Saturday 02/08/2008

The first band that we are able to catch today is 3 Inches Of Blood, the opening act on the Black Stage. We witness live renditions of hits such as “Deadly Sinners” and also new material such as “The Goatriders Horde” off the 2007 ‘Fire Up the Blades’ album. As we expected, the band and the audience get on like a house on fire; the average Wacken attendee certainly appreciates thrashy heavy metal combined with the eccentric vocal style (similar to Rob Halford’s) of singer Cam Pipes. (Thomas van Golen)

Due to the cancellation of the Stone Gods show that was planned for today, the programme has slightly changed and so Exodus will change their schedule and fill their spot at 14.45 on the True Metal stage. Sweet Savage will fill the hiatus, unfortunately it turns out we have to miss this Irish NWOBHM band (Eus)

When it’s time for Mercenary to take the stage, I’m already there at the front facing the heat. The guys are pretty comfortable with the massive crowd that has come to see them play the Party Stage. They kick off with “Bloodsong” and “Soul Decision” and then fire “Execution Style” at the audience. They rapidly continue to play “Black And Hollow” and the sublime song “The Endless Fall”. As a grand finale they treat us to “11 Dreams” and “Firesoul”. Another great show, we had expected nothing less from the Danes. (Talitha Martijn)

San Francisco Bay Area Titans Exodus can always guarantee to deliver good old pounding, crushing thrash! And, of course, at the first tones of the opening song “Bonded By Blood“ a sizeable moshpit comes into being. They have included many oldies in the set: “A Lesson In Violence”, “Piranha” and “And Then There Were None” were alternated with more recent stuff like “Blacklist”, “War Is My Shepherd” and “Children of A Worthless God”. Singer Robb Dukes is singing and raging like his life depends on it as the band closes the set with the Exodus Classic “Strike Of The Beast”. (Talitha Martijn)

What’s left to say about a band like Obituary. Since Ralph Santolla joined their ranks as a replacement for guitarist Allen West, the band’s songwriting has become more tight and energetic. John Tardy even addresses the crowd now and then, apart from that, nothing much has changed. They still play sticky, slowly dripping and ripping death metal and today we are even served with a number of new songs off the recent ‘Left To Die’-EP; we hear the title song and the Celtic Frost cover “Dethroned Emperor”. Hopefully Obituary will still be around to play “Slowly We Rot” for a long, long time. (Thomas van Golen)

We have been invited to a listening session with Enslaved in the backstage area and, frankly, I can think of less pleasant ways to spend my time at a festival! Filled with curiosity, I make my way to the press tent where I get to sample the new album ‘Vertebrae’. We get to hear four songs entitled “Clouds”, “Reflections”, “New Dawn” and “The Watcher”. I used to describe their music as ‘black metal meets Pink Floyd’ and apparently the label has started using the same description, rightfully so!. The last Enslaved album was larded with spherical parts and spacey solo’s and these elements are even more dominantly present in the four songs we hear today. A delightful mix of a Pink Floyd-like sound and solid black metal, I can’t wait for this album to be released. The listening session is followed by a Q and A with Grutle and Ivar during which we witness their dry, cynical Norwegian sense of humour and the fact that some other people don’t realise when their chain is being yanked…. (Koos van Marle)

One of the major names today is the death/grindcore band Carcass. The first song they play is “Inpropagation” followed by “Buried Dreams”. During “Incarnate Solvent Abuse” Angela Gossow from Arch Enemy enters the stage to join the grunting. After this we hear “No Love Lost”, “Embodiment” and “Reek Of Putrefaction”. The moshpit has become so extremely large that we had to take a few steps back just to be safe. Then it’s time for “Keep On Rotting”, “Genital Grinder” and “Rotten To The Gore”. Singer / bass player Jeff Walker, guitarists Bill Steer and Mike Amott (Arch Enemy) and drummer Daniel Erlandsson (Arch Enemy) make Wacken shake up to earthquake levels when they play “Exhume To Consume” and supersong “Heartwork”. Former drummer and co-founder Ken Owen who almost died of a brain haemorrhage several years ago is invited on stage play a drum solo. I don’t think we’ll ever forget this great show. (Talitha Martijn)

The second major reunion on this year’s edition of the Wacken festival is that of At The Gates. The founders of melodic Stockholm deathmetal. For over an hour they go full speed ahead with a band that obviously is in extremely good shape. They treat us to “Blinded By Fear”, “Cold” and “Terminal Spirit Disease”. Singer Thomas “Tompa” Lindberg has a very good sound going on and the rhythm section shows us how to put down a solid and tight base. We also get to hear some oldies like “Raped By The Light Of Christ”, and “The Beautiful Wood”. The setlist for this awesome show was made up of songs mostly off the ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’ album. Killer!! (Koos van Marle)

As soon as we see Annette Olzon appear on stage, I realize she does not possess the looks and style that Tarja has. Nightwish has settled for less. She’s a pretty good vocalist but something’s just missing. The band starts with “Bye Bye Beautiful”, followed by “Dark Chest Of Wonders” and “The Siren”. Most songs come from the album ‘Dark Passion Play’ like “Amaranth” and “The Poet And The Pendulum”, then the band plays us the songs “While Your Lips Are Still Red” and “Ever Dream” and a few encores in the shape of “Nemo”, the older track “Wishmaster” and our favorite “Wish I Had An Angel” which is loudly sung by almost everybody present on the field. (Talitha Martijn)

German thrashers Kreator are playing a home game today, and the band’s popularity is reflected by the impressive amount of people that have gathered before the Black Stage despite the late hour (00:30). The band is currently working on new material and so tonight’s setlist is almost identical to the one they played on their European tour in 2007. For starters, we hear the song “Violent Revolution”, the classic “Pleasure To Kill” and “Enemy Of God” and vocalist/guitarist Mille Petrozza succeeds in revving up the crowd. The set is continued with the songs “People Of The Lie”, “Europe After Rain” and “Suicide Terrorist” during which the crowd becomes ecstatic. No time for bullshit, Kreator goes on to play public favourite “Extreme Aggression”  and “ Phobia”. The sound is great and the lightshow and backdrop are impressive too. Mille takes a moment to announce the song “Betrayer” after which they continue to play “Voices Of The Dead” and “Reconquering The Throne”. The first part of the show is now history but Kreator saved the best for last and so we get to enjoy the two solid thrash grenades “Impossible Brutality”  and “Flag Of Hate”. The set is ended with the song “Tormentor” which offers us one more chance to thrash around. Looking back, this was an excellent show by Germany’s thrash Titans! (Eus)

The joke-like act that’s called Lordi is something we’ve all seen a few times by now. The hard rock songs are easy to listen to and even better to sing along with, the lyrics are funny and entertaining with “Who's Your Daddy”, “Would You Love A Monsterman” and  “Hard Rock Halleluja” they have everyone singing along. Then Udo Dirkschneider (Accept) jumps on stage and sings a song with Lordi. As we are used to by now, this was an entertaining show with lots of humor. (Talitha Martijn)

This Saturday can truly be described as one of Wacken’s highlights. Unfortunately we have had to make some choices today. The Hatebreed show, for instance, was planned simultaneously with Obituary’s appearance and so we were forced to miss a killer hardcore act. We also had to disregard Killswitch Engage’s performance and due to a number of interviews and listening sessions that we had committed ourselves to, there was no time for us to see Holy Moses, As I Lay Dying and the bulk of the bands that played the party stage and the WET stage.

To be honest, this festival has an overkill of bands and we just couldn’t keep up. As a photographer I dare say you lose a few pounds running around trying to snap as many bands as possible and it takes quite a while to review all you’ve seen. The enormous mass of people makes it hard to get from A to B on time to do what you have to do. So obviously we all have had to make choices and skip a number of bands in order to keep up with it all. And after 3 days of alcohol, sun, rain and loads of bands, we’re completely drained. So many bands and so little time to see them in!

This year, the Wacken organisation can look back on the festival with pride and contentment! The atmosphere was fantastic as always and most of the bands were there in time to entertain the crowd. This Wacken edition drew an even bigger crowd than last year which resulted in huge queues at the food/drink tents and toilets. A major plus for Wacken is their large variety of food and drinks, humongous shasliques,  pancakes, pizza’s, hotdogs (which make a great breakfast!), fish, sandwiches.. you name it! (Note that the prices had gone up this year!...). The weather was pleasant this year, on the whole it was a sunny weekend with a couple of showers of rain and temperatures up to 25 degrees (Celsius) . The ladies would like to vote for a nice warm shower backstage next year! All those years we have had to shower with a few drops of ice-cold water..  This would make a great improvement.

Despite the masses flocking to Wacken, we had little trouble getting to the festival. The only hitch was the point where the police were checking the cars for drugs just a few miles from the festival. This year, the festival site had a different set up: the Party stage was placed further away from the other stages in order to prevent an overlap in the sound. The entrance to the Partystage was spacious this time so last year’s crowd-flow problem had been solved. Pity about the stench of urine that was exuding from the area between the True Metalstage and the Partystage! A 3rd entrance was added between the camping site and the festival terrain and that made it a whole lot easier to cross over in comparison with last year. Still, now and then the mass of people would swell to the point where it was almost scary to pass through. Especially during the Iron Maiden show on Thursday night it was almost impossible to make it from A to B. After a band had finished playing, you’d have to watch out not to get caught in the stampede of the exodus of metalheads leaving the stages.

Today, the first 10.000 X-mas tickets for the next edition have already sold out, (within 24 hours) without the announcement of a single band for Wacken 2009. The regular tickets for the 20th edition are also for sale. We expect Wacken 2009 to break every record, it might even be sold out before Christmas. We hope to be part of the anniversary next year! (Eugene, Talitha, Martina, Thomas, Koos and Alwin)

Rain Or Shine, see you at Wacken 2009!!!

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