsequent Wacken 2006 DVD, so I made sure this year I wasn’t to miss them. And, after powering through an energetic first half of the set and getting me quite moist at the thought of them closing with their classic ‘Outcast’, imagine when halfway through the set their main man walked off stage and a cowboy wannabe with a suspiciously similar voice walked back on stage and killed the vibe with an atrociously uninspiring rendition of Jonny Cash’s ‘Rusty Cage’. If Schelmisch the day before were handed the award for best cover of the festival – coincidentally covering the same legend – then Ektomorf hands down claimed the worst, enough said!

Caliban drew a sizeable crowd on the main stage, and entertained with their simple brand of melodic hardcore. Thankfully dropping the blood stained costume they donned on their Australian tour two years earlier, Caliban played a descent set in front of their home crowd, and made standing out in the midday heat worthwhile. Not so worthwhile however were Unleashed, who despite sounding quality on record over their career, provided a lackluster performance to a disappointing crowd.

Metsatoll are from Estonia, and if that’s not reason enough to check out a band then I don’t know what is. Playing on the Party Stage, they drew a pretty small crowd for their mix of brilliantly unique folk music for some songs and bland heavy metal for others. They set the scene by beginning the set with the three men out front belting out an instrument free Estonian folk chant. Their straight heavy metal songs were not worthy of note, but their occasional mix of the two genre’s also entertained. Not the finest performance of the festival, but still enjoyable, especially when under the influence.

Wasp showed us next that it’s not only old, fit, good looking Brits who know how to rock, but also old, fat ugly Americans. They may have softened somewhat over the years from their blood and gore origins, but Blackie Lawless and co. still put on a descent show, keeping the older members of the audience happy. I Wanna Be Somebody got everyone moving, both young and old, but still hardly worth the wait for those under 40.

Stopping by at the end of Varg’s set to catch the only song I know from the German battle metal band was well intentioned, but when I got there, the crowd that had gathered had not only filled the tent, but the overflow outside meant that I could barely hear them over the music coming from the main stages. Clearly popular with their somewhat generic music and facepaint, the crowd lapped it up, and they were added to the list of bands that should have been on a larger stage.

This is the point in the review where I actively consider posting a completely separate review for a performance of mind-blowing awesomeness. Unfortunately said performance was simply that mind blowing that words can barely be formulated into a coherent piece of prose that does justice to the band. As listeners of the band alreadly know, Iceland’s Solstafir are simply godlike. They create intensely emotive and powerful music, which as I had the luck to discover Translate this  Shifted into the Wet Stage for a more intimate performance, the band delivered with a three song set containing ‘Kold’, ‘Pale Rider’ and the majestically epic ‘Ritual of Fire’.

Another band unfortunate enough to land a spot on the Wackinger stage was Tyr. Being one of the main bands I’d wanted to see, I got my arse over there early to avoid the pandemonium of Equilibrium the night before, and got myself into the perfect position between stage and felafel stall. Tyr are one of the more unique folk metal bands going about at the moment, probably somewhat influenced by the fact that they come from the tiny Faroe Islands.  Their last two albums have cemented their place amongst the scenes stars, and the massive crowd that turned out to see them weren’t disappointed. Clad entirely in Viking armour, their melodic folk music had the crowd chanting and singing along, even to the bits sung in Faroese. Finishing the set with the Irish sing-a-long Wild Rover was the cherry on the icing on the cake to one of the highlights of the festival.

Edguy’s flamboyant style of power metal isn’t for everyone, but they sure know how to entertain live. Singer Tobias Sammet is a great rock front man, and even if their setlist contained way too much of their softer rock side and not enough metal, they kept their fellow Germans happy. Finishing with their classic cheese hit King of Fools brought the level of the performance up from average to very good, and knocked another item of my musical to do list.

Soulfly had a chance at redemption after their unenergetic set at Metaltown a few weeks earlier, but they decided not to. It was still an ok show, with the Brazilians playing some quality metal, but Max Cavalera lacks the energy which made them a great live band, and was often out of breath resulting in him speaking rather than singing the lyrics.

The last band of Wacken 2010 for me was Fear Factory on the main stage. Not really suited to playing at 1am, when most people are either too tired or drunk to mosh, they nevertheless gave it their all and gave the festival a decent send off for another year. Mixing songs from the very old and the very new, with little in between, the largest band in metal managed to get the crowd moshing before the rain set in, and it was time to leave.

Wacken Open Air is its name, if not for the bands, than for the punters and community it brings together.

For more information on Wacken and to book tickets for Wacken 2011, go to: www.wacken.com