\m/ Wacken \m/
So shortly after the wedding I went to Wacken metal festival, which, as always, never disappoints. This year was fucking ACE! Because it was the 20th anniversary, an entire new medieval area had opened, but despite that it was at least twice as large as 2 years ago. As usual beer and mead were present in quantities that could only be measured in lakes, and these quickly turned into piss lakes pooling in certain areas of the fields. Add to that the rain of the first day meant that I was in a Wacken slurry, the first time that had ever happened for me. But that could not ruin the mood, and after a barbecue we started the quaffing and the listening. Here are some of the mental notes I made.
- Fuck Ozzy, Heaven and Hell kick Sabbath's arse. Despite Tony Iommi's attempts to steal the stage with his (excellent) fretboard wanking, Dio maintained control and belted out great songs, old and new. Bible black had everyone chanting, and I think it finally broke me into classic rock. Woohoo!
- Motorhead have still got it. Not that I doubted it, but having never seen them live I was utterly blown away. They don't have that much energy on stage, but they're getting on I guess so I let 'em get away with it. Anyway I got to see a little bit of history and I loved it.
- Jagermeister is actually totally drinkable. Though I was accused of falling for the marketing ploys it did not have the grassy aniseedy shitty taste I was expecting, though that may in part be due to the quantity of sugar in it.
- Endstille were my best discovery. You wouldn't expect straight up black metal to be particularly at home uder the burning midday sun, but they were entrancing... mustn't forget to get more of there stuff.
- Heaven Shall Burn are the kings of crowds. Twice in a row now I've seen then set the stage on fire and turn the crowd into wild animals. These anarcho-metallers really deserved to be bumped up to the main stage this time round with music like that. Circle pits approximately 150m in diameter surrounding the sound engineering box, highly unpredictable mosh pits and probably a hundred crowd surfers in only a one-hour set. When the density of the crowd is that changeable it means its harder for them to get to their destination, and harder for suckers like me that keep them up there. At the start of three songs, the sea of people parted as if Moses was passing through. A young kid on the edge of the hole in front of me barged past screaming "pass auf, pass auf", no sooner had he pushed past me did the two sides rush at eachother like hordes on the battle field... hilarious spectacle!
- Korpiklaani... disappointing. Maybe it's because it was late and my legs were seriously aching, but I'd rather have them on CD than live.
- Crowd surfing on at least 30,000 people is still mind-blowing.
- Dragonforce were classic! Great music, great delivery. I was just a little bit irritated by their stage show. I'm all up for artists having fun on stage, but they took it to a level where it came accross as really staged. Slagging off the band mates during solos, overly excessive gestures... meh. The keyboardist... to keep it short looked like he was compensating for something serious. Wearing a loud white and red PVC suit he spent more time prancing about attracting the eye than playing. When he was in front of the camera it was like a monkey had been given a Rubik's cube in the middle of an epileptic fit. Don't get me wrong, I loved the gig. I just think they could benefit from focussing on the delivery rather than hamming up their stage antics. Valley of the Dead was great, but there was NO Black Winter Night :(
- Enslaved = Good... generally.
- Einherjer were GREAT! It was a small crowd as they have been split up for 5 years, but they belted out their tunes to the faithful and they were rewarded. The Dead Knight's Rite was greeted with cheers, and everyone bellowed along to the mighty Ironbound. All we can hope for is that they reform.
- Drinking Wine, Beer, Mead and Jagermeister leads to interesting cerebral sensations.
- GWAR are hilarious and insane. With costumes that put Manowar to shame, it is fair to say the spectacle is worth more than the music. Huge rubber affairs with malevolent centurions, predator-style mandibles, brandishing enormous hammers and working rubber chainsaws sputing red-liquid, beating the shit out of eachother? I couldn't stop laughing. And that was before they turned on the huge rubber T-Rex that wobbled on stage. The concert ended with the lead singer ejaculating green spunk from a large barbed rubber penis all over the crowd. Couldn't tell you about the music cos of the sensorial overload and laughter.
- Amon Amarth, as expected, CD quality, plus reinactors. They were cool, but I hope that's a temporary thing rather than a permanent gimick.
- In Flames. Hmmmmm, In Flames. This is the third time I've seen them now, and the only way I can hope to not be disappointed in the future is to seriously lower expectations. After a kicking start with Moonshield and Only for the Weak, they then killed the atmosphere (well for me at least, everyone else seemed to like it) by exclusively playing from their last two albums... and with Anders demanding a circle pit to one of their slowest songs, whilst whinging along to very nu-style guitars... the only thing left to impress was the fireworks... which they didn't deserve. Yes I'm bitter. And rightly so.
There's more but it's late, and I can't be arsed. It's all in my head and nothing can really portray how amazing it was. Needless to say... \m/ METAL RULES! \m/
- Fuck Ozzy, Heaven and Hell kick Sabbath's arse. Despite Tony Iommi's attempts to steal the stage with his (excellent) fretboard wanking, Dio maintained control and belted out great songs, old and new. Bible black had everyone chanting, and I think it finally broke me into classic rock. Woohoo!
- Motorhead have still got it. Not that I doubted it, but having never seen them live I was utterly blown away. They don't have that much energy on stage, but they're getting on I guess so I let 'em get away with it. Anyway I got to see a little bit of history and I loved it.
- Jagermeister is actually totally drinkable. Though I was accused of falling for the marketing ploys it did not have the grassy aniseedy shitty taste I was expecting, though that may in part be due to the quantity of sugar in it.
- Endstille were my best discovery. You wouldn't expect straight up black metal to be particularly at home uder the burning midday sun, but they were entrancing... mustn't forget to get more of there stuff.
- Heaven Shall Burn are the kings of crowds. Twice in a row now I've seen then set the stage on fire and turn the crowd into wild animals. These anarcho-metallers really deserved to be bumped up to the main stage this time round with music like that. Circle pits approximately 150m in diameter surrounding the sound engineering box, highly unpredictable mosh pits and probably a hundred crowd surfers in only a one-hour set. When the density of the crowd is that changeable it means its harder for them to get to their destination, and harder for suckers like me that keep them up there. At the start of three songs, the sea of people parted as if Moses was passing through. A young kid on the edge of the hole in front of me barged past screaming "pass auf, pass auf", no sooner had he pushed past me did the two sides rush at eachother like hordes on the battle field... hilarious spectacle!
- Korpiklaani... disappointing. Maybe it's because it was late and my legs were seriously aching, but I'd rather have them on CD than live.
- Crowd surfing on at least 30,000 people is still mind-blowing.
- Dragonforce were classic! Great music, great delivery. I was just a little bit irritated by their stage show. I'm all up for artists having fun on stage, but they took it to a level where it came accross as really staged. Slagging off the band mates during solos, overly excessive gestures... meh. The keyboardist... to keep it short looked like he was compensating for something serious. Wearing a loud white and red PVC suit he spent more time prancing about attracting the eye than playing. When he was in front of the camera it was like a monkey had been given a Rubik's cube in the middle of an epileptic fit. Don't get me wrong, I loved the gig. I just think they could benefit from focussing on the delivery rather than hamming up their stage antics. Valley of the Dead was great, but there was NO Black Winter Night :(
- Enslaved = Good... generally.
- Einherjer were GREAT! It was a small crowd as they have been split up for 5 years, but they belted out their tunes to the faithful and they were rewarded. The Dead Knight's Rite was greeted with cheers, and everyone bellowed along to the mighty Ironbound. All we can hope for is that they reform.
- Drinking Wine, Beer, Mead and Jagermeister leads to interesting cerebral sensations.
- GWAR are hilarious and insane. With costumes that put Manowar to shame, it is fair to say the spectacle is worth more than the music. Huge rubber affairs with malevolent centurions, predator-style mandibles, brandishing enormous hammers and working rubber chainsaws sputing red-liquid, beating the shit out of eachother? I couldn't stop laughing. And that was before they turned on the huge rubber T-Rex that wobbled on stage. The concert ended with the lead singer ejaculating green spunk from a large barbed rubber penis all over the crowd. Couldn't tell you about the music cos of the sensorial overload and laughter.
- Amon Amarth, as expected, CD quality, plus reinactors. They were cool, but I hope that's a temporary thing rather than a permanent gimick.
- In Flames. Hmmmmm, In Flames. This is the third time I've seen them now, and the only way I can hope to not be disappointed in the future is to seriously lower expectations. After a kicking start with Moonshield and Only for the Weak, they then killed the atmosphere (well for me at least, everyone else seemed to like it) by exclusively playing from their last two albums... and with Anders demanding a circle pit to one of their slowest songs, whilst whinging along to very nu-style guitars... the only thing left to impress was the fireworks... which they didn't deserve. Yes I'm bitter. And rightly so.
There's more but it's late, and I can't be arsed. It's all in my head and nothing can really portray how amazing it was. Needless to say... \m/ METAL RULES! \m/