The Wacken 2004 Chronicles. At long, long last...
So here it is. I actually forgot to post it just after the event even though I said I would. A bit of a blast from the past and IMHO not as amusing as the second ones from 2005. Maybe I'll write the next ones as they happen and add the throwaway one-liners after. IF I ever get there again...
"So where shall I start? The journey out, I think. All the House of Metal guys got the plane over. I got the coach, which took 18 hours. It was late arriving at London and even later leaving. I have to say that treding in dogshit is now one of my pet hates, especially when it`s right by the coach door. I was the first to spot it so who had to tread in it? yes me. It took 10 minutes to clean off
The journey was just like any other coach trip, until we hit Germany. We got to see four countries in 6 hours which was cool. We got pulled over in Germany and the drivers got their paperwork scrutinised (mock German accent: "Your papers please...") That added two hours to the journey. All six drivers got fined 320 euros each because someone at the coach company had screwed up the paperwork slightly, and the cpper wasn`t convinced by the 8 days worth of tachographs provided.
That sorted we took the rest of the journey to Hamburg as a mere inconvenience compared to the fact that the drivers nearly got arrested
When we got there we showered and had some food, then went to the other coach to the festival from the hotel (smack bang in the middle of the Reeperbahn! ) The driver got lost, sending us on a mystery tour of Hamburg, an hour later we were at the festival, and what pulls in behind us? the coach we would have got if we`d been camping. It had been stopped again and everyone`s bags searched.
Hmmm.
Next time I fly
PART 2
The Bands
Friday Night`s bands were
Zodiac Mindwarp
Not a bad performance I recognised one or two tracks from HTH. Good sound as well, unusual for an open air festival
MotorheadThe headline act for tonight (It should be noted here that the headliners went on second to last so that people who had coaches to catch could see them). This was the band I wanted to see on friday. Playing as the three piece they are now, they did a few new songs off the new Inferno album, as well as a cover version of God Save The Queen, Ace Of Spades (obviously) and Overkill
Bohes Onkelz I have never heard of this band, although they are very big in Germany. I didn`t know any of their stuff, although the closing encore (and their big hit single) Mexico was a really good singalong punk rock stomper of the sort that the germans can do so well. Stuck in the mind like a fish hook sticks up one`s arse.
Because it was so sunny, I decided to get some new shades in the Metal Market (very cool) They make me look like Ozzy, in the opinion at work, which is why they call me Oz.
I have now christened the combination of Oz and Kipling "Sir Ozwald Kipling the 666th", very mad.
My attire was also very cool, sleeveless T-shirt, Army boots, Longsleeve tied round my waist and combat trousers. Top this off with straightened hair and Ozzy shades and there you have it. \m/ Especially when you have a stein (large 1 litre mug - about 2 pints) full of beer
All these random German and Swedish people kept coming up to me an shaking my hand for some reason when I looked like this. Must be pretty cool then.
Satuday`s bands come in tomorrow`s chronicles, as well as teaching American Italians to say Bollocks...
Well.
By the second day we were all filthy. This is when we would have started if the coach company hadn`t laid on a local coach to get us there on the second day. (what? me? miss Motorhead? Never!)
Here are my thoughts on the bands I caught
Cathedral
Lee Dorrian`s band after he left Napalm Death. Not as Black, thrash or Grindcore as ND, and drawing on more Sabbath type influences. Still enjoyabe though.
Arch Enemy Can`t really remember much of these, except to say that the guitarist used to be in Carcass. Sounded good though
Mayhem Mayhem. Mayhem mayhem mayhem. Pigs heads on spikes in front of flame boxes. Inverted crpss mic stands. This band means business, especially when it comes to Black Metal. The weather was very hot by this point, and withdrawing to get beer was bad because it would have meant losing my very good point in the crowd, where aside from getting drenched in the water jets being fired off, and spending 10 minutes teaching Italian Americans to say Bollocks ("I like the sound of that", "I`ll try it", "Bollocks bollocks bollocks. What does it mean?")
Maniac (the vocalist) was everything you`d expect, except that he has cut off his hair (boo!)
The pigs heads ended up in the crowd after their spectacular flaming, the crowd attempting to tear them to pieces (these were just skinned and still had all their innards and eyeballs) In the end someone must have decided that it`d make a good barbecued por supply and was last seen walking off with one... ewww
Still, the sound was good, the music was good and my only moan was that they didn`t do `Chainsaw Gutsfuck`, which was the first one I heard by them, and guaranteed to upset religious nutters. Great stuff.
Dio Ronnie James Dio. Ex Sabbath, Ex Rainbow. I enjoyed his set. Shot through as it was with Dio era Sabbath tracks, which I recognised. Highlight was after `Heaven And Hell`, after which the bassist of Manowar, Joey DeMaio, came on to present Mr. Dio with a shield (in Tr00 metal style of course)
Warlock What can I say about Warlock? First of all the lead vocalist Doro made Britney look like Bjork only a lard mountain version, and was German
Secondly, Blaze Bayley who previously sang for Iron Maiden put in a guest appearance, and did `Fear Of The Dark`, `The Trooper` and `Man On the Edge`- WITH A BLOODY ORCHESTRA!!! The guitarists had acoustics and let the orchestra (with a metal drumkit) play the backing. Shouldn`t have worked but it did, strangely enough. Oh and Blaze is looking increasingly like Matty...
After the orchestra they went off and came back on as a metal band, after their stage set had been switched. Bored me to fuck afterwards, though.
Amon Amarth Not bad. Closed the Black Metal stage. Good, powerful set but I didn`t know much of their stuff. Still enjoyed it though
The Me(n)tal Karaoke was not quite so entertaining the second night, probably because the trooper bloke wasn`t on. hmmm.
Still:-
\m/\m/ should sum it up...
Here are the bands from the third and final day. We were all even more filthy from two previous days of fine powdered mud flying around and getting into absolutely everywhere within ten minutes. I didn`t mind so much as everyone else was in an identical situation so it didn`t matter, as long as there was a nice hot shower to hand back at the hotel. One can almost forget the fact that it was nearly 50 miles away...
Unleashed
The first band I actually saw as the coach didn`t get to the festival in time for Bal Sagoth, which pissed me off as I would have liked to see them. Unleashed were Deicide`s replacements as Benton & co pulled out at the last minute. Still, Unleashed were more than a worthy replacement.
Anthrax
What can I say about the legendary Anthrax? Very good band indeed, Scott Ian being the only original member whose name I can remember. Rocked start to finish and got the day started as far as the True metal stage was concerned.
Thora
One of the smaller bands, taking part in the Metal Battle on the W.E.T. stage. Sounded like a heavier HIM albeit darker and without so much of a `love` theme. Great sound as well, really crunchy guitars and a vocalist who could sing as well as growl. They even got the whole crowd singing along towards the end. One worth looking out for.
Cannibal Corpse
Smoke coming from the stage, band on stage all in black, people down the front being thrown about by a HUGE moshpit. Must be Cannibal Corpse live. Oh yes, so it is.
First track out of the way, the crowd were shouting for `Hammer Smashed Face`, to which the vocalist replied “You know we can`t play that song. It`s illegal here” (It should be noted here that they are banned from playing anything from their first three albums in Germany, and I think over the whole of the EU, with the exception of the UK)
They compensated by playing `Fucked With A Knife` (The fact that this is legal makes the whole censorship situation look as completely stupid as it actually is...)
Also `They Deserve To Die` got dedicated to the censors and those in America who do not want them playing at all. Thank fuck for the First Amendment over there, which has prevented the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) from doing any harm to Rock and metal music. As vocalist Corpsegrinder said “You will never stop Cannibal Corpse, You will never stop Death Metal, You can try but you will always fail”
Helloween
Now then. Cheese. Still, a bit of cheese never hurt anyone. Helloween were made even more enjoyable by the fact that I knew more than half of their set. `Dr. Stein` sounded a bit rougher but it was live, and with Andi Deris singing rather than Michael Kiske, who sang the original.
The epic `Keeper Of The Seven Keys` made an early appearance in the set, and towards the end, founder and original vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen came on as a guest on `How Many Tears`
Say what you like about Helloween, I enjoyed their show.
Children Of Bodom
Well. This was one of the bands I had been looking forward to all weekend. After hearing Hatebreeder I was really excited by this lot and now there are two more albums to get that I know of. I`ll get them ASAP.
Really good with lots of horns being thrown and a really big moshpit. Highlight of the set for me was `Silent Night Bodom Night`
Saxon
Didn`t know much of their stuff, and what I did hear wasn`t in my opinion heavy enough.
Still, they went down well with the crowd.
Satyricon with Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone
Was it Darkthrone or Satyricon? Actually it was both, and quite frankly, this was amazing. I went to the toilet beforehand and couldn`t get back to my previous good vantage point, which was annoying. After the first song Nocturno Culto said “A sea of 30,000 Satanists. What a perfect sight” A perfect sight indeed.
Musically they were mind blowing, and needless to say the crowd were hungry for more at the end. I could have stayed all night.
After this it was time to go back to Hamburg for the final night. It must have been a sight, us all covered in mud, dust and general filth, me carrying my large skull stick through the Reeperbahn caused more than a few heads to turn, but I needed it to walk as I had massive blisters on my feet and they fucking hurt.
The journey back was uneventful. No police problems this time, the same four countries were crossed again, although by a different route, through Antwerp rather than further north. We were tired but happy and watching last year`s festival DVD on the coach (It`s legal to watch TV on the vehicle over there, not in the UK though)
I changed all my euros back to pounds sterling as soon as I could, because I found euros fucking confusing and I have to say I fucking hate the things.
When we got back to London I couldn`t face an hour and a half wait for another coach back to Brighton so myself and Fi went and caught the train which got me back to Shoreham just as I would have been leaving London had we waited.
I have to say I cannot recommend this festival strongly enough. Hopefully there`ll be more people going, and maybe a few more from Brighton next year.
I definitely fly next year.
The tickets are already on sale... Can`t wait..."
"So where shall I start? The journey out, I think. All the House of Metal guys got the plane over. I got the coach, which took 18 hours. It was late arriving at London and even later leaving. I have to say that treding in dogshit is now one of my pet hates, especially when it`s right by the coach door. I was the first to spot it so who had to tread in it? yes me. It took 10 minutes to clean off
The journey was just like any other coach trip, until we hit Germany. We got to see four countries in 6 hours which was cool. We got pulled over in Germany and the drivers got their paperwork scrutinised (mock German accent: "Your papers please...") That added two hours to the journey. All six drivers got fined 320 euros each because someone at the coach company had screwed up the paperwork slightly, and the cpper wasn`t convinced by the 8 days worth of tachographs provided.
That sorted we took the rest of the journey to Hamburg as a mere inconvenience compared to the fact that the drivers nearly got arrested
When we got there we showered and had some food, then went to the other coach to the festival from the hotel (smack bang in the middle of the Reeperbahn! ) The driver got lost, sending us on a mystery tour of Hamburg, an hour later we were at the festival, and what pulls in behind us? the coach we would have got if we`d been camping. It had been stopped again and everyone`s bags searched.
Hmmm.
Next time I fly
PART 2
The Bands
Friday Night`s bands were
Zodiac Mindwarp
Not a bad performance I recognised one or two tracks from HTH. Good sound as well, unusual for an open air festival
MotorheadThe headline act for tonight (It should be noted here that the headliners went on second to last so that people who had coaches to catch could see them). This was the band I wanted to see on friday. Playing as the three piece they are now, they did a few new songs off the new Inferno album, as well as a cover version of God Save The Queen, Ace Of Spades (obviously) and Overkill
Bohes Onkelz I have never heard of this band, although they are very big in Germany. I didn`t know any of their stuff, although the closing encore (and their big hit single) Mexico was a really good singalong punk rock stomper of the sort that the germans can do so well. Stuck in the mind like a fish hook sticks up one`s arse.
Because it was so sunny, I decided to get some new shades in the Metal Market (very cool) They make me look like Ozzy, in the opinion at work, which is why they call me Oz.
I have now christened the combination of Oz and Kipling "Sir Ozwald Kipling the 666th", very mad.
My attire was also very cool, sleeveless T-shirt, Army boots, Longsleeve tied round my waist and combat trousers. Top this off with straightened hair and Ozzy shades and there you have it. \m/ Especially when you have a stein (large 1 litre mug - about 2 pints) full of beer
All these random German and Swedish people kept coming up to me an shaking my hand for some reason when I looked like this. Must be pretty cool then.
Satuday`s bands come in tomorrow`s chronicles, as well as teaching American Italians to say Bollocks...
Well.
By the second day we were all filthy. This is when we would have started if the coach company hadn`t laid on a local coach to get us there on the second day. (what? me? miss Motorhead? Never!)
Here are my thoughts on the bands I caught
Cathedral
Lee Dorrian`s band after he left Napalm Death. Not as Black, thrash or Grindcore as ND, and drawing on more Sabbath type influences. Still enjoyabe though.
Arch Enemy Can`t really remember much of these, except to say that the guitarist used to be in Carcass. Sounded good though
Mayhem Mayhem. Mayhem mayhem mayhem. Pigs heads on spikes in front of flame boxes. Inverted crpss mic stands. This band means business, especially when it comes to Black Metal. The weather was very hot by this point, and withdrawing to get beer was bad because it would have meant losing my very good point in the crowd, where aside from getting drenched in the water jets being fired off, and spending 10 minutes teaching Italian Americans to say Bollocks ("I like the sound of that", "I`ll try it", "Bollocks bollocks bollocks. What does it mean?")
Maniac (the vocalist) was everything you`d expect, except that he has cut off his hair (boo!)
The pigs heads ended up in the crowd after their spectacular flaming, the crowd attempting to tear them to pieces (these were just skinned and still had all their innards and eyeballs) In the end someone must have decided that it`d make a good barbecued por supply and was last seen walking off with one... ewww
Still, the sound was good, the music was good and my only moan was that they didn`t do `Chainsaw Gutsfuck`, which was the first one I heard by them, and guaranteed to upset religious nutters. Great stuff.
Dio Ronnie James Dio. Ex Sabbath, Ex Rainbow. I enjoyed his set. Shot through as it was with Dio era Sabbath tracks, which I recognised. Highlight was after `Heaven And Hell`, after which the bassist of Manowar, Joey DeMaio, came on to present Mr. Dio with a shield (in Tr00 metal style of course)
Warlock What can I say about Warlock? First of all the lead vocalist Doro made Britney look like Bjork only a lard mountain version, and was German
Secondly, Blaze Bayley who previously sang for Iron Maiden put in a guest appearance, and did `Fear Of The Dark`, `The Trooper` and `Man On the Edge`- WITH A BLOODY ORCHESTRA!!! The guitarists had acoustics and let the orchestra (with a metal drumkit) play the backing. Shouldn`t have worked but it did, strangely enough. Oh and Blaze is looking increasingly like Matty...
After the orchestra they went off and came back on as a metal band, after their stage set had been switched. Bored me to fuck afterwards, though.
Amon Amarth Not bad. Closed the Black Metal stage. Good, powerful set but I didn`t know much of their stuff. Still enjoyed it though
The Me(n)tal Karaoke was not quite so entertaining the second night, probably because the trooper bloke wasn`t on. hmmm.
Still:-
\m/\m/ should sum it up...
Here are the bands from the third and final day. We were all even more filthy from two previous days of fine powdered mud flying around and getting into absolutely everywhere within ten minutes. I didn`t mind so much as everyone else was in an identical situation so it didn`t matter, as long as there was a nice hot shower to hand back at the hotel. One can almost forget the fact that it was nearly 50 miles away...
Unleashed
The first band I actually saw as the coach didn`t get to the festival in time for Bal Sagoth, which pissed me off as I would have liked to see them. Unleashed were Deicide`s replacements as Benton & co pulled out at the last minute. Still, Unleashed were more than a worthy replacement.
Anthrax
What can I say about the legendary Anthrax? Very good band indeed, Scott Ian being the only original member whose name I can remember. Rocked start to finish and got the day started as far as the True metal stage was concerned.
Thora
One of the smaller bands, taking part in the Metal Battle on the W.E.T. stage. Sounded like a heavier HIM albeit darker and without so much of a `love` theme. Great sound as well, really crunchy guitars and a vocalist who could sing as well as growl. They even got the whole crowd singing along towards the end. One worth looking out for.
Cannibal Corpse
Smoke coming from the stage, band on stage all in black, people down the front being thrown about by a HUGE moshpit. Must be Cannibal Corpse live. Oh yes, so it is.
First track out of the way, the crowd were shouting for `Hammer Smashed Face`, to which the vocalist replied “You know we can`t play that song. It`s illegal here” (It should be noted here that they are banned from playing anything from their first three albums in Germany, and I think over the whole of the EU, with the exception of the UK)
They compensated by playing `Fucked With A Knife` (The fact that this is legal makes the whole censorship situation look as completely stupid as it actually is...)
Also `They Deserve To Die` got dedicated to the censors and those in America who do not want them playing at all. Thank fuck for the First Amendment over there, which has prevented the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) from doing any harm to Rock and metal music. As vocalist Corpsegrinder said “You will never stop Cannibal Corpse, You will never stop Death Metal, You can try but you will always fail”
Helloween
Now then. Cheese. Still, a bit of cheese never hurt anyone. Helloween were made even more enjoyable by the fact that I knew more than half of their set. `Dr. Stein` sounded a bit rougher but it was live, and with Andi Deris singing rather than Michael Kiske, who sang the original.
The epic `Keeper Of The Seven Keys` made an early appearance in the set, and towards the end, founder and original vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen came on as a guest on `How Many Tears`
Say what you like about Helloween, I enjoyed their show.
Children Of Bodom
Well. This was one of the bands I had been looking forward to all weekend. After hearing Hatebreeder I was really excited by this lot and now there are two more albums to get that I know of. I`ll get them ASAP.
Really good with lots of horns being thrown and a really big moshpit. Highlight of the set for me was `Silent Night Bodom Night`
Saxon
Didn`t know much of their stuff, and what I did hear wasn`t in my opinion heavy enough.
Still, they went down well with the crowd.
Satyricon with Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone
Was it Darkthrone or Satyricon? Actually it was both, and quite frankly, this was amazing. I went to the toilet beforehand and couldn`t get back to my previous good vantage point, which was annoying. After the first song Nocturno Culto said “A sea of 30,000 Satanists. What a perfect sight” A perfect sight indeed.
Musically they were mind blowing, and needless to say the crowd were hungry for more at the end. I could have stayed all night.
After this it was time to go back to Hamburg for the final night. It must have been a sight, us all covered in mud, dust and general filth, me carrying my large skull stick through the Reeperbahn caused more than a few heads to turn, but I needed it to walk as I had massive blisters on my feet and they fucking hurt.
The journey back was uneventful. No police problems this time, the same four countries were crossed again, although by a different route, through Antwerp rather than further north. We were tired but happy and watching last year`s festival DVD on the coach (It`s legal to watch TV on the vehicle over there, not in the UK though)
I changed all my euros back to pounds sterling as soon as I could, because I found euros fucking confusing and I have to say I fucking hate the things.
When we got back to London I couldn`t face an hour and a half wait for another coach back to Brighton so myself and Fi went and caught the train which got me back to Shoreham just as I would have been leaving London had we waited.
I have to say I cannot recommend this festival strongly enough. Hopefully there`ll be more people going, and maybe a few more from Brighton next year.
I definitely fly next year.
The tickets are already on sale... Can`t wait..."