This was my fourth Wacken Open Air Festival. Three days of some of the biggest, loudest bands on the planet. Three days of sweat. Three days of black t-shirts. Three days of bad food (actually, the food was great!). Three days of German alcohol. Three days of being in the middle of metal heaven. And what did we get?

Three days of Wacken mud.

The festival organisers sent messages via all means possible: “It’s been raining for a week, don’t turn up early, the ground needs to dry out.”

It didn’t work.

Once 75,000 people rocked up to the largest metal festival in the world there was no stopping it. Wacken Open Air became Wacken Muddy Ground. Any patch of green that was visible on Thursday 2nd of August disappeared in a sea of trampling feet across the fertile plains of northern Germany.

How did this affect the experience?

In every way imaginable. Camp sites weren’t whitewashed, they were brownwashed. It was like God had diarrhea and emptied it all, for three days straight, across the Wacken grounds.

It was totally and utterly fucked.

And I hated it.

And I absolutely loved it.

Things have changed in the last five years since my last Wacken Open Air, and not just the weather. Logistically, they separated many areas of the festival meaning that to get from one area (say, the main True and Black Metal Stages) to the other stages (W.E.T. and Headbanger’s) took a 5 minute walk. This was fine – but considering you had to walk through security each time – it could take you from 5-15 minutes to get into the area you wanted to go. And add to that the sea of brown didn’t help matters in the slightest. This meant that bands were missed and the previous chance of just going stage to stage was made next to impossible. It worked out OK, though, because as the festival has gotten larger the line-up has subsequently become highly diversified. So with less bands that I really WANT to see, the choice as to what bands to see was a lot easier.

There’s no denying that the big bands were out in force, it’s just the weather continue to make a mockery of the whole event. In fact, it wouldn’t have mattered what festival it was. Rain causes problem wherever you go.

So, before I get in to some of the bands I saw, a caveat. I wanted to see more bands than I did but a combination of a distant hotel, the distances between the stages, and the mud all played havoc. On a festival with good weather – this wouldn’t have impacted as much – but for 2012, it really did.

On with the show.

Thursday 2^nd of August – Day 1

Like the Wednesday, Thursday (our first day) was a lead-in to the festival. There was only a couple of bands that I wanted to see and they included Sepultura, Saxon, and U.D.O. Sepultura played with Les Tambours du Bronx which are a 17 person troupe of synchronised industrial percussionists. Brilliant. Not that I’ve been a massive fan of Sepultura but something special is still something special. I was eternally surprised by the double-whammy of U.D.O. and Saxon – having seen them both countless times over the years, it’s always a surprise to see the response to their performances, particularly Saxon that had the crowd en masse going crazy. U.D.O. pulled out the old chestnut of Doro Pesch to help him and the little man continues to go despite his former band Accept returning like phoenix from the ashes.

A couple of smaller bands on my radar were Winterstorm (the winners of the metal band competition at Wacken 2011) and Amaranthe (Swedish pop metal troupe featuring three vocalists including Kamelot backing singer Eliza Ryd and also Dreamland singer Jake E). Winterstorm are power/folk metal and despite being a young band, as a power metal fan I was impressed. The crowd were tough but as a new band you just have to break through the barrier. As for Amaranthe – they were awesome despite their sound being a bit of a mess and there were equal parts fans of the band and fans of Elize Ryd. I count myself in both categories.

The highlight for me, though, was seeing Circle II Circle – the band formed by former Savatage singer Zak Stevens. What I didn’t realise was that CIIC were performing the whole of The Wake of Magellan album! I was straight up the front of the stage apparently screaming my lungs out for 50 minutes. I was young again and a real highlight when a band you love passionately plays an album you love as much.

Friday 3^rd of August – Day 2

The smaller stages didn’t hold a great deal for me aside from Leaves’ Eyes and Henry Rollins’ spoken word set. Rollins was far more entertaining and I felt Leeave’s Eyes aren’t really going anywhere and perhaps not the best band to have a festival like Wacken.

But let’s look at the main stages: Not only did I catch more rain and mud in my shoes than the weight of my airline baggage, but I managed to catch Kamelot for the second time this trip (I saw them at Masters of Rock) – although unfortunately it literally pissed down from the heavens halfway during their set at which point I hid and ran to the press tent. I truly felt sorry for the people without protection. I had it – but it wasn’t doing much good. Watching the two big stages it was literally one band after the other.

Following Kamelot came the juggernaut of Opeth and, yes, they played seven songs in a perfect festival set featuring The Devil’s Orchard, Deliverance, Demon of the Fall, and The Grand Conjuration. Whilst I’m not entirely certain progressive bands do well at Wacken, if you’re going to have one that crosses all boundaries then, aside from Dream Theater, this band is it. Hammerfall was up next in their only German open-air show with a solid setlist and only a serviceable performance – I’d seen them before with far more fire and passion. That said, aside from Edguy they were the biggest band of their kind playing at this year’s festival and truly lapped up the crowd’s energy. Dimmu Borgir with orchestra was exceptional. I’d seen them play Wacken before but this was bigger and better. The lighting gets better every year and this is a band who plays this sort of stage perfectly. They’re really a band everybody should catch. In Flames was up next. Yes, Anders was toasted and, yes, they put on the most amazing live show in front of a salivating crowd. And they played only new stuff that most of the crowd would have hated but put up with. I didn’t mind as most of the songs they played were the better ones. Unfortunately the night ended early and I didn’t get a chance to catch D.A.D.

Saturday 4^th August – Day 3

Due to running late, I missed both Delain and only caught the end of Gamma Ray. Why was I running late you? Well, Friday was so wet me and my traveling companions had to head to the nearest shoe store to buy gumboots. Our sneakers were dead, covered by mud and soaked by water. 18 Euros per person later and we were ready to go.

By the time we got to Wacken I got settled into Axel Rudi Pell. All opinions of his albums over the years didn’t prepare for a stunning show. I was surprised that Axel took a back seat to one of the most experienced and energetic singers around, American Johnny Gioeli. He had the crowd eating out of his hands – something I didn’t think was possible with this style of music and in front of this audience. I am already hanging to see them live again. With new gumboots, today was mostly a day for CD shopping which I did between bouts of Six Feet Under, Testament, Cradle of Filth and Amon Amarth. To be honest, and as piss weak as it sounds, I was a bit over the weather by that stage. Not very metal of me, I know, but I joined back in for Machine Head and the Scorpions but before then it was a chance to see a personal favourite of mine, Warrior Soul. The punk metallers are way past their prime but seeing as there were a grand total of maybe 30 people fully into their show and considering most people were waiting for the final open air show from German stalwarts Scorpions on the big stage. I loved seeing Kory Clarke, Warrior Soul’s lead vocalist, literally get pulled from the stage by security as their set went too long. Punk in attitude, punk right to the end. It was hilarious and I thank Kory greatly for fighting the fight and being entertaining at the same time.

As for the Scorpions. The grounds had become so bad that they weren’t allowing anyone back into the main grounds so I watched, cold and wet in knee high mud wearing knee high gumboots, at the 1cm sight of Klaus Meine. It was a fitting end and whilst I would have loved to have stayed to watch Edguy it wasn’t to be. Pretty much everybody, not just me, was over it.

To sum it up, as I was laboriously traipsing the Wacken grounds, shoes buried deeply in the brown paddock that housed 75,000 other punters, back to the main stages on Saturday afternoon, I said to a fellow metalhead walking towards me, not caring if he understood English or not, “this is totally fucked….” And his response was just what I needed and wanted to hear.

“Yeah, but it makes you feel alive.”

And it did.

No matter what bands I missed due to the inclement weather, the travel, the rains, the sludge factory, I can guarantee you that I’ll be back and I can guarantee you that I doubt a festival will ever be as bad as this. I have seen the nadir. I have experienced the worst of the worst.

And I’ll be back again. In 2013.

Photos supplied by Wacken Open Air.

http://gallery.wacken.com

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